Zika virus (ZIKV) is an emerging mosquitoborne flavivirus circulating in Asia and Africa. In 2013, a large outbreak was reported on the archipelago of French Polynesia. In this study, we report the detection and molecular characterization of Zika virus for the first time in Chile from an outbreak among the inhabitants of Easter Island. A total of 89 samples from patients suspected of having ZIKV infection were collected between the period from January to May, 2014. Molecular diagnosis of the virus was performed by RT-PCR followed by the sequencing of the region containing the NS5 gene. A comparison of the viral nucleic acid sequence with those of other strains of ZIKA virus was performed using the MEGA software. Fifty-one samples were found positive for ZIKV by RT-PCR analysis. Further analysis of the NS5 gene revealed that the ZIKV strains identified in Easter Island were most closely related to those found in French Polynesia (99.8 to 99.9 % nt and 100 % aa sequence identity). These results strongly suggest that the transmission pathway leading to the introduction of Zika virus on Easter Island has its origin in French Polynesia.Keywords Zika virus Á Easter Island Á Outbreak Á South Pacific Á ZIKV Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus belonging to the family Flaviviridae and the genus Flavivirus. The Flaviviruses also include yellow fever, dengue, St. Louis encephalitis, West Nile, and Japanese encephalitis viruses [6]. ZIKV was first isolated from the blood of a sentinel rhesus monkey inhabiting the Zika Forest in Uganda [6]. Later on, ZIKV was isolated from a mosquito of the species Aedes africanus, obtained from the same locality of the Zika Forest. ZIKV has been isolated from several species of Aedes mosquito, notably, A. aegypti and A. albopictus [10]. A. aegypti is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world [6,11,12].Clinically diagnosed ZIKV infections in human cases have been reported to include self-limiting acute febrile illnesses with fever, headache, myalgia, retro-orbital pain, arthralgia, conjunctivitis, and rash. These clinical presentations closely resemble those that are caused by dengue virus (DENV) and Chikungunya virus [6]. Serological studies and isolation of ZIKV strains have subsequently indicated that the virus has a wide geographical distribution, including regions in East and West Africa, South and South East Asia, and Micronesia [6], where an outbreak of Zika fever was reported on Yap Island [4]. In 2013, a Zika fever outbreak in French Polynesia was the largest ever reported for an arbovirus other than DENV at this location. Following this, there was a report of a Zika outbreak on the Cook Islands of New Caledonia [3,12].In Chile, at the end of 2000, the presence of A. aegypti on Easter Island was reported; the island is located on the east edge of the Polynesian Triangle, in the south Pacific Ocean, with a latitude of 27°9 0 10'' S, and a longitude of 109°27 0 17'' W [13]. The closest continental point from this island is the Chilean coast, l...

The current pandemic caused by the new coronavirus is a worldwide public health concern. To aboard this emergency, and like never before, scientific groups around the world have been working in a fast and coordinated way to get the maximum of information about this virus when it has been almost 3 months since the first cases ORCID Andrés E. Castillo

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The smoking habit is the most important, but not a sufficient cause for lung cancer development. Several studies have reported the human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16) presence and E6 and E7 transcripts expression in lung carcinoma cases from different geographical regions. The possible interaction between HPV infection and smoke carcinogens, however, remains unclear. In this study we address a potential cooperation between tobacco smoke and HPV16 E6 and E7 oncoproteins for alterations in proliferative and tumorigenic properties of lung epithelial cells. A549 (alveolar, tumoral) and BEAS-2B (bronchial, non-tumoral) cell lines were stably transfected with recombinant pLXSN vectors expressing HPV16 E6 and E7 oncoproteins and exposed to cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) at different concentrations. HPV16 E6 and E7 expression was associated with loss of p53 stability, telomerase (hTERT) and p16INK4A overexpression in BEAS-2B cells as demonstrated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting (WB). In A549 cells we observed downregulation of p53 but not a significant increase of hTERT transcripts. In addition, the HPV16 E6/E7 transfected cell lines showed an increased proliferation rate and anchorage-independent growth in a HPV16 E6 and E7 expression-dependent manner. Moreover, both HPV16 E6/E7 and mock transfected cells showed an increased proliferation rate and anchorage-independent growth in the presence of 0.1 and 10 µg/mL CSC. However, this increase was significantly greater in HPV16 E6/E7 transfected cells (p<0.001). Data were confirmed by FCSE proliferation assay. The results obtained in this study are suggestive of a functional interaction between tobacco smoke and HPV16 E6/E7 oncoproteins for malignant transformation and tumorigenesis of lung epithelial cells. More studies are warranted in order to dissect the molecular mechanisms involved in this cooperation.

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