The addition of enfuvirtide to an optimized background regimen does not exacerbate AEs commonly associated with antiretrovirals. ISRs limited treatment in <5% of patients.

The application of the polymerase chain reaction DNA amplification technique to the detection and typing of isolates of maize streak virus (MSV) and other related geminiviruses of grasses is described. The oligonucleotide primers used for amplification were 17-mers which contained a number of degeneracies. An approximately 250 base pair fragment was amplified from all geminivirus-infected grass and cereal samples tested. The amplification reaction was specific, working down to a concentration of 50 fg/ml of MSV-specific plasmid-cloned DNA and with a 10 -9 dilution of MSVinfected maize DNA extract. DNA could also be amplified from distantly related geminiviruses, including two different sugarcane viruses, digitaria streak virus and another as yet uncharacterized virus of a Panicum sp. Amplified DNA from a Mauritian sugarcane isolate (SSV-M) was cloned and sequenced. Sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that this sequence differed sufficiently from the analogous region of other geminiviruses for SSV-M to be considered a distinct virus. The use of the polymerase chain reaction for the amplification of gemini-and other virus genomes or genomic fragments for typing, mapping, phylogenetic analysis and taxonomy is discussed.

The genomic nucleotide sequences of the cloned agroinfectious genomes of three South African mastreviruses obtained from Zea mays, a Setaria sp., and Panicum maximum (designated MSV-Kom, MSV-Set, and PanSV-Kar respectively), were determined. Additionally, their relative infectivities and virulence were analysed in a range of differentially susceptible wheat, maize, and barley genotypes. MSV-Kom produced moderate to severe streak symptoms in all maize genotypes tested, but only moderate to very mild symptoms in the wheat and barley genotypes. MSV-Set infected only the susceptible to tolerant maize genotypes, but was generally more severe in the barley and wheat genotypes than MSV-Kom. PanSV-Kar was incapable of infecting any of the wheat and barley genotypes and only produced very mild symptoms on the three most sensitive maize genotypes. Genomic characteristics in common with related mastreviruses were identified. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that while MSV-Kom was closely related to previously sequenced MSV isolates, MSV-Set and PanSV-Kar represented distinctly novel strains of MSV and PanSV respectively. In the case of MSV-Set, this is the most distantly related MSV strain yet characterised.

The relationship between maize streak virus and the geminivirus causing streak in sugarcane was investigated. The DNA of sugarcane streak virus does not cross-hybridize detectably with that of maize streak virus and vice versa. Restriction mapping of native replicative form viral DNA (genome size 2.7 kb) and of cloned viral DNA, combined with limited sequencing and estimated DNA sequence divergence, showed that sugarcane streak virus is as unrelated to maize streak virus and digitaria streak virus as these are different from each other. The virus is only distantly related to wheat dwarf virus and chloris striate mosaic virus. Based on these results, we propose that the agent causing sugarcane streak is a distinct geminivirus.

Previous studies showed an association between latent adenoviral infection with expression of the adenoviral E1A gene and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The present study focuses on how the adenoviral E1A gene could alter expression of growth factors by human bronchial epithelial (HBE) cells. The data show that connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 mRNA and protein expression were upregulated in E1A-positive HBE cells. Upregulation of CTGF in this in vitro model was independent of TGF-β secreted into the growth medium. Comparison of E1A-positive with E1A-negative HBE cells showed that both expressed cytokeratin but only E1A-positive cells expressed the mesenchymal markers vimentin and α-smooth muscle actin. We conclude that latent infection of epithelial cells by adenovirus E1A could contribute to airway remodeling in COPD by the viral E1A gene, inducing TGF-β1 and CTGF expression and shifting cells to a more mesenchymal phenotype.