Norovirus infections were detected in 114 of 762 children with acute gastroenteritis in South Korea from November 2005 to November 2006. Seasonality peaks in December, March, and October were also assessed in this study. We identified seven noroviral genotypes (GI-6, GII-2, GII-3, GII-4, GII-5, GII-6, and GII-8) and a C1-120 strain showing low identity (79.3%) with GII-13 and GII-17.

SummaryDendritic cells (DCs) are promising therapeutic agents in the field of cancer immunotherapy due to their intrinsic immune-priming capacity. The potency of DCs, however, is readily attenuated immediately after their administration in patients as tumours and various immune cells, including DCs, produce various immunosuppressive factors such as interleukin (IL)-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-b that hamper the function of DCs. In this study, we used small interfering RNA (siRNA) to silence the expression of endogenous molecules in DCs, which can sense immunosuppressive factors. Among the siRNAs targeting various immunosuppressive molecules, we observed that DCs transfected with siRNA targeting IL-10 receptor alpha (siIL-10RA) initiated the strongest antigen-specific CD8 1 T cell immune responses. The potency of siIL-10RA was enhanced further by combining it with siRNA targeting TGF-b receptor (siTGF-bR), which was the next best option during the screening of this study, or the previously selected immunoadjuvant siRNA targeting phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) or Bcl-2-like protein 11 (BIM). In the midst of sorting out the siRNA cocktails, the cocktail of siIL-10RA and siTGF-bR generated the strongest antigen-specific CD8 1 T cell immunity. Concordantly, the knock-down of both IL-10RA and TGF-bR in DCs induced the strongest anti-tumour effects in the TC-1 P0 tumour model, a cervical cancer model expressing the human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 E7 antigen, and even in the immune-resistant TC-1 (P3) tumour model that secretes more IL-10 and TGF-b than the parental tumour cells (TC-1 P0). These results provide the groundwork for future clinical development of the siRNA cocktail-mediated strategy by co-targeting immunosuppressive molecules to enhance the potency of DC-based vaccines.

The anti-HIV-1 activities of butanol, hexane, chloroform and water extracts from four widely used folk medicinal plants (Sophora flavescens, Tulipa edulis, Herba ephedra, and Pachyma hoelen Rumph) were evaluated in this study. The hexane extract of Pachyma hoelen Rumph, PH-4, showed effective inhibition against HIV-1. The 50% effective concentration (EC(50)) of PH-4 was 37.3 microg/ml in the p24 antigen assay and 36.8% in the HIV-1 recombinant RT activity test (at 200 microg/ml). In addition, the PH-4 showed the protective effect on the infected MT-4 cells, with a 58.2% rate of protection. The 50% cytotoxic concentration (CC(50)) of PH-4 was 100.6 microg/ml. These results suggest that PH-4 from Pachyma hoelen Rumph might be the candidate for the chemotherapy agent against HIV-1 infection with further study.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a process of sequence-specific gene silencing, which is initiated by double-stranded RNA (dsRNA). RNAi may also serve as an antiviral system in vertebrates. This study describes the inhibition of herpesvirus-6B (HHV-6B) replication by short interference RNAs (siRNAs) that are targeted to the U38 sequence that encodes DNA polymerase. When virusinfected SupT1 cells were treated by siRNA, these cells blocked the cytopathic effect (CPE) and detected the HHV-6B antibody-negative in indirect immunofluorescence assays (IFA). Our result suggests that RNAi can efficiently block Herpesvirus-6B replication.

Recently, recombinant vesicular stomatitis viruses (VSV) have been developed as high-level expression vectors which serve as effective vaccine vectors in animals. An ideal approach for VSV vector production would be the development of stable packaging cell lines that can produce vector particles without transfection step. In this report, we describe generation of an inducible cell line that expresses the VSV polymerase gene (L) under the control of the reverse tetracycline-controlled transactivator (rtTA) system as a first step to make VSV-based packaging cell lines. Integrated polymerase (L) gene was controlled by an rtetR-dependent promoter in the rtTA-producing BHK cell line. When the cell lines were cultured in the presence of tet (tetracycline) or tetracycline derivative doxycycline, the recombinant VSV and wild type VSV were replicated, whereas in the absence of tet or tetracycline derivative doxycycline, the recombinant VSV was not replicated. Viral supernatants were harvested, diluted, and monitored by plaque assay for the presence of infectious VSV. Plaques of VSV containing an additional sequence encoding the EGFP protein allowed rapid detection of infection. Our results suggest wide applications of other surrogate viruses based on VSV. The availability of stable packaging cell lines represents a step toward the use of a VSV vector delivery system that can allow scale-up production of vector-stocks for gene therapy.