Equine Torovirus (BEV) Induces Caspase-Mediated Apoptosis in Infected Cells

Toroviruses are gastroenteritis causing agents that infect different animal species and humans. To date, very little is known about how toroviruses cause disease. Here, we describe for the first time that the prototype member of this genus, the equine torovirus Berne virus (BEV), induces apoptosis in infected cells at late times postinfection. Observation of BEV infected cells by electron microscopy revealed that by 24 hours postinfection some cells exhibited morphological characteristics of apoptotic cells. Based on this finding, we analyzed several apoptotic markers, and observed protein synthesis inhibition, rRNA and DNA degradation, nuclear fragmentation, caspase-mediated cleavage of PARP and eIF4GI, and PKR and eIF2α phosphorylation, all these processes taking place after peak virus production. We also determined that both cell death receptor and mitochondrial pathways are involved in the apoptosis process induced by BEV. BEV-induced apoptosis at late times postinfection, once viral progeny are produced, could facilitate viral dissemination in vivo and contribute to viral pathogenesis

COVID-19 pandemic in the world and its relation to human development index: A global study

Coronaviruses are a large family and a subset of Coronaviridae that include common cold viruses and other severe diseases like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This is an ecological study based on statistics of the prevalence of coronavirus disease until 30 April 2020, based on the reports sent to the World Health Organization (WHO). This study investigates the distribution of the incidence and trend of the incidence rate of COVID-19 in countries, and its relation with the human development index (HDI) until 30 April 2020. The results showed that the most cases of coronavirus disease until the mentioned date were in the United States of America (1,003,947 cases), Spain (212,917 cases), Italy (203,591 cases), the United Kingdom (165,225 cases), and Germany (159,119 cases), in sequence. The results exhibited a significant positive correlation between the incidence of COVID-2019 and HDI in the world (r = 0.470, P < 0.0001). © 2020, Author(s)

Immunoinformatic identification of B cell and T cell epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome

A novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) emerged from China in late 2019 and rapidly spread across the globe, infecting millions of people and generating societal disruption on a level not seen since the 1918 infuenza pandemic. A safe and efective vaccine is desperately needed to prevent the continued spread of SARS-CoV-2; yet, rational vaccine design eforts are currently hampered by the lack of knowledge regarding viral epitopes targeted during an immune response, and the need for more in-depth knowledge on betacoronavirus immunology. To that end, we developed a computational workfow using a series of open-source algorithms and webtools to analyze the proteome of SARS- CoV-2 and identify putative T cell and B cell epitopes. Utilizing a set of stringent selection criteria to flter peptide epitopes, we identifed 41T cell epitopes (5 HLA class I, 36 HLA class II) and 6 B cell epitopes that could serve as promising targets for peptide-based vaccine development against this emerging global pathogen. To our knowledge, this is the frst study to comprehensively analyze all 10 (structural, non-structural and accessory) proteins from SARS-CoV-2 using predictive algorithms to identify potential targets for vaccine development