Category Archives: Virology

More of Adenovirus’s Epigenetic Tricks

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Chris Womack

Adenovirus’s epigenetic power to reprogram cells goes beyond its ability to cause tumorous replication — G.J. Fonseca and colleagues at the Western University of Ontario report in the new Cell Host & Microbe that it’s also able to sabotage the interferon response, which usually functions as a first line of defense in infected cells. In an April post, I interviewed Roberto Ferrari about adenovirus research and its ability to push cells back into active tumor-like replication, so I thought this bit of news was an interesting incremental step in overall knowledge of how invaders — particularly adenovirus — use epigenetics against us. What a bunch of jerks! In particular, Fonseca and colleagues used a yeast two-hybrid screen to find out … Continue reading →

Posted in Chromatin Structure, Gene Regulation, Histone Modifications, Histones, Microbial Epigenetics, Ubiquitination, Virology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Viral MicroRNA Mimicing Cellular MicroRNA? and a New Dual-Fluuorescent Reporter System

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Nicole Kelesoglu

A team out of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has reported both a new dual-fluorescent reporter system, and an insight on a suspected general phenomenon of functionally matched viral and cellular microRNA in viral-host interactions. You X, Zhang Z, Fan J, Cui Z, Zhang X-E (2012) Functionally Orthologous Viral and Cellular MicroRNAs Studied by a Novel Dual-Fluorescent Reporter System. PLoS ONE 7(4): e36157. Now for context, the gist of what’s known about microRNAs (miRNA) is that they can be thought of as epigenetic post-transcriptional volume control. Modulating…fine tuning…dialling gene expression up or down.   MicroRNAs are ~18-24 nucleotide molecules that are processed from long, highly evolutionarily conserved sequences in organisms and viruses. Such pre-miRNA sequences are located at protein gene introns, … Continue reading →

Posted in Biomarkers, Cellular Biology, Imaging, Immunology, Leukemia, Microbial Epigenetics, New Lab Methods, Non-coding RNA, Oncogenes, Virology, microRNA | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Viral Etiquette Tips : The Epigenetic Effects of Life Long Guests

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

Hello E3 scientists! Here are three etiquette tips for the modern virus. This week’s post is a bit of “tongue in cheek”, while pointing out some neat virology & epigenetics research!!!

Posted in Acetylation, Bioinformatics, Cellular Biology, Chromatin Structure, DNA Methylation, Genomewide Methylation Profiling, Immunology, Methylation, Oncogenes, Virology, chIP | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Cellular Trash to Treasure – Exosomes

Posted on May 27, 2011 by Nicole Kelesoglu

Blood-Based Gene Expression Signatures in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.Clin Cancer Res. 2011 May 15 Thomas Zander, Andrea Hofmann, Andrea Staratschek-Jox, et al has been big in the international news recently. The authors are aiming to develop an RNA-stabilized blood test for asymptomatic lung cancer, using gene expression profiles, from what they believe to be immune effector blood cells – not cancer cells. The prognosis for lung cancer once you already have symptoms, is terrible. Their work is great news because this kind of non-invasive diagnostic test is desperately needed. However, there is another promising approach to transcriptome signature diagnostics to be aware of…Microvesicle shuttled RNA. Microvesicles, (MV), were once considered just cellular debris. We now know that blood, and many … Continue reading →

Posted in Applications, Biomarkers, Clinical Studies, Diagnostics, Flow Cytometry, Genetics, History & Trends, Next Gen Sequencing, Oncology, Pathology, Real-time PCR, Virology, microRNA, siRNA | Leave a comment