Topic: viral RNA

Harvey Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles Rice recount how an unexplained form of transfusion-associated hepatitis became an identifiable and treatable viral infection. Alter’s clinical and transmission studies distinguished non-A, non-B hepatitis from the known hepatitis viruses. Houghton’s molecular approach isolated genetic material from the elusive agent and enabled tests for hepatitis C infection. Rice’s experiments with viral RNA established that the newly identified virus could itself cause hepatitis and helped make its replication experimentally tractable. The lectures connect these c

A growing body of evidence suggests a potential link between neuroinflammation, directly or indirectly triggered by viral infections, and the initiation or progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD). Viral infections can potentially induce pathological alterations in amyloidogenic proteins such as a-synuclein (αSyn) implicated in pathogenesis of this disease. However, the exact molecular mechanisms of virus-induced neuroinflammation remain unclear.To get insights into mechanisms of viral RNA-induced neurotoxicity, we treated rat neuronal-glial co-cultures (CGC)