Iranian Journal of Virology
Volume:9 Issue: 2, 2015

The number of new cancer cases with considerable mortality is increasing worldwide. Since the inability of current therapies in treatment of patients and prevention the progress of tumors with fewer side effects, implementation of new methods is needed. Gene therapy has widespread systemic cytotoxic effects against tumor cells. Rotavirus NSP4 has been shown to elicit extensive cytotoxic activities in transfected or infected cells. In this study, the biological cytotoxic effect of NSP4 rotavirus protein was investigation on TC-1 tumor cell integrity.
NSP4 gene of rotavirus was cloned into the pCDH plasmid and then TC-1 tumor cells were transfected with plasmids. After reviewing the presence of this protein by SDS-PAGE and confirming NSP4 expression by western blotting using anti- NSP4 antibody, the cytotoxic effect of NSP4 expression in TC-1 tumor cells was measured by the MTT assay.
Significant differences were observed in the cell viability between the control groups and the group of cells that received NSP4 gene.
Rotavirus NSP4 gene posses specific cell cytotoxicity and is potentially effective in tumor destruction.

Medical students are exposed to various infectious diseases during their clinical training period, including measles and rubella. In Iran, to control the outbreaks of measles and rubella a mass vaccination campaign was conducted on 2003. The present investigation evaluates Immunity to measles and rubella in a group of Babol medical students and determines the prevalence of medical students susceptible to these infections.
A total of 191 medical students (preclinical and clinical) from College of Medicine and Health Sciences at Babol University of Medical Sciences enrolled in this cross-sectional study. IgG antibodies for measles and rubella was evaluated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
A total of 60 (31.4%) students had insufficient measles immunity or were totally non-immune, whereas non-immune status to rubella was seen in 1 (0.5%) subject.
This study showed insufficient measles immunity in a group of Babol medical students.

Influenza A(H5N1) viruses circulating in animals might evolve and acquire the ability to spread from human to human and thus start a pandemic. Hemagglutinin (HA) has been shown to play a major role in binding of influenza virus to its target cell and the main neutralizing antibody responses elicit against this region. Recent studies have shown that glycosylation of HA is not much necessary for its immunogenicity. Bacillus subtilis has been identified as a free endotoxin host for high expression and secretion of heterologous proteins with immunological activity. This bacterium is not capable of supporting glycosylation process. However, it could be an appropriate host to produce new recombinant HA1 for vaccine research purposes. In this study we constructed a recombinant B. subtilis that was able to express and secrete HA1 protein into cytoplasmic and extracellular medium.
HA1 gene was amplified and cloned into pGEM® 5Zf(–) vector. It was then subcloned into shuttle vector PHT43 and transferred to E.coli for propagation. Accuracy of PHT43-HA1 construct was confirmed by sequencing and restriction map. The recombinant plasmid was extracted from E.coli and used to transform of B.subtilis by electroporation. Following IPTG induction, the total cell protein and the protein secreted into media were analysed through a time course using SDS-PAGE.
The accuracy of PHT43-HA1 construct was confirmed by sequencing and enzymatic digestion analysis. SDS-PAGE results showed that the recombinant HA1 protein was successfully expressed and secreted into medium.
The HA1 protein produced here could be considered and evaluated as a protective antigen which its immunogenicity potential needs to be assessed in animal models along with proper control groups.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is defined by the presence of inflammatory demyelinating plaques in the central nervous system (CNS). It has been indicated that human herpes virus 6 (HHV-6) may play role in pathogenesis of MS.
The aim of this study was to determine the presence of HHV-6 DNA and anti HHV-6 IgG in MS patients and controls.
Blood samples from 59 patients with MS and 59 healthy controls were collected. DNA extraction and real-time PCR based on (Syber Green) were done in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and Plasma specimens. Anti-HHV-6 IgG was measured by ELISA technique. Demographic and clinical data were collected and entered in SPSS 16 and analyzed.
HHV-6 DNA was found in the plasma sample of 1 (1.7%) of 59 MS patients. There was no HHV-6 DNA in PBMCs of the MS patients and controls and plasma of control group. Anti- HHV-6 IgG antibody was seen in 84.7 % of MS patients and 82.1% of control group.
There was no significant relation based on presence of HHV-6 DNA and antibody between MS patients and controls in north of Iran.

Akabane disease causes epidemics of abortions, stillbirths and congenital malformations manifested as arthrogryposis and hydranencephaly or microanencephaly in sheep, goats and cattle. Akabane virus replicates in arthropods and is transmitted by either mosquitoes or midges. Outbreaks of the Akabane virus have been reported from many countries in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa and Australia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Akabane virus infection and correlation of this infection with host and environmental determinants in sheep in Khouzestan province, the Southwest of Iran.
In this study, serum samples of 360 sheep were randomly collected from 6 cities of Khouzestan province and were examined by ELISA assay.
Seroprevalence of Akabane virus infection was 39.72% (95% CI: 34.67-44.78%). Statistical analysis showed history of recently abortion and breed of sheep are significantly associated with infection (p0.05).
The results of the present study confirm that the Akabane virus infection exists in Khouzestan province, Iran. Considering the local weather conditions and the facility of vector-borne transmission, the health authorities should take measures to prevent and control the infection.

Viroids are smallest, single-stranded, circular, highly structured plant pathogenic RNAs that do not code for any protein. Viroids belong to two families, the Avsunviroidae and the Pospiviroidae. Members of the Pospiviroidae family adopt a rod-like secondary structure. In this study the most stable secondary structures of citrus viroid variants that reported from Fars province were drawn. The most stable secondary structures of these viroid variants were a classical rod-like structure and adopted cruciform structure including various additional small hairpins. Comparison of secondary structures of these viroid variants with other viroid variants indicates their highly similarities in the rod-like structures, number of loops and free energies and it’s obvious to result these closest variants of the Pospiviroidae family. HSVd-cit1 and CVd-III-1 differed from under study variants in the stability and number of secondary structure branches. Because of relationship between secondary structure and pathogenicity of viroids, it is supposed that these two variants possibly will have high risk for citrus cultivations.