Influence of Nutrition on Viral Evolution

VIRAL EVOLUTION AS DRIVEN BY HOST NUTRITIONAL SELECTIVE FACTORS - INFLUENCE OF DIETARY OXIDATIVE STRESS

The endemic juvenile cardiomyopathy known as Keshan disease occurs in regions of China with poor selenium nutrition, but a role for an infectious agent was suggested by seasonal changes in disease incidence. Mice fed a selenium-deficient diet suffered more heart damage than normal mice when infected with a myocarditic coxsackievirus B3 (CVB3/20). Increased heart damage was also observed when CVB3/20 was inoculated into vitamin E-deficient mice. Feeding diets deficient in either vitamin E or selenium allowed an amyocarditic coxsackievirus (CVB3/0) to become myocarditic. When CVB3/0 was harvested from deficient mice, passed through HeLa cells and inoculated into normal (non-deficient) mice, it retained its increased cardiovirulence. Virus obtained from the selenium- deficient mice contained six nucleotide changes in the genome compared with the input strain. This is the first report of a nutritional deficiency driving changes in a viral genome. Host nutritional status could have important public health implications for the spread of influenza, hepatitis, polio and perhaps even AIDS.

Author: LEVANDER OA, ARS, NUTR REQUIREMENTS & FUNCT LAB, BELTSVILLE HUMAN NUTR RES CTR, USDA, BELTSVILLE, MD
Source: FOOD CHEMISTRY 1996 SEP;57(1):47-49

Trial Tackling Hepatitis C With New Drug
By enrolling Hepatitis C patients for whom treatment with combination therapy is not advised, Conatus Pharmaceuticals is testing a unique compound that inhibits the activity of matrix metalloproteinases....

Apple CEO Gets Hotly Debated Liver Transplant
Ever since a Tennessee hospital disclosed that an internationally known businessman - Steve Jobs - recently received a liver transplant there, controversy has swirled around transplantation fairness....

Modern and Traditional Research Expands Knowledge of Liver Disease
At 2009's largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery (Digestive Disease Week), substantial progress for those with liver disease, including chronic Hepatitis C, was presented....