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Article
Open AccessCharacterization of Omicron BA.4.6, XBB, and BQ.1.1 subvariants in hamsters
During the Omicron wave, previous variants such as BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 were replaced by newer variants with additional mutations in the spike protein. These variants, BA.4.6, BQ.1.1, and XBB, have spread in d...
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Article
Open AccessAn mRNA vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain protects mice from various Omicron variants
Here, we assessed the efficacy of a lipid nanoparticle-based mRNA vaccine candidate encoding the receptor-binding domain (LNP-mRNA-RBD) in mice. Mice immunized with LNP-mRNA-RBD based on the ancestral strain (...
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Article
Open AccessCharacterization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2.75 clinical isolates
The prevalence of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.75 rapidly increased in India and Nepal during the summer of 2022, and spread globally. However, the virological features of BA.2.75 are largely unknown. Here, we ...
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Article
Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 isolates in rodents
The BA.2 sublineage of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has become dominant in most countries around the world; however, the prevalence of BA.4 and BA.5 is increasing rapidly in several regions. BA.2 is less pat...
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Article
Therapeutic efficacy of monoclonal antibodies and antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 in Syrian hamsters
The spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the major antigen stimulating the host’s protective immune response. Here we assessed the efficacy of therapeutic monoclonal...
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Article
Characterization and antiviral susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2
The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (B.1.1.529 lineage) variants possessing numerous mutations has raised concerns of decreased effectiveness of current vaccines, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and a...
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Article
Open AccessSARS-CoV-2 Omicron virus causes attenuated disease in mice and hamsters
The recent emergence of B.1.1.529, the Omicron variant1,2, has raised concerns of escape from protection by vaccines and therapeutic antibodies. A key test for potential countermeasures against B.1.1.529 is their...
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Article
Open AccessEnhanced fusogenicity and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 Delta P681R mutation
During the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a variety of mutations have accumulated in the viral genome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and, at the time of ...
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Reference Work Entry In depth
Tree-Leaf Chemicals and Feeding Behavior of Arboreal Mammals in Seasonal Environment
Mammalian herbivores are considered to eat plants with high nutrition but to avoid those with harmful chemical components. Most species eat plants selectively, but some species develop tolerance to the harmful...
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Article
Influenza A variants with reduced susceptibility to baloxavir isolated from Japanese patients are fit and transmit through respiratory droplets
Here we report the isolation of the influenza A/H1N1 2009 pandemic (A/H1N1pdm) and A/H3N2 viruses carrying an I38T mutation in the polymerase acidic protein—a mutation that confers reduced susceptibility to ba...
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Living Reference Work Entry In depth
Tree-Leaf Chemicals and Feeding Behavior of Arboreal Mammals in Seasonal Environment
Mammalian herbivores are considered to eat plants with high nutrition but to avoid those with harmful chemical components. Most species eat plants selectively, but some species develop tolerance to the harmful...
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Article
Open AccessExperimental infection of Cynomolgus Macaques with highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus through the aerosol route
Several animal models are used to study influenza viruses. Intranasal inoculation of animals with a liquid inoculum is one of the main methods used to experimentally infect animals with influenza virus; howeve...
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Article
Open AccessDiversity of antigenic mutants of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus escaped from human monoclonal antibodies
Since the 2017 Southern Hemisphere influenza season, the A(H1N1)pdm09-like virus recommended for use in the vaccine was changed because human, but not ferret, sera distinguish A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses isolated aft...
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Article
Folivory with leaf folding by giant flying squirrels: its patterns and possible function
Japanese giant flying squirrels, Petaurista leucogenys, are entirely arboreal folivores. From spring to summer, their principal food source consists of leaves of the deciduous oak Quercus acutissima in western To...
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Article
Selection of antigenically advanced variants of seasonal influenza viruses
Influenza viruses mutate frequently, necessitating constant updates of vaccine viruses. To establish experimental approaches that may complement the current vaccine strain selection process, we selected antige...
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Article
Characterization of H7N9 influenza A viruses isolated from humans
Here, biological attributes of two early human isolates of the newly emerged H7N9 influenza viruses are characterized: the potential of these viruses to infect and/or transmit within various animal models is d...
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Article
In vitro and in vivo characterization of new swine-origin H1N1 influenza viruses
Analysis of a series of clinical isolates of the swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus reveals that in mammalian models (mice, ferrets and macaques) the current pandemic virus is associated with more severe diseas...
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Article
Haemagglutinin mutations responsible for the binding of H5N1 influenza A viruses to human-type receptors
The fact that the H5N1 bird flu virus circulating in Asia, Europe and Africa is unable to attach to human-type cell receptors has helped to prevent it from causing a worldwide epidemic of a human variant of th...
