Diagnostics and Antivirals for Emerging Viruses

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Virology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 December 2023) | Viewed by 990

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor

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Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Neurosurgery, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608, USA
Interests: biomarkers; resistance; imaging; nanotechnology; long-acting therapeutics; diagnosis; liposomes; lipid nanoparticles
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Emerging viruses such as filoviruses (Ebola; Marburg), SARS and MERS coronaviruses and zika post major threats to people living with co-morbidities worldwide. Therefore, developing accurate and highly sensitive diagnostics in parallel to safe and effective therapeutic modalities against emerging viruses is essential. Long-acting prodrugs and nanoparticles, immunotherapeutic modalities such monoclonal antibodies and fusion proteins, peptides and CRISPR Cas9 systems are some of the emerging modalities for viral restriction and eventual elimination, which need to be moved forward to clinical studies individually and in combination for their enhanced therapeutic benefits in patients.

These goals will only be achieved by joining efforts from multiple disciplines including virology, geneticists, formulation scientists, clinicians, immunologists, medicinal chemists, etc.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an adequate multidisciplinary platform for the interchange of valuable information (both basic and applied research) that aids in the development of diagnostics, mRNA vaccines, RNA/CRISPR modalities and long-acting nanotherapeutics against emerging viruses directed towards efficient and safe treatments against these emerging viruses.

As a Guest Editor of the Special Issue, I invite you to submit research articles, review articles, and short communications related to diagnostics, therapeutic gene and vaccine delivery, lipid and polymeric nanoparticulate systems and loading biologics/small molecule inhibitors targeted towards the restriction and elimination of emerging viruses.

Dr. Héctor R. Méndez-Gómez
Dr. Dhruvkumar M. Soni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • nanotechnology
  • gene therapy
  • vaccines
  • cancer
  • biomarkers
  • long-acting therapeutics
  • CRISPR Cas9
  • infectious diseases

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 439 KiB  
Article
Molecular Diagnosis of Human Monkeypox Virus during 2022–23 Outbreak: Preliminary Evaluation of Novel Real-Time Qualitative PCR Assays
by Vanessa De Pace, Bianca Bruzzone, Valentina Ricucci, Alexander Domnich, Giulia Guarona, Giada Garzillo, Rexhina Qosja, Giulia Ciccarese, Antonio Di Biagio, Andrea Orsi and Giancarlo Icardi
Microorganisms 2024, 12(4), 664; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms12040664 - 27 Mar 2024
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Abstract
In 2022–23, the human monkeypox virus (MPXV) caused a global outbreak in several non-endemic countries. Here, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of four real-time qualitative PCR assays for the laboratory diagnosis of mpox (monkeypox) monkeypox disease. From July to August 2022, 27 positive [...] Read more.
In 2022–23, the human monkeypox virus (MPXV) caused a global outbreak in several non-endemic countries. Here, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of four real-time qualitative PCR assays for the laboratory diagnosis of mpox (monkeypox) monkeypox disease. From July to August 2022, 27 positive and 10 negative specimens (lesion, crust and exudate swabs) were tested in the laboratory of the Hygiene Unit of the San Martino Hospital (Genoa, Italy) by using home-made real-time PCR to detect MPXV generic G2R_G DNA. According to the manufacturer’s instructions, we also retrospectively analyzed these specimens using RealCycler MONK-UX/-GX (Progenie Molecular), STANDARD M10 MPX/OPX (SD Biosensor), Novaplex MPXV (Seegene Inc.) and RealStar Orthopoxvirus PCR Kit 1.0 (Altona Diagnostics) assays, recognized as research-use-only tests. The diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity of these assays ranged from 97.3% (95% CI: 86.2–99.5%) to 100% (95% CI: 90.6–100%) and 96.3% (95% CI: 81.72–99.34%) to 100% (95% CI: 72.2–100%), respectively. The RealCycler MONK-UX and STANDARD M10 MPX/OPX did not detect one positive sample with a cycle threshold of 36. The overall specificity was 100% (95% CI: 72.2–100%), and Cohen’s Kappa values ranged from 1 (95% CI: 0.67–1) to 0.93 (95% CI: 0.61–1). As they are highly accurate, reliable and user-friendly, these tests should be recommended for the routine or rapid laboratory discrimination of mpox from other rash illnesses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diagnostics and Antivirals for Emerging Viruses)
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