• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2011

Purpose : This study was performed to investigate the epidemiologic characteristics of human bocavirus (HBoV)-associated lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in children. Methods : Nasopharyngeal aspirate samples were obtained from 658 children who had been hospitalized for LRTIs in Seoul National University (SNU) Children's Hospital and SNU Bundang Hospital from March 2000 to September 2005. Multiplex RT-PCR was performed to detect 11 respiratory viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus, rhinovirus, parainfluenza viruses 1 and 3, influenza viruses A and B, human metapneumovirus, HBoV, human coronavirus (HCoV) OC43/ 229E, and HCoV-NL63. Clinical data were reviewed retrospectively. Results : Overall, respiratory viruses were detected in 325 (49.4%) among 658 patients. HBoV was detected in 62 cases (9.4%) and was responsible for 19.1% of virus-positive cases. HBoV was prevalent among infants and young children aged from 3 months to 5 years with the mean age of 25.3 months. Co-detection of HBoV and other respiratory viruses was observed in 37.1% which is significantly higher than average co-detection rate (12.3%) among overall virus-positive cases (P=0.000). HBoV was identified mainly in late spring and early summer from May to July. Conclusion : This study describes epidemiologic features of HBoV in Korean children compared with those associated with other respiratory viruses. HBoV was prevalent among LRTIs in childhood, especially in late spring and early summer season in Korea.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.22-28
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• 2014

Purpose: This study aimed at determining the detection rate of respiratory viruses and at investigating the risk factors associated with respiratory virus detection in young infants. Methods: From September 2011 to August 2012, nasopharyngeal swabs were obtained from 227 infants aged ${\leq}90$ days with suspected infectious diseases, including sepsis. We performed a retrospective analysis of their clinical characteristics. The prevalence of respiratory viruses in their nasopharyngeal swabs was assayed by real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). Results: In total, 157 (69.2%) infants had more than one of the following respiratory viruses: respiratory syncytial virus (n=75), rhinovirus (n=42), influenza virus (n=18), parainfluenza virus (n=15), human metapneumovirus (n=9), coronavirus (n=9), adenovirus (n=4), and bocavirus (n=3). During the same period, bacterial infections were confirmed in 24 infants (10.6%). The detection of respiratory viruses was significantly associated with the presence of cough, a family history of respiratory illness, and a seasonal preference (fall/winter). Using logistic regression analysis, these 3 variables were also identified as significant risk factors. During fall and winter, detection of respiratory viruses was significantly higher in infants who did not have a bacterial infection. Conclusion: Respiratory virus is an important pathogen in young infants admitted to a hospital, who are suspected with infectious diseases. Detection of respiratory viruses in young infants was associated with seasonality (fall/winter), presence of respiratory symptoms and a family history of respiratory illness.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.9-25
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• 2018

Plant viruses cause significant yield losses and continuously threaten crop production, representing a serious threat to global food security. Studies on plant-virus interactions have contributed to increase our knowledge on plant immunity mechanism, providing new strategies for crop improvement. The prophylactic managements consist mainly following international legislations, eradication of infected plants, and application of pesticide to decrease the population of vectors. Hence, putting together the pieces of knowledge related to molecular plant immunity to viruses is critical for the control of virus disease in fields. Over the last several decades, the outstanding outcomes of extensive research have been achieved on comprehension of plant immunity to viruses. Although most dominant R genes have been used as natural resistance genes, recessive resistance genes have been deployed in several crops as another efficient strategy to control viruses. In addition, RNA interference also regulates plant immunity and contribute a very efficient antiviral system at the nucleic acid level. This review aims at describing virus disease on crops and summarizes current resistance mechanisms. Furthermore, we will discuss the current biotechnological approaches to control viral diseases and the future questions that are to be addressed to secure crop production against viruses.

• Pediatric Infection and Vaccine
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2010

Purpose : The Purposes of this study are to identify the circulating etiologic viruses of acute lower respiratory tract infection in children and to understand the relation with clinical diagnosis. Methods : We obtained a total of 418 nasopharyngeal aspirates from children admitted for their acute lower respiratory tract infections at three tertiary hospitals in Seoul from September 2008 to March 2009. We performed multiplex RT-PCR to identify 14 etiologic viruses and analyzed their emerging patterns and clinical features. Results : Average age of patients was 16.4 months old and the ratio of male to female was 1.36. Viruses were detected in 56.2% of a total of 418 samples. Respiratory syncytial virus (35%) was the most frequently detected and followed by human rhinovirus (22%), human bocavirus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza virus, influenza virus and human coronavirus. Co-infection reached 21.9 % of positive patients. Conclusion : When we manage the patients with acute lower respiratory infectious diseases, we should remind the role of various viral pathogens, which might be circulating by seasons and by local areas.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.620-626
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• 2004

Viruses causing acute conjuntivitis were isolated from 675 patients carrying eye infections for year 2001 to 2003 in Busan reagion and their antigenic properties characterized by a serological survey. In 2001, adenoviruses (serotype 8) were found in 5 of 48 cases. In 2002, the isolated viruses were 7 adenoviruses (serotype 8 and 37), 8 coxsakieviruses (serotype A24 and B3) and 1 echoviruses (serotype 6) from 324 specimens that are known as the causative agents of acute hemorrhagic conjuctivitis (AHC). In 2003, 25 case of 303 specimens were 7 adenoviruses (serotype 3, 4, 8 and 37), 7 echoviruses (serotype 6 and 7) and 4 untypable enteroviruses. Although coxsakievirus (serotype B3) and echoviruses (serotype 6 and 7) were generally known as causative agent of aseptic meningitis, it hasn't been reported until now that they were isolated from the conjunctival swabs. The out break of AC was observed from April to October in Busan. These isolated viruses showed a strong cytophatic effects on HEp-2, RD, Vero and BGM cell strains. Analysis of electron micrograph of those viruses showed that adenovirus consists of a 80 nm diameter and nonenvloped icosahedron and then echovirus and coxsackievirus were small nonenveloped and isometric-shaped viruses. Adenovirus showing a cytophatic effect was resulted in a 458 bp single band by PCR and echovirus, coxsackievirus and untypable enterovirus were detected a 437 bp products by RT-PCR.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.504-515
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• 2012

Groundwater is widely used as drinking water supplies around the world. However, microbial contamination of groundwater is a serious environmental problem that degrades drinking water quality and poses a great threat to human health. Among the pathogenic microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, viruses are not readily removed during transport through soils, having high mobility in groundwater environment due to their smaller size compared to bacteria and protozoa. Studies regarding the fate and transport of viruses in soils and aquifers are necessary to determine the vulnerability of groundwater to microbial contamination and to secure safe drinking water sources. Also, these studies provide important information to establish the regulations and policies related to public health. This review paper presented the field and laboratory studies conducted for the fate and transport of viruses in subsurface environments. Also, the paper provided the factors affecting the fate and transport of viruses, the characteristics of bacteriophages used for virus studies, and virus transport model/colloid filtration theory. Based on this review work, future researches should be performed actively to set up the viral protection zone for the protection of groundwater from viral contamination sources. Especially, the researches should be focused on the development of mathematical models to calculate the setback distance and travel time for the viral protection zone along with the accumulation of information related to the model parameters.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.31-39
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• 2014

Norovirus causes acute gastroenteritis in all age groups and its food poisoning outbreaks are rapidly increasing in Korea. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is most widely used for the rapid detection of foodborne viruses due to high sensitivity. However, the false positive results of RT-PCR obtained against already inactivated viruses could be a serious drawbacks in food safety area. In this study, we investigated a method to yield true positive RT-PCR results only with alive viruses. To decompose the RNA genes from dead viruses, the enzymatic treatments composed of proteinse K and Ribonuclease A were applied to the sanitized and inactivated virus particles. Another aim of this study was to quantify the efficiencies of several major sanitizing treatments using real-time RT-PCR. Feline calicivirus (FCV) that belongs to the same Caliciviridae family with norovirus was used as a surrogate model for norovirus. The initial level of virus in control suspension was approximately $10^4$ PFU/mL. Most of inactivated viruses treated with the enzymatic treatment for 30 min at $37^{\circ}C$ were not detected in RT-PCR, Quantification results to verify the inactivation efficiencies of sanitizing treatments using real-time RT-PCR showed no false positive in most cases. We could successfully develope a numerical quantification process for the inactivated viruses after major sanitizing treatments using real-time RT-PCR. The results obtained in this study could provide a novel basis of rapid virus quantification in food safety area.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2021

In virucidal efficacy testing, the chemical inactivation cannot be determined for all viruses due to the difficulties or the inability to culture sufficiently or the risk of exposure to the viruses. Therefore, disinfectants against these viruses could be evaluated by different methods and surrogate viruses are used as alternative. In this study we developed a method for efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants using one of the candidate surrogate viruses, bacteriophage MS2, as part of the research on the selection of surrogate viruses for efficiency of efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants. This method is based on the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (APQA) guidelines for efficacy testing of veterinary disinfectants. Bacteriophage and disinfectant are reacted in suspension in accordance with the APQA guidelines and then a newly established double agar layer method is applied for the efficacy test. The double agar layer method is summarized as follows: 1) The bottom agar with 1.5% agar is boiled and cooled before poured into petri dishes at volume of 20 mL, and dried under biological safety cabinet. 2) The top agar with 0.7% agar is boiled and kept at 50℃ before E. coli culture was seeded. 3) The serially diluted bacteriophage MS2-disinfectant mixtures 0.05 mL and E. coli host 0.01 mL (OD₆₀₀ 0.2~0.3) are mixed with 5 mL of top agar and incubate them at 50℃ for 5 min for reaction. 4) The resulting mixture is poured over top of a bottom agar plate and rocked sufficiently to ensure that the top agar covers the entire surface of the bottom agar. 5) The double agar layer is then placed under biological safety cabinet to allow the agar layer to solidify and subsequently incubated at 37℃ for 24 hr. 6) Following incubation, the plates may be inspected for plaques and record results.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.71-79
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• 2018

Wild walleye pollock were caught from Goseong, The East Sea of Korea and examined for the existence of several fish pathogenic viruses; viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV), nervous necrosis virus (NNV) and marine birnavirus (MABV). We collected 1,253 wild walleye pollock in total during February 2015 and August 2018. 324 spleen sample sets and 259 brain sample sets were made, and examined for the existence of the viruses mentioned above by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). None of the target viruses were detected by one-step PCR. When some of these samples were further examined by two-step PCR, 19.7% (36/183) of spleen sample sets were positive for VHSV, and 4.4% (8/183) of spleen sample sets and 1.2% (3/259) of brain sample sets were positive for NNV. The target sequences of these viruses were clustered with those previously reported in Korea (Genotype IVa of VHSV, RGNNV genotype of NNV) by phylogenetic analysis. The activity of these viruses are not clear because virus isolation was not attempted, but probably very low because all the positive samples were detected by two-step PCR.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.375-390
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• 2022

Influenza viruses are zoonotic respiratory pathogens, and influenza infections have caused a substantial burden on public health systems and the livestock industry. Although currently approved seasonal influenza vaccines have shown potent protection efficacy against antigenically well-matched strains, there are considerable unmet needs for the efficient control of viral infections. Enormous efforts have been made to develop broadly protective universal influenza vaccines to tackle the huge levels of genetic diversity and variability of influenza viruses. In addition, antiviral drugs have been considered important interventions for the treatment of viral infections. The viral neuraminidase inhibitor oseltamivir is the most widely used antiviral medication to treat influenza A and influenza B viruses. However, unsatisfactory clinical outcomes resulting from side effects and the emergence of resistant variants have led to greater attention being paid to plants as a natural resource for anti-influenza drugs. In particular, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has underpinned the need for safe and effective antiviral drugs with a broad spectrum of antiviral activity to prevent the rapid spread of viruses among humans. This review outlines the results of the antiviral activities of various natural products isolated from plants against influenza viruses. Special focus is paid to the virucidal effects and the immune-enhancing effects of antiviral natural products, since the products have broad applications as inactivating agents for the preparation of inactivated vaccines and vaccine adjuvants.