Hepatitis B Virus X gene in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
A Viral Biorealm page on the family Hepatitis B Virus X gene in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe, often fatal, disease in humans and non-human primates caused by the Ebola virus (Fig 1). Even though the virus first appeared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) in the summer of 1976 and has only sporadically reemerged, it has still managed to capture the attention of the world due to death rates that can be as high as 90% as well as the visceral manner in which it kills [7,24]. Few viruses have the ability to turn internal organs into a soup that promptly flows out of the body, so those that do tend to capture the public eye.
Despite the low incidence of infection, the lethality and potential airborne transmission of Ebola virus makes it a severe biological threat. This is compounded by the possibility of the virus being obtained from the wild for use as a biological weapon, something Japanese terrorist cult Aum Shinrikyo once unsuccessfully attempted [5]. As of the present, there are no licensed vaccines or specific antiviral treatments available for Ebola virus infections, with significant progress only made in the development of vaccines for nonhuman primates [34]. Therefore, the elucidation of the viral replication cycle as well as complete understanding of viral proteins is necessary for the production of human treatments.
Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
This mysterious hemorrhagic fever was first described in two separate 1976 outbreaks (Fig 2): first in southern Sudan and subsequently in northern Zaire, now Democratic Republic of the Congo. A causative agent was isolated from patients in both epidemics and named Ebola virus after a small river in northwestern Zaire. Only years later did researchers recognize that the plagues were caused by two distinct species of Ebola virus, Sudan Ebola virus and Zaire Ebola virus. The third African species, Cote d'Ivoire Ebola virus was isolated in 1994 from an infected ethnologist who had done a necropsy on a chimpanzee from the Tai Forest. Only in 2007 was a fourth African species, Bundibugyo Ebola virus, isolated [13].
