Publications related to Influenza

Inactivation of influenza A virus in expiratory droplets and aerosol particles and the associated physicochemical drivers

Influenza is an infectious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. Every year, it causes up to one billion cases of disease worldwide. Despite its high disease burden, the transmission pathway of influenza remains subject to debate. There is incre ...

EPFL2024

Virucidal compounds and use thereof

Francesco Stellacci, Bruno Emanuel Ferreira De Sousa Correia, Pablo Gainza Cirauqui, Francesca Olgiati, Corey Alfred Stevens, Lukasz Richter, Chiara Medaglia

Disclosed herein are peptide-grafted compounds that irreversibly deactivate bacteriophages or influenza virus depending on the peptide and remain safe for bacteria and mammalian cells. The active compounds comprise a core (cyclodextrin or gold nanoparticle ...

2024

Peptide-based virucidal drugs

Francesca Olgiati

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, viruses were not a major priority for the scientific community. Today, many events have changed the world and the importance of studying viruses, vaccines, and antiviral drugs is fully appreciated. The development of effective ...

EPFL2024

Stability of influenza A virus in droplets and aerosols is heightened by the presence of commensal respiratory bacteria

Tamar Kohn, Athanasios Nenes, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Htet Kyi Wynn, Kalliopi Violaki, Céline Terrettaz, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Walter Hugentobler, Shannon Christa David, Laura José Costa Henriques, Daniel Scott Nolan, Marta Augugliaro

Aerosol transmission remains a major challenge for control of respiratory viruses, particularly those causing recurrent epidemics, like influenza A virus (IAV). These viruses are rarely expelled alone, but instead are embedded in a consortium of microorgan ...

American Society for Microbiology2024

Inactivation mechanisms of influenza A virus under pH conditions encountered in aerosol particles as revealed by whole-virus HDX-MS

Athanasios Nenes, Tamar Kohn, Giovanni D'Angelo, Kalliopi Violaki, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Walter Hugentobler, Shannon Christa David, Jonathan Paz Montoya

Multiple respiratory viruses, including influenza A virus (IAV), can be transmitted via expiratory aerosol particles, and aerosol pH was recently identified as a major factor influencing airborne virus infectivity. Indoors, small exhaled aerosols undergo r ...

2023

Multivalent Virucidal Antivirals: Synthesis, Mechanisms of Action, and Immune-stimulating Effects

Yong Zhu

Viruses initiate invasion by binding to cell surface glycoproteins. Materials mimicking the carbohydrate motifs of these glycoproteins, such as heparan sulfate (HS) and sialic acid (SA) can block viral attachment and inhibit the infection. Multivalent disp ...

EPFL2023

Antiviral Mechanism of Virucidal Sialic Acid Modified Cyclodextrin

Francesco Stellacci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Yong Zhu, Marine Batista, Andrey Sysoev

We have reported that CD-6'SLN [6-sialyllactosamine (6'SLN)-modified beta-cyclodextrin (CD)] can be a potential anti-influenza drug because it irreversibly deactivates virions. Indeed, in vivo, CD-6'SLN improved mice survival in an H1N1 infection model eve ...

MDPI2023

Expiratory Aerosol pH is a Driver of the Persistence of Airborne Influenza A Virus

Aline Laetitia Schaub

To mitigate the spread of a viral disease, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence airborne virus transmission. However, the micro-environment to which the virus is exposed in expiratory aerosol particles is highly complex. The relative humi ...

SWISS CHEMICAL SOC2023

Ligand concentration determines antiviral efficacy of silica multivalent nanoparticles

Francesco Stellacci, Quy Ong Khac, Xufeng Xu, Heyun Wang, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Rémi Andréa La Polla

We have learned from the recent COVID-19 pandemic that the emergence of a new virus can quickly become a global health burden and kill millions of lives. Antiviral drugs are essential in our fight against viral diseases, but most of them are virus-specific ...

Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science2023

PSGL-1 is an evolutionarily conserved antiviral restriction factor

Ying Liu, Chao Jiang

The arms race between viruses and their hosts shaped the evolutionary history and the genome composition of both parties. Restriction factors are the first-line antiviral effectors encoded by the host genomes and are often conserved through evolution to pr ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

Preliminary evidence that daily light exposure enhances the antibody response to influenza vaccination in patients with dementia

Jean-Louis Scartezzini

Enhancing lighting conditions in institutions for individuals with dementia improves their sleep, circadian rhythms and well-being. Here, we report first findings that exposure to brighter light during daytime may support the immune response to the annual ...

ELSEVIER2022

Targeting molecular surfaces to engineer novel protein-based immunogens and inhibitors

Sarah Wehrle

Proteins are the basic building blocks necessary for the operation and regulation of virtually all functions in living organisms. Over millions of years, evolution has created a vast repertoire of proteins finely tuned to execute their biological functions ...

EPFL2022

Protein Engineering for Personalized therapy and diagnosis

Lixia Wei

Protein Engineering, especially protein post-translational modification (PTM), ex-tends proteomes in a more complex way than one can expect from analysis of their encod-ing genomes. It can activate or deactivate certain catalytic functions, add new desired ...

EPFL2022

Expiratory Aerosol pH: The Overlooked Driver of Airborne Virus Inactivation

Tamar Kohn, Athanasios Nenes, Kalliopi Violaki, Ghislain Gilles Jean-Michel Motos, Walter Hugentobler, Aline Laetitia Schaub, Shannon Christa David

Respiratory viruses, including influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2, are transmitted by the airborne route. Air filtration and ventilation mechanically reduce the concentration of airborne viruses and are necessary tools for disease mitigation. However, they ign ...

2023

Identification of broad anti-coronavirus chemical agents for repurposing against SARS-CoV-2 and variants of concern

Gerardo Turcatti, Fabien Kuttler, Michael Bauer, Liliane Yang

Endemic human coronaviruses (hCoVs) 229E and OC43 cause respiratory disease with recurrent infections, while severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 spreads across the world with impact on health and societies. Here, we report an image-based multicy ...

2022

Interferon Lambda Delays the Emergence of Influenza Virus Resistance to Oseltamivir

Francesco Stellacci, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Chiara Medaglia

Influenza viruses are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. These air-borne pathogens are able to cross the species barrier, leading to regular seasonal epidemics and sporadic pandemics. Influenza viruses also possess a high genetic variabi ...

2021

Virucidal compositions and use thereof

Francesco Stellacci, Özgün Kocabiyik, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Valeria Cagno

The invention relates to virucidal compositions comprising a sialic acid (SA) moiety, pharmaceutical compositions and disinfection and/or sterilization compositions comprising thereof and uses thereof in disinfection and/or sterilization methods and in tre ...

2021

A high-throughput cell- and virus-free assay shows reduced neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 variants by COVID-19 convalescent plasma

Didier Trono, Priscilla Turelli, Florence Pojer, Charlène Mireille Raymonde Raclot, Valeria Cagno, Jérémy Campos, Céline Pellaton

The detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-specific antibodies in the serum of an individual indicates previous infection or vaccination. However, it provides limited insight into the protective nature of this immune resp ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2021

Novel broad-spectrum virucidal antivirals

Matteo Gasbarri

The current COVID-19 pandemic has showed the threats that viruses can cause to the whole world. Over 200 million infections and over 4.5 million deaths and enormous socio-economic impact were the output of the emergence of a single new pathogen: SARS-CoV-2 ...

EPFL2021

Non-Toxic Virucidal Macromolecules Show High Efficacy Against Influenza Virus Ex Vivo and In Vivo

Francesco Stellacci, Özgün Kocabiyik, Paulo Henrique Jacob Silva, Valeria Cagno, Yong Zhu, Chiara Medaglia

Influenza is one of the most widespread viral infections worldwide and represents a major public health problem. The risk that one of the next pandemics is caused by an influenza strain is high. It is important to develop broad-spectrum influenza antiviral ...

2020