Elucidation of the roles of PTN and ISG15 in RSV cytopathogenesis: possible biomarkers of severe disease?
type: CreativeWork
description: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most common cause of severe lower respiratory tract infection in infants under two years old. Sparking seasonal epidemics, RSV contributes to around 20,000 admissions to hospital in the UK annually and many require intensive care support. Peak incidences of severe RSV disease occur between 6 weeks and 6 months of age. Despite over 60 years of research since its discovery, no RSV vaccine or specific therapy exists. The only preventative strategy against RSV is the monoclonal antibody palivizumab, which is very expensive and, accordingly, only available to those infants at known high risk of severe RSV disease, including preterm infants and those with congenital heart conditions or bronchpulmonary dysplasia. As the majority of infants hospitalised with RSV have no known predisposing risk factor for severe illness, the benefits of palivizumab for managing the impact of RSV is very restricted. Considerable challenges in performing research in vulnerable young infants has slowed progress in RSV research. Animal models only partially reflect RSV‐human host interactions and thus extrapolation of results from these models to human responses is of limited value. Study of autopsy specimens from infants who succumbed to RSV infection identified that the infection is restricted primarily to the airway epithelium. As such, research aimed at detecting innate immune responses of human airway epithelium to RSV is likely to yield crucial insights into the cytopathogenesis of this infection. It has previously been demonstrated that an ex‐vivo/in‐vitro model of human airway epithelium/RSV interactions, termed well‐differentiated primary paediatric nasal epithelial cell cultures (WD‐PNECs), provides a reasonable surrogate for in vivo responses. Because of the strong association of severe RSV disease with prematurity and young age, the first part of this thesis describes the utilisation of the WD‐PNEC model to establish and 6 characteri…
abstract: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the most common cause of severe lower respiratory tract infection in infants under two years old. Sparking seasonal epidemics, RSV contributes to around 20,000 admissions to hospital in the UK annually and many require intensive care support. Peak incidences of severe RSV disease occur between 6 weeks and 6 months of age. Despite over 60 years of research since its discovery, no RSV vaccine or specific therapy exists. The only preventative strategy against RSV is the monoclonal antibody palivizumab, which is very expensive and, accordingly, only available to those infants at known high risk of severe RSV disease, including preterm infants and those with congenital heart conditions or bronchpulmonary dysplasia. As the majority of infants hospitalised with RSV have no known predisposing risk factor for severe illness, the benefits of palivizumab for managing the impact of RSV is very restricted. Considerable challenges in performing research in vulnerable young infants has slowed progress in RSV research. Animal models only partially reflect RSV‐human host interactions and thus extrapolation of results from these models to human responses is of limited value. Study of autopsy specimens from infants who succumbed to RSV infection identified that the infection is restricted primarily to the airway epithelium. As such, research aimed at detecting innate immune responses of human airway epithelium to RSV is likely to yield crucial insights into the cytopathogenesis of this infection. It has previously been demonstrated that an ex‐vivo/in‐vitro model of human airway epithelium/RSV interactions, termed well‐differentiated primary paediatric nasal epithelial cell cultures (WD‐PNECs), provides a reasonable surrogate for in vivo responses. Because of the strong association of severe RSV disease with prematurity and young age, the first part of this thesis describes the utilisation of the WD‐PNEC model to establish and 6 characteri…
author: Groves, Helen
language: eng
keywords: RSV, Nasal epithelium, innate immunity, neonates
date published: 2018-6
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:54:59Z
provider: Queen's University Belfast
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Queen's University Belfast