This Week in Virology

TWiV 823: COVID-19 clinical update #86 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

October 30, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #86, Dr. Griffin discusses virologic features of infection in children, antibody tests should not be used to asses level of protection, test-to-stay programs in schools, FDA authorizes Moderna boosters, results of TOGETHER trial for fluvoxamine, statins and 28 day mortality, and cognitive function in patients.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 823 (28 MB .mp3, 47 min)
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Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 822: Viking variola variants

October 28, 2021

Rich reviews the history of smallpox and the discovery of variola viral genomes in ancient DNA from human remains throughout Northern Europe, which pushes back the earliest date of smallpox virus infection to ~600–1050 CE, overlapping the Viking Age.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condi t, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 822 (60 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Weekly Picks 1:42:21

Brianne – The Animal Kingdom is Full of Genetic Screwballs
Kathy – Science dresses, accessories from Svaha and Rosalind Franklin’s DNA diffraction dress
Rich – The Saxon Stories
Alan – Cincinnati’s “Old Cunny,” and audiobook version
Vincent – Infectious QBeta viral DNA

Listener Picks

Jeff – The unvaccinated may not be who you think

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 821: Public clonotype #1

October 24, 2021

A TWiV trio reveal the isolation of novel paramyxoviruses from rodents and bats in Arizona, and isolation of naive B cells from seronegative donors that produce germline encoded antibodies which engage the receptor binding domain of SARS-CoV-2, variants of concern, and related sarbecoviruses from bats.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Rich Condi t, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 821 (60 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Links for this episode

Bat and rodent paramyxoviruses from Arizona (J Viral) 2:27
Naive B cells engage SARS-CoV-2 RBD (Science Immunol) 26:06
Vincent interviews Philip Sharp (ASM) 1:55:38
Letters read on TWiV 821 1:56:04
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:29:23

Brianne – Apod: The Dolphin Head Nebula
Rich – The Tree That Could Help Stop The Pandemic; Elucidating the Mechanisms of Action of Saponin-Derived Adjuvants
Vincent – Discovery of RNA splicing in Sharp and Roberts laboratories

Listener Picks

Jason – Home Assistant
Alena – VirusCraft

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 820: COVID-19 clinical update #85 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

October 23, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #85, Dr. Griffin reviews cases and deaths by vaccination status, mRNA vaccine effectiveness in 12-18 year olds, standard and extended dosing of mRNA vaccines, immune responses after vaccination, Moderna booster dose approved, giving monoclonals at home, no benefit from colchicine, and IFN does not help remdesivir.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 820 (30 MB .mp3, 50 min)
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Links for this episode

Guidelines on COVID-19 drugs (WHO) 2:36
Holiday celebrations (CDC) 6:18
COVID-19 cases and deaths by vaccination status (CDC) 8:52
Effectiveness of Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA Vaccination 12-18 years (MMWR) 9:07
Rollout of vaccines for 5-11 year olds (WaPo) 12:01
Standard and extended dosing mRNA vaccine (Cell) 15:37
Differential kinetics immune responses after vaccination (NEJM) 17:19
Moderna booster dose approved (FDA) 19:03
Vertically transferred maternal immune cells (Nat Comm) 23:59
Giving monoclonals at home (JAMA) 25:10
No benefit from colchicine (Lancet) 26:44
IFN does not help remdesivir (Lancet) 28:52
Letters read on TWiV 820 30:51
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 819: How to stall a copy machine

October 21, 2021

TWiV explains how remdesivir inhibits the SARS-CoV-2 RNA polymerase: the drug is incorporated into the growing RNA chain and causes synthesis to stall when the drug clashes with an amino acid in the active site.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Alan Dove, Rich Condi t, and Kathy Spindler

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Download TWiV 819 (60 MB .mp3, 101 min)
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Links for this episode

How remdesivir stalls the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase (Nat Comm) 7:17
Movie of polymerase stalling (Nat Comm) 10:58, 42:00
Second mechanism of remdesivir inhibition (J Biol Chem) 46:58
Watson Crick molecular model (Science Museum Group) 1:37:59
Letters read on TWiV 819 50:01, 1:38:21
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:27:02

Kathy – Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland
Rich – How to Temporarily Disable Your Keyboard with a Keyboard Shortcut in Windows
Alan – How to Make a Slave and Other Essays by Jerald Walker
Vincent – A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid

Listener Picks

Steve – How the immune system actually works
Lise – Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 818: Thor’s hammer

October 17, 2021

The TWiVers review phase 3 efficacy and safety results for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine, effects on the neonatal immune system caused by maternal infection with SARS-CoV-2, and NHC, the metabolite of molnupiravir, causes mutations in cellular DNA.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condi t, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker

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Download TWiV 818 (70 MB .mp3, 117 min)
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Links for this episode

Efficacy and safety of Novavax vaccine (medRxiv) 3:28
A floret of spikes with Matt Frieman (TWiV 729) 5:30
Maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection affects neonatal immunity (Nat Immunol) 21:01
NHC is mutagenic in mammalian cells (J Inf Dis) 47:50
Coding for catastrophe (Nat Struct Mol Biol)
Molnupiravir development (Nature)
Letters read on TWiV 818 1:06:13
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:30:36

Dickson – John Clease
Brianne – Astronomy Picture of the Day: Swirl in the Southern Sky
Kathy – Lise Meitner Statue is at the Humboldt University
Rich – Google has the cleanest cloud. Now it’s helping other companies go green
Vincent – Discovery of reverse transcriptase by Baltimore and Temin

Listener Picks

Sam – Air Travel Packing List
Justin – PFAS: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and EPA targets greenhouse emissions

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 817: COVID-19 clinical update #84 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

October 16, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #84, Dr. Griffin discusses childrens’ antibody response to vaccination, phase 3 results of Novavax vaccine, heterologous vaccination, antithrombotic therapy, EUA for molnupiravir, phase 3 results of AZD7442, serum ferritin levels and outcomes, heparin therapy, and WHO strategy for global vaccination.

Hosts: Daniel Griffin and Vincent Racaniello

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Download TWiV 817 (30 MB .mp3, 50 min)
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Links for this episode

Antibody profiles after mRNA vaccination in children (bioRxiv) 4:46
Novavax vaccine phase 3 results (medRxiv) 6:44
Heterologous vaccine boosters (medRxiv) 10:22
Antithrombotic therapy outcomes (JAMA) 18:57
Molnupiravir EUA submitted (Merck) 20:38
AZD7442 phase 3 results (AstraZeneca) 21:59
Serum ferritin levels and disease outcome (JAMA) 24:43
Heparin efficacy (JAMA) 27:14
WHO strategy to vaccinate world (WHO) 33:48
Letters read on TWiV 817 35:23
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your questions for Dr. Griffin to [email protected]

TWiV 816: Long COVID and ME/CFS with David Tuller

October 15, 2021

David Tuller returns to TWiV to revisit his work to expose the methodological and ethical problems with the PACE trial, and the post-acute sequelae to SARS-CoV-2 infection, also known as long COVID.

Host: Vincent Racaniello

Guest: David Tuller

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Download TWiV 816 (70 MB .mp3, 117 min)
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Links for this episode

Call me David Tuller (TWiV Special) 00:33
David writes at virology blog 8:11
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 815: MIS-C with Moshe Arditi and Ivet Bahar

October 10, 2021

Moshe and Ivet join TWiV to discuss their finding that MIS-C is a consequence of a superantigen in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 that causes activation of a skewed population of T cell receptor bearing lymphocytes, leading to hyperinflammation.

Hosts: Vincent Racaniello, Dickson Despommier, Rich Condi t and Kathy Spindler

Guests: Moshe Arditi and Ivet Behar

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Download TWiV 815 (70 MB .mp3, 117 min)
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Links for this episode

MIS-C in US children (NEJM)
Superantigen in spike and T cell skewing in MIS-C (PNAS)
MIS-C mimics toxic shock syndrome (J Allergy Clin Immunol)
Antibody against bacterial superantigen blocks SARS-CoV-2 entry (Structure) 30:53
Autoimmune signature of MIS-C in children (J Clin Invest)
HLA1 associated T cell expansion in MIS-C (J Clin Invest)
Passing of Bill Wold (one, two) 1:12:36
Letters read on TWiV 815 1:16:44
Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks!

Weekly Picks 1:39:30

Dickson – Mel Brooks
Kathy – Dickson’s art show at Fordham
Rich – Saildrone captures footage from inside Hurricane Sam
Vincent – A Shot to Save the World: The Inside Story of the Life-or-Death Race for a COVID-19 Vaccine by Gregory Zuckerman

Listener Picks

Kathryn – Project Drawdown and the book
Charles – Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees

Send your virology questions and comments to [email protected]

TWiV 814: COVID-19 clinical update #83 with Dr. Daniel Griffin

October 9, 2021

In COVID-19 clinical update #83, Daniel Griffin discusses upcoming FDA discussions on vaccines, strategies to prevent transmission at youth camps, outbreaks at summer camps, impact of vaccination on transmission, AZD7442 request for EUA filed, EUA issued for home antigen test, phase 3 data on AZD1222 vaccine, 6 month effectiveness of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, estimates of durability of immunity against reinfection, Molnupiravir interim results, optimal time for monoclonal antibody infusion, IVIG plus Infliximab for MIS-C, and effect of vaccination on long COVID.