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Introduction. Zika virus (ZIKV) emerged as a public health concern on the American continent during late 2015. As the number of infected grew so did the concerns about its capability to cause long-term damage especially with the appearance of the congenital Zika syndrome (CZS). Proteins from the TAM family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) were proposed as the cellular receptors, however, due to the ability of the virus to infect a variety of cell lines different strategies to elucidate the tropism of the virus should be investigated. Hypothesis. Pseudotyping is a powerful tool to interrogate the ability of the glycoprotein (GP) to permit entry of viruses. Aim. We aimed to establish a highly tractable pseudotype model using lenti- and retro-viral backbones to investigate the entry pathway of ZIKV. Methodology. We used different glycoprotein constructs and different lenti- or retro-viral backbones, in a matrix of ratios to investigate production of proteins and functional pseudotypes. Results. Varying the ratio of backbone and glycoprotein plasmids did not yield infectious pseudotypes. Moreover, the supplementation of the ZIKV protease or the substitution of the backbone had no positive impact on the infectivity. We showed production of the proteins in producer cells implying the lack of infectious pseudotypes is due to a lack of successful glycoprotein incorporation, rather than lack of protein production. Conclusion. In line with other reports, we were unable to successfully produce infectious pseudotypes using the variety of methods described. Other strategies may be more suitable in the development of an efficient pseudotype model for ZIKV and other flaviviruses.

Flaviviruses, such as Dengue (DENV), Zika, Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis and West Nile are important pathogens with high morbidity and mortality. The last estimation indicates that ∼390 millions of people are infected by DENV per year. The DENV replicative cycle occurs mainly in the cytoplasm of the infected cells and different cytoplasmic, nuclear and mitochondrial proteins participate in viral replication. In this paper we analyzed the participation of Aurora kinase B (AurKB) in the DENV replicative cycle using the specific AurKB inhibitor ZM 447439. The kinase inhibition does not alter the viral protein production/secretion or genome replication but impaired the viral yield without altering the percentage of infected cells. Moreover, confocal microscopy analysis of DENV-infected ZM 447439-treated cells show a delocalization of viral components from the replicative complexes. In summary, these observations indicate that AurKB participates in DENV viral morphogenesis or release., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To analyze the preoperative shoulder ultrasound (US) findings in patients with a diagnosis of rotator cuff (RC) tear and correlate them with the arthroscopic findings., Methods: Retrospective analysis of a consecutive series of patients with a diagnosis of RC pathology in whom US was performed and who underwent surgery (shoulder arthroscopy). The US/arthroscopic findings were correlated with Fisher's and chi2 tests., Results: The total number of patients was 53. We identified US/arthroscopic correlation in 22/34 cases for the total tears (64.7%) and in 7/19 cases for the partial tears (36.8%) (p = 0.048). Overall correlation (total and partial tears) was seen in 29/53 patients (54.7%). Of the 24 patients without correlation, 11 (45.8%) had ultrasound reports of tendinitis; 75% of the cases in this group had findings of partial supraspinous tear during arthroscopy (p = 0.006)., Conclusion: US shows an appropriate correlation with the diagnosis of RC total tear confirmed with arthroscopy, and the correlation is significantly lower for partial tears. In cases of an ultrasound-diagnosed lesion, such as tendinitis, most cases showed a partial tear during arthroscopy.