We’re kicking off our sixth season in the same way we ended our fifth: with another headline-making respiratory virus. But as our listeners know, not all respiratory viruses are the same, and it’s often those differences among them that play the biggest role in their spread or the symptoms they cause. This episode, we’re exploring the virus that everyone has been talking about lately. No, not that one. Or that one. The other one. Yes, we’re talking about respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. For many people, the recent surge in RSV infections that dominated headlines this winter may have been the first time they had heard of this viral infection or realized how deadly it could be. But for others, RSV has long inspired fear and dread. In this episode, we Erins explain why this virus deserves such notoriety, how long we’ve recognized the dangers of infection, and what hope the future may hold for novel RSV treatments or vaccines. If at any point you’ve wondered what all the fuss is about this virus or how to pronounce syncytial, then this is the episode for you!
| History | Biology |
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| Chanock, R., and B. Roizman. “Recovery from infants with respiratory illness of a virus related to chimpanzee coryza agent (CCA). I. Isolation, properties and characterization.” American journal of hygiene 66.3 (1957): 281-90. | Juliana, A., Plötz, F.B., Achten, N., Bultman, A., Jongman, R.M., van Meurs, M., Wilschut, J.C. and Zonneveld, R., 2021. Requirement of respiratory support in acute bronchiolitis in infants is linked to endothelial and neutrophil activation. Pediatric pulmonology, 56(12), pp.3908-3915. |
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| Drexler, Jan Felix, et al. “Bats host major mammalian paramyxoviruses.” Nature communications 3.1 (2012): 1-13. | Paynter, S., 2015. Humidity and respiratory virus transmission in tropical and temperate settings. Epidemiology & Infection, 143(6), pp.1110-1118. |
| Dries, David J. “Mechanical ventilation: history and harm.” Air medical journal 35.1 (2016): 12-15. | Pandya, M.C., Callahan, S.M., Savchenko, K.G. and Stobart, C.C., 2019. A contemporary view of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) biology and strain-specific differences. Pathogens, 8(2), p.67. |
| Hall, Caroline Breese. “Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Parainfluenza Virus.” New England Journal of Medicine 344.25 (2001): 1917-1928. | Higgins, D., Trujillo, C. and Keech, C., 2016. Advances in RSV vaccine research and development–a global agenda. Vaccine, 34(26), pp.2870-2875. |
| Hu, Lucy, et al. “An implantable soft robotic ventilator augments inspiration in a pig model of respiratory insufficiency.” Nature Biomedical Engineering (2022): 1-14. | Mazur, N.I., Higgins, D., Nunes, M.C., Melero, J.A., Langedijk, A.C., Horsley, N., Buchholz, U.J., Openshaw, P.J., McLellan, J.S., Englund, J.A. and Mejias, A., 2018. The respiratory syncytial virus vaccine landscape: lessons from the graveyard and promising candidates. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 18(10), pp.e295-e311. |
| Morris, J. A., R. E. Blount Jr, and RE13359460 Savage. “Recovery of cytopathogenic agent from chimpanzees with goryza.” Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine 92.3 (1956): 544-549. | Boyoglu-Barnum, S., Chirkova, T. and Anderson, L.J., 2019. Biology of infection and disease pathogenesis to guide RSV vaccine development. Frontiers in Immunology, 10, p.1675. |
| Paccaud, M. F., and C. L. Jacquier. “A respiratory syncytial virus of bovine origin.” Archiv für die gesamte Virusforschung 30.4 (1970): 327-342. | Ruckwardt, T.J., Morabito, K.M. and Graham, B.S., 2019. Immunological lessons from respiratory syncytial virus vaccine development. Immunity, 51(3), pp.429-442. |
| Petty, Thomas L. “A historical perspective of mechanical ventilation.” Critical care clinics 6.3 (1990): 489-504. | Lozano, R., Naghavi, M., Foreman, K., Lim, S., Shibuya, K., Aboyans, V., Abraham, J., Adair, T., Aggarwal, R., Ahn, S.Y. and AlMazroa, M.A., 2012. Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The lancet, 380(9859), pp.2095-2128. |
| Slutsky, Arthur S. “History of mechanical ventilation. From Vesalius to ventilator-induced lung injury.” American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 191.10 (2015): 1106-1115. | Mazur, N.I., Terstappen, J., Baral, R., Bardají, A., Beutels, P., Buchholz, U.J., Cohen, C., Crowe Jr, J.E., Cutland, C.L., Eckert, L. and Feikin, D., 2022. Respiratory syncytial virus prevention within reach: the vaccine and monoclonal antibody landscape. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. |
| Walsh, Edward E., and Caroline Breese Hall. “Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).” Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases (2015): 1948. | CDC.Gov RSV research and surveillance, 2022. https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/research/index.html |
| Yu, Jie-Mei, et al. “Genetic diversity and molecular evolution of human respiratory syncytial virus A and B.” Scientific reports 11.1 (2021): 1-11. | |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDtKBXOEsoMHow do ventilators work? – Alex Gendler |
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