Ep 133 Parvoviruses: Who let the dogs (and their viruses) out?

6 thoughts on “Ep 133 Parvoviruses: Who let the dogs (and their viruses) out?”

1. Longtime listener here- blown away by the parvovirus episode. At age 4 I had Henoch Schonlein’s purpura following exposure to parvovirus. The patient testimony pretty much describes the progression I experienced, right down to the arthralgic immune response to viral exposure. I don’t remember much from that year beyond the experiences she shared. Thank you so much for the work you put into all of your episodes, but this one really hit home.

2. Hey none of your audio players are loading for me on two different browsers, Chrome and Firefox.

3. I have been listening to your podcast for years, and have gone back to listen to podcasts I had missed. I love them and recommend them to friends. But there is no longer a button for listening to them. I love the interplay between the two Erins. How can I listen?

4. Really interesting podcast as always. I love what you do, your enthusiasm and your thoughtfulness. I wanted to chip in on the subject of AAV as a gene therapy vector. I work at ‘The Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult’. We are a not for profit research organisation in the UK (the site I work from is based at Guy’s Hospital by London Bridge and houses our original labs). You’re of course correct to say that AAV is a leading gene therapy vector, for all the reasojns that you mentioned. Although AAV can integrate into the host genome, for gene therapy purposes it is normally considered to be non-integrative. AAV integrations is thought to be rare, rather than normal. Once it establishes an infection in a cell “AAV vector genomes undergo circularization via ITR recombination to form stable and persistent episomal configurations that can be detected well beyond 10 years following administration in non-dividing, terminally differentiated cell populations.” (see: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-021-00487-6 for example). One practical consequence is that AAV gene therapies might not be considered especially suitable for tissues which have a high turnover of cells (since this would tend to lead to the AAV episomal constructs becoming diluted out and lost during cell division. Where genomic integration of the the gene therapy vector is desirable (e.g. in the manufacture of CAR-T immunotherapies, or the heamatopeoetic stem cell based therapies like Libmeldy that target congeital metabolic diseases), then lentiviral vectors (related to HIV for example!) are preferred, since the genomic integration of these viruses is a much more normal (compulsory?) part of their lifecycle. Also, the lentiviral vectors have a much bigger genetic cargo capacity. Nevertheless, AAVs are a hugely popular vector for gene therapies. In 2022, in the UK, 38% of gene therapy clinical trials used AAV as the vector (the single biggest category), lentivirus was 33%, whilst adenovirus (an early pioneer) came in at only 2% (see https://cgt.ams3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/Clinical-Trials-Database-2022-report.pdf for some other recent info). Keep up the fantastic work! (I’m off to wash my hands)

5. There is no way to listen to this episode on here, also what a great and informative podcast that you both have created, Thank you.

6. Something happened…. For the parvo and tonsil episodes, there is no longer a play button.
   Is there a separate place or process to listen to episodes?

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