Adaptation of bluetongue virus in mosquito cells results in overexpression of NS3 proteins and release of virus particles.

Adaptation of bluetongue virus (BTV) to grow in mosquito cells (C6/36) resulted in overexpression of two non-structural proteins (NS3 and NS3a) in infected cells. These proteins also co-purified with BTV particles and were dissociated from the virions upon treatment with an anionic detergent. The expression was not host dependent, since back inoculation of the adapted virus into mammalian cell cultures also resulted in a significant overexpression of these proteins. The BTV-C6/36 produced smaller plaques in Vero cells compared with the parent strain. This is the first report which demonstrates a high level of NS3/NS3a expression in infected cells and subsequent release of infectious BTV particles into the supernatant.

[The epidemiology of heart failure in the elderly]. / Epidemiología de la insuficiencia cardíaca en el anciano.

OBJECTIVE: To find the prevalence and aetiology of chronic cardiac failure (CCF) among elderly people in a health area. DESIGN: Retrospective, crossover study. SETTING: Delicias Sur Health Centre, Zaragoza. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: A representative sample of the population over 65 registered at the Health Centre. Systematic random sampling: n = 1,635. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 104 cases of cardiac failure were identified, which corresponded to a 6.3% (+/- 0.01) prevalence. By age groups, prevalence was 4.5% (+/- 0.01) for the 65-74 group and 8.5% (+/- 0.02) for those over 75. Regarding aetiology, 50.9% was due to arterial hypertension, 21.2% coronary failure, 22.1% valvulopathies and 17.3% reason unknown. CONCLUSIONS: CCF prevalence in the community increases with age and in our ambit exceeds that found in other countries. Almost half the cases are related to arterial hypertension.