Monkeys Harbouring Astrovirus can be Harmful for Humans

Knowing that monkeys can harbor diverse astroviruses highlights the importance of continued monitoring for monkeys which commonly dwell with people in Asia.

Researchers at University of Washington National Primate Research Centre have found that monkeys which commonly dwell with people in Asia can harbor variants of a type of virus which can cause infectious gastroenteritis or diarrhea in humans.

Knowing that non-human primates can harbor diverse astroviruses highlights the importance of continued monitoring, particularly in countries such as Bangladesh and Cambodia, where macaques and humans live side-by-side, the researchers said.

Tried and Tested AIDS Vaccine in Monkeys to Undergo First Human Trials in the US
Though there are 100’s of vaccines developed over the years, this particular vaccine has been developed with “an unusual method of protection.”

‘If you are a bat, you have bat astrovirus, but if you are a monkey, you could have everything. Knowing that non-human primates can harbor diverse astroviruses - most commonly associated with diarrhea - it highlights the importance of continued monitoring.’

"If you are a bat, you have bat astrovirus, but if you are a monkey, you could have everything," said study co-author Lisa Jones-Engel, research scientist.

It is still unknown whether these viruses are two-way and can be transmitted to humans from monkeys. Astroviruses are most commonly associated with diarrhea. They can also cause clinical diseases such as nephritis, hepatitis and encephalitis.

In this study of 879 samples of primate feces, 68 (7.7 percent) were positive for astroviruses. The majority of the positive samples (72 percent) were 79-100 percent similar to astroviruses associated with human infections.

GS-5734 Provides Full Protection to Monkeys from Ebola
A company is currently conducting phase one clinical studies of a compound, known as GS-5734, in human volunteers to find out how safe and effective it is.

The team also collected blood samples, which confirmed that more than 25 percent of the monkeys had been infected with human astroviruses. Whether the monkeys were getting sick from these viruses is unknown.

The study was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

New Compound Shows Potential to Block Replication of Ebola Virus in Rhesus Monkeys
The compound can be easily prepared on a large scale--that shows substantive post-exposure protection against Ebola virus in nonhuman primates.

Source-IANS

Monkeys See Visual Illusions Like Humans: Georgia University
Monkeys are an appropriate model for studying human perception and that contextual cues affect perception in ways that are shared across species.