Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is stakeholders of the beekeeping industry: commercial beekeepers, sideline beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, honey producers, pollination service providers, farmers who produce crops that require pollination, and consumers of pollinated crops. The effort to reach this target audience is the preparation of one or more scientific journal articles and white papers that explain the ubiquity and harmful effect of honey bee viruses and the healthful effect of the anti-virus therapy under development. Changes/Problems:The custom ingredients initially purchased for the Deformed Wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay provided excellent results. But new batches provedproblematic. The team was never able to overcome this, even by hiringBert Gold, PhD, a certified CLIA laboratory director with expertise in developing and verifying for clinical use complicated molecular biology assays, and the advice of Dominic Esposito, PhD, Director of The Protein Expression Laboratory at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and an expert in 3C Protease assays. Next, the team identified a set of a dozen chemicals that the project laboratory results, the literature, and the computational screen indicated were likely to inhibit theDeformed Wing virus. These chemicals were applied to live young adult honey bees. None had a statistically significant inhibition of the Deformed Wing virus. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided opportunities in project management, team development, clinical assay development, drug product development, and live honey bee studies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final reporting period for this project. In the future, the plan is to seek additional research funds to execute the described plans, hire a biochemist to perfect the 3C Protease inhibition assay, andestablish a cell line assay to better develop a drug before applying the developed drug to live honey bees.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As explained in the work products section, the project team continued to develop a key Deformed wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay,investigated twelve chemicals in live honey bee pupae and adults, and created a plan to build laboratory assays further to develop the reported chemicals as safe and potent in cells, before continued investigation in live honey bee pupae and young adults.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is stakeholders of the beekeeping industry: commercial beekeepers, sideline beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, honey producers, pollination service providers, farmers who produce crops that require pollination, and consumers of pollinated crops. The effort to reach this target audience is the preparation of one or more scientific journal articles and white papers that explain the ubiquity and harmful effect of honey bee viruses and the healthful effect of the antivirus therapy under development. Changes/Problems:The custom ingredients initially purchased for the Deformed Wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay provided excellent results. But new batches proved problematic. The team could never overcome this, even by hiring Bert Gold, PhD results. But new batches proved problematic. The team was never able to overcome this, even by hiring Bert Gold, PhD, a certified CLIA laboratory director with expertise in developing and verifying for clinical use complicated molecular biology assays, and the advice of Dominic Esposito, PhD, Director of The Protein Expression Laboratory at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and an expert in 3C Protease assays. Next, the team identified a dozen chemicals that the project laboratory results, the literature, and the computational screen indicated were likely to inhibit the Deformed Wing virus. These chemicals were applied to live young adult honey bees. None had a statistically significant inhibition of the Deformed Wing virus. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided opportunities in project management, team development, clinical assay development, drug product development, and live honey bee studies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?This is the final reporting period for this project. In the future, the team desires research funds to execute theplanto hirea biochemist to perfect the 3C Protease inhibition assay and to establisha cell line assay to develop a betterdrug before applying the developed drug to live honey bees.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As explained in the work products section, the project team continued to develop a key Deformed wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay; investigated twelve chemicals in live honey bee pupae and adults; and created a plan tofurther develop the reported chemicals as safe and potent in cells before continued investigation in live honey beepupae and young adults.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is stakeholders of the beekeeping industry: commercial beekeepers, sideline beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, honey producers, pollination service providers, farmers who produce crops that require pollination, and consumers of pollinated crops. The effort to reach this target audience is the preparation of one or more scientific journal articles and white papers that explain the ubiquity and harmful effect of honey bee viruses, and the healthful effect of the anti-virus therapy under development. Changes/Problems:While the team achieved rapid progress with the original batches of custom ingredients for the Deformed wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay, new batches proved to be problematic. Previously the team was able to consistently generate robust enzyme signal. However, this was not the case withthe new batches of ingredients. Loss of robust signal has meant that the team cannot finalize the set of validand true 3C Protease inhibitors. To resolve thisblockage of the 3C Protease enzyme assay, the team has secured the services of Bert Gold, PhD, a certified CLIA laboratory director with expertise in developing and verifying for clinical use complicated molecular biology assays, and the advice of Dominic Esposito, PhD, Director of The Protein Expression Laboratory at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and an expert in 3C Protease assays. These steps have resulted in the construction of a detailed technical plan, aMaterial Transfer and Research Agreement between the USDA Bee Research Laboratory and the Frederick National Laboratory, and the possibility for technicans in Dr. Esposito's lab to independently perform the 3C Protease inhibition assay. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided opportunities in project management, team development, clinical assay development, and live honey bee studies. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The plan going forward is to rely on 3C Protease inhibition assay experts to resolve inconsistencies in the 3C Protease inhibition assay, eliminate from further consideration all but the most inhibitory chemicals, obtain consistent results in the live honey bee pupae and live adult honey bee studies, and to advance the most promising chemical to field trials.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As explained in the work products section, the project team continued to develop a key Deformed wing virus 3C Protease inhibition assay, advanced six chemicals from assessment in the 3C Protease inhibition assay to investigation in live honey beepupae and live honey bee adults, and investigated these six chemicals inlive honey bee pupae and live adult honey bees.
Publications
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Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience is stakeholders of the beekeeping industry: commercial beekeepers, sideline beekeepers, hobbyist beekeepers, honey producers, pollination service providers, farmers who produce crops that require pollination, and consumers of pollinated crops. The effort to reach this target audience is the preparation of one or more scientific journal articles and white papers that explain the ubiquity and harmful effect of honey bee viruses, and the healthful effect of the anti-virus therapy under development. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided opportunities in project management, team development, and clinical assay development. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The plan going forward is as described in the abstract. Namely, now that the project team has successfully identified a small discovery hit set of chemicals, the plan is to further develop the potency, safety, and efficacy of the hit set chemicals into one or more treatment leads. The apporach is tophysically characterizethe shape of the protease enzyme active site, to optimizethe shape and fit of the chemicals into the enzyme active site, and to iterate physical assay until the team achieves a safe, potent, and efficacious virus treatment.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
As explained in the work products section, during the performance period the project team developed a biochemical assay, and physically screened 96-AI selected chemicals and one chemical from the literature in the biochemical assay and in live honey bee pupae. This has resulted in the best-case scenario of identifying discovery hits and apotential treatement lead compound.
Publications
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