Washington University of St Louis report that researchers
developed a method to gros norovirus in-lab, which is a first.
It will lead to a better understanding of the virus and the
diseases it induce (gastroenteritis or "stomach flu"). The virus
is a very common cause of food poisoning. Using the in vitro
cultured virus, researchers were able to determine that it had
specific tropism for Macrophages and Dendritic cells, components
of the immune system responsible of warning T and B cells that
something is wrong (by presenting antigens, usually small
peptides of degraded pathogens) and activating the immune
response. Noroviruses (genus Norovirus, family Caliciviridae)
are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped
viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. Norovirus
was recently approved as the official genus name for the group
of viruses provisionally described as “Norwalk-like viruses”
(NLV). PLoS biology announcement PLos Biology Paper :
Replication of Norovirus in Cell Culture Reveals a