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Vitamin D may help reduce incidence, severity of viral respiratory tract infections: Study

Vitamin D may help reduce the incidence and severity of viral respiratory tract infections including influenza, according to a new study conducted by investigators at Greenwich Hospital and Yale University School of Medicine.

16 Jun 2010

Inovio commences immunization in U.S. Phase I clinical trial of SynCon H5N1 influenza DNA vaccine

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that it has immunized its first subject in a U.S. Phase I clinical trial to evaluate its SynCon™ H5N1 (avian) influenza DNA vaccine, VGX-3400X.

15 Jun 2010

Regulatory T cells delay arrival of TB-fighting T cells

The outcome of tuberculosis infection in mice depends in part on how quickly bacteria-fighting T cells can get to the lungs. According to a new study that will appear online on June 14th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, another group of T cells delays their arrival.

15 Jun 2010

Cangene announces development of Immune Globulin Intravenous product

Cangene Corporation today announces that it is developing an Immune Globulin Intravenous product, commonly known as IGIV. IGIV is a widely used anti-infective with a variety of indications including treating primary immune deficiency, immune thrombocytopenic purpura and other inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.

15 Jun 2010

Researchers discover how bacteria boost the immune system

Scientists have long known that certain types of bacteria boost the immune system. Now, Loyola University Health System researchers have discovered how bacteria perform this essential task.

15 Jun 2010

MRSA survivors unite across the globe to raise awareness and educate public on prevention

MRSA Survivors Network with MRSA survivors, family members and other victims of healthcare-acquired infections unite across the globe and on World MRSA Day, October 2, 2010 in a grassroots movement to raise awareness and push for more mandated reporting of infections, MRSA screening laws, funds to raise awareness and educate the public on prevention, which will save lives.

15 Jun 2010

Insulin-producing beta cells can proliferate in patients recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes: Researchers

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, working in collaboration with colleagues from Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the University of Brighton, have used a unique collection of pancreas specimens taken from patients who died soon after diagnosis of type 1 diabetes to show that they respond to the ongoing process of destruction by inducing their islet cells to proliferate.

15 Jun 2010

Parkinson’s disease linked to gene variant and pesticide: Study

Researchers from France reported in their new study that bad genes and exposure to certain banned pesticides could be blamed for development of Parkinson’s disease in men. In their study, published in the Archives of Neurology journal they show that men exposed to pesticides such as DDT and who had inherited genes for Parkinson’s disease were three and a half times more likely to develop Parkinson's than those with the normal version of the gene.

14 Jun 2010

New path involving "innocent spectators" to defeat systemic sclerosis

There is a new path to defeat systemic sclerosis, also called scleroderma because of the hardening of the skin of the patients (from Greek skleros, "hard", and derma, "skin"). This path involves the B-cell of the immune system, so far only considered "innocent spectators," as Catholic University rheumatologist Gianfranco Ferraccioli, among the authors of the important research, puts it.

14 Jun 2010

'Micro-ear' to screen for malaria, sleeping sickness

A team of researchers from the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford, and the UK's National Institute of Medical Research at Mill Hill, are developing a 'micro-ear' which may help develop medicines and screening for diseases such as malaria and sleeping sickness in Africa. The project is in two parts, explains Professor Jon Cooper, a bio-engineer at University of Glasgow.

14 Jun 2010

IMF concludes first-of-its-kind inaugural Myeloma Summit

The International Myeloma Foundation, the oldest and largest foundation dedicated to improving the life and care of myeloma patients, has concluded the first-of-its-kind inaugural Myeloma Summit meeting - nearly 70 of the world's leading experts in myeloma and related blood cancers charting the future of myeloma treatment and care.

14 Jun 2010

New bacterial strain could help in long-term cleanup of oil spills

Researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive "rhamnolipids," and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs - environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills.

14 Jun 2010

Monoclonal antibodies induce long-lasting, protective antiviral immune response

Monoclonal antibodies are the largest class of biotherapeutic drugs. When administered to infected organisms to blunt the propagation of pathogenic viruses, they may also induce a long-lasting and protective antiviral immune response similar to that achieved by vaccination. These results obtained in mice by the "Oncogenèse et Immunothérapie" group at the Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (CNRS/Universités Montpellier 1 and 2), have been published on 10 June in PLoS Pathogens.

14 Jun 2010

ARCA receives approval to commence enrollment of first therapeutic trial using HIV vaccine candidate

News on the progress of a new trial may give new hope to patients with HIV who are dependent on anti-HIV drugs. The AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta has received approval to begin enrollment of the first therapeutic trial ever conducted using a promising HIV vaccine candidate from Atlanta-based, GeoVax Inc, a biotechnology company that creates, develops and tests innovative HIV/AIDS vaccines.

14 Jun 2010

CNVs increases patients' susceptibility to severe sepsis

Genetic makeup has been identified as a key factor leading to the development of sepsis, a systemic inflammatory reaction that occurs during infection. Sepsis is considered severe when associated with organ dysfunction.

14 Jun 2010

Researchers transform yellow fever vaccine to fend off mosquito borne parasites that cause malaria

There is no vaccine for malaria, which sickens almost a quarter of a billion people each year and kills a child every 30 seconds. That could be changing: researchers at The Rockefeller University have genetically transformed the yellow fever vaccine to prime the immune system to fend off the mosquito borne parasites that cause the disease.

14 Jun 2010

New breakthrough in stem cell and tissue engineering

The mechanism by which 'polycomb' proteins critical for embyronic stem cell function and fate are targeted to DNA has been identified by UCL scientists.

14 Jun 2010

Anti-infectives could circumvent the problem of antibiotic resistance

For a successful infection, bacteria must outwit the immune system of the host. To this aim, they deliver so-called virulence factors through a transport channel located in the bacterial membrane.

14 Jun 2010

DFG sets up new Research Training Groups for German researchers

To further enhance the promotion of young researchers in Germany, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has established twelve new Research Training Groups.

14 Jun 2010

White blood cells with receptors for both virus and nerve proteins may assault nerves after fighting infection

A virus infection can incite the body to attack its own nerve tissue by activating unusual, disease-fighting cells with receptors for both viral and nerve proteins. The dual-receptor observation suggests a way brain and spinal cord nerve damage might be triggered in susceptible young adults afflicted with multiple sclerosis.

11 Jun 2010