Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Scientists discover Ebola's immune evasion strategies

A research team led by Gaya Amarasinghe, an assistant professor of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, had previously solved the structure of a critical part of an Ebola protein known as VP35, which is involved in host immune suppression.

20 Jan 2010

U.S. gastroenterologists to treat hepatitis C patients with telaprevir

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that U.S. gastroenterologists will treat a larger proportion of treatment nonresponder hepatitis C patients with Vertex/Tibotec/Mitsubishi Tanabe's telaprevir than Merck's boceprevir.

20 Jan 2010

National Institutes of Mental Health awards $8M for HIV research

A multidisciplinary research team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has been awarded $8 million in funding by the National Institutes of Mental Health to develop methods to rid the body of HIV.

20 Jan 2010

Preliminary data from Phase 1 study of Sangamo BioSciences' SB-728-T announced

Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. announced today that preliminary data from the University of Pennsylvania investigator sponsored Phase 1 safety study of Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) based product, SB-728-T, for HIV/AIDS were presented on Friday, January 15, 2010 at the Keystone Symposium Session "HIV Biology and Pathogenesis."

20 Jan 2010

CytoDyn commences enrollment in Cytolin clinical trial

Following approval of the Institutional Review Board, CytoDyn, Inc. has discharged its duty to register a clinical trial of Cytolin®, the Company’s lead product, with the government’s website at www.clinicaltrials.gov, ID NCT01048372. The public has online access to this federal database, which describes the key elements of clinical trials and their status.

19 Jan 2010

California limits HMO wait times

The regulations by the California Department of Managed Health Care, in the works for much of the last decade, will require that patients be treated by HMO doctors within 10 business days of requesting an appointment, and by specialists within 15.

19 Jan 2010

WHO, CDC issue H1N1 updates

Though H1N1 (swine flu) activity worldwide has slowed, the potential of a new wave of infections in the northern hemisphere in late winter or early spring remains viable, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's top flu expert, said Monday at the start of the WHO's weeklong executive board meeting, Reuters reports.

19 Jan 2010

Mutagenic drugs designed to kill viruses may make them stronger, says research

As the flu season continues in full-swing, most people can appreciate the need for drugs that stop viruses after they take hold in the body. Despite this serious need for new drugs, a team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin raise serious concerns about an emerging strategy for stopping viral infections.

18 Jan 2010

Missouri best in using federal aid to combat Medicaid fraud, other states fight over federal rules

The Kansas City Star reports that Missouri led the country in 2008 in efficiency in using federal dollars to combat Medicaid fraud. "The state recovered almost $29.8 million in 2008, the most recent year for which comparative data are available, while receiving about $1.6 million in federal Medicaid fraud grants. That equates to $18.81 recovered for every dollar received — 43 cents better than the next-best state" (Noble, 1/12).

18 Jan 2010

Regulus Therapeutics presents new data on oncology, immune disease and HCV therapeutic programs

Regulus Therapeutics Inc. today announced that new pre-clinical data from multiple therapeutic programs were presented at the “RNA Silencing: Mechanism, Biology and Application” Keystone Symposium held January 14 – 19, 2010 in Keystone, Colorado. Regulus and its collaborators presented data showing microRNA target regulation by anti-miRs, as well as data from therapeutic programs focused on oncology, immune disease and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

18 Jan 2010

Scientists discover new mechanism that explains role of EBV in tumor growth

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a virus of the herpes family, has two distinct life phases: After infecting a cell it first goes into a resting phase. Under certain circumstances the virus can become active - and then induces tumor growth or promotes its synthesis in the cell.

18 Jan 2010

Large number of infected cases in Australia attribute to failure in containing H1N1 pandemic

The rapid and widespread entry of the pandemic H1N1 infection that led to a large number of infected cases in Australia suggested a public health management failure in containing the pandemic when it broke out in April 2009.

18 Jan 2010

Study finds large number of new couples among young adults infected with HPV

A groundbreaking study of couples led by Professor Eduardo Franco, Director of McGill University's Cancer Epidemiology Unit, in collaboration with a team of colleagues from McGill and Universit- de Montr-al/Centre Hospitalier de l'Universit- de Montr-al (CHUM), found more than half (56 per cent) of young adults in a new sexual relationship were infected with human papillomavirus (HPV).

18 Jan 2010

AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology commences deltaFLU Phase II study

AVIR Green Hills Biotechnology, the innovative biotech company based in Vienna, has started the New Year by embarking on the first clinical phase II study for the seasonal vaccine deltaFLU. The study will be carried out at the Medical University of Vienna. With this step, AVIR Green Hills has set yet another important milestone in the development of effective and modern influenza vaccines.

18 Jan 2010

Treatment for chronic hepatitis C with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin proves effective

The current standard treatment for chronic hepatitis C with pegylated-interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin is effective in approximately 50%-60% of patients, so that a substantial proportion of patients remain unresponsive.

18 Jan 2010

WHO official rejects claims agency overhyped threat of H1N1

Keiji Fukuda, the special adviser to the WHO director general on pandemic influenza, on Thursday dismissed allegations that the agency exaggerated the threat of the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic and has been influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, the Washington Post reports.

18 Jan 2010

Studies show treatment success for chronic hepatitis C may be predicted by rapid virological response

The likelihood of treatment success of 48 wk peg-interferon (PEG-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy for chronic hepatitis C may be predicted by viral kinetics on therapy. In particular, recent studies have shown that sustained virological response (SVR) can be predicted by a rapid virological response (RVR), and an early virological response (EVR).

17 Jan 2010

Early immune response needed for 'hit-and-hide' cancer viruses

Retroviruses such as HIV and HTLV-1 don't hit-and-run, they hit-and-hide. They slip into host cells and insert their own DNA into the cell's DNA, and from this refuge they establish an infection that lasts a lifetime.

14 Jan 2010

Whitley urges public to get vaccinated against H1N1 influenza virus

With several months left in the influenza season and growing supplies of vaccine, now is an opportune time to get vaccinated against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus, says Richard Whitley, M.D., director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and current president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

13 Jan 2010

Teenage girls are not receiving HPV vaccine, says report

In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for girls and women ages 9 to 26. As part of Cervical Cancer Awareness Month in January, experts at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center review what we have learned about this controversial vaccine in the past four years.

13 Jan 2010