Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Stress may speed growth of melanoma tumors

For patients with a particularly aggressive form of skin cancer - malignant melanoma - stress, including that which comes from simply hearing that diagnosis, might amplify the progression of their disease.

2 Feb 2009

Discovery could lead to a new animal model for hepatitis C

During its career, the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus has banked its success on a rather unusual strategy: its limitations.

2 Feb 2009

New understanding of Ebola virus and tetherin protein

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have likely found one reason why the Ebola virus is such a powerful, deadly, and effective virus.

29 Jan 2009

Early childhood stress has long-term implications

Stressful experiences in early childhood can have long-lasting impacts on kids' health that persist well beyond the resolution of the situation.

27 Jan 2009

Obesity may be contagious!

Professor Nikhil Dhurandhar says a common cold virus can interfere with our normal body processes and make us fat - he has reached this rather astonishing conclusion following ten years of research with both animals and humans into the virus, Adenovirus-36.

27 Jan 2009

Fifth bird flu death in China in less than a month

Reports from China's Ministry of Health of a fifth death from bird flu in less than a month shows just how the deadly H5N1 virus remains such a threat.

27 Jan 2009

STDs disrupt genetic bottleneck that usually constrains HIV infection

Scientists have shown that HIV faces a genetic "bottleneck" when the virus is transmitted heterosexually from one person to another, by way of the genital mucosa.

23 Jan 2009

Implants mimic infection to rally immune system against tumors

Bioengineers at Harvard University have shown that small plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin can reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors.

23 Jan 2009

Topical treatment wipes out herpes with RNAi

Whether condoms or abstinence, most efforts to prevent sexually transmitted diseases have a common logic: keep the pathogen out of your body altogether.

21 Jan 2009

Oral steroids ineffective treatment for wheezing in children

A new study from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry has found that a common treatment for wheezing in preschool children is no more effective than a placebo.

21 Jan 2009

Virotherapy treatment kills prostate cancer cells

A new study appearing in The Prostate has found that certain measles virus vaccine strain derivatives, including a strain known as MV-CEA, may prove to be an effective treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer.

21 Jan 2009

Potential new target in the war on HIV/AIDS

The study revealed that a variant of a protein involved in HIV pathogenesis can suppress production of an HIV protein, known as Nef. Nef is required for the human immunodeficiency virus to develop into AIDS through a series of complex events involving viral elements and cellular proteins. Nef has never been a target for drug treatment in HIV patients.

21 Jan 2009

Topical microbicide protects against genital herpes

A topical microbicide that silences two genes can safely protect against genital herpes infection for as long as one week, according to a joint study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Harvard Medical School.

21 Jan 2009

Engineered virus targets and kills apparent cancer stem cells in neuroblastoma

After identifying an apparent population of cancer stem cells for neuroblastoma, researchers successfully used a reprogrammed herpes virus to block tumor formation in mice by targeting and killing the cells.

21 Jan 2009

Newly discovered protein acts as virus alarm

The Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (CeMM) announces the discovery of a new molecular sensor in human cells capable of recognizing infecting viruses and transmitting an alarm signal to the body.

21 Jan 2009

Biotech venture seeks West Nile virus treatment from antibodies in geese

Rich Glynn, a straight-talking entrepreneur from South Dakota, doesn't mince words when explaining why a partnership between his fledgling goose operation and the University of North Dakota is a match made in heaven.

21 Jan 2009

Hope for a rabies eradication strategy in Africa

Most of the rabies virus circulating in dogs in western and central Africa comes from a common ancestor introduced to the continent around 200 years ago, probably by European colonialists.

21 Jan 2009

Queensland Dengue epidemic continues unabated

As the Dengue fever outbreak in Cairns continues unabated a health official has said the outbreak is the worst in Queensland since World War II times.

21 Jan 2009

Breakthrough in treatment of cancers and infectious diseases

Dr. André Veillette, a researcher at the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), and his team led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Mario-Ernesto Cruz-Munoz, will publish in the upcoming issue of the prestigious journal Nature Immunology of Nature Publishing Group.

19 Jan 2009

CSL Behring receives FDA approval of RiaSTAP

CSL Behring announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing approval for RiaSTAP(TM), the first and only treatment of acute bleeding episodes in patients with congenital fibrinogen deficiency, including afibrinogenemia and hypofibrinogenemia.

19 Jan 2009