Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Deadly bird flu kills swans in Japan

Japanese authorities have confirmed that four swans found last week were infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.

29 Apr 2008

Newspapers respond to PEPFAR reauthorization bills

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and London's Guardian recently published an editorial and an opinion piece about bills (S 2731, HR 5501) that would reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

29 Apr 2008

Study explains why steroid therapy for sinusitis and asthma loses its punch over time

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have outlined a new path for potential therapies to combat inflammation associated with sinusitis and asthma based on a new understanding of the body's earliest immune response in the nose and sinus cavities.

29 Apr 2008

Human protein may offer novel target for blocking HIV infection

A research group supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has uncovered a new route for attacking the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that may offer a way to circumvent problems with drug resistance. In findings published today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers report that they have blocked HIV infection in the test tube by inactivating a human protein expressed in key immune cells.

29 Apr 2008

Enterovirus 71 in Chinese province kills 20 children

A virus in China has which has killed 20 children and made 1,179 others ill is causing alarm.

29 Apr 2008

Tests monitoring viral loads, CD4+ count do not significantly affect survival rates among HIV-positive people

Survival rates among HIV-positive people who undergo routine viral load and CD4+ T cell counts were nearly the same as those who do not receive the tests, according to a study published on Friday in the journal Lancet, the CP/Google.com reports (CP/Google.com, 4/24).

28 Apr 2008

New route discovered for attacking the human immunodeficiency virus

28 Apr 2008

Involving partners of pregnant women in Africa to improve AIDS prevention

According to the World Health Organization, nearly three-quarters of the world's 40 million human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected people are living in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sixty-five per cent of the 4.3 million infected in 2006 caught the virus in this part of the world where women are particularly at risk.

28 Apr 2008

Three bitten by rabid dog in Britain

A dog imported into Britain from Sri Lanka has died of rabies but not before it had bitten three people.

28 Apr 2008

Man's sight restored by gene therapy

Eye specialists at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital in Britain have restored a man's sight by using gene therapy.

28 Apr 2008

Gene therapy restores vision in patients with rare congenital blindness

In a clinical trial at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, researchers from The University of Pennsylvania have used gene therapy to safely restore vision in three young adults with a rare form of congenital blindness.

27 Apr 2008

U.S., British HIV/AIDS researchers pessimistic about prospects of vaccine, survey finds

Leading HIV/AIDS researchers in Britain and the U.S. are pessimistic about the prospects of developing an HIV vaccine following the recent failure of a Merck vaccine candidate, according to a survey conducted by London's Independent, the Independent reports (Connor/Green, Independent, 4/24).

26 Apr 2008

Thai HIV/AIDS programs overlook children, UNICEF official says

Thailand's HIV/AIDS prevention and support programs have overlooked the needs of children living with or affected by the virus, Scott Barber, chief of UNICEF's HIV Section in the country's capital of Bangkok, said recently, IRIN News reports.

26 Apr 2008

Viruses may play a role in lung cancer development

Papers presented at the 1st European Lung Cancer Conference, jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) in Geneva, Switzerland highlight emerging evidence that common viruses may contribute to the development of lung cancer.

26 Apr 2008

Regulatory T cells orchestrate reaction to a virus invasion

Just as fire engines arrive quickly at the scene to save people and property, the cells that fight viruses have to reach the site of an infection promptly to mount a protective response.

24 Apr 2008

Hepatitis C therapy peginterferon alfa-2b shows promise

The hepatitis C therapy peginterferon alfa-2b, when given as low-dose maintenance therapy, can prevent disease progression in certain patients who failed previous interferon-based hepatitis C therapies and have advanced liver disease, according to findings from a large, four-year study presented today at the 43rd annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).

24 Apr 2008

UKCMRI partners dismiss claims about research project

There has been speculation in the press about the work to be carried out at the planned UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation, a world-class facility which will deliver ground breaking new research.

23 Apr 2008

Red colobus monkeys in Uganda found to harbor antibodies to an unknown orthopoxvirus

Researchers report this month that red colobus monkeys in a park in western Uganda have been exposed to an unknown orthopoxvirus, a pathogen related to the viruses that cause smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. Most of the monkeys screened harbor antibodies to a virus that is similar - but not identical - to known orthopoxviruses.

22 Apr 2008

Mechanism discovered that can send cells on the road to cancer

Using a common virus as a tool for investigating abnormal cell proliferation, a team led by scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has succeeded in clarifying an intricate series of biochemical steps that shed light on a way that cancer can begin.

22 Apr 2008

New advance in use of oncolytic viruses as novel cancer treatments

Combining a herpes virus genetically altered to express a drug-enhancing enzyme with a chemotherapy drug effectively and safely reduced the size of highly malignant human sarcoma grafted into mice.

22 Apr 2008