Virology News and Research

Latest Virology News and Research

Genetically engineered herpes simplex virus keeps arteries free-flowing

A genetically engineered herpes simplex virus, primarily known for causing cold sores, may help keep arteries "free-flowing" in the weeks following angioplasty or stent placement for patients, according to research published early in the online edition of PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America).

11 Jul 2007

Vietnamese aims to increase access to HIV care, treatment

The Vietnamese government has issued a series of documents aimed at increasing access to HIV/AIDS care and treatment in the country in an effort to keep the country's HIV prevalence below 0.27% in 2007, the Vietnam News Agency reports.

11 Jul 2007

Novavax licenses virus-like particle from Wyeth

Novavax, Inc. has announced that is has signed a non-exclusive, worldwide license agreement with Wyeth, to obtain rights to a patent application covering virus-like particle (VLP) technology for use in human vaccines in certain fields of use.

10 Jul 2007

Bacterial biofilms

In one of the first potential applications of synthetic biology, an emerging field that aims to design and build useful biomolecular systems, researchers from MIT and Boston University are engineering viruses to attack and destroy the surface biofilms that harbor harmful bacteria in the body and on industrial and medical devices.

10 Jul 2007

MacroGenics investigational new drug for West Nile vrus monoclonal antibody is active

MacroGenics has announced that the company's investigational new drug (IND) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its monoclonal antibody targeted to West Nile Virus is now active.

10 Jul 2007

El Salvador needs to take increased HIV/AIDS control efforts

Although health officials in El Salvador have launched an HIV testing campaign in the country, some advocates say that the country needs to take increased efforts to control the growing number of HIV cases in the country, Inter Press Service reports.

10 Jul 2007

Etravirine reduces HIV viral loads when taken with Prezista

The experimental antiretroviral drug etravirine, made by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Tibotec Pharmaceuticals, greatly reduces HIV viral loads in people with a history of drug resistance when taken in combination with Tibotec's antiretroviral Prezista, according to two studies published Saturday in the journal The Lancet.

10 Jul 2007

Modified herpes virus - a killer of cancer cells

Scientists have developed a virus specifically designed to target cancer tissue while not affecting normal healthy tissue.

9 Jul 2007

Olive-pomace oil slows down AIDS

Olive oil has become part of the fight against the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) - the cause of AIDS - thanks to the research carried out by the Bionat team, from the University of Granada, headed by Prof. Andres Garcia-Granados, senior lecturer in Organic Chemistry.

9 Jul 2007

How the HIV virus mutates to escape the body's immune system

A pioneering collaborative study has discovered how the HIV virus evades the human body's immune system.

9 Jul 2007

Warning on Chikungunya virus

Fever, arthritis, and other symptoms occurring in people to who have recently traveled to islands in the Indian Ocean may signal infection with an imported virus called "chikungunya," reports a study in the May/June issue of the journal Medicine, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

9 Jul 2007

Modified herpes simplex virus shows promise in early clinical trial

A virus that has been specifically designed by scientists to be safe to normal tissue but deadly to cancer is showing early promise in a preliminary study, researchers said at the ESMO Conference Lugano (ECLU), Switzerland.

9 Jul 2007

Chronic fatigue: clues in the blood

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) believe that blood may hold vital insights into what is happening in the brain of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

8 Jul 2007

Cancer risk in HIV, transplant patients

HIV/AIDS and kidney transplant patients are at much greater risk of contracting 20 different types of cancer than the general population, according to a land mark paper in The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007

Pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV infection

Clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis - that is giving anti-retroviral drugs to non-HIV-infected individuals to prevent them becoming infected - are exploring whether the approach could lead to a large decrease in transmission of the virus with few or no side effects.

8 Jul 2007

Darunavir-ritonavir shows benefits for patients with HIV

Darunavir-ritonavir should be considered as a treatment option across the range of treatment-experienced patients with HIV infection, conclude Jose Madruga (Centro de Referencia e Treinamento DST/AIDS, Sao Paulao, Brazil) and colleagues in an Article in this week's issue of The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007

Etravirine effective for HIV supression

Treatment with TMC125 (etravirine) leads to better virological suppression than placebo as part of antiretroviral therapy in patients with documented resistance to non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs), conclude two randomised trials in this week's issue of The Lancet.

8 Jul 2007