Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

UAB School of Nursing offers health care services in rural communities

"If individuals, families, and communities don't have access, then they don't have the opportunity for a better life," asserts University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Dean Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN.

3 Apr 2013

U.S. agencies supporting fight against HIV/AIDS in Malawi

"U.S. agencies that work to fight HIV this week began a five-year effort with Malawi's government to improve health care for Malawians infected with the virus," VOA News reports.

3 Apr 2013

Salk neuroscientist applauds launch of BRAIN Initiative

Salk neuroscientist Terrence J. Sejnowski joined President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2013, at the launch of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative-a major Administration neuroscience effort that advances and builds upon collaborative scientific work by leading brain researchers such as Salk's own Sejnowski.

3 Apr 2013

LSUHSC researchers study common STI

Research led by David H. Martin, MD, Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that a common sexually transmitted infection-causing parasite "cultivates" bacteria beneficial to it, changing thinking about which comes first-infection or bacteria.

3 Apr 2013

Antibodies neutralize mosquito-transmitted chikungunya virus, researchers reveal

Researchers have learned the precise structure of the mosquito-transmitted chikungunya virus pathogen while it is bound to antibodies, showing how the infection is likely neutralized.

3 Apr 2013

Biogen acquires TYSABRI stake from Elan

Biogen Idec today announced it has completed its purchase of Elan Corporation's interest in TYSABRI (natalizumab) and has gained full strategic, commercial and decision-making rights to TYSABRI.

3 Apr 2013

Study: Pradaxa drug may increase risk and severity of viral infections

A study led by researchers at the University of North Carolina indicates that a newly approved blood thinner that blocks a key component of the human blood clotting system may increase the risk and severity of certain viral infections, including flu and myocarditis, a viral infection of the heart and a significant cause of sudden death in children and young adults.

2 Apr 2013

Inovio Pharmaceuticals reports release of phase II clinical trial results of ChronVac-C

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the release of preliminary clinical trial results by its collaborator ChronTech AS of their open label phase II clinical study of ChronVac-C, ChronTech's vaccine to treat hepatitis C virus infection.

2 Apr 2013

Scientists get inside look at how AIDS virus grooms its assault team

A new study by Los Alamos National Laboratory and University of Pennsylvania scientists defines previously unknown properties of transmitted HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS.

2 Apr 2013

Researchers use common virus to modify adult stem cells

Using the same strategy that a common virus employs to evade the human immune system, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine have modified adult stem cells to increase their survival - with the goal of giving the cells time to exert their natural healing abilities.

2 Apr 2013

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals receives preliminary comment letter from FDA on peramivir

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it received a preliminary comment letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that outlines a pathway by which BioCryst could file a New Drug Application seeking regulatory approval of intravenous (i.v.) peramivir.

1 Apr 2013

New study shows varicella vaccine neutralizes chicken pox

Chicken pox, the childhood affliction of earlier generations, has been largely neutralized by the varicella vaccine, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, which appears in the current online issue of Pediatrics.

1 Apr 2013

New technique for vaccine design could prove useful against HIV, other viral strains

A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has unveiled a new technique for vaccine design that could be particularly useful against HIV and other fast-changing viruses.

30 Mar 2013

Hong Kong researchers examine health risks of new SARS-like virus

"A new coronavirus that emerged in the Middle East last fall could be deadlier than the SARS virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 774 people between 2002 and 2003, researchers from the University of Hong Kong said ... in a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases this week," GlobalPost reports.

30 Mar 2013

GE Healthcare seeks approval to supply Optison to EU market from Oslo manufacturing facility

GE Healthcare today announced that it has submitted an application to amend its European Marketing Authorisation that will allow the company to manufacture Optison 0.19 mg/ml dispersion for injection within its own facility.

30 Mar 2013

Oklahoma dentist called 'menace to the public health'

Dr. W. Scott Harrington faces an April 19 hearing over unsanitary conditions that may have exposed patients to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection.

30 Mar 2013

Viral protein hijacks cellular machinery and grabs the wheel

Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.

30 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 29, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including coverage of renewed interest between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans to find ways to cut Medicare costs:

29 Mar 2013

Research shows immune system can destroy HIV through deactivation of vif gene

Human cells have an intrinsic capacity to destroy HIV. However, the virus has evolved to contain a gene that blocks this ability. When this gene is removed from the virus, the innate human immune system destroys HIV by mutating it to the point where it can no longer survive.

29 Mar 2013

A new strategy to protect against HIV infection

An effective vaccine against HIV-1 remains elusive, but one promising strategy focuses on designer antibodies that have much broader potency than most normal, exquisitely specific antibodies.

29 Mar 2013