Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

PROLOR receives U.S. patent allowance for CTP-modified interferons

PROLOR Biotech, Inc. today announced that it received a notice of allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for a patent application covering PROLOR's CTP-modified interferons.

12 Oct 2011

Vertex announces availability of INCIVEK to treat hepatitis C in Canada

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated announced today that INCIVEK (telaprevir) tablets are now available in Canada for people with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

11 Oct 2011

Scripps Research receives NIH grant to determine how HCV induces liver cancer

The Scripps Research Institute has been awarded a $2.2 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine how the hepatitis C virus (HCV) induces liver cancer.

11 Oct 2011

Positive results from Biotron's BIT225 Phase 2a trial on HCV

Australian drug development company Biotron Limited has released headline results from its landmark Phase 2a trial of its lead drug candidate, BIT225 in Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected patients.

11 Oct 2011

Coridon demonstrates 100% protection using DNA HSV-2 vaccine

DNA vaccine development company Coridon Pty Ltd. today announced that it had successfully completed pre-clinical efficacy testing of its prototype Herpes Simplex Virus 2 (HSV-2) vaccine, with outstanding results. The company will now look to progress the program into clinical studies.

10 Oct 2011

Unither Virology receives NIAID contract for glycobiology antiviral platform

United Therapeutics Corporation announced that its subsidiary, Unither Virology, LLC, has been awarded a contract for up to approximately $45 million under a Broad Agency Announcement from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for studies directed at the development of a broad-spectrum antiviral drug based on its glycobiology antiviral platform.

10 Oct 2011

Pharmasset adds two treatment arms to PSI-7977 ELECTRON trial on HCV

Pharmasset, Inc. announced today the addition of two treatment arms to the ELECTRON trial of PSI-7977, a nucleotide analog polymerase inhibitor, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

10 Oct 2011

VGX International, Inovio partner to co-develop SynCon vaccines for hepatitis B and C infections

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of synthetic vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that it has entered into a product development collaboration agreement with its affiliate, VGX International Inc., to co-develop Inovio's SynCon therapeutic vaccines for hepatitis B and C infections.

10 Oct 2011

Experts take study on contraceptive use, HIV risk seriously but warn about drawing conclusions prematurely because of study's 'methodological weaknesses'

In this post in RH Reality Check, Jodi Jacobson, editor-in-chief of the blog, responds to an article published in the New York Times on Tuesday regarding a study suggesting that "HIV-negative women using injectable contraception might face a two-fold risk of acquiring HIV from their infected partners, and that HIV-positive women using injectable contraceptives may be twice as likely to pass the virus on to their uninfected partners."

10 Oct 2011

NIH awards LSUHSC $9 million grant to develop pneumonia vaccine

Dr. Judd Shellito, Chief of the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has been awarded approximately $9 million in grant funding to develop a vaccine against Pneumocystis, an important cause of pneumonia in people with HIV infection. This potentially fatal illness is the most common serious opportunistic infection in people with HIV.

7 Oct 2011

CEL-SCI closes previously announced registered direct offering

CEL-SCI Corporation announced today that it has closed its previously announced registered direct offering for the sale of (i) 13,333,334 shares of its common stock at a price per share of $0.30 and (ii) warrants to purchase up to 12,000,000 shares of CEL-SCI Corporation's common stock at a purchase price of $0.40. The warrants may be exercised at any time prior to October 6, 2014.

7 Oct 2011

Scientists discover two HIV variants in cerebrospinal fluid of HAD patients

When the virus that causes AIDS infects the central nervous system, it can lead to the development of a severe neurological disease called HIV- associated dementia.

7 Oct 2011

Measurable changes in brain function may be a consequence of early HIV infection

Measurable changes in brain function and communication between brain regions may be a consequence of virus-induced injury during the early stages of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.

7 Oct 2011

The male circumcision debate continues

Much has been written on the controversies and debates on whether males – from infants to adults – have a human right to retain their foreskin. The protestors have helped persuade 18 states to stop paying for circumcisions under their Medicaid health insurance programs.

5 Oct 2011

Hormonal contraceptive shots and risk of HIV in African women

A new study from Africa reveals that using a hormone shot given every three months - the most popular contraceptive for women in eastern and southern Africa, may make it easier for HIV to spread between heterosexual sex partners.

5 Oct 2011

HPV may be responsible for the alarming numbers of oral cancers: Study

Sore throat for a very long time could be an early precursor of a sexually transmitted virus that is fueling a rise in oral cancer suggest researchers. Between 1988 and 2004, head, neck and throat cancers that tested positive for the human papilloma virus rose an astounding 225 percent, according to a new study.

4 Oct 2011

Virus DNA uncoated with aid of host cell

They have been around since the dawn of time and are a model of evolutionary success: viruses. Viruses are extremely adaptable but they have a problem: They cannot reproduce, so they smuggle their genes into suitable host cells. In the case of some viruses, the viral DNA has to enter the cell nucleus to reproduce. This has been known for almost 50 years.

4 Oct 2011

Dramatic rise in U.S. incidence of oropharyngeal cancer can be attributed to HPV infection

A new study of oropharyngeal cancer suggests that dramatic increases in U.S. incidence of the cancer and survival since 1984 can be attributed to infection with the human papillomavirus.

4 Oct 2011

DNA primer vaccine enhances immune response to H5N1 avian influenza vaccine

The immune response to an H5N1 avian influenza vaccine was greatly enhanced in healthy adults if they were first primed with a DNA vaccine expressing a gene for a key H5N1 protein, researchers say.

4 Oct 2011

Lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection

There's more than one way to mop up after a flu infection. Now, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in Nature Immunology that a previously unrecognized population of lung immune cells orchestrate the body's repair response following flu infection.

4 Oct 2011