Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

ARTES acquires ANAVAX virus-like particle technology from Select Vaccines

ARTES Biotechnology announces today the acquirement of the ANAVAX virus-like particle (VLP) technology from Select Vaccines Ltd. ANAVAX is a patent-protected VLP technology that can be applied to the prevention of several infectious diseases.

27 Sep 2010

CDC: One in five gay men HIV-positive

One in five sexually active gay and bisexual men has the [HIV] virus, and nearly half of those don't know they are infected, a federal study of 21 U.S. cities shows.

27 Sep 2010

NIH awards grants to treat HIV/AIDS in criminal justice system

Twelve scientific teams in more than a dozen states will receive National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to study effective ways to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS among people in the criminal justice system.

24 Sep 2010

Cerus receives $1.4 million to support development of INTERCEPT red blood cell system

Cerus Corporation announced today that it has received an additional $1.4 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to support advanced development of the company's pathogen inactivation technology for red blood cells. The INTERCEPT red blood cell system is a pathogen inactivation product Cerus is developing to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases through red blood cell transfusions.

24 Sep 2010

Study: Non-stick coating substance in semen reduces HIV transmission

A non-stick coating for a substance found in semen dramatically lowers the rate of infection of immune cells by HIV a new study has found.

24 Sep 2010

Researchers discover molecular signature to predict TB infection

Dallas scientists recently discovered a molecular signature in the blood of patients with tuberculosis (TB) that may explain why some people develop an active TB infection, while others exposed to the bacteria which causes the dangerous respiratory virus do not.

24 Sep 2010

AJMS journal provides research update on new infectious pathogens

Newly recognized disease-causing viruses, bacteria, and other infections are continually emerging around the world, posing difficult challenges for patient diagnosis and treatment and for public health responses. A special symposium section of the September issue of The American Journal of the Medical Sciences (AJMS), official journal of the Southern Society for Clinical Investigation, provides a research update on important new infectious pathogens.

24 Sep 2010

FDA grants clearance for HPβCD treatment for Niemann Pick Type C disease

Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted clearance of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to introduce Trappsol Cyclo (Hydroxypropyl Beta Cyclodextrin or HPβCD) into the brains of six year old identical twin girls dying of a rare brain-destroying cholesterol disease called Niemann Pick Type C (NPC).

24 Sep 2010

Swine flu making a come back

A second elderly man succumbed to the swine flu virus as the Northern Territory experiences an upsurge in infection rates from the virus. Both men had serious health problems that raised their risk of dying with the disease.

24 Sep 2010

Raltegravir could be valid target against all Herpesviridae

Scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) headed by the coordinator of the Structural and Computational Biology Programme, Miquel Coll, have published a new study that demonstrates that raltegravir, the drug approved in 2007 for the treatment of AIDS that is sold by Merck under the name Isentress, cancels the function of an essential protein for the replication of one kind of herpes virus.

23 Sep 2010

UB researchers to investigate influence of environmental factors on MS progression

A $634,000 grant from the Department of Defense is allowing researchers at the University at Buffalo to investigate a trio of environmental factors and their influence on the progression of multiple sclerosis.

23 Sep 2010

FDA approves Roche's COBAS AmpliPrep / COBAS TaqMan HBV Test v2.0

Roche Molecular Diagnostics announced today that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the COBAS® AmpliPrep / COBAS® TaqMan® HBV Test v2.0 for use in the United States. The new Roche test provides a fully automated solution for the quantitative detection of hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in human plasma or serum for patients on HBV antiviral therapy.

23 Sep 2010

NanoViricides enters agreement with Seaside to purchase Series B Convertible Preferred Stock

NanoViricides, Inc., announced today that it had reached an agreement with Seaside 88, LP a Florida limited partnership, for the exercise of Seaside's option to purchase an additional $2.5M of the Company's Series B Convertible Preferred Stock.

23 Sep 2010

G-CSF compound may activate virus, increases risk of infection: Research

Research conducted at Oregon Health & Science University's Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute may spur debate about the risks associated with administering a specific compound in some forms of bone-marrow transplantation. The research is published in the current edition of Cell Host and Microbe.

22 Sep 2010

Santaris Pharma paves way to conduct clinical trial of miravirsen in patients with HVC

Santaris Pharma A/S, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of RNA-targeted therapies, today announced that it has advanced miravirsen (SPC3649), the first microRNA-targeted drug to enter clinical trials, into Phase 2 studies to assess the safety and tolerability of the drug in treatment-naive patients infected with the Hepatitis C virus.

22 Sep 2010

Progenics completes methylnaltrexone bromide subcutaneous injection phase 3 study in patients with OIC

Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the completion of the treatment phase of a 1,034-patient, one-year, open-label, international, phase 3 safety study of methylnaltrexone bromide subcutaneous injection in chronic, non-malignant pain patients with opioid-induced constipation (OIC).

22 Sep 2010

Researchers receive $634,000 grant to study environmental factors, MS progression

22 Sep 2010

MIDAS researchers continue to model how H1N1 may spread

As the United States prepares for the upcoming flu season, a group of researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health continues to model how H1N1 may spread.

22 Sep 2010

Aeras and Crucell commence Phase II study of TB vaccine candidate in infants

Dutch biopharmaceutical company Crucell N.V. and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation today announced the start of a Phase II clinical trial in infants of the jointly developed tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate, AERAS-402/Crucell Ad35.

22 Sep 2010

HIV infection mystery revealed

In a new discovery, Melbourne researchers have found a mechanism by which the HIV virus can affect people. According to co-head of the Burnet Institute's Centre for Virology, Sharon Lewin, scientists have found out how HIV entered a group of cells in which the virus tends to persist in spite of antiviral treatment that reduces the virus to undetectable levels.

22 Sep 2010