Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Ceregene announces data from phase 2 clinical trial of CERE-120 for Parkinson's

Ceregene, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, today reported clinical data from a double-blind, controlled Phase 2 trial of CERE-120 in 58 patients with advanced Parkinson's disease.

26 Nov 2008

Researchers discover how brain cells can survive a stroke

Brain researchers at the University of Oslo in Norway have penetrated deeply into the innermost secrets of the brain to find out how brain cells can survive a stroke.

26 Nov 2008

AIDS research group reports significant viral load drop in HIV/AIDS infected study groups

AIDS Research Assistance Institute, a non-profit organization, has been monitoring hundreds of people with AIDS/HIV when they add the immunity boosting food supplement, 'concentrated Flax Hull Lignans' (FHL) to their diets.

26 Nov 2008

AHF: Lancet’s Africa AIDS study shows global testing woefully under-funded

A study published in the British medical journal Lancet yesterday suggesting that testing all adults in Africa annually for HIV and immediately treating every person who tests positive could halt the AIDS epidemic in Africa within a decade has spurred the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to renew its call for the massive scale up of, and dramatically increased funding for global HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment worldwide.

26 Nov 2008

Researchers generate synthetic SARS-like bat coronavirus

SARS - severe acute respiratory syndrome - alarmed the world five years ago as the first global pandemic of the 21st century.

25 Nov 2008

Scientists reconstruct bat variant of SARS coronavirus

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have synthetically reconstructed the bat variant of the SARS coronavirus (CoV) that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003.

25 Nov 2008

Discovery of new mechanism for cell division

A Swedish research group, partly financed by NWO, has discovered a new mechanism for cell division in a microorganism found in extremely hot and acidic conditions.

25 Nov 2008

Selzentry (maraviroc) becomes fully approved HIV antiretrovial

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Selzentry (maraviroc) full (traditional) approval for use in treatment-experienced adults with CCR5-tropic HIV-1 in combination with other antiretrovirals.

25 Nov 2008

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals awarded U.S. patent for anti-viral applications of phospholipid-targeting antibodies

Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent Number No. 7,455,833, which includes broad claims covering anti-viral applications of antibodies that directly bind to aminophospholipids.

25 Nov 2008

Dieters could have a harder time fighting flu

In a study published in the November issue of the Journal of Nutrition, Gardner showed that mice with a calorie-restricted diet were more likely to die during the first few days of infection than mice with a normal diet. Caloric restriction is the practice of reducing the intake of calories to 40 percent of a normal diet, while maintaining adequate vitamins and minerals.

25 Nov 2008

Researchers develop new strategy for broad spectrum anti-viral drugs

Bavituximab, an anti-viral drug developed by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers, shows promise as a new strategy to fight viral diseases, including potential bioterrorism agents.

24 Nov 2008

Live oral Shigella vaccine licensed to PATH

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has licensed a pediatric vaccine against Shigella bacteria to PATH, an international nonprofit group, to support clinical trials, with the goal of developing a vaccine suitable for children in resource-poor countries.

24 Nov 2008

New vaccine principle delivers stronger and faster immune response

A new vaccine principle is being developed by scientists at the University of Copenhagen which - if it works to its full expected potential - could help to save millions of lives and revolutionise current vaccine technology.

24 Nov 2008

Children born four months before height of cold and flu season have a greater risk of developing childhood asthma

It is said that timing is everything, and that certainly appears to be true for autumn infants.

21 Nov 2008

Discovery of new species of Ebola virus

Scientists report the discovery of a new species of Ebola virus, provisionally named Bundibugyo ebolavirus, November 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens.

20 Nov 2008

FDA approves GSK's Promacta (Eltrombopag)

GlaxoSmithKline has announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted accelerated approval for PROMACTA (eltrombopag) for the treatment of thrombocytopenia in patients with chronic immune (idiopathic) thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) who have had an insufficient response to corticosteroids, immunoglobulins or splenectomy.

20 Nov 2008

Common cold virus originated in birds

A virus that causes cold-like symptoms in humans originated in birds and may have crossed the species barrier around 200 years ago, according to an article published in the December issue of the Journal of General Virology.

20 Nov 2008

Survival of head and neck cancer patients is greatly affected by coexisting ailments

Current estimates for head and neck cancer survival are largely inaccurate because they widely disregard many of the most common diseases such patients have in addition to their primary cancer, says Jay Piccirillo, M.D., a head and neck specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Siteman Cancer Center and Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

19 Nov 2008

Results out from first phase III randomized clinical trial to study the best time to begin ART in infants

Testing very young babies for HIV and giving antiretroviral therapy (ART) immediately to those found infected with the virus dramatically prevents illness and death, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

19 Nov 2008

REOLYSIN shown to benefit some sarcoma patients

New data shows that some sarcoma patients are benefiting from treatment with REOLYSIN, developed from a harmless virus called the reovirus that most people are exposed to at some point in their lives.

19 Nov 2008