Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Vaccines and virus changes cut long COVID risk by 50%, but Omicron still poses a threat

Research shows that vaccination and temporal changes have significantly reduced the incidence of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but a substantial risk remains during the Omicron era.

18 Jul 2024

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': At GOP convention, health policy is mostly MIA

The Republican National Convention highlighted a number of policy issues this week, but health care was not among them.

18 Jul 2024

Autoantibodies against type 1 interferons linked to higher susceptibility to viral disease

A new study shows that about two percent of the population develop autoantibodies against type 1 interferons, mostly later in life.

18 Jul 2024

Improving medication adherence beats resistance testing for better HIV outcomes in African youth

Globally, around 2.6 million children and adolescents are currently living with HIV, the majority of them in Africa.

18 Jul 2024

Breakthrough gene therapy offers hope for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

A new gene therapy treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy shows promise of not only arresting the decline of the muscles of those affected by this inherited genetic disease, but perhaps, in the future, repairing those muscles.

18 Jul 2024

Flu viruses can use a second entry pathway to infect cells

Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells.

18 Jul 2024

Study finds dairy cows vulnerable to flu strains from birds, humans, and pigs

Researchers compared the distribution of sialic acid receptors in the respiratory tract and mammary glands of dairy cattle naturally infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus.

18 Jul 2024

CU Boulder research uncovers role of endogenous retroviruses in cancer

Peek inside the human genome and, among the 20,000 or so genes that serve as building blocks of life, you'll also find flecks of DNA left behind by viruses that infected primate ancestors tens of millions of years ago.

18 Jul 2024

Tufts researchers uncover immune cell link to doxorubicin-induced heart damage

There's still much to learn about how doxorubicin, a 50-year-old chemotherapy drug, causes its most concerning side effects.

17 Jul 2024

Llama-derived molecules target hidden strains of HIV

A research team at Georgia State University has developed tiny, potent molecules that are capable of targeting hidden strains of HIV. The source? Antibody genes from llama DNA.

17 Jul 2024

IBS after a bout of gastroenteritis may last 4 or more years

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)--- characterized by abdominal pain, bloating, and altered bowel habit-;may last 4 or more years following a bout of gastroenteritis in around half of those affected, finds a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published online in the journal Gut.

17 Jul 2024

Harnessing cell's natural delivery system for targeted drug delivery

Each cell in the body has its own unique delivery system that scientists are working on harnessing to move revolutionary biological drugs -; molecules like proteins, RNA and combinations of the two -; to specific diseased parts of the body.

17 Jul 2024

Researchers identify ORF6 protein as key to SARS-CoV-2 immune evasion

An article published in the journal Cell describes a study that enabled a group of researchers to discover how SARS-CoV-2 evades the cytotoxic immune response by identifying a protein called ORF6 that is a key factor in this mechanism.

16 Jul 2024

Mitochondrially-targeted antioxidants could reduce SARS-CoV-2 effects across multiple organs

Building upon groundbreaking research demonstrating how the SARS-CoV-2 virus disrupts mitochondrial function in multiple organs, researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) demonstrated that mitochondrially-targeted antioxidants could reduce the effects of the virus while avoiding viral gene mutation resistance, a strategy that may be useful for treating other viruses.

15 Jul 2024