Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Researchers show how highly contagious norovirus infection starts in mice

Norovirus – the highly contagious gastrointestinal illness best known for spreading rapidly on cruise chips, in nursing homes, schools and other densely populated spaces – kills an estimated 200,000 people annually, mostly in the developing world.

12 Apr 2018

Researchers get one step closer to creating peptide vaccine against atherosclerosis

In the disease atherosclerosis, cholesterol-containing plaques form in vessel walls, causing arteries to narrow and greatly increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

12 Apr 2018

Researchers develop new technique to study self-assembling virus shell

Northwestern Engineering researchers have developed a new way to manipulate a virus shell that self-assembles from proteins and holds promise as a carrier for disease detection, drug delivery, and vaccinations.

11 Apr 2018

Research reveals complexity of interactions between microbes that cause infections

Below the surface of systems as large and ancient as an ocean and as small and new as a human baby are communities of viruses and bacteria that interact to influence everything from worldwide oxygen levels to the likelihood a newborn will fall ill.

11 Apr 2018

Scientists develop and validate rapid point-of-care HCV assay

One of the major challenges identified by the WHO in efforts to eradicate the hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the diagnosis of chronic cases that are generally asymptomatic.

10 Apr 2018

Researchers develop new animal model to study Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever is a viral disease spread by ticks in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and parts of Europe. Infection with CCHF virus is fatal in nearly one of every three cases.

9 Apr 2018

Using biomimicry for faster detection of disease outbreaks

Our immune systems are made up of billions of white blood cells searching for signs of infections and foreign invaders, ready to raise the alarm.

9 Apr 2018

New research could pave way for better influenza vaccines

Influenza vaccines that better target the influenza surface protein called neuraminidase (NA) could offer broad protection against various influenza virus strains and lessen the severity of illness, according to new research published in Cell.

6 Apr 2018

Researchers discover Tfh cell dysfunction in HIV-infected patients

A team of chemical and biomedical engineers from the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, have discovered that HIV-infected patients experience a dysfunction in a certain type of immune cell: the follicular helper T (Tfh) cell.

6 Apr 2018

Novel technology gives rise to mouse pancreatic tumors that resemble human cancer

Novel technology developed at UT Health San Antonio gives rise to mouse pancreatic tumors that have the same traits as human pancreatic cancer. A U.S. patent is pending on the invention.

6 Apr 2018

Researchers suggest a theory for the evolution of HIV from SIV

A new study has shed light on how HIV may have evolved from the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) that originated in non-human primates.

5 Apr 2018

Viruses dating back millions of years identified

Scientists have now discovered over 200 viruses that were till date unknown to humans. These belong to same strains that cause diseases such as hemorrhagic fevers (Dengue or Ebola) and influenza. Their origins have been traced back to millions of years when the animals first roamed earth. The study appeared in the latest issue of the journal Nature and was released online yesterday 4th April 2018.

5 Apr 2018

Cataract surgery can be safely performed on Ebola survivors with eye disease

Cataract surgery can be safely performed on Ebola virus disease survivors with impaired vision, Emory Eye Center ophthalmologists and 40 colleagues around the world report.

4 Apr 2018

TSRI research could lead to new approach for better flu prevention and treatment

This year's flu vaccine has been less effective in protecting people from the most common strain of the virus, compared with recent years. And once people become infected with the flu, there are few good ways to treat it.

3 Apr 2018

Alfred Blalock’s medical breakthroughs have been saving many lives

The year was 1925, and Alfred Blalock was already a failure at age 26. The born-and-raised Georgian earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia in 1918, then a medical doctorate from Johns Hopkins University four years later. But he didn't get the surgical residency he coveted at Hopkins; he ended up interning in urology instead.

29 Mar 2018

Researchers create synthesized nanosheets to inactivate or detect pathogens

Researchers have developed a process for creating ultrathin, self-assembling sheets of synthetic materials that can function like designer flypaper in selectively binding with viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens.

29 Mar 2018

Study shows limitations of AAV gene therapy in treating hereditary adrenal disorders

A new study has definitively shown that a single treatment with gene therapy using adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector gene delivery to replace the defective gene responsible for congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) will only temporarily alleviate the hereditary disorder.

29 Mar 2018