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Vaccine for Lassa fever set to enter clinical testing in humans

There is currently no vaccine for the Lassa arenavirus, which causes Lassa fever. This hemorrhagic fever, endemic in West Africa, infects up to 300,000 people each year.

24 Oct 2019

Scientists find new strains of human adenovirus in Singapore

Human adenovirus (HAdV) infections in Singapore and Malaysia have caused severe respiratory disease among children and adults in recent years, but scientists still don't know whether these outbreaks are due to new or re-emerging virus strains.

24 Oct 2019

Taste neurons could be controlling feeding behaviour find researchers

Researchers from the University of California, Riverside used a common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) to find the association between taste neurons and control of feeding behaviours. They noted that if they genetically modulated these flies, they could make them selectively avoid certain chemicals including acids, bitter compounds, salty substances etc. The results of their study appeared in the October issue of the journal Cell Reports.

22 Oct 2019

A million-dollar marketing juggernaut pushes 3D mammograms

When Dr. Worta McCaskill-Stevens made an appointment for a mammogram last year, she expected a simple breast cancer screening - not a heavy-handed sales pitch.

22 Oct 2019

Neutrophil extracellular traps could cause organ damage in malaria

Malaria is one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases: a small mosquito bite delivers numerous malaria parasites into the bloodstream. The human body defends itself valiantly against the parasite, which usually results in periodic flu-like symptoms and severe fever. Severe cases of the disease are accompanied by tissue damage and result in potentially fatal organ failure.

21 Oct 2019

Highly diluted candidate Ebola vaccine remains fully protective against disease in macaques

A single dose of a highly diluted VSV-Ebola virus vaccine--approximately one-millionth of what is in the vaccine being used to help control the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)--remains fully protective against disease in experimentally infected monkeys, according to National Institutes of Health scientists.

18 Oct 2019

Lyme vaccine on the horizon, says new study

Lyme disease is a dreaded disease caused by the bite of an infected tick. The only way to prevent it is by not getting bitten by the tick. However, this is not a practical recommendation, since even today about 300,000 thousand people are diagnosed with this infection, in the US alone, and over 100,000 in Europe, each year.

17 Oct 2019

Computer model predicts location of future Ebola virus outbreaks

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) is a deadly infection that is highly contagious. It has taken thousands of lives across history, with a number of outbreaks mostly happening in West Africa. In the worse outbreak, between 2014 and 2016, there had been 28,616 cases of EVD, 11,310 of whom had died in the continent. Overseas, there had been 36 cases and 15 deaths.

16 Oct 2019

New rapid assay for Lyme disease could lead to a point-of-care diagnostic test

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology describes a new rapid assay for Lyme disease that could lead to a practical test for use by healthcare providers.

16 Oct 2019

Study: Socioeconomics influences mosquito-borne disease risk in Baltimore

Low-income urban neighborhoods not only have more mosquitoes, but they are larger-bodied, indicating that they could be more efficient at transmitting diseases. So reports a Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies-led study, published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, investigating how socioeconomics influences mosquito-borne disease risk in Baltimore, Maryland.

16 Oct 2019

NIH awards new contract to integrate pathogen and vector genomics database

A team led by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Georgia provides thousands of researchers around the world with access to the Eukaryotic Pathogen Genomics Database (EuPathDB.org), a collection of resources for analyzing large-scale datasets associated with microbial pathogens.

16 Oct 2019

Heavier babies more likely to develop childhood allergies

A new study shows that babies who weigh more at any gestational age have a higher risk of later developing food allergies or eczema in childhood. However, there was no increase in the risk of hay fever. The paper published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that the risk of food allergy went up by 44% and of eczema by 17% for each kilogram of added weight. On the other hand, restricted growth in the womb appears to be protective.

15 Oct 2019

New UCL-developed mathematical model could help predict next Ebola outbreak

The next Ebola outbreak could be predicted using a new UCL-developed model that tracks how changes to ecosystems and human societies combine to affect the spread of the deadly infectious disease.

15 Oct 2019

New study explores the chemistry and alarming history of fast-acting insecticide

A new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society explores the chemistry as well as the complicated and alarming history of DFDT, a fast-acting insecticide.

11 Oct 2019

Kazan University researchers study the genetics of nephropathia epidemica

This particular inquiry pertains to CCR5 - a gene which has lately been on the focuses of research worldwide. In particular, CCR5 deletion was used in China to perform the first ever genetic editing on human embryos. It's also known that a CCR5-Δ32 mutation can make people immune to HIV.

10 Oct 2019

Researchers discover most virulent representatives of listeriosis pathogen

The bacterium Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, a life-threatening infection in animals and humans. Contaminated food is a frequent source of infection. Elderly people, people with a weakened immune system and pregnant women are particularly at risk with a mortality rate of up to 30 per cent.

9 Oct 2019

New discovery brings scientists closer to developing an RSV vaccine

Scientists have made an important discovery that could lead to a vaccine that will protect against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

9 Oct 2019

Computational analysis identifies key uncertainties for models of mosquito distribution in the U.S.

A computational analysis has identified key regions in the United States where model-based predictions of mosquito species distribution could be improved. Andrew Monaghan of the University of Colorado Boulder and colleagues present these findings in PLOS Computational Biology.

From PLOS ONE 8 Oct 2019

Febrile infants may be at increased risk for infections

Infants with a high fever may be at increased risk for infections, according to research from Penn State College of Medicine.

7 Oct 2019

Video images offer real-time view into the kinetics of viral assembly

For the first time, researchers have captured images of the formation of individual viruses, offering a real-time view into the kinetics of viral assembly. The research provides new insights into how to fight viruses and engineer self-assembling particles.

4 Oct 2019