Infectious Diseases News and Research

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Scientists show that HIV's evolution in the body does not occur at a constant rate

HIV is so deadly largely because it evolves so rapidly. With a single virus as the origin of an infection, most patients will quickly come to harbor thousands of different versions of HIV, all a little bit different and all competing with one another to most efficiently infect that person's cells. Its rapid and unique evolution in every patient is what allows HIV to evade the body's defenses and gives the virus great skill at developing resistance to a pantheon of antiviral drugs.

12 Dec 2008

Vaxfectin-formulated H5N1 pandemic influenza achieves T-cell responses and cross-clade reactivity in humans

Vical Incorporated has announced that the company's Vaxfectin-formulated H5N1 pandemic influenza DNA vaccines induced T-cell responses against a matching strain of influenza virus and demonstrated cross-clade antibody responses against a different strain in a Phase 1 clinical trial.

11 Dec 2008

Mathematical models of adaptive immunity

More than five million people die every year from infectious diseases, despite the availability of numerous antibiotics and vaccines. The discovery of penicillin to treat bacterial infections, along with the development of vaccines for previously incurable virus diseases such as polio and smallpox, achieved great reductions in mortality during the mid-20th century.

11 Dec 2008

RNA interference can facilitate vaccine development

Pharmaceutical companies and universities are racing to develop drugs that use the gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference to treat a host of diseases.

10 Dec 2008

Blocking immune receptor molecule improves response to HIV-like virus, prolongs survival in monkeys

By blocking PD-1 (programmed death-1), an immune receptor molecule known to inhibit the immune response to chronic viral infections, scientists have safely and significantly reduced the plasma viral load and also prolonged survival of rhesus macaque monkeys severely infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), the nonhuman primate version of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

10 Dec 2008

Accelerating progress in the development of vaccines

This week the Elsevier Journal Vaccine, the most comprehensive and pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination, organized the 2nd Vaccine Global Congress in Boston MA, USA.

10 Dec 2008

Drug-resistant tuberculosis rife in China

Levels of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in China are nearly twice the global average. Nationwide research published in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases has shown that almost 10% of Chinese TB cases are resistant to the most effective first-line drugs.

10 Dec 2008

DNA vaccine for SARS achieves neutralizing responses in first U.S. human trial

Vical Incorporated (NASDAQ:VICL) today announced that results from a Phase I clinical trial of a DNA vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the November 25 issue of Vaccine(1), demonstrated that the vaccine was well-tolerated, and induced neutralizing antibody responses in 80% of the vaccinees and T-cell immune responses in all vaccinees.

10 Dec 2008

Computation and genomics data drive bacterial research into new golden age

A potent combination of powerful new analysis methods and abundant data from genomics projects is carrying microbiology forward into a new era.

10 Dec 2008

Promising trials of malaria vaccine in East Africa lead to calls for phase 3 development

Experts are recommending that a malaria vaccine progress to Phase 3 trials following the successful trial of the RTS, S/AS01E malaria vaccine among 5-17 month old children in Korogwe, Tanzania and coastal Kenya, which is reported in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM).

8 Dec 2008

Scientists create infectious prion disease in mouse model

A worldwide group of scientists has created an infectious prion disease in a mouse model, in a step that may help unravel the mystery of this progressive disease that affects the nervous system in humans and animals.

8 Dec 2008

Scientists pinpoint immune-system targets in complex pathogens

Our immune cells have an amazingly intricate recognition system to detect invading pathogens. Often, the intricacies have overwhelmed scientists who want to know exactly what gives an alarm signal to T cells, a class of white blood cells that recognizes invaders.

7 Dec 2008

Well-armed immune cells help long-term non-progressors contain HIV

To help develop an effective HIV vaccine, researchers are trying to better understand how the immune systems of a small minority of HIV-infected people known as long-term non-progressors (LTNPs) contain the virus naturally.

5 Dec 2008

Extraordinary immune cells may hold the key to managing HIV

People who manage to control HIV on their own are providing scientists with valuable information about how the immune system eliminates virus-infected cells.

5 Dec 2008

Interferon needed for cells to 'remember' how to defeat a virus

Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center have determined that the immune-system protein interferon plays a key role in "teaching" the immune system how to fight off repeated infections of the same virus.

3 Dec 2008

New vaccine theory aimed at ticks and mosquitoes to prevent disease transmission

Most successful vaccines and drugs rely on protecting humans or animals by blocking certain bacteria from growing in their systems.

3 Dec 2008

WHO boss says major milestone reached in fight against AIDS

Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General says a major milestone in the long struggle against HIV/AIDS has been reached.

3 Dec 2008

Escalating inequality in cardiovascular health status between rich and poor

A new paper released by The George Institute for International Health is warning a cardiovascular disease based epidemic is gaining pace among many low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), exemplified at its worst in the world's largest populated countries – China and India.

3 Dec 2008

Study looks at 'vicious circle' theory infections in COPD patients

In treating flare-ups in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a major cause of disability and the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S, what was old is important again.

2 Dec 2008

Scientists discover how ovarian tumors evade immune system

Scientists at Johns Hopkins have determined how the characteristic shedding of fatty substances, or lipids, by ovarian tumors allows the cancer to evade the body's immune system, leaving the disease to spread unchecked.

1 Dec 2008