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New discoveries on drug resistance in Leishmania

Two remarkable discoveries were today revealed by researchers into genome analysis of Leishmania parasites. These results uncovered a surprising level of variation at the genome structure level.

28 Oct 2011

Virtual platform for intellectual property sharing aims to speed development of drug treatments

"The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) launched a consortium on Wednesday that would allow the public and private sector to share intellectual property to promote the development of new drugs to treat diseases such as malaria," Reuters reports.

28 Oct 2011

Seasonal rains, flooding lead to cholera outbreak in Nigeria

"Seasonal rains cause massive damage and disease throughout Nigeria each year, and this year's onslaught comes as international experts warn West Africa is suffering from its worst cholera outbreaks in years," the Associated Press/ABC News reports.

28 Oct 2011

RA drug reduces kidney cyst growth in ADPKD mouse model

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have discovered that patients with an inherited kidney disease may be helped by a drug that is currently available for other uses.

28 Oct 2011

WHO releases updated NTD report

The WHO has released an updated version of its first report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which was released last year.

28 Oct 2011

Researchers identify stem cells responsible for lung regeneration

Guided by insights into how mice recover after H1N1 flu, researchers at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, together with researchers at A*STAR of Singapore, have cloned three distinct stem cells from the human airways and demonstrated that one of these cells can form into the lung's alveoli air sac tissue.

28 Oct 2011

C21orf91 gene associated with susceptibility to herpes simplex labialis

Investigators have identified a human chromosome containing a specific gene associated with susceptibility to herpes simplex labialis (HSL), the common cold sore.

28 Oct 2011

IDSA conference panel addresses cholera outbreak in Haiti

In a two-part series, the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog summarizes the presentations of a panel of experts at the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA) 49th Annual Meeting in Boston Sunday, who examined the origins of and responses to the cholera epidemic in Haiti.

28 Oct 2011

Manipulating normal bacteria could tackle gum disease

Normal bacteria which live in our mouths provide the catalyst for the development of gum disease, a debilitating condition which leads to painful gums and the loosening of teeth, new research from Queen Mary, University of London has found.

28 Oct 2011

NK cells can fight against anthrax

One of the things that makes inhalational anthrax so worrisome for biodefense experts is how quickly a relatively small number of inhaled anthrax spores can turn into a lethal infection. By the time an anthrax victim realizes he or she has something worse than the flu and seeks treatment, it's often too late; even the most powerful antibiotics may be no help against the spreading bacteria and the potent toxins they generate.

28 Oct 2011

Gilead submits Quad NDA to FDA for treatment of HIV-1 infection

Gilead Sciences, Inc. announced today that it has submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for marketing approval of the "Quad", a complete single-tablet regimen of elvitegravir, cobicistat, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in adults.

28 Oct 2011

New MRSA strains are not directly descended from old ones: Study

Check into a hospital and you run the risk of infection with a methicillin-resistant strain of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. But present day MRSA might have been worse if it had descended directly from a 1950s version of the bug, according to a study co-authored by Barry N. Kreiswirth, PhD, a professor at the Public Health Research Institute of UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

27 Oct 2011

NPR's Tell Me More examines cholera in Haiti

NPR's Tell Me More host Michel Martin on Monday spoke with Louise Ivers of Partners In Health (PIH) in Haiti and journalist Jacqueline Charles of the Miami Herald about the ongoing cholera outbreak in Haiti.

27 Oct 2011

EC approves Pfizer's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13

Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Commission has approved the Company's pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar 13 (pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine, for active immunization for the prevention of vaccine-type invasive disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae in adults aged 50 years and older.

27 Oct 2011

Cholera epidemic hits Western, Central Africa

"Western and central Africa are facing one of the biggest cholera epidemics in their history, the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said last month, in reporting that more than 85,000 cases of cholera have been registered since the beginning of the year, with nearly 2,500 deaths," according to the Guardian.

27 Oct 2011

Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize fixed-dose combination for HIV

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Gilead Sciences, Inc. today announced a licensing agreement for Bristol-Myers Squibb to develop and commercialize a fixed-dose combination containing Bristol-Myers Squibb's protease inhibitor REYATAZ (atazanavir sulfate) and Gilead's cobicistat, a pharmacoenhancing or "boosting" agent that increases blood levels of certain HIV medicines to potentially allow for one pill once daily dosing.

27 Oct 2011

Report showcases high burden of NTDs in India, South Asia

The open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases on Tuesday "published a comprehensive report showcasing the disproportionately high burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in India and South Asia," the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease's "End the Neglect" blog reports.

27 Oct 2011

Children have fewer components that strengthen their immune defense than adults do

Children have fewer components that strengthen their immune defense than adults do. This is shown in a mapping of children's saliva that was carried out at Malmö University in Sweden. The study may have found an explanation for children's inability to fend off infections.

27 Oct 2011

IAC enters cooperative agreement with NCIRD

The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), one of the nation's premier sources of immunization information, and the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are entering into a cooperative agreement that will distribute IAC's highly regarded publications to pediatricians, family physicians, and other healthcare professionals involved in providing immunization services. The award is for $1.4 million over five years.

27 Oct 2011

Study: pGJA-P/VAX vaccine shows promise against dental caries

In a report on a preclinical investigation titled "Flagellin Enhances Saliva IgA Response and Protection of Anti-caries DNA Vaccine," lead author Wei Shi, Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his team of researchers demonstrate that anti-caries DNA vaccines, including pGJA-P/VAX, are promising for preventing dental caries. However, challenges remain because of the low immunogenicity of DNA vaccines.

27 Oct 2011