Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Researchers use common virus to modify adult stem cells

Using the same strategy that a common virus employs to evade the human immune system, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine have modified adult stem cells to increase their survival - with the goal of giving the cells time to exert their natural healing abilities.

2 Apr 2013

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals receives preliminary comment letter from FDA on peramivir

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that it received a preliminary comment letter from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that outlines a pathway by which BioCryst could file a New Drug Application seeking regulatory approval of intravenous (i.v.) peramivir.

1 Apr 2013

New study shows varicella vaccine neutralizes chicken pox

Chicken pox, the childhood affliction of earlier generations, has been largely neutralized by the varicella vaccine, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, which appears in the current online issue of Pediatrics.

1 Apr 2013

New technique for vaccine design could prove useful against HIV, other viral strains

A team led by scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has unveiled a new technique for vaccine design that could be particularly useful against HIV and other fast-changing viruses.

30 Mar 2013

Hong Kong researchers examine health risks of new SARS-like virus

"A new coronavirus that emerged in the Middle East last fall could be deadlier than the SARS virus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 774 people between 2002 and 2003, researchers from the University of Hong Kong said ... in a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases this week," GlobalPost reports.

30 Mar 2013

GE Healthcare seeks approval to supply Optison to EU market from Oslo manufacturing facility

GE Healthcare today announced that it has submitted an application to amend its European Marketing Authorisation that will allow the company to manufacture Optison 0.19 mg/ml dispersion for injection within its own facility.

30 Mar 2013

Oklahoma dentist called 'menace to the public health'

Dr. W. Scott Harrington faces an April 19 hearing over unsanitary conditions that may have exposed patients to hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection.

30 Mar 2013

Viral protein hijacks cellular machinery and grabs the wheel

Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a component of the herpesvirus that "hijacks" machinery inside human cells, allowing the virus to rapidly and successfully invade the nervous system upon initial exposure.

30 Mar 2013

First Edition: March 29, 2013

Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations, including coverage of renewed interest between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans to find ways to cut Medicare costs:

29 Mar 2013

Research shows immune system can destroy HIV through deactivation of vif gene

Human cells have an intrinsic capacity to destroy HIV. However, the virus has evolved to contain a gene that blocks this ability. When this gene is removed from the virus, the innate human immune system destroys HIV by mutating it to the point where it can no longer survive.

29 Mar 2013

A new strategy to protect against HIV infection

An effective vaccine against HIV-1 remains elusive, but one promising strategy focuses on designer antibodies that have much broader potency than most normal, exquisitely specific antibodies.

29 Mar 2013

Cases of new coronavirus rises to 17, number of deaths is 11

"The deadly and mysterious coronavirus that first appeared in Saudi Arabia last year has claimed two more victims, bringing the official death toll to 11," and the case count to 17, the Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots" blog reports.

28 Mar 2013

Study links genetic variation, wheezing illness to childhood asthma risk

About 90 percent of children with two copies of a common genetic variation and who wheezed when they caught a cold early in life went on to develop asthma by age 6, according to a study to be published March 28 by the New England Journal of Medicine.

28 Mar 2013

Trovagene introduces urine-based HPV-HR DNA test for identifying high-risk HPV strains

Trovagene, Inc., today announced the commercial availability of its urine-based HPV-HR (high-risk) assay, a molecular human papillomavirus test.

27 Mar 2013

New vaccine proves highly effective against H5N1 virus

Until now most experimental vaccines against the highly lethal H5N1 avian influenza virus have lacked effectiveness. But a new vaccine has proven highly effective against the virus when tested in both mice and ferrets. It is also effective against the H9 subtype of avian influenza.

26 Mar 2013

Study: Virus that causes cold sores may be associated with cognitive problems

The virus that causes cold sores, along with other viral or bacterial infections, may be associated with cognitive problems, according to a new study published in the March 26, 2013, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

26 Mar 2013

A new strategy to prevent herpes virus infections

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered a novel strategy for preventing infections due to the highly common herpes simplex viruses, the microbes responsible for causing genital herpes (herpes simplex virus 2) and cold sores (herpes simplex virus 1).

26 Mar 2013

Researchers test protease inhibitors with potential for prevention, treatment of norovirus infection

A Kansas State University-led team is researching ways to stop the spread of norovirus, a contagious stomach illness that infects one in 15 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

25 Mar 2013

Researchers expand hematopoietic stem cells for bone marrow transplantation

More than 50,000 stem cell transplants are performed each year worldwide. A research team led by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators may have solved a major issue of expanding adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) outside the human body for clinical use in bone marrow transplantation -- a critical step towards producing a large supply of blood stem cells needed to restore a healthy blood system.

25 Mar 2013

Anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus

The over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug naproxen may also exhibit antiviral activity against influenza A virus, according to a team of French scientists. The finding, the result of a structure-based investigation, is published online ahead of print in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

25 Mar 2013