Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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Investigating viruses with spillover potential could give us a head start on the next pandemic and minimize its severity; one such virus is RshTT200, discovered in Cambodian bats in 2010. During ACA’s 73rd annual meeting, July 7-11, Samantha Zepeda from the University of Washington will present her team’s investigation into RshTT200. The team used cryo-electron microscopy to solve the spike protein structure. Once the spike proteins were understood, they built harmless, nonreplicating pseudoviruses expressing the spike proteins to investigate how RshTT200 accesses human cells.

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Scientists at McMaster University and India’s University of Delhi have discovered and isolated the first live culture of the drug-resistant pathogen Candida auris from an animal, specifically from the ear canals of stray dogs.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine, in collaboration with researchers at the National Institutes of Health, report that two new studies in mice with a humanized immune system and human cell lines have identified an enzyme that plays a critical role in the late stages of HIV replication.

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A new study conducted by researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel has shed light on the long-term impact of COVID-19 on the quality of life among different ethnic groups in the country. The study, part of a larger cohort project, highlights a significant discrepancy between Arabs and Druze, and Jews, with the two former groups experiencing a more pronounced decline in quality of life one year after infection.

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Kenyan patients who spend more than three days in the nation’s hospitals are more likely to harbor a form of bacteria resistant to one of the most widely used antibiotic classes, according to a recent study led by Washington State University.

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A research group from Japan has developed a method to produce highly active mRNA vaccines at high purity using a unique cap to easily separate the desired capped mRNA.

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Long Covid, which affects nearly two-million people in the UK (1), is not caused by an immune inflammatory reaction to COVID-19, University of Bristol-led research finds. Emerging data demonstrates that immune activation may persist for months after COVID-19.

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A team of scientists from Okayama University, Japan demonstrated the relationship between vaginal microbiota and RC by comparing the vaginal microbiota of postmenopausal women with and without cystitis.

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A UCLA-led team has received $925,000 as part of a new grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct four surveillance projects tracking outbreaks of mpox--formerly known as monkeypox—across the U.S.

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Exploding populations of wild pigs and macaque monkeys in Southeast Asia are threatening native forests and disease outbreaks in livestock and people, according to research led by The University of Queensland.

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COVID-19 vaccination helped reduce disparities in disease incidence between low- and high-income communities, according to a new analysis led by Cedars-Sinai investigators.

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Ticks can be attracted across air gaps several times larger than themselves by the static electricity that their hosts naturally accumulate, researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered.

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This study is clinically significant because it shows how the long-term symptoms from the virus changes its presentation over time, noted Kari Stephens, senior author and the Helen D. Cohen Endowed Professor and research section head in the Department of Family Medicine and an adjunct professor in the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

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“It’s an honor to be selected for this award, particularly because they look at my life of service in El Paso and beyond, of which I’m very proud,” said Dr. Handal, who is board certified in pediatrics, infectious disease and critical care. “I think it’s the most beautiful and fulfilling action to help others and change lives.”

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Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have developed a nanoparticle — an extremely tiny biodegradable container — that has the potential to improve the delivery of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines for infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and vaccines for treating non-infectious diseases including cancer.

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A new study by researchers in the UNC School of Medicine, including Meghan Rebuli, PhD, Ilona Jaspers, PhD, and Kevin T. Cao, lead author, has found that SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination induces an immune response in the mucosal lining of the nasal cavity, offering new insights into potential vaccine strategies in the future.

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Therapy of the dangerous infectious disease of tuberculosis faces the challenge of pathogens frequently being resistant to several common antibiotics. Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have now developed nanoparticles to deliver new antibiotics directly to the lungs in future. Surfactants ensure that the highly fat-soluble antibiotics disperse very finely in water and can be inhaled. First tests at the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center, reveal a high effectiveness and good compatibility of the nanocarriers of antibiotics. The researchers report in ACS Nano. (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c01664)

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A 2022 outbreak of mpox (formerly monkeypox) sickened more than 30,000 people and caused 38 deaths in the United States. It highlighted the lack of an approved vaccine for those under 18 years old.

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It’s summertime and California hiking trails are beckoning. But along with lusher than usual greenery due to this year’s heavy rains, the hills are alive with ticks and fleas. The Cedars-Sinai Newsroom talked with Priya Soni, MD, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, about how to avoid and minimize ticks and flea bites.

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Influenza A is one of two influenza viruses that fuel costly annual flu seasons and is a near constant threat to humans and many other animals. It’s also responsible for occasional pandemics that, like the one in 1918, leave millions dead and wreak havoc on health systems and wider society. Influenza A was first identified as a health threat nearly a century ago, but only in the last decade have scientists identified one of the virus’s key proteins for infiltrating host cells and short-circuiting their defenses.

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A laboratory at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) has been issued a major grant to repurpose drugs to combat non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), an emerging family of germs naturally found in soil and water and which can be deadly to those with compromised immune systems and pre-existing lung diseases.

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Wistar hosts its 27th Jonathan Lax Memorial Lecture Thursday, June 29th at 5:30 pm EST.

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Later this summer, staff members at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital will spring into action when a pretend patient comes to the Emergency Department with symptoms of a virus like Ebola, one of the deadliest, most infectious diseases on the planet.

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Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified several steps in a cellular process responsible for triggering one of the body’s important inflammatory responses. Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Immunology, open up possibilities for modulating the type of inflammation associated with several infections and inflammatory diseases.

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New research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigations confirms that microglial cells – which are specialized immune cells with a decade-long lifespan in the brain - can serve as a stable viral reservoir for latent HIV.