An urgently needed new tuberculosis vaccine cleared a vital step in testing, an important advance at time when a third of the world's population is believed to be have latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), which, when re-activated, can cause full-blown disease.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause.
The current vaccine against pneumococcal bacteria is effective, but vaccines that "cover" additional strains could further reduce pneumococcal infections in infants and toddlers, according to an Israeli study in the April issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Whitehead Institute researchers have found a large number of new prions, greatly expanding scientists' notion of how important prions might be in normal biology and demonstrating that they play many and varied roles in the inheritance of biological traits.
Researchers at the University of Illinois report that IDO, an enzyme found throughout the body and long suspected of playing a role in depression, is in fact essential to the onset of depressive symptoms sparked by chronic inflammation.
A team of University of Maryland scientists has paved the way for the development of new drug therapies to combat active and asymptomatic (latent) tuberculosis infections by characterizing the unique structure and mechanism of an enzyme in M. tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease.
Research in Public Library of Science (PLoS) Pathogens appears to solve a long standing medical mystery by identifying a viral protein, VP16, as the molecular key that prompts herpes simplex virus (HSV) to exit latency and cause recurrent disease.
An innovative new device created by researcher's at Children's Hospital Boston uses magnetism to quickly pull disease pathogens out of an infected bloodstream. The device could become a first-line defense for blood infections like sepsis, which causes over 200,000 deaths in the US per year.
For critically ill patients in intensive care units, use of a sponge containing the antimicrobial agent chlorhexidine gluconate as part of the dressing for catheters reduced the risk of major catheter-related infections, according to a study in the March 25 issue of JAMA. The researchers also found that reducing the frequency of changing unsoiled dressings from every three days to seven days appears to be safe.
In a Perspective published in the March 12, 2009 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, Richard L. Guerrant, M.D., and Eric D. Mintz, M.D., emphasize that cholera is easy to prevent and simple to treat, yet in Zimbabwe alone there have been an estimated 73,000 cases and 3,500 deaths since November 2008.
University of Adelaide researchers have shown they can predict the biggest population peaks of disease-carrying mosquitoes up to two months ahead.
March 24, 2009, will mark World TB Day. On this day around the world, the public health and scientific community will raise public awareness about tuberculosis and the challenges that remain in controlling it globally, such as the urgent need to develop new TB diagnostic, treatment and prevention tools.
Researchers have identified the genetic machinery responsible for synthesizing thiostrepton, a powerful antibiotic produced by certain bacteria. The drug is effective against the dangerous MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci.
Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and The University of Pittsburgh have developed an onsite method to quickly diagnose tuberculosis (TB) and expose the deadly drug-resistant strains that can mingle undetected with treatable TB strains.
A new vaccine has the potential to be the first to prevent maternal and congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study published in the March 19 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Drugs that work by blocking the function of a protein from the outside also disrupt the protein's internal workings, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is one of medicine's most vexing challenges. In a study described in Nature Chemical Biology, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University are developing a new generation of antibiotic compounds that do not provoke bacterial resistance.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have for the first time identified a molecular pathway that triggers an immune response in multiple mosquito species capable of stopping the development of Plasmodium falciparum-the parasite that causes malaria in humans.
Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences researchers have discovered a new mechanism the malaria parasite uses to enter human red blood cells, which could lead to the development of a vaccine cocktail to fight the mosquito-borne disease.
A UMDNJ study shows one in three stethoscopes used by EMS providers is infected with MRSA. Study author Dr. Mark Merlin said, "There's a simple solution for this potentially serious problem. Provide isopropyl alcohol wipes at hospital emergency room entrances so EMS professionals can clean their stethoscopes regularly."
A newly discovered receptor in a strain of Escherichia coli might help explain why people often get sicker when they're stressed.
Two highly lethal viruses that have emerged in recent outbreaks are susceptible to chloroquine, an established drug used to prevent and treat malaria, according to a new basic science study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Journal of Virology. Due to the study's significance, a manuscript was published yesterday online, in advance of the print issue, and will be highlighted as an editor's "spotlight" in the first May issue.
Rates of meningitis have decreased in Canadian provinces introducing routine immunization of children and adolescents against one specific strain of meningococcal bacteria, reports a study in the March issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Loyola researchers help answer what Clostridium difficile toxin causes disease in humans.
A combination of two FDA-approved drugs, already approved for fighting other bacterial infections, shows potential for treating extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), the most deadly form of the infection.
Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) that neutralize an unprecedented range of influenza A viruses, including avian influenza A (H5N1) virus, previous pandemic influenza viruses, and some seasonal influenza viruses. These antibodies have the potential for use in combination with other treatments to prevent or treat certain types of avian and seasonal flu.
Bacteria that cause urinary tract infections (UTIs) make more tools for stealing from their host than friendly versions of the same bacteria found in the gut, providing a potential way for researchers to target the bad bacteria without adversely affecting the good strains.
Scientists will use research on two continents to develop models for predicting where and when the risk of mosquito-borne diseases is greatest.
In contrast to the perception that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections associated with use of a catheter is an increasing problem in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, the incidence of this type of infection decreased by nearly 50 percent from 1997 - 2007, according to a study in the February 18 issue of JAMA.
A "5-in-1" combination vaccine increases the percentage of children receiving all recommended vaccinations at the scheduled time, reports a study in the February issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.
Scientists in China are reporting development and testing of new self-sanitizing plaster with more powerful antibacterial effects than penicillin. The material could be used in wall coatings, paints, art works and other products.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have identified a protein that may help give Lyme disease its bite.
Even the most drug-resistant fungi can be eradicated in multiple in vitro and in vivo models using a lethal combination of an antifungal agent and inhibition of a specific heat shock protein (Hsp90). Such findings could point to a novel approach for the development of future antifungal therapies for patients with compromised immune systems, including HIV, chemotherapy, and organ transfer patients.
Antiretroviral drug therapy in an HIV-positive man or women can alone help prevent the transmission of HIV to an uninfected partner, regardless of counseling, the patient's use of condoms or other safe-sex practices, AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins report.
Johns Hopkins and Ugandan scientists say counting the number of HIV viruses in the blood rather than relying solely on counting the number of circulating HIV-fighting CD4 immune system cells is a far better way to uncover early signs that antiretroviral drugs are losing their punch, and to signal the need to get patients on more potent treatments to keep the disease in check.
In animal studies, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Yale University have identified molecular interactions that govern the immune system's ability to defend the brain against West Nile virus, offering the possibility that drug therapies could be developed to improve success in treating West Nile and other viral forms of encephalitis, a brain inflammation illness that strikes healthy adults and the elderly and immunocompromised.
Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have discovered how a deadly microbe evades the human immune system and causes disease.
Rajesh Gokhale has created a compound in his lab in India that stops tuberculosis by hitting four of the bacterium's crucial metabolic pathways at the same time, weakening and ultimately destroying the pathogen. While his compound is not ready for use in humans, Gokhale said it is a step toward a single drug that targets multiple pathways, which could save time and money over the current multi-drug treatment for TB.
A century-old drug that failed in its original intent to treat tuberculosis but has worked well as an antileprosy medicine now holds new promise as a potential therapy for multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.
Researchers seeking ways to defeat malaria have found a way to get help from the parasite that causes the disease. They let one of the deadliest strains of malaria do a significant portion of the genetic engineering work in their new study.
As global warming raises concerns about potential spread of infectious diseases, a team of researchers has demonstrated a way to predict the expanding range of human disease vectors in a changing world.
The first study documenting methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in swine and swine workers in the United States has been published by University of Iowa researchers. The investigators found a strain of MRSA known as ST398 in a swine production system in the Midwest.
Rich Glynn, a straight-talking entrepreneur from South Dakota, doesn't mince words when explaining why a partnership between his fledgling goose operation and the University of North Dakota is a match made in heaven.
A topical microbicide that silences two genes can safely protect against genital herpes infection for as long as one week, according to a joint study by researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Harvard Medical School.
A new research study at the University of Delaware seeks to determine why Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a microorganism that lives in seawater and is related to the bacterium that causes cholera, is expanding its range and virulence. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a leading cause of seafood-borne illness worldwide, most frequently associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood, particularly oysters and other mollusks, and crabs. Victims typically suffer from diarrhea, vomiting, fever and chills for a few days, although the infection can be fatal in those with weakened immune systems.
Researchers have created a credit-card sized tool can be stored for months and then used to test for malaria--part of a larger project to develop high-tech tools for global health. The prototype dehydrated the reagents to store them without refrigeration, and delivered a diagnosis in just nine minutes.
A major breakthrough by Junpeng Deng, a structural biologist in the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Oklahoma State University, and his first-year Ph.D. student, Brian Krumm, may be the first step towards a pharmaceutical medication for smallpox and the emerging human monkeypox.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) have identified, for the first time, the molecular components that enable the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium to infect the salivary glands of the Anopheles mosquito"”a critical and final stage for spreading malaria to humans.
Bacteria hunker down and survive antibiotic attack when a protein flips a chemical switch that throws them into a dormant state until treatment abates, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Jan.16 edition of Science.
Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated a more effective treatment for bacterial pneumonia following influenza. They found that the antibiotics clindamycin and azithromycin, which kill bacteria by inhibiting their protein synthesis, are more effective than a standard first-line treatment with the "beta-lactam" antibiotic ampicillin, which causes the bacteria to lyse, or burst.
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