Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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A therapeutic vaccine can boost antibodies and T cells, helping them infiltrate tumors and fight off human papillomavirus (HPV)-related head and neck cancer. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania tested the immunotherapy approach in two groups of patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCCa) and found 86 percent showed elevated T cell activity.

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A study and related analysis claiming cleaners and disinfectants contribute to children’s risk of being overweight are “sensational” and “don’t really hold up,” according to the American Cleaning Institute.​

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Nigerian youth are at the epicenter of an expanding HIV crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa. HIV testing is an important early entry point to accessing preventive education, care and treatment. Yet fewer than one in five Nigerian youth have been tested. A Saint Louis University study seeks to change this by developing and implementing Innovative Tools to Expand HIV Self-Testing (I-TEST) for at-risk youth ages 14-24.

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For many people, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a distressing and recurrent illness that affects breathing ability and quality of life. While treatable, COPD remains the third leading cause of death in the U.S. In the latest issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, researchers take a closer look at new findings and recommendations from the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) to assess updates and address the role of treatment in the disease.

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The American Thoracic Society (ATS) joins the World Health Organization in calling for robust global political commitments, including funding, to halt the TB pandemic, following the release of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2018 today. This important report describes in detail the global morbidity and mortality burden of TB and provides critical context for the first-ever United Nations High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis on Sept 26, 2018.

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A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a portable, easy-to-use device for quick and accurate screening of diseases. This versatile technology platform called enVision (enzyme-assisted nanocomplexes for visual identification of nucleic acids) can be designed to detect a wide range of diseases – from emerging infectious diseases (e.g. Zika and Ebola) and high-prevalence infections (e.g. hepatitis, dengue, and malaria) to various types of cancers and genetic diseases.

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A new study suggests that defenses against extreme temperatures give E. coli bacteria an advantage in fending off certain drugs. The work could help doctors administer antibiotics in a more precise way.

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UT Southwestern researchers today report the first use of CRISPR genome-wide screening to identify a gene that helps cells resist flavivirus infection.

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The same mutation that gives TB bacteria resistance to the antibiotic rifampicin also elicits a different – and potentially weaker – immune response.

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Children who experience some type of adverse event following initial immunization have a low rate of recurrent reactions to subsequent vaccinations, reports a study in The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, the official journal of The European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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– Primary care clinics experienced a significant decline in influenza vaccinations as the day progressed, researchers from Penn Medicine report in a new study published in JAMA Open Network. However, “nudging” clinical staff to order vaccines using a behavioral economics technique known as “active choice” may help curb some of that drop off, the study suggests. The study is the first to show how clinic appointment times can influence influenza vaccination rates.

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Sept. 14, 2018─Patients using inhaled steroids to control asthma and other breathing problems may be at greater risk for developing nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) lung infections, according to new research published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

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New research shows that the body’s own microbes are effective in maintaining immune cells and killing certain oral infections.

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Infectious disease experts at Rutgers University explain this year’s flu season and how you can stay healthy

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In a paper published in the journal Science, researchers have detailed a mechanism that sets the stage for the fate decision that gives rise to two major subsets of effector cells: T follicular helper cells and non-T follicular helper cells, known as Tfh and non-Tfh cells.

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Researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California San Diego have now identified three new molecular drug targets in Naegleria fowleri and a number of drugs that are able to inhibit the amoeba’s growth in a laboratory dish. Several of these drugs are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for other uses, such as antifungal agents, the breast cancer drug tamoxifen and antidepressant Prozac.

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If you’re looking into the mouth of a brown bear, one of the world’s top predators, your chances of survival probably aren’t good. But a team of Rutgers and other scientists has discovered a technology that rapidly assesses potentially lifesaving antibiotics by using bacteria in saliva from an East Siberian brown bear. The technology involves placing a bacterium from a wild animal’s mouth – or other complex source of microbes with potential antibiotic properties – in an oil droplet to see if it inhibits harmful bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, according to a study published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Nearly 2.3 million times last year, Americans learned they had a sexually transmitted disease. But despite these record-high infection rates for chlamydia and gonorrhea, most patients only receive treatment for their own infection – when they probably could get antibiotics or a prescription for their partner at the same time. A team of physicians examines the barriers that stand in the way of getting expedited partner therapy to more people.

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Two new studies by scientists at Scripps Research are bringing Ebola virus’s weaknesses into the spotlight, showing for the first time exactly how human and mouse antibodies can bind to the virus and stop infection—not only for Ebola virus, but for other closely related pathogens as well.

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Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) have found that the anti-malaria drug amodiaquine inhibits the apelin receptor protein, which helps drive the vascularization behind diabetic retinopathy, wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other conditions. Because the drug has been approved to treat malaria for decades, it could move relatively quickly through the pipeline to help patients. The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

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Potential to speed vaccine response to emerging infectious diseases

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Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC are looking to technology to help deconstruct expert surgeons’ robotic surgery skills so they can create an objective, standardized way to train the next generation of surgeons.

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Northern Arizona University professor David Wagner, who has studied Francisella tularensis for more than a decade, said because countries have developed the bacteria as a weapon, the United States must develop the tools and knowledge to protect Americans from this potential threat.

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Macrophages are immune cells that are supposed to protect the body from infection by viruses and bacteria. Yet Zika virus preferentially infects these cells. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have now unraveled how the virus shuts down the genes that make macrophages function as immune cells.

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The Immune Deficiency Foundation (IDF), the national patient organization for people with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PI), recently announced they will be awarded a $4 million grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)

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In mouse experiments, scientists have shown a way to hit an immunological “reset button” that ends inappropriately sustained inflammation. This reset reverses the pathologic enlargement and pumping failure of the heart, and it suggests a therapeutic approach to treating human heart failure.

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Today, the American Thoracic Society joined U.S. Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Todd Young (R-IN) and other senators in calling on the Trump administration to show leadership in global TB elimination efforts. Senators Brown and Young sent a bipartisan letter to President Trump urging the Administration to provide robust commitments, including for TB control and research and development programs, during the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis.

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Wistar scientists have engineered a synthetic DNA vaccine shown to produce broad immune responses against these H3N2 viruses.

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The NIH has awarded the UNC HIV Cure Center and Cell Microsystems a Small Business Innovation and Research contract to develop an automated platform to quantify the latent HIV reservoir, a key step in finding a cure for the virus.

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Unusually high levels of mosquito-borne virus transmission to sentinel chickens, horses and humans have been reported so far this summer.

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A single dose of a new influenza drug can significantly shorten the duration of the illness in teens and adults, according to a study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.

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Paul Brindley, PhD, at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has received more than $1.7 million from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to investigate the cellular and molecular links between liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer.

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Wistar scientists have applied their synthetic DNA technology to engineer a novel eCD4-Ig anti-HIV agent and to enhance its potency in vivo, providing a new simple strategy for constructing complex therapeutics for infectious agents as well as for diverse implications in therapeutic delivery.

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The latest research, features and announcements in healthcare in the Healthcare News Source

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Chiggers, redbugs, harvest mites – whatever you call them, they are pesky little bugs whose bites cause really itchy rashes, usually around the ankles and waistline.

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A relatively simple effort to provide counseling and connect injection-drug users with resources could prove powerful against the spread of HIV in a notoriously hard-to-reach population, new research suggests.

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Inflammation is the body’s reaction to a harmful stimulus, such as infection with a virus like the flu, an injury like a cut or scrape or chronic conditions such as Crohn’s disease. Although it is a normal and important part of our immune system’s defenses, when it sticks around too long it can be

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High fever. Cough. Runny nose. Red, watery eyes. It may not be the flu. It could be measles.

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Scientists at The University of Texas at El Paso have received nearly $6 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to improve treatment and develop new diagnostic tools to assess post-therapeutic outcomes for patients with Chagas disease.

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Researchers have developed and tested 30 quantitative assays for pig infectious agents. The assays had sensitivities similar to lab assays for viral loads in human patients. After validation, they also used the assays on nine sows and 22 piglets delivered from the sows through caesarian section.

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Can immersing yourself in a South American jungle and the high-fiber, unprocessed diet of its villagers make your gut microbes more diverse? And could it have benefits for people with obesity, type 1 diabetes and other disorders? A study led by Rutgers University¬¬–New Brunswick researchers followed seven city-dwelling adults and children who lived in a remote Venezuelan jungle village without electricity, soap or other amenities for 16 days. For the children, their microbiome – the beneficial germs in their intestines, skin, mouths and noses – became more diverse, with higher proportions of helpful bacteria. A similar change did not occur in the adults who visited the rainforest.

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During their annual migration to wintering sites in Mexico, monarch butterflies encounter dangers ranging from cars and trucks to storms, droughts and predators. A study led by ecologists at the University of Georgia has found evidence that these iconic insects might be facing a new challenge.

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Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that crowdsourced campaigns can motivated men at-risk of HIV infection in China to get tested.

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TMA hosts its Annual Patient Conference at the Louisville Marriott Downtown on September 6-9. With more than 500 myositis patients and family members in attendance, this conference promises to be the largest in TMA history.

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The immune system appears to put a premium on maintaining lung function in infants infected with the influenza virus by mounting a rapid response to repair damaged cells, according to research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.