Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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In a search for new antiviral drugs, University of Utah scientists found that a common heart failure medicine, spironolactone, has an unexpected ability to block Epstein Barr virus (EBV), a herpesvirus that causes mononucleosis. The drug blocks a key step in viral infection common to all herpesviruses, revealing that it could be developed into a new class of drug to treat herpesvirus infections including herpes, shingles, and mono. The research was published in PNAS.

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In experiments carried out partly at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists have determined in atomic detail how a potential drug molecule fits into and blocks a channel in cell membranes that Ebola and related “filoviruses” need to infect victims’ cells.

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One in four seniors is bringing along stowaways from the hospital to their next stop: superbugs on their hands. Moreover, seniors who go to a nursing home or other post-acute care facility will continue to acquire new superbugs during their stay, according to findings made by University of Michigan researchers published in a JAMA Internal Medicine research letter.

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The human microbiome, a diverse collection of microorganisms living inside us and on our skin, has attracted considerable attention for its role in a broad range of human health issues. Now, researchers are discovering that the built environment also has a microbiome, which includes a community of potentially-pathogenic bacteria living inside water supply pipes.

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Genetic cues from male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes passed on during sex affect which genes are turned on or off in a females’ reproductive tract post-mating, including genes related to blood feeding, egg development and immune defense, according to new Cornell research. The researchers believe such processes provide information that could be exploited to fight mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever, chikungunya and Zika virus.

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Ajay Jain, M.D., a pediatric hepatologist and gastroenterologist, received a $703,620 grant from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to continue studying strategies for PN-associated injury.

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An international team that includes NIH-funded researchers at Stanford University has developed a therapeutic compound that is effective in inhibiting Plasmodium falciparum, one of five species of parasite that infects people with malaria, and the strain which causes the highest number of malaria deaths.

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Dr. Chris Basler, a world-renowned research leader in the study of emerging viruses, including the Ebola virus, has been named founding director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis, Institute for Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), at Georgia State University.

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Pregnant women can be protected from malaria, a major cause of prematurity, low birth weight and death in infants in Africa, with dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP), an artemisinin combination therapy that is already widely used to treat malaria in adults, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco and in Uganda.

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Findings may lead to new treatment strategies for several important bacterial infections.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a mechanism that might explain the link between maternal infections during pregnancy and cognitive problems in children; findings may impact clinical care.

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If you want to beat a fearsome enemy, you must first learn to think like them. If you do, you can predict their next move – and block it. This advice may work on the battlefield. But scientists also think it will work in the battle against one of the most dangerous bacteria our bodies can face: Clostridium difficile.

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An imbalance of certain gut microbes appears to be the underlying cause of a frequently fatal intestinal illness in premature babies, according to new research led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Researchers from Boston College, US, have revealed the global spread of an ancient group of retroviruses that affected about 28 of 50 modern mammals' ancestors some 15 to 30 million years ago.

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Influenza is a serious viral infection that causes illness, hospitalizations and thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. Mayo Clinic recommends getting a vaccine each year to prevent illness and protect the people around you.

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There’s no known cure for the common cold, but receiving multiple tattoos can strengthen your immunological responses, potentially making you heartier in fighting off common infections, according to research by a trio of University of Alabama scholars. However, receiving a single tattoo can, at least temporarily, lower your resistance.

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Bacterially speaking, it gets very crowded in the human gut, with trillions of cells jostling for a position to carry out a host of specialized and often crucial tasks. A new Yale study, published the week of March 7 in the journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests these “friendly” bacteria aggressively stake out their territory, injecting lethal toxins into any other cells that dare bump into them.

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New research presents strong evidence that the Zika virus can indeed cause a range of abnormalities in pregnant women infected with the virus — with the effects manifesting any time during pregnancy. Some of the abnormalities noted have not been reported in connection with the virus. In a study published online March 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers at UCLA and at the Fiocruz Institute in Brazil found that clinical and ultrasound data in 29 percent of women who tested positive for the Zika virus revealed associations between infection and “grave outcomes” that included fetal death, placental insufficiency with low to no amniotic fluid, fetal growth restriction and central nervous system damage in the fetus, including potential blindness.

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The Black Death swept Europe in the 14th century eliminating up to half of the population but it left genetic clues that now may aid a University of Cincinnati (UC) researcher in treating HIV patients co-infected with hepatitis C using an anti-retroviral drug therapy. Kenneth Sherman, MD, PhD, Gould Professor of Medicine, says he will look at the blood samples of nearly 3,000 patients, primarily individuals with hemophilia, who were exposed to HIV during the early 1980s and late 1990s, to see if an inherited genetic variant that protects against HIV might also help prevent injury from Hepatitis C and other liver diseases.

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Florida State University researchers have made a major breakthrough in the quest to learn whether the Zika virus is linked to birth defects with the discovery that the virus is directly targeting brain development cells and stunting their growth. This is the first major finding by scientists that shows that these critical cells are a target of the virus and also negatively affected by it.

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Working with lab-grown human stem cells, a team of researchers suspect they have discovered how the Zika virus probably causes microcephaly in fetuses. The virus selectively infects cells that form the brain’s cortex, or outer layer, making them more likely to die and less likely to divide normally and make new brain cells.

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When a diamond miner named Sahr arrived at the Ebola treatment unit in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in December 2014, he saw red fences surrounding the area where people with suspected and confirmed cases of the disease were to be treated and he panicked. The colorful barricades reminded him of the horror he experienced in 1996 as a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war, when rebel fighters attached red cloths to their guns during live battles.

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Roughly eight percent of our DNA comes from viruses that infected our ancestors millions of years ago. New research by University of Utah geneticists shows that more than an oddity, the viral DNA switches on genes responsible for initiating an immune response. When removed, the innate immune system –a first-responder to infection by pathogens including viruses- does not function properly. The study shows that viral DNA functions in our body by helping us fight infections.

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UCLA researchers have found a better way to treat many skin abscesses in the emergency department. The findings are important due to the emergence of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, which since 2000 has become the most common cause of skin infections in the U.S. The findings could improve recovery from infection while limiting its spread.

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Scientists at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome are studying graphene oxide in the hopes of one day creating bacteria-killing catheters and medical devices. Coating surgical tools with this carbon-based compound could kill bacteria, reducing the need for antibiotics, decreasing the rates of post-operative infections and speeding recovery times.

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Researchers will study the health effects of Zika on pregnant women and babies, the effectiveness of drones for vector control activities, and public understanding of the virus

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A team has solved the structure of a key protein in HKU1, a coronavirus identified in Hong Kong in 2005 and highly related to SARS and MERS. They believe their findings will guide future treatments for this family of viruses.

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Georgetown public health law expert Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D., will address U.S. domestic preparedness for the fast-spreading Zika virus during testimony, given at the invitation of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday, March 2nd at 10:15 a.m.

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Someday, cicadas and dragonflies might save your sight. The key to this power lies in their wings, which are coated with a forest of tiny pointed pillars that impale and kill bacterial cells unlucky enough to land on them. Now, scientists report they have replicated these antibacterial nanopillars on synthetic polymers that are being developed to restore vision. The researchers present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Karen Sheehan, MD, general pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, shares tips on what you need to know about super lice.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have discovered that an enzyme antibiotics rely on to kill bacteria also promotes survival of pneumococcus and sets the stage for serious, invasive infections

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Meet Michael Gottlieb, The Rutgers Alumnus Who First Identified the Deadly Disease We Now Call AIDS

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More than 60 percent of Rhode Island men who have sex with men (MSM) diagnosed with HIV in 2013 reported meeting sexual partners online in the preceding year, according to a study published today in the journal Public Health Reports.

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This winter has provided several dramatic developments in the ongoing debate about whether altering the "germline" - that is, the genome of a new embryo - should be allowed. Employing the technique could permanently alter not just an individual, but also that person's future genetic lineage. In a new research essay in the journal Cell, a duo of medical and legal experts from Brown and Harvard Universities argues that if the U.S. decides to consider the practice, it has a well-drawn regulatory roadmap to follow, courtesy of the United Kingdom.

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Two University of Michigan-based scientists are leading an effort to explain the recent deaths of at least 75 howler monkeys living in the tropical forests of southwestern Nicaragua.

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As many as 4 million people could be infected with the Zika virus by the end of the year, according to the World Health Organization. The Zika virus is transmitted by mosquito bites to people predominantly in Central and South America. Although the most typical symptoms of the virus are mild and similar to the flu, pregnant woman face more serious dangers: Cases of microcephaly, a birth defect that could causes a baby’s head to stop growing after birth, may be associated with the virus. University of Missouri researchers say a combination of different strategies is needed to fully tackle the mysteries of the Zika virus.

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Most of the 82 Ebola survivors in a new study from the world’s largest Ebola outbreak had brain symptoms more than six months after the initial infection. The preliminary results will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 68th Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, April 15 to 21, 2016. The study is part of the larger Prevail III study, which follows patients with prior Ebola virus disease and their close contacts who serve as study controls.

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New research from the University of Southampton shows that copper can destroy MRSA spread by touching and fingertip contamination of surfaces.

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Team led by Rice University develops approach to uncover missing connections in biochemical networks.

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The research of two Montana State University microbiologists into how bacteria fend off attacks from viruses is included in a new paper published in the scientific journal Nature.

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Scientists at the University of East Anglia are getting closer to solving the problem of antibiotic resistance.

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Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that HIV infection of human immune cells triggers a massive increase in methylation, a chemical modification, to both human and viral RNA, aiding replication of the virus. The study, published February 22, 2016 in Nature Microbiology, identifies a new mechanism for controlling HIV replication and its interaction with the host immune system.

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Parents who do not get their children flu shots rate flu vaccine less favorably than other childhood vaccines, a national poll finds.

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Georgetown infectious disease expert Daniel Lucey, MD, MPH, will deliver a presentation titled “WHO Reforms and UN Action” during the “Ebola and Beyond: Preparing for the Next Pandemic” symposium at the 17th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID), March 2-5, 2016 in Hyderabad, India.