Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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As the Zika virus captures headlines across the United States, with its possible link to birth defects and the first cases reported in the U.S. (all traced back to overseas travel), it’s an opportune time to review the facts associated with this disease. What is the Zika virus? The Zika virus was first isolated in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947.

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Researchers, led by Ilir Agalliu, M.D., and Robert Burk, M.D., at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that when human papillomavirus (HPV)-16 is detected in peoples’ mouths, they are 22 times more likely than those without HPV-16 to develop a common type of head and neck cancer.

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Our ability to fight off recurrent infections, such as a colds or flu, may lie in the ‘immunological memory’ found in a newly discovered class of gene regulatory elements, according to research from the University of Birmingham, supported by the BBSRC and Bloodwise.

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Researchers at Duke Health are fine-tuning a test that can determine whether a respiratory illness is caused by infection from a virus or bacteria so that antibiotics can be more precisely prescribed.

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USGS identifies research and management actions

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How you ask is a critical part of the process and crucial to providing patient centered care.

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Physicians have known for years that patients respond differently to vaccines as they age. There may soon be a new way to predict and enhance the effectiveness of vaccinations, in particular the hepatitis B vaccine.

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Mayo Clinic has added robots in its fight against Clostridium difficile (C-diff) bacteria.

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Estrogen dramatically reduced the amount of flu virus that replicated in infected cells from women but not from men, a new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows.

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Plasma cells play a key role in our immune system. Now scientists at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, Austria, and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia, succeeded in characterizing a central regulator of plasma cell function. The results of both teams are published in two back-to-back papers in “Nature Immunology” today.

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When a child comes home from preschool with a stomach bug that threatens to sideline the whole family for days, why do some members of the family get sick while others are unscathed? According to a Duke Health study published January 19 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, a person’s resistance to certain germs, specifically E. coli bacteria, could come down to their very DNA.

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Biophysicists have discovered why the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB) are naturally somewhat resistant to antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones. Their findings also suggest how drug developers can make fluoroquinolones more efficacious against mutations that make the lung disease drug resistant.

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In the ever-escalating evolutionary battle with drug-resistant bacteria, humans may soon have a leg up thanks to adaptive, light-activated nanotherapy developed by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder.

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Given that antibiotics are losing effectiveness faster than replacements are being found, Washington University in St. Louis chemist Timothy Wencewicz suggests we try a new approach. Drugs that hobble the production of virulence factors, small molecules that help bacteria to establish an infection in a host, would put much less selective pressure on bacteria and delay the evolution of resistance. In the journal Infectious Diseases, he describes recent work on a target virulence factor.

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Infections caused by vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VREfm) bacteria can often be serious and life threatening. These drug-resistant bacterial pathogens are one of the most problematic in the hospital setting. A researcher from Wayne State recently received a $1.9 M grant to explore treatment of these bacteria.

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The destructive ability of bacteria to organize an infection or block pathways such as intestines, medical stents and wastewater pipes relies on communication with one another.

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While scientists have known for years that African trypanosomes cause sleeping sickness, they’ve been left scratching their heads as to how these tiny single-celled organisms communicate. A University of Georgia study, published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, helps solve this mystery.

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Frozen fecal transplantation is just as effective at providing relief to Clostridium difficile (C. diff) patients as fresh microbiota transplantation, according to a new study co-authored by University of Guelph researchers.

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For certain genetic disorders, an infection can trigger an overly aggressive immune response that does more harm than good to the patient. New research suggests that targeting a single enzyme could put the brakes on a lethal immune response triggered by Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in patients with X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLP-1).

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A Vanderbilt infectious disease expert, while stopping short of actually prescribing in-home “pet therapy” for colds or flu, says that if having your companion by your side makes you feel better, go right ahead. Pets won’t catch or spread human viruses.

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A Georgia State University researcher has received a private grant of nearly $300,000 to investigate how the immune system can prevent inflammatory bowel disease.

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New research uses time lapse microscopy to show that bacteria use a hedging strategy to trade off varying degrees of antibiotic resistance even when they are not under threat. This new insight could explain why some infections persist in spite of antibiotic treatment and suggests that a different dosing strategy that would wait out trading off strategy could be effective.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) have engineered the first antibodies that can potently neutralize the two deadliest strains of the virus that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The findings, made in mice, are a significant step toward immunotherapies that are effective against all strains of Ebola virus that cause human disease. The study was published online today in Scientific Reports.

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Sporadic outbreaks of plague among black-tailed prairie dogs are an ideal model for the study of infectious zoonotic disease, say Colorado State University biologists.

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A new study from the Forsyth Institute is helping to shed more light on the important connections among the diverse bacteria in our microbiome.

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Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found a link between pre-existing nutritional deficits and immune dysfunction and the risk of hepatitis E infection during pregnancy.

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Among HIV-positive patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, a new study finds that blacks are significantly less likely than whites to receive treatment for the cancer, even though chemotherapy saves lives.

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The Asian tiger mosquito is attracted to flowering butterfly bushes, giving mosquito control officials another tool to monitor and trap the insect that can transmit pathogens, causing potentially deadly diseases.

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Researchers at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego have entered into a research collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, LLC (Janssen R&D), one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, to identify new therapeutic targets for Chagas disease, a parasitic infection that is the leading cause of heart failure in Latin America.

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A UA researcher and clinician team has discovered that genetic mutations in a protein associated with asthma can affect a person’s susceptibility to a variety of lung diseases — and could lead to new treatments.

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In the course of three months, Kansas State University researchers were able to develop and test a new vaccine that protects chickens and other poultry from multiple strains of avian influenza found in the U.S., including H5N1, H5N2 and H5N8.

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New research from North Carolina State University and the University of Michigan finds that bile acids which are altered by bacteria normally living in the large intestine inhibit the growth of Clostridium difficile, or C. diff.

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Microbiota regulate the ability of lung dendritic cells to generate immune responses.

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Ecologists at the University of Georgia have developed a model showing that public health surveillance data can be used to signal when a disease is approaching eradication. Their research, just published in Theoretical Ecology, lays the groundwork for a potential new tool in the fight against infectious diseases.

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In a Journal of Virology paper, Texas Biomed Scientist Dr. Anthony Griffiths, explains how he and his team found that Ebola virus has the potential to evolve rapidly but the genetic changes result in viruses that are weakened or not viable, which could be exploited as a therapeutic.

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Research from APL in Laurel, Maryland, into better methods of predicting outbreaks of the mosquito-borne dengue virus was selected for presentation in September at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building — part of the White House complex.

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Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and the Crucell Vaccine Institute have now designed a protein fragment called mini-HA that stimulates the production of antibodies against a variety of influenza viruses. A key part of the work took place at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), a DOE Office of Science User Facility at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the scientists used a technique called X-ray crystallography to look at the atomic structure of the mini-HA at each stage of its development.

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Minor variants of flu strains, which are not typically targeted in vaccines, carry a bigger viral punch than previously realized, a team of scientists has found. Its research, which examined samples from the 2009 flu pandemic in Hong Kong, shows that these minor strains are transmitted along with the major strains and can replicate and elude immunizations.

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Researchers at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have identified and mapped areas of high probability of plague bacteria in the western United States.

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Australian scientists have for the first time revealed how malaria parasites cause an inflammatory reaction that sabotages our body's ability to protect itself against the disease.

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UAB's Undiagnosed Diseases Program provides an ending for one family's 24 year search for answers to their children's health issues.

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The bacterium B. cereus had so far been considered to be exclusively endospore-forming. In response to harsh conditions, the bacteria form protective endospores enabling them to remain dormant for extended periods. When conditions are more favourable, the endospores reactivate to become fully functioning bacteria.

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In one of the most tightly controlled trials ever conducted of drugs used to treat sexually transmitted infections, researchers at UAB have confirmed that azithromycin remains effective in the treatment of urogenital chlamydia.

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The hepatitis C virus may be associated with an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a study published in the December 23, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Parkinson’s disease is considered the second most common degenerative brain disorder after Alzheimer’s disease. Hepatitis C is a liver infection caused by a virus.

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A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore has uncovered the mystery behind the potent parasite-killing effect of artemisinin, a drug that is considered to be the last line of defence against malaria. Given the emergence of artemisinin resistance, these findings could potentially lead to the design of new treatments against drug-resistant parasites.

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The American Thoracic Society applauds President Barack Obama and the Administration for the release of the National Action Plan to Combat Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (TB) today (link). ATS TB experts played an active role in helping the administration reach its decision, emphasizing the need for increased funding for domestic and global TB control and research programs.