Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

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Existing drugs used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease could be repositioned for use in the treatment of extreme drug-resistant tuberculosis, which kills about 2 million people each year, according to a study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego. The rise of these strains of TB throughout the world, including industrialized countries, poses a great threat to human health.

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The rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in U.S. neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) has more than tripled in recent years, reports a study in the July issue of The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal.

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Tuberculosis (TB) experts at Johns Hopkins have evidence from a four-year series of experiments in mice that anti-inflammatory drugs could eventually prove effective in treating the highly contagious lung disease, adding to current antibiotic therapies.

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A recent study led by Blossom Damania, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focuses on the intersection of these two scientific puzzles, resulting in new discoveries about how one herpesvirus known to cause cancer may reactivate when the infected cell senses another type of virus entering it.

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Scientists at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research (SFBR) in San Antonio have for the first time constructed a genetic map of the parasite that causes schistosomiasis, a chronic intestinal infection that can damage internal organs and, in children, impair growth and cognitive development.

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A Vanderbilt chemist and a biomedical engineer have teamed up to develop a respiratory virus detector that is sensitive enough to detect an infection at an early stage, takes only a few minutes to return a result and is simple enough to be performed in a pediatrician's office.

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Scientists at Burnham Institute for Medical Research have discovered that specific microRNAs (non-coding RNAs that interfere with gene expression) reduce HIV replication and infectivity in human T-cells. In particular, miR29 plays a key role in controlling the HIV life cycle. The study suggests that HIV may have co-opted this cellular defense mechanism to help the virus hide from the immune system and antiviral drugs.

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The most commonly used rapid HIV test resulted in a false negative the first time around, which happens quite often during the earliest - and most contagious - stages of HIV infection, known as acute retroviral syndrome (ARS), explains Allison Agwu, M.D., a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis four grants totaling $19 million to explore the trillions of microbes that inhabit the human body and determine how they contribute to good health and disease.

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Scientists are focusing on a new concept in fighting airborne pathogens by manipulating what is called the "switching time," the point at which a highly regulated immune response gives way to powerful cells that specialize in fighting a specific invading bug.

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A fundamental question about how sugar units are strung together into long carbohydrate chains has also pinpointed a promising way to target new medicines against tuberculosis.

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In mice, scientists have shown two types of antibiotics can cause moderate to wide-ranging changes in normally diverse, beneficial gut microbes. The findings have implications for minimizing diarrhea in vulnerable patients, and for treating inflammatory bowel disease and C. difficile.

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Researchers find a new option for hepatitis C patients who have not responded to previous treatment that may be effective even for those patients with factors that make their condition difficult to treat.

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In a study published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have identified cells in blood that predict which HIV-positive individuals are most likely to develop deadly fungal meningitis, a major cause of HIV-related death. This form of meningitis affects more than 900,000 HIV-infected people globally"”most of them in sub-Saharan Africa and other areas of the world where antiretroviral therapy for HIV is not available.

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Geisinger Health System pediatric gastroenterologist William Cochran, M.D., has a personal and potentially life-saving message: Vaccines are not just for children any more. It's a message that resonates nationally as the CDC reports that since the 1980s, the number of reported pertussis cases has increased steadily, especially among adolescents and adults.

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Newborns have immature immune systems that don't respond to most vaccines, making them highly vulnerable to infections. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston believe they've found a way to enhance innate immunity at birth, making infections like respiratory syncytial virus, pneumococcus and rotavirus much less of a threat.

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The current pneumococcal vaccine is too expensive for most developing countries, and it covers only seven serotypes. Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston are seeing promising results with a whole-cell pneumococcal vaccine that is cheap to manufacture, doesn't need refrigeration, can be given without needles, and protects against virtually all pneumococcal serotypes.

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Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing are on the cutting edge of infectious disease prevention.

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Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development is conducting NIH-funded research on the "standard" vaccine for tuberculosis, which strikes a third of the world's population.

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Scientists involved in the National Institutes of Health's Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study (MIDAS) are developing computational tools to study the emergence, spread and containment of contagious outbreaks, including H1N1.

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LifeBridge Health has experts available to address questions and concerns related to childhood immunizations and the related issues. Experts are also available to discuss pediatric health care issues, vaccination laws and policy and passive vs. active immunization.

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An interdisciplinary team of medical researchers and computer engineers at Vanderbilt University have developed and begun testing what they believe is the first real-time system for the detection of sepsis, one of the top 10 causes of death in the United States.

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LifeBridge Health has experts available to address: 1) Infections and the immune system; 2) Emerging research; 3) Bacteria and viruses e.g. Bird flu, SARS, HIV, the common cold; 4) Detection/diagnosis methods; 5) Outbreaks/epidemics/pandemics; 6) Emerging diseases; 7) Ethics of disease control.

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A new study finds the cross-talk between "˜killer T-cells' and "˜helper T-cells' can only happen in the presence of interleukin-21, a powerful immune-system protein. Researchers said if interleukin-21, or IL-21, is missing, then the body's own anti-viral efforts fail. The study mice were treated for lymphocytic choriomeningitis.

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Loyola among first hospitals in nation to limit blood transfusions.

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With the World Health Organization raising the H1N1 flu to the highest pandemic level (Level 6), faculty members of The University of Texas Health Science Center say the world economy could be affected but the illness has run its course in the United States "“ for now.

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A team of researchers led by Amy G. Hise, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Center for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, is the first to discover how the body fights off oral yeast infections caused by the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida.

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Strategies to mitigate disease epidemics in cities will not be so effective in rural areas, according to computer engineers, because in cities, people have a lot of informal contact with one another but looser ties. Rural residents also report being more likely to visit and interact with others during an epidemic.

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Informing men that a new vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) would also help protect their female partners against developing cervical cancer from the sexually transmitted infection did not increase their interest in getting the vaccine, according to a new Florida State University study.

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Immunology researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how two biochemical signals play unique roles in promoting the development of a group of immune cells employed as tactical assassins.

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The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University the first year of a planned, four-year $11.5 million project to study how microorganisms found in the vagina influence health and disease in women.

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New findings by researchers UT Southwestern Medical Center are accelerating efforts to eradicate worm infections that afflict a third of the world's population.

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A new study of nearly 14,000 U.S. women reveals that those who are in physically abusive relationships are at higher risk for HIV infection.

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Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a critical molecular mechanism that allows the influenza virus to evade the body's immune response system.

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Understanding stigma as it relates to coping strategies and sexual risk-taking among people with HIV/AIDS living in rural communities drives the work of UVM psychology professors, recently awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

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A protein from algae may have what it takes to stop Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) infections, according to new research. A recent study has found that mice treated with the protein, Griffithsin (GRFT), had a 100 percent survival rate after exposure to the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), as compared to a 30 percent survival for untreated mice.

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Promising new research announced by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute could provide an entirely new tool to combat the flu. The discovery is a one-two punch against the illness that targets the illness on two fronts, going one critical step further than any currently available flu drug.

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More Americans are developing drug-resistant staph infections, known as MRSA, from common, relatively minor foot problems such as cuts, cracks in the skin, athlete's foot and ingrown toenails, according to the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS).

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Approximately 350 million to 500 million cases of malaria are diagnosed each year mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. While medications to prevent and treat malaria do exist, the demand for new treatments is on the rise, in part, because malaria parasites have developed a resistance to existing medications. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins have discovered one way to stop malaria parasite growth, and this new finding could guide the development of new malaria treatments.

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A research team may have broken the stubborn impasse that has frustrated the invention of an effective HIV vaccine, by using an approach that bypasses the usual path followed by vaccine developers. By using gene transfer technology that produces molecules that block infection, the scientists protected monkeys from infection by the simian immunodeficiency virus, a virus closely related to HIV.

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The recent H1N1 influenza epidemic raises questions about how animal viruses move to human populations. While there is no evidence veterinarians had a direct role in the H1N1 epidemic, a new report finds veterinarians at markedly increased risk of infection with viruses and bacteria that can infect both animals and humans.

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A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for heart disease, stroke and kidney disease.

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Scientists at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR) in Dallas, part of Baylor Research Institute (BRI) and the Baylor Health Care System, announced today that they received a renewal of a multi-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to design new vaccines to prevent influenza"”including swine flu (H1N1).

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Published studies back use of latex gloves in swine flu kits. Latex is also the only environmentally friendly glove option, since it's made from a renewable resource (natural rubber) and is biodegradable.

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Bacteria in the gut of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito inhibit infection of the insect with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria in humans, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scientists with the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research Institute found that removing these bacteria, or microbial flora, with antibiotics made the mosquitoes more susceptible to Plasmodium infection because of a lack of immune stimulation.

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A scientist at UMDNJ has developed a new diagnostic test for TB that will provide results quickly and efficiently. The test that can simultaneously identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and resistance to the common first-line drug for treating TB and a reliable surrogate marker of strains that are multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB). Test results that used to take weeks can now be available within hours.

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The Wistar Institute today obtained a U.S. patent for a novel synthetic vaccine technology with the potential for further development into a universal flu vaccine which could eliminate the need for annual flu shots and protect against future flu pandemics.

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The last decade has seen a sharp drop in HIV infections in the Dominican Republic, resulting largely from reductions in risky sexual behavior, according to a paper in a supplement to the May 1 issue of JAIDS: Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

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Universal AIDS testing can be achieved with a simple blood draw, a finger prick or a cheek swab, but the benefits are mighty. HIV detected early means infection treatments are less expensive, more effective and help lower the probability of spreading the disease to others.

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In 1918 a human influenza virus known as the Spanish flu spread through the central United States while a swine respiratory disease occurred concurrently. A Kansas State University researcher has found that the virus causing the pandemic was able to infect and replicate in pigs, but did not kill them, unlike in other mammalian hosts like monkeys, mice and ferrets where the infection has been lethal.