Strains of a common subtype of influenza virus, H3N2, have almost universally acquired a mutation that effectively blocks antibodies from binding to a key viral protein, according to a study from researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study will aim to understand whether systemic medications and biologics, such as dupilumab—a monoclonal antibody that binds to an inflammatory molecule, IL-4 receptor alfa, and inhibits the inflammatory response that leads to rashes and itching from atopic dermatitis/eczema—may have a positive or negative impact on COVID-19 responses in patients who have the disease.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified the sequence of molecular events by which tiny, tick-like creatures called house dust mites trigger asthma and allergic rhinitis.
More than 300 scientists and clinicians from the federal government, industry and academia published a report of their conclusions and recommendations on COVID-19 serology studies online in Immunity.
Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered a potential new way to better fight a range of infectious diseases, cancers and even autoimmune diseases. The new study, published recently in Nature Immunology, shows how a protein works as a “master regulator” in the immune system.
Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center has enrolled its first patients in the continuation of a clinical trial using the investigational antiviral drug remdesivir for treatment of COVID-19.
Researchers have received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to screen and evaluate certain molecules known as adjuvants that may improve the ability of coronavirus vaccines to stimulate the immune system and generate appropriate responses necessary to protect the general population against the virus.
In a study published today (May 13, 2020) in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in the U.S. and Japan report that in the laboratory, cats can readily become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and may be able to pass the virus to other cats.
Today on World Asthma Day, the National Institutes of Health stands with patients, families, advocates, researchers, and health care professionals to raise awareness about this common chronic respiratory disease, the people it affects, and the research that improves its prevention and treatment.
A study to help determine the rate of novel coronavirus infection in children and their family members in the United States has begun enrolling participants.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded Tulane National Primate Research Center a contract of up to $10.3 million to evaluate vaccines and treatments to combat coronavirus disease 2019.
Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine has joined a clinical trial to evaluate the experimental drug remdesivir to treat people who are hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection.
CEL-SCI’s immunotherapy candidate aims to treat patients at highest risk of dying from COVID-19. LEAPS immunotherapy has been used in collaboration with the National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) against another respiratory virus, H1N1, involved in the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Those successful studies demonstrated that LEAPS peptides, given after virus infection has occurred, reduced morbidity and mortality in mice infected with H1N1.
Researchers at four University of California Health medical centers have begun recruiting participants for a Phase II clinical trial to investigate the safety and efficacy of treating adult patients with COVID-19 with remdesivir, a drug that has shown promising activity against multiple viruses.
Initial studies with COVID-19 coronavirus aim to replicate prior successful preclinical experiments of LEAPS against H1N1pandemic flu in mice conducted with National Institutes for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., have found — in newborn mice — that a component of breast milk may help protect premature babies from developing life-threatening sepsis.
Inspired by a tactic cancer cells use to evade the immune system, University of Pittsburgh researchers have engineered tiny particles that can trick the body into accepting transplanted tissue as its own, while leaving the immune system intact.
Publishing in the March 16, 2020, online issue of Host, Cell and Microbe, a team of researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, in collaboration with researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute, provides the first analysis of potential targets for effective immune responses against the novel coronavirus. The researchers used existing data from known coronaviruses to predict which parts of SARS-CoV-2 are capable of activating the human immune system.
An analysis of publicly available data on infections from the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the respiratory illness COVID-19 yielded an estimate of 5.1 days for the median disease incubation period, according to a new study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
New study reveals potential for developing novel antibody-based antitoxins against botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs), including the most commonly used, yet most toxic one, Botox.
Studying eczema, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that boosting the number of natural killer cells in the blood is a possible treatment strategy for the skin condition and also may help with related health problems, such as asthma.
Experts believe that tuberculosis, or TB, has been a scourge for humans for some 15,000 years, with the first medical documentation of the disease coming out of India around 1000 B.C.E. Today, the World Health Organization reports that TB is still the leading cause of death worldwide from a single infectious agent, responsible for some 1.5 million fatalities annually. Primary treatment for TB for the past 50 years has remained unchanged and still requires patients to take multiple drugs daily for at least six months. Successful treatment with these anti-TB drugs — taken orally or injected into the bloodstream — depends on the medications “finding their way” into pockets of TB bacteria buried deep within the lungs.
Young sexual minority men — including those who are gay, bisexual, queer or straight-identified men who have sex with men — do not fully understand their risk for human papillomavirus (HPV) due to a lack of information from health care providers, according to Rutgers researchers.
UCLA researchers are part of an international team that reported the use of a stem cell gene therapy to treat nine people with the rare, inherited blood disease known as X-linked chronic granulomatous disease, or X-CGD. Six of those patients are now in remission and have stopped other treatments. Before now, people with X-CGD – which causes recurrent infections, prolonged hospitalizations for treatment, and a shortened lifespan – had to rely on bone marrow donations for a chance at remission.
Overcoming HIV latency – activating HIV in CD4+ T cells that lay dormant – is a needed step toward a cure. Scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill, Emory University, and Qura Therapeutics – a partnership between UNC and ViiV Healthcare – showed it’s possible to drive HIV out of latency in two animal models.
A new Penn Medicine study puts researchers within closer reach of vaccines that can protect infants against infections by overcoming a mother’s antibodies, which are known to shut down immune defenses initiated by conventional vaccines. That hurdle largely explains why vaccinations for infectious diseases like influenza and measles not given until six to 12 months of age. Findings from the preclinical study were published online today in Science Translational Medicine.
Providing multidisciplinary team consults for HIV patients while they are hospitalized to help address social and medical barriers reduces future infection rates and boosts participation in follow-up care, results from a study on how to reengage patients show.
Worldwide, more people die from tuberculosis than any other infectious disease, even though the vast majority were vaccinated. The vaccine just isn’t that reliable. But a new Nature study finds that simply changing the way the vaccine is administered could dramatically boost its protective power.
Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered a new way that the molecule RIPK1 leads to cell death in infected, damaged or unwanted cells showing that more than one mechanism can trigger the process. The findings appeared online today in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
The Influenza IMPRINT Cohort study will explore the emerging idea that a person’s very first influenza virus exposure impacts the magnitude, durability and breadth of their immune response to all future flu exposures.
Scientists using specialized beamlines at Argonne's Structural Biology Center (SBC), a facility for macromolecular crystallography at the Advanced Photon Source, derived insights that led to the discovery of a promising new drug for Ebola.
Study in mice shows the nervous system not only detects the presence of Salmonella in the gut but actively stops the organism from infecting the body
Nerves in the gut prevent Salmonella infection by shutting the cellular gates that allow bacteria to invade the intestine and spread beyond it
As a second line of defense, gut neurons help avert Salmonella invasion by maintaining the levels of key protective microbes in the gut
Findings reveal prominent role for nervous system in infection protection and regulation of immunity
In a paper published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, University of Illinois at Chicago researchers and colleagues report a new mechanism for detecting foreign material during early immune responses.
A new test to determine whether antibiotics will be effective against certain bacterial infections is helping physicians make faster and better prescription treatment choices.
As part of a massive national effort to improve and modernize flu shots, the Duke Human Vaccine Institute has received three research contracts from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), with an initial award of approximately $29.6 million in first-year funding.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases research contract is one of the largest ever awarded to UMSOM and includes an initial award of approximately $2.5 million to conduct clinical testing of influenza vaccines. Total funding over seven years could be as much as $201 million if all options are exercised in the NIAID contract.
The UM School of Medicine's Contract awarded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases could fund up to $201 Million in influenza research over seven years.
In a follow-up study conducted in South Africa, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have evidence that hospital emergency departments (EDs) worldwide may be key strategic settings for curbing the spread of HIV infections in hard-to-reach populations if the EDs jump-start treatment and case management as well as diagnosis of the disease. A report on the findings was published in August in EClinicalMedicine.