Seasonal influenza vaccines are typically less than 50% effective, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies. Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, published this week in Nature Immunology, may point a path to more effective vaccines.
Genome editing technology is helping A * STAR scientists unravel how the Influenza A virus (IAV) exploits human anti-viral responses. IAV remains a key challenge for global health resources, not least because of the wide variations in symptom severity experienced by different people, even when they are infected by the same strain. This implies that there are host factors at play during the initial host-viral interaction.
Scientists have known for decades that a flu virus in a human body can be a lot different than viruses grown in a lab. As opposed to the uniform, spherical, textbook-style viruses in a petri dish, in humans they vary in shape and composition — particularly the abundance of certain proteins — even if they are genetically very similar.
Viruses are Nature’s delivery vehicles. Millions of years of evolution have molded them into remarkable machines capable of performing a monumental task vital to their survival: the delivery of genetic material into other organisms.
Researchers have generated six Zika virus antibodies that could be used to test for and possibly treat a mosquito-borne disease that has infected more than 1.5 million people worldwide. The antibodies "may have the dual utility as recognized Zika virus subtypes and may be further developed to treat Zika virus infection," corresponding author Ravi Durvasula, MD, and colleagues report in a study published in the journal PLOS ONE.
Researchers of the UB and CIBERESP have taken part in a study that analyzes all the severe influenza cases in twelve Catalan hospitals between the 2010-2011 and 2015-2016 campaigns. The study, published in the scientific journal Eurosurveillance, also counts on the participation of researchers from the Public Health Agency of Catalonia, the Lleida Institute of Biomedical Research and the Barcelona Public Health Agency.
Polio vaccine can successfully prevent the deadly paralyzing illness caused in children. The vaccine presently available is in liquid form and is also thermolabile. This means that when exposed to higher than recommended temperature at any point in its transit the vaccine loses its efficacy despite being cooled again.
Researchers have developed a model that predicts which of the viruses that can jump from animals to people can also be transmitted from person to person–and are therefore possible sources of human diseases.
THC and CBD, bioactive substances produced by cannabis and sought by medical patients and recreational users, sprung to life thanks to ancient colonization of the plant's genome by viruses, have found. World's first cannabis chromosome map reveals the plant's evolutionary past and points to its future as a potential medicine.
What causes only a harmless cold in camels can be fatal for humans: an infection with the MERS virus. Since its discovery in 2012, the virus was detected in approximately 2,000 patients and 36 percent of them have not survived the severe lung disease known as MERS.
A team of scientists at Boston Children's Hospital has developed the first modeling system for testing age-specific human immune responses to vaccines—outside the body. The practical, cost-effective new platform, using all human components, is expected to accelerate and de-risk the development, assessment and selection of vaccines.
Across the country, billboards are popping up suggesting that vaccines can kill children, when the science behind vaccination is crystal clear – vaccinations are extremely safe.