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Tag: "viruses" at biology news

Doctors should stop prescribing antibiotics for the common cold, review advises

...mmunity," the review advises. Colds are caused by viruses and not bacteria, upon which antibiotics act, yet, says Arroll, "There is evidence of high usage of antibiotics for the common cold in spite of doubts about the efficacy of such therapy." The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Librar...

New type of rejection blocker protects kidneys after transplant

...ithout suppressing the immune system's response to viruses and other pathogens. Belatacept is based on research into the molecular basis of immune tolerance. Its precursor, CTLA4Ig, was first shown to induce transplant tolerance in research conducted by Bluestone. Animal studies at Emory University by Larse...

Hepatitis C responds best to combo of ribavirin and interferon, study concludes

... to kill virus cells and inhibiting the ability of viruses to make new copies of themselves and proliferate. Ribavirin belongs to a class of drugs called nucleoside analogues, which includes some anti-HIV drugs such as AZT (zidovudine). Ribavirin used alone does not have any effect on HCV but in combination...

A novel virus for croup

...uggest this is one of the most frequently detected viruses in children with lower respiratory tract infection...lized patients (3.2%). Co-infection with two other viruses also known to be prominent in the cause of LRTIs, was also frequently observed. The researchers al...

Scientists show that tick-borne flaviviruses use a novel mechanism to evade host defenses

...ield of study, everything we learn about how these viruses operate is significant. This elegant work opens an...e as we strive to better understand this family of viruses and develop countermeasures against them." Mosquito-borne flaviviruses include West Nile virus, yel...

Engineered molecule amplifies body's immune response

... gene transfer experiments, using both recombinant viruses and transgenic mice, to establish the benefits of hyper-responsive Stat1 in vivo for treating viral infection and cancer. They are also screening for drugs that might increase Stat1 responsiveness. These experiments may eventually lead to many impro...

Secrets to antibody's success against West Nile Virus surprise scientists

Insights may advance vaccines for related viruses including dengue fever. A monoclonal antibody that... now developing therapeutic antibodies for related viruses that also are effective at stopping the process of infection after the virus attaches to host cells....

Virologist finds contagious equine flu in dogs

...rom the equine virus. This is unusual, because flu viruses will often swap genetic material with other flu viruses when they jump species. For a new virus to enter another species it must overcome a number of barrie...

Monkeypox mystery: New research may explain why 2003 outbreak in the US wasn't deadly

...n," Buller said. Monkeypox is part of a family of viruses that cause human smallpox, cowpox, and camelpox as well as monkeypox. Monkeypox usually produces a less severe illness with fewer fatalities than smallpox. But its symptoms are similar: fever, pus-filled blisters all over the body, and respiratory pr...

Researchers create infectious hepatitis C virus in a test tube

...esearch Institute, changes that. "The hallmark of viruses is their ability to exist in a form outside the host cell capable of infecting new cells," says first author Brett Lindenbach, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Rice's lab. "Our method replicates and produces virus particles that can infect new cells, ...

Primate virus jumps species barrier to humans for first time in Asia

...ulations in Asia could lead to other primate-borne viruses jumping the species barrier and causing human dise...llow researchers warn that there are other primate viruses known to be harmful that could jump the species barrier. They don't want people to be afraid of comi...

Quantum dots provide a faster, more sensitive method for detecting respiratory viral infections

... antibodies specific to the other four respiratory viruses have been identified and can be used as linker mol...nostic tests available for identifying respiratory viruses like RSV. The "gold standard" involves incubating an infected sample in a tissue culture for five da...

How cell suicide protects plants from infection

...s group studies the interaction between plants and viruses using tobacco as a model system. They identified and silenced a "pro-survival" gene, BECLIN-1, that is important in the PCD response. When BECLIN-1 is active, infection is localized to a small number of cells that later die and form discrete brown l...

Why do aneurysms form? New studies suggest leading role for white blood cells

...y which the body fights off insults from bacteria, viruses and injuries. The two new papers show for the first time that neutrophils are important in the very early stages of AAA formation, when the aorta wall begins to weaken and bulge. The researchers think the cells may somehow act in combination with ot...

Several minute intermediate stage in virus-cell fusion discovered; opportunity for drug development

...Institute for Biological Studies filmed individual viruses fusing with a host cell membrane. Avian sarcoma an...ext stage is for researchers to confirm that other viruses such as HIV also have an intermediate step. Preliminary data from the Melikyan laboratory indicate t...

UIC developing drug for SARS

...chains of the proteases, but their backbones. When viruses mutate, as they frequently do, thwarting the actio... said. Testing of the protease inhibitors on live viruses will be done at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SARS was first reported in Gua...

Can two killers make a cure?

...so far. And while the idea of combining two killer viruses sounds horrifying, the risks should be low. Despi... replicate. All attempts in the lab to force such viruses to regain the ability to replicate have failed. Even if this did happen in the body, the resulting v...

Columbia scientists develop cancer terminator viruses

...out promising research with genetically engineered viruses studied in mice, published today in the journals C... About the "Terminator" Viruses The "terminator" viruses have the potential to become effective treatments for a wide range of tumors - such as ovarian, panc...

No small feat: First ever gene therapy success for muscular dystrophy achieved

...o get it to squeeze inside viral vectors ?disarmed viruses that are used to shuttle genes into cells. But the team found a good stand-in in a similar protein called agrin that when miniaturized could be inserted inside an adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector. Dr. Xiao's laboratory is known for its work develo...

Mosquito study shows new, faster way West Nile can spread

...in the blood) has been observed in cases involving viruses transmitted by ticks, it has never before been doc...transmission of West Nile virus and possibly other viruses such as the one that causes dengue fever. According to that theory, many vertebrates were considered...

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