SARS in Biological News

A quicker, cheaper SARS virus detector -- one easily customizable for other targets

Members of a USC-led research team say they've made a big improvement in a new breed of electronic detectors for viruses and other biological materials one that may be a valuable addition to the battle against epidemics. It consists of a piece of synthetic antibody attached to a nanowire that'...

Researchers recreate SARS virus, open door for potential defenses against future strains

CHAPEL HILL Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have synthetically reconstructed the bat variant of the SARS coronavirus (CoV) that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003. The scientists say designing and synthesizing the virus is ...

NIAID funds studies of how SARS and bird flu evade antiviral responses

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a contract to the University of Washington (UW) to use systems biology approaches to comprehensively analyze and model the virus-host interactions and cellular response networks ...

Synthetic virus supports a bat origin for SARS

SARS severe acute respiratory syndrome alarmed the world five years ago as the first global pandemic of the 21st century. The coronavirus (SARS-CoV) that sickened more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 of them may have originated in bats, but the actual animal source is not known. In a...

Purdue researcher invents molecule that stops SARS

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University researcher has created a compound that prevents replication of the virus that causes SARS and could lead to a treatment for the disease. "The outbreak of SARS in 2003 led to hundreds of deaths and thousands of illnesses, and there is currently no treat...

Restricting hospital-based services during SARS outbreak had modest impact

Restrictions on the non-urgent use of hospital-based services that were imposed when a provincial health emergency was declared during the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Toronto, Ontario, resulted in only modest reductions in overall admissions. In this study, Dr. Michae...

Researchers find 'secret weapon' used by SARS virus

In 2003, the highly contagious and often-deadly mystery disease now called SARS emerged explosively out of Southern China. It eventually killed an estimated 916 people in Asia, Europe, and North and South America--nearly one in ten of those it infected. When scientists identified the virus tha...

Enzyme inhibitors block replication of SARS virus

The study was conducted by researchers from Scripps Research; the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; and the National Taiwan University. It is being published today in the journal Chemistry and Biology (Vol. 13, No. 3). Chi-Huey Wong is currently the Ernest W. Hahn Chair in Chemis...

Learning how SARS spikes its quarry

Researchers have determined the first detailed molecular images of a piece of the spike-shaped protein that the SARS virus uses to grab host cells and initiate the first stages of infection. The structure, which shows how the spike protein grasps its receptor, may help scientists learn new details ...

New study shows SARS can infect brain tissue

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), by its very name, indicates a disease of the respiratory tract. But SARS can also infiltrate brain tissue, causing significant central nervous system problems, according to an article in the Oct. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available onlin...

New studies suggest airborne SARS transmission is possible

Two new studies present evidence that the virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) may spread through the air, not just through direct contact with contaminated water droplets as previous research had shown. SARS coronavirus was detected in the air in a patient's room during the 200...

New SARS Protein Linked To Important Cell Doorway

As public health officials in China brace for a potential resurgence in SARS (Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in connection with Chinese New Year on February 9, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have published insights into a new protein that could be an important contributor to ...

Rapid approach to identify influenza A virus mutations and drug resistance developed

...leGen. GIS scientists used NimbleGen arrays in a similar way during the sars outbreak in 2003, to understand the infectious source and to globally monitor the sars virus. Roche NimbleGen's custom-developed microarrays: The first ar...

The challenges of avian influenza virus: Mechanism, epidemiology and control

...ng its host range from birds to mammalians. In 2003, during the outbreak of sars (Severe acute respiratory syndrome), one human fatal case was surprisingly ...nifest some ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) symptoms, similar to sars infection. Therefore unraveling the molecular pathogenesis mechanism will h...

HudsonAlpha investigator develops rapid response swine flu test

...N1, as well as a respiratory infection differentiation test used during the sars outbreak in China earlier this decade. These tests played a significant role in preventing the spread of sars and avian flu in Asia. ...

ASU researchers receive NIH awards for studies of malaria and emergent disease

...cal and evolutionary biology perspectives to address infectious diseases," says Escalante. "Events such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or sars epidemic and the spread of antimicrobial resistance have increased awareness about the need for incorporating laboratory-based research in decision-ma...

Global Viral Forecasting Initiative receives $11M to implement pandemic early warning system

...aysia, GVFI tracks emergent pandemics to their source, working to provide potentially vital months or years of advanced warning before the next HIV or sars emerges on the global stage. "The 1918 flu outbreak cost more lives than World War I. Most epidemiologists agree - and worry - that the world is ov...

Ecological globalization

...tly introduce non-native plants, animals and diseases into new locations. Invasive species and pathogens, such as fire ants from South America and the sars virus from China, can create large, expensive problems: the U.S. currently spends over $120 billion per year on measures to prevent and eradicate inva...

New strategies against bird flu

... in 2005 when IMBA-scientists identified ACE2 as the essential receptor for sars virus infections and showed that ACE2 can protect from acute lung failure i...us tissue samples from deceased humans and animals. Victims of bird flu and sars were examined in Hongkong, and the US-army provided samples from animals in...

Wildlife Conservation Society releases definitive 'state of the wild'

...oduction, wildlife trade, and other ecosystem disturbances have fostered conditions ripe for resurging and emerging pathogens such as avian influenza, sars and West Nile virus. Other essays address key issues in the conservation of species and wild places; people, culture, and conservation; and the a...

Surprising discovery from first large-scale analysis of biodiversity and biogeography of viruses

...t to analyse biodiversity and biogeography of viruses in the environments around humans. We have been interested in this kind of analysis since the sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2002, added Dr Ruan. In pursuit of this interest, we established a virus discovery programme at GIS, r...

Blood vessel protein reverses macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy in mice

...h age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy. But the studys ramifications go beyond eye diseases. Serious infections such as sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), for example, kill people when an infection destabilizes blood vessels, allowing fluids to leak into the lungs. Tu...

Scientific evidence supporting evolution continues to grow

...n science." "Understanding evolution is essential to identifying and treating disease," said Harvey Fineberg, president of IOM. "For example, the sars virus evolved from an ancestor virus that was discovered by DNA sequencing. Learning about SARS' genetic similarities and mutations has helped scient...

Discovery may help defang viruses

...t method." Positive strand RNA viruses those with only one gene such as sars coronavirus, and hepatitis C virus compound the problem. "The gene makes a ...uses such as influenza, as well as emerging and re-emerging viruses such as sars coronavirus, West Nile Virus and Dengue virus. He added that the techni...

Features of replication suggest viruses have common themes, vulnerabilities

...ve apparatus of a model virus is bolstering the idea that broad classes of viruses - including those that cause important human diseases such as AIDS, sars and hepatitis C - have features in common that could eventually make them vulnerable to broad-spectrum antiviral agents. In a study published today...

Spreading viruses as we breathe

...e air, it doesn't immediately fall to the ground." She said the study, funded by the Australian Research Council, was motivated by an outbreak of sars in Hong Kong where more than 300 people were infected within the space of a few hours. "We wanted to know how this virus was able to travel from ...

Discovery could lead to better control of hemorrhagic fever viruses

...orrhagic fever in humans. In 2003, Choe's lab collaborated with Farzan's lab to identify angiotensin converting enzyme2 (ACE2) as the receptor for the sars virus. ...

NIAID DNA vaccine for H5N1 avian influenza enters human trial

...d in this study is similar to other investigational vaccines evaluated by the VRC that hold promise for controlling other viruses, such as HIV, Ebola, sars and West Nile. "An effective H5N1 influenza vaccine would provide a potentially life-saving advance against a global health threat," notes NIAID...

Fighting influenza & co. with 40,000 blood samples

... The Dutch project partner, the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, discovered the coronavirus NL63. This virus belongs to the same group as the sars virus, which gained notoriety during an epidemic in 2002 and 2003. The group from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam would now like to find out ...

Study identifies risk factors for spread of respiratory infections in hospitals

...y available online. Hospitals were epicenters of sars transmission in Guangzhou province and Hong Kong i...ificant risk factors associated with the spread of sars in 26 hospitals in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. ...ty of Hong Kong. "The lesson we learned during the sars epidemic," he said, "was that the hospital can be ...

SARS: No evidence that any of the treatments worked

... The sars virus set alarm bells ringing across the world whe...tive against SARS. Steroids have also been used in sars treatment to try to reduce the inflammation of the...th Organization (WHO) established an International sars Treatment Study Group, which recommended that a 's...

Scientists identify molecular structure of key viral protein

...nine distemper, croup and Newcastle disease, which kills chickens. Measles still causes huge numbers of deaths worldwide. And while HIV, influenza and sars are not in the same family, the viruses do share a mechanism similar to that used by paramyxoviruses for entering the host cell." The parainfluenza...

'Virus chip' detects new virus in prostate tumors

...he virus and cancer, if any, the scientists say. The discovery was made with the same DNA-hunting "virus chip" used to confirm the identity of the sars virus three years ago. While the genetics of prostate cancer are complex, one of the first genes implicated in the disease was RNASEL, a gene that ...

Controlling wildlife trade key to preventing health crises, study says

...ildlife Conservation Society, controlling the movements of wildlife in markets is a cost-effective means of keeping potential deadly pandemics such as sars and influenza from occurring. The study appears in the July edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The cost of controlling the spread of...

UIC developing drug for SARS

...ase inhibitors that would block key enzymes in the sars virus and hamper its advance. Protease inhibitors,...deficiency virus, which causes AIDS. "Data from sars patients indicate that replication of the virus pe...load and ameliorate the disease." Like HIV, the sars virus multiplies rapidly, hijacking the machinery ...

Tagging pathogens with synthetic DNA 'barcodes'

...ed. The researchers have tested their system using samples containing various combinations of E. coli, anthrax and tularemia bacteria and ebola and sars viruses, and have found the color codes could clearly distinguish several different pathogens simultaneously. The research is described in a paper,...

New protein vital for immune response is found in surprise location

...the cells were highly vulnerable to infection with two common viruses in a class called RNA viruses Other RNA viruses include hepatitis C, West Nile, sars and the flu viruses. Cells altered to produce an overabundance of MAVS were protected from dying from viral infection. "These results raise the ...

Field of beams - Novel system uses polarized light pulses to reveal crop health

...xposed. However, Wearing was careful to stress that current health protection programs have shown their effectiveness in such situations as the recent sars outbreak in Southeast Asia. "We are highlighting what 'may happen' if we don't pay careful attention to the inherent assumptions in the models that...

Inhaling large amounts of salt can cause hypertension

...xposed. However, Wearing was careful to stress that current health protection programs have shown their effectiveness in such situations as the recent sars outbreak in Southeast Asia. "We are highlighting what 'may happen' if we don't pay careful attention to the inherent assumptions in the models that...

Understanding biases in epidemic models important when making public health predictions

...xposed. However, Wearing was careful to stress that current health protection programs have shown their effectiveness in such situations as the recent sars outbreak in Southeast Asia. "We are highlighting what 'may happen' if we don't pay careful attention to the inherent assumptions in the models that...