Studies reveal how plague disables immune system, and how to exploit the process to make a vaccine
Two studies by researchers at the University of Chicago show how the bacteria that cause the plague manage to outsmart the immune system and how, by slightly altering one of the microbe's tools, the researchers produced what may be the first safe and effective vaccine. Both papers -- one published online July 28 in Science Express and one in the August issue of Infection and Immunity -- fo...Device traps, disables harmful bacteria
A team of engineers from Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Colorado at Boulder has removed bioaerosols -- airborne biological particulate matter -- from the air of a hospital therapy pool using a new generation of hybrid filters. The bioaerosols identified in the unnamed Midwestern hospital pool had sickened nine lifeguards who had become ill with hypersensitivity pn...How HIV disables the cells' call for help
The HIV virus hides out in the very immune system cells that are meant to protect the body from viral infection. But how does it prevent these cells from mounting a full-scale attack against the invader? In research published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a team at the Weizmann Institute of Science has shown how a part of a protein on the virus' outer surface interferes with the...HIV accessory protein disables host immunity via receptor-protein intermediary
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that an HIV-1 accessory protein called Vpr destroys the host cell's ability to survive by binding to a host receptor. This, in turn, keeps an important enzyme from activating the cell's immune system. These findings refine an earlier understanding of Vpr HIV pathogenesis and imply new approaches to treating AIDS, inflamma...