Labslink Research News

What role do processing bodies play in cell survival and protection against viral infection?

Thu, 16 May 2013 16:10:21 PDT

As scientists learn more about processing bodies (PBs), granules present within normal cells, they are unraveling the complex role PBs play in maintaining cellular homeostasis by regulating RNA metabolism and cell signaling. Emerging research is revealing how virus infection alters PBs to enhance viral replication and how, in turn, PBs are able respond and limit a virus's ability to reproduce. This novel mechanism allows PBs to contribute to the body's immune defenses, as described in an article.......> Full story

Bird flu in live poultry markets are the source of viruses causing human infections

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:30:49 PDT

On 31 March 2013, the Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission announced human cases of novel H7N9 influenza virus infections. A group of scientists, led by Professor Chen Hualan of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences........> Full story

Focus on STD, not cancer prevention, to promote HPV vaccine use

Thu, 02 May 2013 16:17:34 PDT

The HPV vaccine can prevent both cervical cancer and a nasty sexually transmitted disease in women. But emphasizing the STD prevention will persuade more young women to get the vaccine, a new study suggests........> Full story

Half of Tamiflu prescriptions went unused during 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, UK sewage study

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:28:25 PDT

A new study concludes that approximately half of the prescriptions of Tamiflu during the 2009-10 influenza pandemic went unused in England. The unused medication represents approximately 600,000 courses of Tamiflu at a cost of around £7.8 million to the UK taxpayer. The novel scientific method used in the study could help measure and improve the effectiveness of future pandemic flu strategies........> Full story

Target Meeting's 2nd World Virology & Microbiology Online Conference Held On April 16-18, 2013: Join For Free

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:38:08 PDT

A Free Virtual Virology & Microbiology Conference at Targetmeeting.com featuring 60 live presentations (12 sessions) from academic and industry experts around the world. Computer and internet connection are required. Do not need any special equipment or software. All the attendees just connect to the online conference's server to participate in real time with their distinguished counterparts from across the globe. They can participate from their home or office depending on their convenience, which will save them the trouble of traveling and in utilizing their time optimally. Furthermore, attendees can earn the free Certificates of Attendance. It is a great opportunity to learn about recent advances in the field of virology and microbiology without travel and money cost.

Major Sessions Include

Molecular Mechanisms of Infectious Diseases
HIV/AIDS
Epidemiology and Microbiology
HCV
Antibacterial Discovery & Development
Clinical Case Reports
Infection and Immunity
And many more...

Researchers, medical professionals, and other related people can enjoy many benefits by participating in the 2nd World Virology & Microbiology Online Conference. They can know, learn and follow up on major developments taking place in the areas of interest. You can have the rare privilege of meeting the best international speakers and world-renowned researchers in real time. You can have that much-needed opportunity of networking and exchanging views with the target audience directly.

Participants get a worldwide platform to express their opinions and ideas. With their experience and expertise, they can build a solid reputation and create a tremendous and lasting impact on the community. The 2nd World Virology & Microbiology Online Conference can create new opportunities for the leading life science professionals and can help them establish new associations with fellow researchers.

According to Target Meeting, all presentations and discussions happen in real time. Importantly, they save the participants the hassle of travel; help them use their valuable time effectively and save money. Participants can ask questions, discuss problems, and exchange their ideas on the online platform. The conference presents them the ultimate opportunity to discuss their proposals and initiatives with global experts, something that perhaps would not have been possible using other methods of communication or correspondence.

Target Meeting is a leading online life science conference organizer. Thousands of international speakers and ten thousands of attendees participated in the online symposiums and conferences at Target Meeting. With the persistent efforts, Target Meeting has achieved a well-respected reputation among the attendees and within life science communities, based on the quality of organizers, speakers and scientific programs, as well as excellent attendee experience. They have a solid record of having created outstanding opportunities for scientists and clinicians to share their latest research and in inspiring breakthrough ideas. The conferences are a great way to establish and maintain professional relationships with the best brains in medical science.

Sign up early (free) to secure your seat, please click here.

Upcoming Free Online Conferences at Target Meeting

April 16-18, 2013, TM's 2nd world virology & microbiology online conference.
May 21-23, 2013, TM's 2nd world genetics & genomics online conference.
June 18-20, 2013, TM's 2nd world neuroscience online conference.
August 13-15, 2013, TM's 1st world dental online conference.
And many more...

Researchers design drug to restore cell suicide in HPV-related head and neck cancer

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 17:41:03 PDT

Researchers have discovered a new mechanism by which the human papilloma virus (HPV) causes head and neck cancer, and they have designed a drug to block that mechanism. Though further research is needed, the new agent might offer a safer treatment for these tumors when combined with a tapered dose of standard chemotherapy........> Full story

Scissor-like enzyme points toward treatment of infectious disease

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:26:31 PDT

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report that a pathogen annually blamed for an estimated 90 million cases of food-borne illness defeats a host’s immune response by using a fat-snipping enzyme to cut off cellular communication.........> Full story

Antibody evolution could guide HIV vaccine development

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:22:04 PDT

Observing the evolution of a particular type of antibody in an infected HIV-1 patient, a study spearheaded by Duke University, including analysis from Los Alamos National Laboratory, has provided insights that will enable vaccination strategies that mimic the actual antibody development within the body........> Full story

Influenza study: Meet virus' new enemy

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 16:29:15 PDT

Simon Fraser University virologist Masahiro Niikura and his doctoral student Nicole Bance are among an international group of scientists that has discovered a new class of molecular compounds capable of killing the influenza virus........> Full story

Avoiding virus dangers in 'domesticating' wild plants for biofuel use

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:41:35 PDT

In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels, plants such as switchgrass.......> Full story

Forensic pathology: tracing the origin of the Usutu Virus

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:43:46 PDT

The effects were dramatic: throughout Vienna it was impossible not to notice that the blackbirds were disappearing. Their melodious song no longer rang around the courtyards of the inner city nor woke tired partygoers in the outlying districts. The birds were simply no longer there. Thankfully, they gradually reappeared and a few years later their population had returned to its original levels. But the sudden crash in numbers was alarming and scientists rushed to find the cause........> Full story

In a fight to the finish, Saint Louis University research aims knockout punch at hepatitis B

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 16:15:57 PDT

In research published in the Jan. 24 edition of PLOS Pathogens, Saint Louis University investigators together with collaborators from the University of Missouri and the University of Pittsburgh report a breakthrough in the pursuit of new hepatitis B drugs that could help cure the virus. Researchers were able to measure and then block a previously unstudied enzyme to stop the virus from replicating, taking advantage of known similarities with another major pathogen, HIV........> FULL STORY

UNC researchers discover how hepatitis C virus reprograms human liver cells

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:34:32 PDT

In a paper published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Dec. 17, researchers in the laboratory of Stanley M. Lemon, MD, professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology and member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Translational Immunology, and the UNC Center for Infectious Disease, outline the critical role the microRNA known as miR-122 plays in the life cycle of the hepatitis C virus........> Full story

Bacteria hijack host cell process, create their own food supply to become infectious

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:09:54 PDT

Bacteria that cause the tick-borne disease anaplasmosis in humans create their own food supply by hijacking a process in host cells that normally should help kill the pathogenic bugs, scientists have found........> Full story

Adapting fish defenses to block human infections

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:07:17 PDT

Living in an environment teaming with bacteria and fungi, fish have evolved powerful defenses against waterborne pathogens, including antimicrobial peptides located in their gills. Undergraduate researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are studying the biology and the mechanics.......> Full story

Hepatitis C treatment's side effects can now be studied in the lab

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:31:47 PDT

The adverse side effects of certain hepatitis C medications can now be replicated and observed in Petri dishes and test tubes, thanks to a research team led by Craig Cameron, the Paul Berg Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State University.......> Full story

A comparative medicine study by Penn vet identifies a new approach to combat viral infections

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:47:49 PDT

When a virus such as influenza invades our bodies, interferon proteins are among the first immune molecules produced to fight off the attack. Interferon can also play a role in suppressing tumor growth and the effects of autoimmune diseases, and doctors may use an artificial form of interferon to treat patients.......> Full story

Superman-strength bacteria produce gold

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:37:19 PDT

At a time when the value of gold has reached an all-time high, Michigan State University researchers have discovered a bacterium’s ability to withstand incredible amounts of toxicity is key to creating 24-karat gold........> Full story

Oropharyngeal cancer patients with HPV have a more robust response to radiation therapy

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 17:19:55 PDT

UC Davis cancer researchers have discovered significant differences in radiation-therapy response among patients with oropharyngeal cancer depending on whether they carry the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted virus. The findings, published online today in The Laryngoscope Journal, could lead to more individualized radiation........> Full story

Telaprevir: Added benefit in certain patients with hepatitis C

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:33:34 PDT

The drug telaprevir (trade name: Incivo®) has been available for treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection of genotype 1 since autumn 2011. In an early benefit assessment pursuant to the "Act on the Reform of the Market for Medicinal Products” (AMNOG), the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) examined whether telaprevir offers an added benefit compared with the present standard therapy........> Full story

Herbal remedy used to treat hepatitis C proves ineffective, Penn study finds

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 17:14:12 PDT

Silymarin, an extract of milk thistle commonly used to treat chronic liver disease by millions of people around the World, does not offer significant improvements for patients, according to a new study conducted by a nationwide group of researchers including faculty........> Full story

Hepatitis C 'switch' offers target for new drug research

Thu, 31 May 2012 16:43:57 PDT

Hepatitis C affects more than 170 million people worldwide, but current combination treatment is only effective against a limited range of this naturally highly variable virus.......> Full story

New study shows why swine flu virus develops drug resistance

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:00:13 PDT

Professor Adrian Mulholland and Dr Christopher Woods from Bristol’s School of Chemistry, together with colleagues in Thailand, used graphics processing units (GPUs) to simulate the molecular processes that take place when these drugs are used to treat the H1N1-2009 strain of influenza – commonly known as ‘swine flu.......> Full story

Researchers take virus-tracking software worldwide

Tue, 22 May 2012 16:36:23 PDT

Associate Professor Daniel Janies, Ph.D., an expert in computational genomics at the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University (OSU), is working with software engineers at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) to expand the reach of SUPRAMAP (supramap.org), a web-based application that synthesizes large, diverse datasets so that researchers can better understand the spread of infectious diseases across hosts and geography........> Full story

Small molecular bodyguards kill HPV-infected cancer cells by protecting tumor-suppressor

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:55:06 PDT

Researchers at The Wistar Institute announce the discovery of small molecules that kill cancer cells caused by infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). Their results, in both cell and mouse models, demonstrate that the small molecule inhibitors protect a tumor-suppressing protein targeted by viral proteins, thus killing the infected tumor cells........> Full story

Scripps Research Institute scientists find promising vaccine targets on hepatitis C virus

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:19:01 PDT

A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has found antibodies that can prevent infection from widely differing strains of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in cell culture and animal models........> Full story

Discovery provides blueprint for new drugs that can inhibit hepatitis C virus

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:40:01 PDT

Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have produced the first high resolution structure of a molecule that when attached to the genetic material of the hepatitis C virus prevents it from reproducing.......> Full story

UBC researcher invents 'lab on a chip' device to study malaria

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:20:30 PDT

University of British Columbia researcher Hongshen Ma has developed a simple and accurate device to study malaria, a disease that currently affects 500 million people per year worldwide and claims a million lives........> Full story

pinion: H5N1 flu is just as dangerous as feared, now requires action

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:49:26 PDT

The debate about the potential severity of an outbreak of airborne H5N1 influenza in humans needs to move on from speculation and focus instead on how we can safely continue H5N1 research and share the results among researchers, according to a commentary.......> Full story

A single protein helps the body keep watch over the Epstein-Barr virus

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:30:29 PDT

Some 90 percent of people are exposed to the Epstein Barr virus (EBV) at some point in their life. Even though it is quickly cleared from the body, the virus can linger silently for years in small numbers of infected B cells. According to researchers........> Full story

Study shows electron-beam irradiation reduces virus-related health risk in lettuce, spinach

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:51:02 PDT

A team of scientists studying the effects of electron-beam irradiation on iceberg lettuce and spinach has had its research published in the February issue of the leading microbiology journal, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, said the study’s lead investigator........> Full story

MSU researchers show how new viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:12:01 PDT

In the current issue of Science, researchers at Michigan State University demonstrate how a new virus evolves, which sheds light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations.......> Full story

Researchers show how viruses evolve, and in some cases, become deadly

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:27:42 PDT

Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) have demonstrated how a new virus evolves, shedding light on how easy it can be for diseases to gain dangerous mutations. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Science........> Full story

CWRU study finds the love of a dog or cat helps women cope with HIV/AIDS

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:11:11 PDT

A spoonful of medicine goes down a lot easier if there is a dog or cat around. Having pets is helpful for women living with HIV/AIDS and managing their chronic illness, according to a new study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University........> Full story

Many high-risk Americans don't get hepatitis B vaccine

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:16:08 PDT

Although there is an effective vaccine for hepatitis B and public health officials have a strong sense of who is at highest risk for the infectious liver disease, tens of thousands of people in the United States contract the virus every year. According to a new study by researchers at Brown University, missed opportunities to administer the vaccine continue to be a reason why infections persist........> Full story

UBC researchers identify potential new therapy approach for hepatitis C

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:50:52 PDT

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a new way to block infection from the hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the liver that could lead to new therapies for those affected by this and other infectious diseases.......> Full story

Research proving link between virus and MS could point the way to treatment and prevention

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:19:37 PDT

A new study from researchers at Queen Mary, University of London shows how a particular virus tricks the immune system into triggering inflammation and nerve cell damage in the brain, which is known to cause MS........> Full story

No more free rides for 'piggy-backing' viruses

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:19:07 PDT

The findings open the door to the development of new drugs to combat these deadly viruses that infect more than 180 million people worldwide.........> Full story

BUSM researchers identify novel compound to halt virus replication

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 16:49:18 PDT

A team of scientists from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have identified a novel compound that inhibits viruses from replicating. The findings, which are published online in the Journal of Virology, could lead to the development of highly targeted compounds to block the replication of poxviruses, such as the emerging infectious disease Monkeypox........> Full story

First Ebola-like virus native to Europe discovered

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:01:19 PDT

A team of international researchers has discovered a new Ebola-like virus – Lloviu virus -- in bats from northern Spain. Lloviu virus is the first known filovirus native to Europe, they report in a study published in the journal PLOS Pathogens on Octobr 20th. The study was a collaboration among scientists at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) in Spain, Roche Life Sciences, Centro de Investigación Príncipe Felipe, Grupo Asturiano para el Estudio y Conservación de los Murciélagos, Consejo Suerior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Complutense University in Spain. Filoviruses, which include well-known viruses like Ebola and Marburg, are among the deadliest pathogens in humans and non-human primates, and are generally found in East Africa and the Philippines. The findings thus expand the natural geographical distribution of filoviruses. "The study is an opportunity to advance the knowledge of filoviruses' natural cycle," said Ana Negredo, one of the first authors of the study. Scientists at ISCIII analyzed lung, liver, spleen, throat, brain and rectal samples from 34 bats found in caves in Asturias and Cantabria, Spain, following bat die-offs in France, Spain and Portugal in 2002 affecting mainly one bat species. They screened these samples for a wide range of viruses using the polymerase chain reaction, a molecular technique that allows scientists to amplify genetic material, and. detected a filovirus. Filoviruses include ebolaviruses and marburgviruses, two viruses associated with severe disease in humans and other primates.. CII scientists used high-throughput sequencing to characterize the virus' genome. When they compared it to other well-known filovirus genomes, they found that Lloviu virus represents a class of viruses distantly related to all ebolaviruses and that it may have diverged from ebolaviruses about 68,000 years ago. "The detection of this novel filovirus in Spain is intriguing because it is completely outside of its previously described range. We need to ascertain whether other filoviruses native to Europe exist, and more importantly, if and how it causes disease," said Gustavo Palacios, the other first author of the study. Filoviruses typically do not make bats sick, but because the team of researchers only detected Lloviu virus in bats that had died and whose tissues showed signs of an immune response, they think Lloviu may be a cause for concern. They also did not detect Lloviu virus in samples of almost 1,300 healthy bats. Bats have important roles in plant pollination, spreading plant seeds and controlling insect populations, and pathogens that attack bat populations could have dramatic ecological and health-related consequences. "The Lloviu virus discovery highlights how much we still need to learn about the world of emerging infectious diseases and the importance of global collaboration and the One Health initiative in addressing the challenge," said CII Director Dr. Ian Lipkin.

Researchers turn viruses into molecular Legos

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:15:11 PDT

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have turned a benign virus into an engineering tool for assembling structures that mimic collagen, one of the most important structural proteins in nature. The process they developed could eventually be used to manufacture materials with tunable optical, biomedical and mechanical properties. The researchers, led by Seung-Wuk Lee, UC Berkeley associate professor of bioengineering and faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), describe their "self-templating material assembly" process in the Oct. 20 issue of the journal Nature. "We took our inspiration from nature," said Lee. "Nature has a unique ability to create functional materials from very basic building blocks. We found a way to mimic the formation of diverse, complex structures from helical macromolecules, such as collagen, chitin and cellulose, which are the primary building blocks for a wide array of functional materials in animals and plants." The blue-faced Mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx), for instance, derives its coloring not from pigment, but from the specific scattering of light formed when thin fibers of collagen are bundled, twisted and layered in its skin. In contrast, aligning collagen in a perpendicular, grid-like pattern creates transparency, and is the basis of corneal tissue. And corkscrew-shaped fibers, mineralized after interacting with calcium and phosphate, can generate the hardest parts of our body: bones and teeth. "The basic building block for all of these functional materials – corneas, skin and teeth – is exactly the same. It's collagen," said Lee. "I was mesmerized when I saw the brilliant skin color and sharp teeth of blue-faced monkeys at

Francisco Zoo. It is stunning that the way the collagen fibers are aligned, twisted and shaped determine their optical and mechanical functions. What had not been well understood, however, is how such a simple building block can create such complicated structures with diverse functions." The researchers began by studying the factors influencing the formation of hierarchical structures. "We noticed how collagen is secreted in confined spaces, and how its assembly into tissues can be influenced by its environment," said study lead author Woo-Jae Chung, a post-doctoral researcher in Lee's lab. "Unfortunately, collagen is a difficult material to study because it is hard to tune its physical and chemical structures. We needed a convenient model system to solve this problem." That system was a soup of saline solution containing varying concentrations of a common bacteria-attacking virus, the M13 bacteriophage. The researchers chose the M13 virus – harmless to humans and a model organism in research labs – because its long, "chopstick-like" shape with a helical groove on its surface closely resembles collagen fibers. The technique the scientists developed entails dipping a flat sheet of glass into the viral bath, then slowly pulling it out at precise speeds. The sheet emerges with a fresh film of viruses attached to it. At a pulling rate ranging from 10-100 micrometers per minute, it could take 1-10 hours for an entire sheet to be processed. By adjusting the concentration of viruses in the solution and the speed with which the glass is pulled, the researchers could control the liquid's viscosity, surface tension, and rate of evaporation during the film growth process. Those factors determined the type of pattern formed by the viruses. The researchers created three distinct film patterns using this technique. With a relatively low viral concentration of up to 1.5 milligrams per milliliter, regularly spaced bands containing filaments oriented at 90 degree angles to each other were formed. With a slower pulling rate came increased physical constraints to the movement and orientation of the viruses. The viruses spontaneously bunched together, and as they stuck to the sheet, they started to twist into helical ribbons, much like curled ribbon used for gift wrap. The most complex pattern – described as "ramen-noodle-like" by the researchers – was formed using viral concentrations ranging from 4-6 milligrams per milliliter. By using the Advanced Light Source at LBNL, the researchers discovered that this highly ordered structure could bend light like a prism in ways never before observed in nature or other engineered materials. "We can determine the type of structure we get through this technique by fine-tuning the factors that influence the kinetics and thermodynamics of the assembly process," said Chung. "We can control the levels of order, direction of the twist, as well as the width, height and spacing of the film patterns." The researchers further showed that the virus assembly process could be used in biomedical applications. They genetically engineered the virus to express specific peptides, which influence the growth of soft and hard tissue. They used the resulting viral films as tissue-guiding templates for the biomineralization of calcium phosphate, forming a tooth-enamel like composite that in the future could be applied as a regenerative tissue material. The simplicity of the technique bodes well for adapting it for use in manufacturing, the researchers said. Once the parameters are set, it is possible to step aside and let the self-assembly process take place. "We let this run overnight, and by the next morning there were trillions of viral filaments arranged in patterns on our substrate," said Lee. "One of the most important aspects of our work is that we have started to understand nature's approach to creating such complex structures, and we have developed an easy way to mimic and even extend it."

New therapy protects monkeys from Hendra virus

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:12:13 PDT

A new treatment for the deadly Hendra virus has proven successful in primate tests — a major step forward in combating the virus, which kills about 60 percent of those it infects and has been implicated in sporadic outbreaks in Australia ever since it was first identified in 1994. Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes of Health, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, and the Boston University School of Medicine teamed up to develop and test the new therapy, in a project primarily supported by a grant awarded to UTMB professor Thomas Geisbert by the NIAID. Experiments were conducted at RML in a biosafety level 4 "spacesuit" lab, because no licensed vaccine or therapy currently exists for Hendra. Researchers infected 14 African green monkeys — chosen because their response to Hendra is very similar to that of humans — with the virus. At varying time intervals after infection, 12 of the monkeys were then given doses of a human antibody designated m102.4, which had been specially selected for its affinity for Hendra. Earlier test tube and small-animal experiments by USUHS professor Christopher Broder and colleagues in Australia had strongly suggested that m102.4 antibodies would bind to proteins on the surface of Hendra virus particles and block the process by which the virus invades cells. This turned out to be the case with the monkeys as well, and all 12 of the treated animals survived — including a group not given their first dose of antibodies until three days after infection with Hendra. "I think this is a very promising therapy, especially when you consider that it was still strong three days later," said Geisbert, one of the lead authors of a paper on the work published online Oct. 19 in Science Translational Medicine. "What's also interesting is that this antibody has strong activity against Nipah virus as well, which is extremely similar to Hendra." Both Hendra and Nipah primarily reside in fruit bats, and both are extraordinarily dangerous to humans. (If the virus names sound familiar to moviegoers, it's not an accident: director Stephen Soderbergh used an imaginary combination between Hendra and Nipah to create the virus in the recent film Contagion.) But while Hendra primarily affects horses, which can spread the disease to humans, Nipah has evolved to be transmissible directly from human to human. First identified in Malaysia in 1998, Nipah is blamed for 251 deaths in outbreaks in Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. "Here at UTMB's Galveston National Laboratory we're currently looking at the efficacy of this antibody against Nipah," Geisbert said. "That would make it even more valuable." Last year m102.4 was requested for emergency use in Australia to protect a woman and her daughter from an exposure to Hendra. Both survived and showed no side effects from the treatment. Much more extensive testing would be required, though, to obtain approval for m102.4 as a therapy. According to GNL director James LeDuc, the facility is well prepared to move forward with such efforts. "Collaboration between federal and university scientists has been instrumental in producing this novel breakthrough," LeDuc said. "We're ready to help in the next steps in translating this discovery into a usable treatment."

Antibody treatment protects monkeys from Hendra virus disease

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:10:58 PDT

A human antibody given to monkeys infected with the deadly Hendra virus completely protected them from disease, according to a study published by National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their collaborators. Hendra and the closely related Nipah virus, both rare viruses that are part of the NIH biodefense research program, target the lungs and brain and have human case fatality rates of 60 percent and more than 75 percent, respectively. These diseases in monkeys mirror what happens in humans, and the study results are cause for hope that the antibody, named m102.4, ultimately may be developed into a possible treatment for people who become infected with these viruses. In May 2010, shortly after the NIH study in monkeys successfully concluded, Australian health officials requested m102.4 for emergency use in a woman and her 12-year-old daughter. They had been exposed to Hendra virus from an ill horse that ultimately was euthanized. Both the woman and child survived and showed no side effects from the treatment. "This is an important research advance that illustrates how scientific discoveries emerge through a steady stepwise process, and how our investment in research on countermeasures for biodefense and emerging infectious diseases can help global preparedness efforts," said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Hendra virus emerged in 1994 in Australia and primarily affects horses, which can spread the disease to humans. No person-to-person transmission of Hendra has been reported. Nipah virus emerged in 1998 in Malaysia, and also has been found in Bangladesh and India. Nipah appears to infect humans more easily than Hendra and can be transmitted from person to person. The NIAID-supported study, which appears online in Science Translational Medicine, involved infecting 14 African green monkeys with a lethal dose of Hendra virus. Twelve of the monkeys then received two treatments with m102.4, one either at 10, 24, or 72 hours after being infected, and another 48 hours later. All 12 monkeys treated with the antibody survived. The two untreated control monkeys died eight days after being infected. The findings are the result of a series of studies carried out by different research laboratories. A group from NIH's National Cancer Institute and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) discovered m102.4 in 2006 and developed the antibody for use in laboratory research. USUHS and Australian collaborators then developed an animal study model of m102.4 in ferrets infected with Nipah virus; the University of Texas Medical Branch and USUHS developed a monkey study model of Hendra and Nipah infection; and together with investigators from Boston University and NIAID's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) designed and carried out the antibody trial in biosafety level-4 (BSL-4) laboratory space at RML. Because the Hendra and Nipah viruses are so deadly and there is no licensed vaccine or treatment for either of them, both viruses must be studied in maximum-containment BSL-4 laboratories. The World Health Organization reports 475 human cases of Nipah through 2008, with 251 deaths. Through the same period, there have been seven human Hendra cases with four fatalities. There also have been many horse fatalities. In their study, the scientists cite a handful of other outbreaks of Hendra virus in horses since 2008. Since June 2011, there have been 18 outbreaks in Australia, primarily in Queensland and New South Wales, with the latest reported Oct. 10. Both viruses are spread by fruit bats, commonly known as flying foxes, which are reservoirs for these viruses. The fruit bats, which are resistant to the diseases, are found primarily in Australia but have been found as far west as Africa, north to India and Pakistan, and east to the Philippines. Additional studies on m102.4 as a possible treatment and as a preventive vaccine for Nipah and Hendra virus infections are being planned.

UT Southwestern research could lead to new treatments for IBD, viral infections

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:09:57 PDT

The intestinal ecosystem is even more dynamic than previously thought, according to two studies by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers published in the latest issue of Science. Taken together, these studies provide a new understanding of the unique intestinal environment and suggest new strategies for the prevention of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and viral infections, the researchers said. "Mammals have evolved ways to limit invasion by the naturally occurring bacteria that live in their intestines even as viruses have developed strategies to break through those defenses and cause infection," said Dr. Julie Pfeiffer, assistant professor of microbiology. Dr. Pfeiffer is senior author of a new study that finds that, even after 100 years, the polio virus has tricks to reveal. It is well known that after oral ingestion and passage through the intestine, poliovirus can move throughout the body and occasionally cause paralysis. Her team showed that the virus uses the body's natural gut bacteria in order to become more infectious. In the other study, senior author Dr. Lora Hooper, associate professor of immunology and microbiology and an investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), reported that an antibiotic protein called RegIIIγ acts like a sentry to keep the 100 trillion bacteria that live in the gut from causing digestive havoc, by maintaining a "demilitarized zone" in the layer of mucus that normally covers the inner surface of the intestines. Bacteria in the intestine normally work to help the body digest and deliver nutrients from food after eating. A 50-micron zone of separation, about half the width of a human hair, lies between the bacteria that live in the gut and the intestinal wall. In addition to mucous, that zone contains biologically active molecules like the protein RegIIIγ that Dr. Hooper's laboratory discovered in 2006. Dr. Hooper and her colleagues showed for the first time how the protein works to police the intestinal demilitarized zone, preventing the naturally occurring bacteria from invading the wall of the intestine, where they can cause problems such as IBD. "If too many bacteria invade this demilitarized zone, you get ramped up production of the protein RegIIIγ and it pushes them back," Dr. Hooper said. In people with IBD – in which inflammation and the body's response to it can result in painful ulcers and bloody diarrhea – the demilitarized zone is compromised and more bacteria come in contact with the intestinal lining, she explained. Dr. Hooper's four-year study, which compared the intestinal health of mice that lacked the protein with that of normal mice, found that mice lacking the protein also lacked the protected space between the bacteria and the intestinal lining. The researchers have patented RegIIIγ as a potential antibiotic therapeutic, though further study is needed to determine if the protein could be developed to help people with IBD or related diseases. In her study, Dr. Pfeiffer found that mice lacking the normal intestinal bacteria had half the death rate from polio as mice with intact gut bacteria. The findings were the opposite of what the researchers had expected because, like most people, they had expected the body's intestinal bacteria to offer protection from viral diseases as they have been shown to protect against bacterial infection, she explained. So Dr. Pfeiffer's research team conducted a series of experiments to validate and expand that finding, all of which backed up the original conclusion. For instance, they found that virus exposed to bacteria could attach to human cells better than virus that lacked bacterial exposure. Poliovirus is a very wasteful entity, with only about one in 200 viral particles able to cause infection. To determine whether bacteria could make poliovirus more efficient, Dr. Pfeiffer and colleagues incubated viruses in different warm environments to see how long they took to decay. Virus incubated in salt water decayed over time, as expected. In contrast, virus incubated in any of several strains of bacteria became up to five times more infectious. "Bacteria are literally activating the virus. There is nothing in that test tube that the virus can use for replication, so it must be increasing the viral infectivity," she said. But the researchers wanted to delve deeper. They found that two different carbohydrates (polysaccharides) on the bacterial cell surface – lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and peptidoglycan – were able to spike poliovirus infectivity even in the absence of bacteria.

Monkeys 'move and feel' virtual objects using only their brains

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:24:02 PDT

In a first ever demonstration of a two-way interaction between a primate brain and a virtual body, two monkeys trained at the Duke University Center for Neuroengineering learned to employ brain activity alone to move an avatar hand and identify the texture of virtual objects. "Someday in the near future, quadriplegic patients will take advantage of this technology not only to move their arms and hands and to walk again, but also to sense the texture of objects placed in their hands, or experience the nuances of the terrain on which they stroll with the help of a wearable robotic exoskeleton," said Miguel Nicolelis, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center and co-director of the Duke Center for Neuroengineering, who was senior author of the study. Without moving any part of their real bodies, the monkeys used their electrical brain activity to direct the virtual hands of an avatar to the surface of virtual objects and, upon contact, were able to differentiate their textures. Although the virtual objects employed in this study were visually identical, they were designed to have different artificial textures that could only be detected if the animals explored them with virtual hands controlled directly by their brain's electrical activity. The texture of the virtual objects was expressed as a pattern of minute electrical signals transmitted to the monkeys' brains. Three different electrical patterns corresponded to each of three different object textures. Because no part of the animal's real body was involved in the operation of this brain-machine-brain interface (BMBI), these experiments suggest that in the future patients severely paralyzed due to a spinal cord lesion may take advantage of this technology, not only to regain mobility, but also to have their sense of touch restored, said Nicolelis, who was senior author of the study published in the journal Nature on Oct. 5. "This is the first demonstration of a brain-machine-brain interface that establishes a direct, bidirectional link between a brain and a virtual body," Nicolelis said. "In this BMBI, the virtual body is controlled directly by the animal's brain activity, while its virtual hand generates tactile feedback information that is signaled via direct electrical microstimulation of another region of the animal's cortex." "We hope that in the next few years this technology could help to restore a more autonomous life to many patients who are currently locked in without being able to move or experience any tactile sensation of the surrounding world," Nicolelis said. "This is also the first time we've observed a brain controlling a virtual arm that explores objects while the brain simultaneously receives electrical feedback signals that describe the fine texture of objects 'touched' by the monkey's newly acquired virtual hand," Nicolelis said. "Such an interaction between the brain and a virtual avatar was totally independent of the animal's real body, because the animals did not move their real arms and hands, nor did they use their real skin to touch the objects and identify their texture. It's almost like creating a new sensory channel through which the brain can resume processing information that cannot reach it anymore through the real body and peripheral nerves." The combined electrical activity of populations of 50-200 neurons in the monkey's motor cortex controlled the steering of the avatar arm, while thousands of neurons in the primary tactile cortex were simultaneously receiving continuous electrical feedback from the virtual hand's palm that let the monkey discriminate between objects, based on their texture alone. "The remarkable success with non-human primates is what makes us believe that humans could accomplish the same task much more easily in the near future," Nicolelis said. It took one monkey only four attempts and another nine attempts before they learned how to select the correct object during each trial. Several tests demonstrated that the monkeys were actually sensing the object and not selecting them randomly. The findings provide further evidence that it may be possible to create a robotic exoskeleton that severely paralyzed patients could wear in order to explore and receive feedback from the outside world, Nicolelis said. Such an exoskeleton would be directly controlled by the patient's voluntary brain activity in order to allow the patient to move autonomously. Simultaneously, sensors distributed across the exoskeleton would generate the type of tactile feedback needed for the patient's brain to identify the texture, shape and temperature of objects, as well as many features of the surface upon which they walk. This overall therapeutic approach is the one chosen by the Walk Again Project, an international, non-profit consortium, established by a team of Brazilian, American, Swiss, and German scientists, which aims at restoring full body mobility to quadriplegic patients through a brain-machine-brain interface implemented in conjunction with a full-body robotic exoskeleton. The international scientific team recently proposed to carry out its first public demonstration of such an autonomous exoskeleton during the opening game of the 2014 FIFA Soccer World Cup that will be held in Brazil.

Gypsy moth caterpillars hormonal slaves to virus gene

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:33:22 PDT

Gypsy moth caterpillars infected with baculovirus forfeit safety and stay in the treetops during the day because a virus gene manipulates their hormones to eat continuously and forego molting, according to entomologists. The caterpillars die where they climb and infect other gypsy moth caterpillars. "Normally, gypsy moth caterpillars are active at night," said Kelli Hoover, professor of entomology, Penn State. "They hide during the day in the soil or bark crevices protected from birds. They climb up the foliage at night to feed." Researchers have long known that gypsy moth caterpillars, like nearly all caterpillars, have baculoviruses that infect them and that a gene in the virus, egt, blocks molting in the caterpillar, keeping it in a feeding state. These viruses use most of the tissue of their hosts to reproduce and almost always kill their host. "Baculoviruses have been known to induce climbing behavior in their caterpillar hosts for over 100 years," the researchers report in today's (Sept 9) issue of Science. "Until recently, determining the evolutionary basis for these altered behaviors has proven difficult in the absence of a mechanistic explanation." The infection was labeled tree top disease 100 years ago, but back then, researchers could not look at either the virus' genetic material or the metabolic pathways in the caterpillar. Hoover and her team looked into the mechanism by which the gypsy moth baculovirus manipulates the behavior of the caterpillars. They identified a specific viral gene, egt, that codes for an enzyme, EGT --UDP-glycosyltransferase -- that inactivates the hormone that triggers molting. Male gypsy moth caterpillars molt five times during their lives, while females molt six times before they pupate and emerge as moths. But infected caterpillars do not molt again once levels of EGT become high enough. EGT induces the caterpillar to climb to the treetops, hang onto the leaf or bark with their prolegs and die. Then, they liquefy and rain viral particles over the leaves for other caterpillars to ingest and become infected. Older caterpillars are induced to die on the bark next to their fellow gypsy moths that pupate and emerge to walk over the dead cadavers, picking up virus that can be transmitted to the next generation during egg laying "One of the best ways to control complex behavior is to manipulate hormones," said Hoover. Genes that influence hormones are perfect targets to change behaviors. The viral gene egt blocks molting by inactivating the molting hormone ecdysone, keeping the insect in a feeding state. "It is good for the virus because if host spends 24 hours not feeding while they prepare to molt, this is time that the host is not getting bigger to maximize the host's biomass to make into more virus," said Hoover. "In this case we've found that that the gene also somehow induces the caterpillars to go to just the right location to enhance transmission of the virus to new hosts." The researchers are not completely certain why the caterpillars climb or stay aloft during daylight when they are infected. One possibility is that without the molting cue, the caterpillars simply have an urge to eat continuously and so remain in the treetops. "Michael Grove, my former technician who initiated this study in my lab, thinks that even when the molting hormone is inactivated, the caterpillars may still be triggered to climb to molt," said Hoover. "They climb, but rather than molt, they stay where they are until they die." To show that the egt gene is responsible for the climbing, the researchers used tall plastic bottles lined with screens for the caterpillars to climb on. The bottles contained an artificial caterpillar diet for food. The researchers tested six different virus infected groups of caterpillars and one uninfected group. Two groups were infected with different, naturally occurring virus; two groups were infected with virus that had their egt gene inactivated in different ways; and two groups had the egt gene reinserted in the viral DNA. The two naturally occurring viruses caused the caterpillars to climb and die at the top of the container, but the caterpillars infected with virus lacking the egt gene died at the bottom of the container. The caterpillars with the restored egt gene also died at elevated positions. All the infected caterpillars exhibited the same symptoms during the initial phases of the infection, but only those infected with viruses containing egt climbed to die. Hoover notes that this is one of the first studies to identify the gene of the parasite responsible for altering the behavior of the host animal. Many parasites manipulate their hosts, but in most cases, how this occurs in not known. Other pathogens that control host behavior in mammals include toxoplasmosis and rabies. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease that mostly infects cats, but can infect other mammals. If a mouse becomes infected with toxoplasmosis, they lose their innate fear of cats and become easier for cats to catch. This benefits the infecting protozoa because it more easily spreads to its preferred host. The rabies virus also alters behavior causing normally nocturnal animals to appear during the day and to become far more aggressive than normal.

Watching viruses 'friend' a network

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:46:15 PDT

From SARS to swine flu, virus outbreaks can be unpredictable — and devastating. But now a new application through the ubiquitous social networking site Facebook, developed in a Tel Aviv University lab, is poised to serve as a better indicator of how infections spread among populations......> Full story

Discovery explains why influenza B virus exclusively infects humans; opens door for drug development

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:49:33 PDT

Researchers at Rutgers University and the University of Texas at Austin have reported a discovery that could help scientists develop drugs to fight seasonal influenza epidemics caused by the common influenza B strain.

Their discovery also helps explain how influenza B is limited to humans, and why it cannot be as virulent as A strains that incorporate new genes from influenza viruses that infect other species. The devastating flu pandemic of 1918, the pandemics of 1968 and 1977, and the avian influenza that emerged in the middle of the last decade were caused by influenza A viruses. Understanding features of influenza B virus that limit it to humans will help scientists better understand how influenza A strains are able to cross species........> Full story

George Mason research team uncovers new factor in HIV infection

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 19:21:10 PDT

A George Mason University researcher team has revealed the specific process by which the HIV virus infects healthy T cells—a process previously unknown. The principal investigator, HIV researcher Yuntao Wu, says he hopes this breakthrough will start a new line on inquiry into how researchers can use this knowledge to create drugs that could limit or halt HIV infection........> Full story

Newfound hijacked proteins linked to salmonella virulence

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:48:06 PDT

Scientists have discovered that bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella have a sneaky way of making minor alterations to their genes to boost their chances for infection. It's a fascinating discovery made at Ohio State University, which is featured in the Aug. 14 issue of Nature Chemical Biology. This discovery shows how bacteria make tweaks in their genes, and their proteins to gain strength. The team includes research scientist Herve Roy, who joined the University of Central Florida faculty at the College of Medicine this month. He co-authored the paper after conducting research in OSU Professor Michael Ibba's lab. "Mother Nature tinkers a lot," Roy said from his new lab in Orlando. "Our recent findings illustrate that new proteins in living organisms often evolve from older pre-existing ones, and that evolution updates biochemical mechanisms of living cells by tweaking them a little by applying molecular patches." The precise role of one protein in bacteria, EF-P, remains a mystery, but this team found that it plays an essential role in the virulence of Salmonella enterica typhimurium, a common foodborne pathogen causing diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps, and occasionally lifetime chronic arthritis. Salmonella also accounts for about 400 deaths each year in the United States. EF-P is known to play a role in protein biosynthesis, which is a keystone mechanism present in all organisms. This process is the chain assembly line that decodes the blue prints stored in the genomes of living organisms, to make all the proteins necessary to sustain life. The team's research identified a modification born by EF-P that acts as a molecular patch on protein synthesis. The patch seems to increase the bacteria's prowess. Interestingly, the modification on EF-P is made by a hijacked protein, normally involved in the protein synthesis machinery itself. In the Aug. 14 issue of Nature Chemical Biology, Roy and co-authors identified the chemical nature of the modification that occurs on EF-P. This is critical because in the team's experiments, when the modified version of EF-P is absent, Salmonella doesn't spread. Because the mechanism by which the modification occurs is unique to bacteria and this system is involved in virulence it could be a potential drug target, Ibba said. Roy's experience and interest in this area is what drew him to UCF. His lab in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at UCF will use National Institutes of Health funding to explore how some other components of the protein synthesis machinery have been hijacked to accomplish alternate cellular processes. For instance, one process utilizes parts of the protein synthesis machinery to modify components of the bacterial membrane. This mechanism increases bacterial resistance to a large spectrum of antibiotics and presents a good avenue for new drugs that could potentially alleviate or cure many infectious diseases. "That's why I came to UCF," Roy said. "There is a good team of scientists here working in infectious diseases. There is a good opportunity to collaborate and make a difference."