Infectious Diseases

Amherst, MA — In the long-term battle between a herpesvirus and its human host, a University of Massachusetts virologist and her team of students have identified some human RNA able to resist the viral takeover – and the mechanism by which that occurs. This discovery, described in a paper published Feb. 15 in Proceedings of […]

Detroit, MI — Researchers at Henry Ford Health System, as part of a national hepatitis C collaborative, report that patients with chronic hepatitis C who are treated with direct-acting antiviral medicines are less likely to be hospitalized or seek emergency care for liver and non-liver related health issues. The study, published online in Clinical Infectious […]

Boca Raton, FL — Ivermectin is a drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat parasites in animals and in humans with intestinal strongyloidiasis (roundworm) and onchocerciasis (river blindness) orally, as well as ectoparasites and skin conditions topically.  Ivermectin is not approved by the FDA to treat or prevent COVID-19. […]

Washington, DC — Cholera, a diarrheal disease caused by the highly transmissible bacteria Vibrio cholerae, kills tens of thousands of people each year worldwide. Current vaccines last only 2–5 years, and they don’t work very well in young children. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Infectious Diseases have developed a new type of cholera vaccine consisting […]

Oak Brook, IL — Vaccine-associated myocarditis shows a similar injury pattern on cardiac MRI compared to other causes of myocarditis, but abnormalities are less severe, according to a new study published in the journal Radiology. Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, often occurs as a result of a viral infection, including COVID-19. It can affect […]

Frederick, MD — In a groundbreaking study published Feb. 9, scientists describe how Ebola virus, which can persist in certain areas of the body, can re-emerge to cause fatal disease—even long after treatment with monoclonal antibodies. Their research, using a nonhuman primate model of Ebola virus infection, appears on the cover of Feb. 9 edition […]

Boston, MA — What happens in our respiratory tract once we’re exposed to COVID-19? A three-dimensional airway model, made from patient-derived stem cells, could provide answers about the initial stages of infection. The model not only replicates the infection process, but can be used to test potential antiviral drugs. Dr. Ruby Wang, attending physician in […]

Cold Spring Harbor, NY — A team of scientists led by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered that disulfiram, an FDA-approved drug, prevents the immune system from producing toxic webs known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). Many scientists suspect NETs help drive the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients with severe […]

Plymouth Meeting, PA — New research in the February 2022 issue of JNCCN—Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network confirms that mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 are just as safe for people with cancer as they are for cancer-free individuals. Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center tracked short-term side-effects from more than 1,753 recipients of the […]

Paris, France — Teams at the Institut Pasteur, CNRS, Vaccine Research Institute (VRI) and Université de Paris have discovered a new function of anti-HIV-1 antibodies by applying cutting-edge microscopy techniques to in vitro viral cultures. The scientists found that certain antibodies already known for effectively targeting HIV-1 envelope (Env) protein can prevent infected cells from […]

Tartu, Estonia — Haemophilus influenzae serotype b (Hib) was the main cause of bacterial meningitis in children and a major cause of worldwide infant mortality before the introduction of a vaccine in the 1980s. In the new study published in Genome Biology, led by the University of Tartu and the University of Cambridge, Guellil et […]

Denver, CO — The risk of death for patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and thoracic cancer is based on seven major determinants, according to research published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the official journal of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.  The researchers analyzed data from The Thoracic Cancers International COVID-19 Collaboration […]