http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Researchers have determined a way to predict and protect against new strains of the flu virus, in the hope of improving immunity against the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-seasonal-flu-strains-chances-universal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 12 Mar 2013 08:15:54 EST news282294946 Researchers have successfully applied a novel method of vaccine creation for Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) using a technique called large scale random codon re-encoding. Using this approach, a group from the UMR_D 190, Emerging viruses Department in Marseille, France in collaboration with the University of Sydney, Australia, demonstrated that the engineered viruses exhibit a stable phenotype with a significantly decreased viral fitness (i.e., replication capacity), making it a new vaccine candidate for this emerging viral disease. This new report publishes on February 21 in the Open Access journal, PLOS Pathogens. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-method-next-generation-live-attenuated-viral-vaccines.html Medical research Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:00:01 EST news280685328 (Medical Xpress)—For the first time, researchers from the Laboratoire biotechnologie et signalisation cellulaire at the Strasbourg-based Ecole supérieure de biotechnologie (CNRS/Université de Strasbourg) and Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire (CNRS/Université de Strasbourg/Inserm) have solved the three-dimensional structure of an important oncoprotein involved in cell proliferation and in the development of the human papilloma virus (HPV). Type 16 (HPV 16), which causes cervical cancer, is the most dangerous of human papilloma viruses. This work, published in Science on 8 February 2013, should make it possible to identify and improve medication to block the protein and prevent it from causing tumors. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-cervical-cancer-d-image-hpv.html Cancer Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:40:02 EST news280142866 A new study about Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a leading cause of birth defects, reveals how the virus co-opts cells' abilities to repair themselves. In the paper published on November 29 in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens, O'Dowd et al. describe their utilization of a novel technique for the simultaneous evaluation of both the viral and host genomes in an infected cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-hcmv-techniques-preferential-viral-genome.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 29 Nov 2012 17:39:20 EST news273433147 Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made a major advance in understanding how flu viruses replicate within infected cells. The researchers used cutting-edge molecular biology and electron-microscopy techniques to "see" one of influenza's essential protein complexes in unprecedented detail. The images generated in the study show flu virus proteins in the act of self-replication, highlighting the virus's vulnerabilities that are sure to be of interest to drug developers. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-elusive-replication-machinery-flu-viruses.html Medical research Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:00:13 EST news272810332 For the first time, researchers have landed on a potential diagnostic method to identify at least a subset of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a complex disorder with no known definitive cause or cure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-discovery-faster-diagnosis-chronic-fatigue.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 14 Nov 2012 18:10:01 EST news272130099 (Medical Xpress)—Biologists at UC San Diego have unraveled the anti-viral mechanism of a human gene that may explain why some people infected with HIV have much higher amounts of virus in their bloodstreams than others. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-discovery-hiv-positive-patients-virus.html HIV & AIDS Mon, 24 Sep 2012 07:10:48 EST news267689428 Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, have determined the detailed 3-dimensional structure of part of the flu virus' RNA polymerase, an enzyme that is crucial for influenza virus replication. This important finding is published today in PLoS Pathogens. The research was done on the 2009 pandemic influenza strain but it will help scientists to design innovative drugs against all the different influenza strains, and potentially lead to a new class of anti-flu drugs in the next 5-10 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-cap-snatcher-analysis-anti-influenza-drugs.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:47:19 EST news263148430 One of the challenges to HIV vaccine development has been the lack of an animal model that accurately reflects the human immune response to the virus and how the virus evolves to evade that response. In the July 18 issue of Science Translational Medicine, researchers from the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), MIT and Harvard report that a model created by transplanting elements of the human immune system into an immunodeficient mouse addresses these key issues and has the potential to reduce significantly the time and costs required to test candidate vaccines. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-animal-replicates-human-immune-response.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:00:01 EST news261824850 Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have developed and tested in mice a synthetic vaccine and found it effective in killing human papillomavirus-derived cancer, a virus linked to cervical cancers among others. The research was published in a recent issue of Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-anti-cancer-vaccine.html Cancer Fri, 08 Jun 2012 18:06:13 EST news258397553 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. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-small-molecular-bodyguards-hpv-infected-cancer.html Medical research Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:12:08 EST news254664654 Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have identified a regulator protein that plays a crucial role in kidney fibrosis, a condition that leads to kidney failure. Finding this regulator provides a new therapeutic target for the millions of Americans affected by kidney failure. The research is published in the March 11 issue of Nature Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-drug-kidney-disease.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:00:18 EST news250690864 Vaccinating children annually against influenza virus interferes with their development of cross-reactive killer T cells to flu viruses generally, according to a paper in the November Journal of Virology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-annual-childhood-flu-vaccines-crossresistance.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 17 Nov 2011 09:50:02 EST news240741182 Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which are active against a whole range of bacterial pathogens, have been on the market for a long time. Comparably versatile drugs to treat viral diseases, on the other hand, have remained elusive. Using a new approach, research teams led by Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of LMU Munich and Professor Christian Drosten from the University of Bonn have identified a compound that inhibits the replication of several different viruses, including the highly aggressive SARS virus that is responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-strategy-stymies-sars-versatile-inhibitor.html Medical research Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:03:28 EST news239025794 A new study shows for the first time that natural killer (NK) cells, which are part of the body's first-line defence against infection, can contribute to the immune response against HIV. In an article in the August 4 issue of Nature, a research team based at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard reports that the HIV strains infecting individuals with particular receptor molecules on their NK cells had variant forms of key viral proteins, implying that the virus had mutated to avoid NK cell activity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-natural-killer-cells-contribute-immune.html HIV & AIDS Wed, 03 Aug 2011 13:00:04 EST news231594168 In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, a once-rare form of cancer known as Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) emerged as a frequent harbinger of HIV. Its stigma was best illustrated by Tom Hanks, who portrayed a gay man trying to conceal the cancerous skin lesions from his co-workers in the 1993 movie "Philadelphia." http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-fsu-scientist-aids-related-cancer.html HIV & AIDS Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:02:42 EST news226317733