Preschool bolsters early childhood immunity, reduces risk of young adult Hodgkin's lymphoma
... delayed infection with the prevalent Epstein-Barr virus were important predictors of Hodgkin's lymphoma in young adulthood. Because attending nursery school or day care favors earlier exposure to common childhood infections, the study supports the hypothesis that delayed infection increases the risk of y...Viral proteins may prevent bacterial infections
...s colleagues have identified a lytic enzyme from a virus that infects Bacillus anthracis, the bacterium that causes anthrax and are currently testing it in animals as an adjunct therapy against the disease. The hope is that the enzyme will eliminate enough bacteria from the blood after anthrax exposure to...U-M scientists find common virus in human prostate tissue
... called the human BK virus. Most of the time, the virus lurks quietly in the kidneys without causing probl...se who have just received a kidney transplant the virus can cause serious kidney and bladder disease. Now, new research by scientists at the University...Physics gravity model applicable to disease spread
... so rapidly, each year brings a slightly different virus to infect even those who have contracted previous ...ease that must be reported so data is spotty. The virus also mutates from year to year....Transcriptional gene silencing in nucleus shown by UCSD/VA medical researchers
...ression of a gene, such as those genes involved in virus infections such as HIV, as well as human cancers and certain genetic disorders." In continuing studies, the Looney lab and others in the country will investigate this new method's persistence within the human-cell nucleus, its successful targetin...JCI table of contents, 2 August, 2004
...nt of this disease. Infecting mice with a specific virus within the first 24 hours of life generates a pathology similar to that seen in humans with biliary atresia. The authors found that in infected mice, in contrast to uninfected mice, immune cells that produced interferon-gamma invaded the portal tract...'Smart gene therapy' protects against damage from heart attack
...y then inserted the gene construct into a harmless virus known as adeno-associated virus, whose job was to transport the therapeutic gene into the genetic material of the rat's cells. "We're trying to create a physiological on-off switch that will automatically turn on the therapeutic gene when ischemia ca...Study finds anti-HIV protein evolved millions of years before the emergence of AIDS
...E A protein that the body uses to attack the AIDS virus is actually a stealthy defense mechanism that evol...id. "This variability is influenced by the type of virus that infects a person as well as by the person's genetic makeup. Increasingly, human genes are being...Brookhaven lab biophysicist F. William Studier wins R&D 100 award
...arted his research on T7 a common bacteria-eating virus when he first joined Brookhaven Lab in 1964. "The T7 expression system came out of basic research," Studier said, "and the autoinduction system is also an application of basic knowledge. As so often happens, basic research led to useful applications...Gene therapy reaches muscles throughout the body and reverses muscular dystrophy in animal model
...ral vector, a specific type of an adeno-associated virus (AAV), which is able to 'home-in' on muscle cells and does not trigger an immune system response. The delivery system also includes use of a growth factor, VEGF, that appears to increase penetration into muscles of the gene therapy agent. Chamberlain...Children's Hospital Boston receives more than $10 million to help make smallpox vaccine safer
...severe skin infection caused by vaccinia, the live virus used in the smallpox vaccine. The risk of EV has b...had atopic dermatitis in the past. Also, since the virus in the smallpox vaccine is live, it can spread from contact with people who have been vaccinated." G...Yale scientists visualize details of how hepatitis C unwinds RNA
...s on an enzyme, helicase NS3, that unwinds the RNA virus for replication inside cells. NS3 is one member of an extensive family of helicases and is used as a model for studying unwinding activities of motor proteins. Their findings are particularly important because NS3 is a major drug target against HCV ...It's a no-brainer: Prepare for West Nile virus
Since West Nile virus is expected to be prominent again this summer - es...ng hospitalized patients in Toronto with West Nile virus (WNV), encephalitis was the most common neurological manifestation. More surprisingly, encephalitis ...Common therapy for HIV associated with cervical abnormality regression
Among women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a combination of antiretroviral drugs that helps boost the immune system is associated with the regression of a type of cervical abnormality that can eventually lead to cancer, according to a study in the July 21 issue of the Journal of the N...Researchers develop better understanding of immune response to viral infection
...ection with cytomegalovirus. Cells infected with a virus secrete substances called interferons. Interferon ...m infection by "interfering" with the ability of a virus to make more of itself. Interferon-producing cells (IPCs) are a very small subset of cells in the b...HIV reveals evolution of a primate defense against intragenomic infiltrators
...e one base (cytosine) with another (uracil) as the virus undergoes reverse transcription in the host cell's cytoplasm. The edited virus fails to replicate. HIV, in turn, generates a protein called Vif that binds to the APOBEC3G enzyme a...West Nile takes its toll on rare bird
West Nile virus has become a widespread human health concern, yet ...an other species but we do know that the West Nile virus could have devastating consequences for small populations," said Aldridge, a co-author on a research...Mapping the evolution of a virus
...ic and genetic evolution of the influenza A (H3N2) virus from its initial introduction into humans in 1968 ... 2003. The study resulted in a map that shows the virus evolved as a series of 11 closely related virus clusters as it has sought to elude human immunity ov...Researchers in UGA Vet School discover a mechanism that blocks replication of a retrovirus
...ess and cannot orchestrate production of infective virus particles. "Every sheep on the planet has endogen...se inhibitors, function only immediately after the virus infects a new cell....Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
...new means of improving immune responses to the flu virus vaccine. "During influenza epidemics, the...study young and old mice were administered the flu virus vaccine, after which some were treated with LT-IS for a period of eighteen hours. Both age groups s...