Feature Channels: Infectious Diseases

• share
• favorite_border

Influenza A is one of two influenza viruses that fuel costly annual flu seasons and is a near constant threat to humans and many other animals. It’s also responsible for occasional pandemics that, like the one in 1918, leave millions dead and wreak havoc on health systems and wider society. Influenza A was first identified as a health threat nearly a century ago, but only in the last decade have scientists identified one of the virus’s key proteins for infiltrating host cells and short-circuiting their defenses.

• share
• favorite_border

A laboratory at the Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) has been issued a major grant to repurpose drugs to combat non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), an emerging family of germs naturally found in soil and water and which can be deadly to those with compromised immune systems and pre-existing lung diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Wistar hosts its 27th Jonathan Lax Memorial Lecture Thursday, June 29th at 5:30 pm EST.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Later this summer, staff members at Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital will spring into action when a pretend patient comes to the Emergency Department with symptoms of a virus like Ebola, one of the deadliest, most infectious diseases on the planet.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified several steps in a cellular process responsible for triggering one of the body’s important inflammatory responses. Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Immunology, open up possibilities for modulating the type of inflammation associated with several infections and inflammatory diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

New research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigations confirms that microglial cells – which are specialized immune cells with a decade-long lifespan in the brain - can serve as a stable viral reservoir for latent HIV.

• share
• favorite_border

A Penn State Health infectious diseases physician and researcher shares his insights about the various health risks from the blacklegged tick, also known as the deer tick.

• share
• favorite_border

As we enter the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere and the possibility of extreme heat becomes more common, it’s important to stay up-to-date on the science of heat waves and take measures to protect ourselves from this growing public health threat.

• share
• favorite_border

UT Southwestern Medical Center and its William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital have been named an Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), recognizing a commitment to reducing infections caused by antimicrobial resistance.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the UNC School of Medicine’s International Center for the Advancement of Translational Science and the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases have developed a new approach for the detailed evaluation of HIV infection throughout the entire male genital tract, HIV acquisition via the penis and the efficient prevention of penile HIV infection. The study was published in mBio by the American Society of Microbiology.

• share
• favorite_border

This study is expected to generate critical evidence about the rise and expansion of drug-resistant parasites in Ethiopia. Results will help policymakers and advance malaria elimination efforts in Ethiopia and beyond.

• share
• favorite_border

Biologists have identified a previously unknown way that our immune system detects viruses. The immune protein CARD8 acts as a trip wire to detect a range of viruses, including the virus that causes COVID. They also found that CARD8 functions differently among species and varies between humans.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at The University of Queensland have discovered viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can cause brain cells to fuse, initiating malfunctions that lead to chronic neurological symptoms.

• share
• favorite_border

In Europe, the pandemic triggered in 2020 by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is now largely under control. But why this virus is able to spread so efficiently remains unclear. A team of researchers led by Dr. Simone Backes, Dr. Gerti Beliu and Prof. Dr. Markus Sauer of the Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg (JMU) has now shown in a publication in "Angewandte Chemie" that some previous assumptions need to be reconsidered.

• share
• favorite_border

A research consortium, including a Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine neuroscientist and his research coordinator, are calling for a consensus on how scientists identify and evaluate how infections contribute to or cause cognitive impairment and dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study has uncovered evidence of a “coupling” mechanism between the malaria parasite and its human host, which could one day lead to new treatments for a disease that claims the life of a child under age 5 every minute.

• share
• favorite_border

Especially after the last few COVID-affected years, nobody doubts that emerging infectious diseases can threaten the whole world. But humans are not the only ones at risk! With intensive global trade, many tree parasites are accidently introduced to Europe in packaging or directly on goods. Traveling in the wood, on plants or in the soil of their pots, they can remain undetected for a long time.

• share
• favorite_border

New Olin Business School research demonstrates the effectiveness of partisan cues in a COVID-19 vaccination video ad campaign.A large-scale study to see if politically partisan cues can induce people to get COVID-19 vaccines found that, yes, they can.

• share
• favorite_border

A successful long-term experiment with live hogs indicates Nebraska scientists may be another step closer to achieving a safe, long-lasting and potentially universal vaccine against swine flu.

• share
• favorite_border

A new paper in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health makes the case that pandemic prevention requires a global taboo whereby humanity agrees to leave bats alone—to let them have the habitats they need, undisturbed.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists from the National University of Singapore have invented a powerful tool that captures data on immune cell response at a single-cell level. This groundbreaking technique will accelerate the discovery of new immunotherapies to treat diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients infected with beta and delta COVID-19 variants, and those who required hospital stays for COVID-19 infection, were more likely to experience heart issues associated with long COVID, according to a recent study published in the European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging. Patients recovering from the omicron variant were least likely to have microvascular involvement. The study also found that microvascular dysfunction started to be seen less often after nine months to one year following infection suggesting that this type of abnormality may be reversible.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital found key “on” switch, NLRP12, for innate immune cell death in diseases that cause red blood cells to rupture, which can lead to inflammation and multi-organ failure.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology show that T cells can recognize several different viral targets, called "antigens," shared between most coronaviruses, including common cold coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2. They also looked more in-depth at what fragments of these antigens, called “epitopes,” are recognized and how conserved they are across different coronaviruses.

• share
• favorite_border

Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. If you’re covering the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, June 2-6 in Chicago, Illinois, see our list of Fred Hutch research highlights at ASCO and contact [email protected] to set up interviews with experts.

• share
• favorite_border

Sixty per cent of roughly 1,600 Canadians who took part in a new McGill University study say their lifestyle habits either stayed the same or improved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• share
• favorite_border

A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has identified how the influenza A virus manages to penetrate cells to infect them.

• share
• favorite_border

La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) is pleased to welcome biophysicist and immune system researcher Tal Einav, Ph.D., to the Institute’s faculty. His laboratory at LJI will develop new tools in computational biology and shed light on how human antibodies neutralize deadly viruses.

• share
• favorite_border

Study suggests person-to-person transmission may not be the dominant mode of infection for an aggressive lung pathogen. Findings shed light on the behavior and mutation tendencies of a little-known microbe. The results should ease fears that the lung bacterium poses a grave threat for spread between individuals with compromised lung function who are waiting for lung transplants.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered H5N1 avian influenza viruses gained the ability to cause severe disease and target the brain in mammals as they spread across North America.