Disease/Infection News

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Novel Lipopeptide from Serratia marcescens Shows Promise Against Staphylococcus aureus Infections

A novel antibacterial lipopeptide produced by the bacterium Serratia marcescens has been shown to be highly effective in killing Staphylococcus aureus – one of the most important pathogens occurring in humans.

7 Jun 2024

Brain Organoids Emerge as Powerful Tool for Drug Discovery in Mitochondrial Disease

The use of brain organoids in screening for drugs against mitochondrial diseases, which have hitherto presented challenges in treatment.

4 Jun 2024

New Trojan Horse Virus Potentially Linked to Severe Toxoplasmosis

An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has found a new RNA virus that they believe is hitching a ride with a common human parasite.

3 Jun 2024

New Birnavirus Discovered in Pet Trade Zebrafish

Zebrafish in the pet trade are asymptomatic carriers of previously undescribed microbes, including a novel virus that causes hemorrhaging in infected laboratory fish, Marlen Rice from the University of Utah, US, and colleagues report in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, publishing May 23rd.

31 May 2024

Integrative genomic study identifies two new potential drug targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Researchers used existing whole genome sequences of M. tuberculosis and conducted a pangenomic analysis to identify potential drug targets.

28 May 2024

Study Reveals How tRNA Modification Influences Malaria Drug Resistance

Researchers from the Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), have discovered a link between malaria parasites’ ability to develop resistance to antimalarial drugs – specifically artemisinin (ART) – through a cellular process called transfer Ribonucleic acid (tRNA) modification.

20 May 2024

Herpes Gene Therapy Achieves 90% Viral Reduction in Pre-Clinical Studies

Researchers at Fred Hutch Cancer Center have found in pre-clinical studies that an experimental gene therapy for genital and oral herpes removed 90% or more of the infection and suppressed how much virus can be released from an infected individual, which suggests that the therapy would also reduce the spread of the virus.

16 May 2024

Harnessing High-Performance Computing to Unravel the Emergence of Novel Viruses

Suddenly they appear and - like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus - can trigger major epidemics: Viruses that nobody had on their radar.

14 May 2024

Herpesvirus Infection Reshapes Mitochondrial Architecture and Disrupts Metabolic Processes

Herpesvirus infection alters the host cell's mitochondria's normal structure and function, according to researchers from the University of Jyväskylä.

8 May 2024

New Insights into E. coli's UTI Survival Strategy

Due to anatomical peculiarities, women are particularly vulnerable to UTIs; nearly 50% of them will experience one at some point in their lives.

6 May 2024

Breakthrough RNA-Based Vaccine Strategy Offers Universal Protection

Scientists at UC Riverside have demonstrated a new, RNA-based vaccine strategy that is effective against any strain of a virus and can be used safely even by babies or the immunocompromised.

16 Apr 2024

Nasal Cells in Children Shield Against Severe COVID-19

Children usually have milder COVID-19 symptoms; this could be due to differences in how elderly and young people's nasal cells react to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

16 Apr 2024

Deciphering the Significance of m6A RNA Modification in HIV-1 Genome

A chemical modification in the HIV-1 RNA genome whose function has been a matter of scientific debate is now confirmed to be key to the virus's ability to survive and thrive after infecting host cells, a new study has found.

13 Apr 2024

SARS-CoV-2 Variants Detected in Flood-Control Channels Near Homeless Encampments

To better understand COVID-19's spread during the pandemic, public health officials expanded wastewater surveillance.

4 Apr 2024

Study may Provide a Roadmap for Addressing Cytokine Storms in Severe COVID-19

A recent USC study provides new information about why SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, may elicit mild symptoms at first but then, for a subset of patients, turn potentially fatal a week or so after infection.

1 Apr 2024

Avoiding Post-COVID ‘Brain Fog’

Memory loss and difficulties learning are two of the numerous perplexing symptoms in COVID-19 infected patients.

22 Mar 2024

New Cost-Effective RNA Sequencing Method for Legionella Detection

Legionnaires' disease (LD), a rare and severe type of pneumonia, is a respiratory infection caused by species of Legionella bacteria.

22 Mar 2024

Decoding the Dynamics of Multiple Sclerosis Lesions

Scientists in Sweden were able to uncover the molecular mechanisms behind the development of lesions in multiple sclerosis by employing sophisticated techniques. The latest findings are detailed in the journal Cell by a team of researchers from Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University.

21 Mar 2024

Latest CRISPR-Cas Gene Editing Can Eliminate All Traces of HIV Virus From Infected Cells

New research presented early ahead of this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2024, Barcelona, 27-30 April) from a team of researchers in the Netherlands shows how the latest CRISPR-Cas gene editing technology can be used to eliminate all traces of the HIV virus from infected cells in the laboratory, raising hopes of a cure.

20 Mar 2024

Drug Candidates Show Promise to Reverse HIV's Ability to Escape Immune System Detection

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have identified drug candidates that show promise to reverse the ability of HIV to escape detection by the immune system.