Achilles Heel Of Dengue Virus Identified, Offering Target For Future Vaccines
A team of scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University have pinpointed the region on dengue virus that is neutralized in people who overcome infection with the deadly pathogen. The results challenge the current state of dengue vaccine research, which is based on studies in mice and targets a different region of the virus. "In the past researchers have relied on mouse studies to understand how the immune system kills dengue virus and assumed that the mouse studies would apply to people as well, " said senior study author Aravinda M.
Hookworms And Allergies - Doctor Infects Himself For Experiment
In the first experiment of its kind to test the suggestion that hookworm infection can reduce some allergic responses, a UK doctor who specializes in medical entomology, infected himself with the parasite and then swallowed a pill camera to film the effect on his intestines. Dr James Logan, whose research group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) looks for new ways to control the insects that spread deadly diseases like malaria and dengue fever, agreed to infect himself with hookworm in his debut as a tropical disease expert for the TV show Embarrassing Bodies, a new series of which went out on Channel 4 in March.
Window Of Opportunity Discovered In Which To Prevent Cerebral Palsy
Researchers at the Perinatology Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health, located at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Detroit Medical Center, have demonstrated that a nanotechnology-based drug treatment in newborn rabbits with cerebral palsy (CP) enabled dramatic improvement of movement disorders and the inflammatory process of the brain that causes many cases of CP. The findings strongly suggest that there may be an opportunity immediately after birth for drug treatment that could minimize CP.