Immunology

Solving HIV Mutation Issues By Targeting HERV With Vaccines

Researchers at UCSF and the University of Toronto have identified a potential new way of fighting against HIV infection that relies on the remnants of ancient viruses, human endogenous retroviruses (HERV), which have become part of the genome of every huma ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2007 - 12:39pm

Genetic Lineage Of Ebola Virus Discovered In Great Apes

Since its discovery 30 years ago, Ebolavirus has struck repeatedly in several epidemics breaking out mainly in Central Africa. Gorillas and chimpanzees are also victims of the violent haemorrhagic fever attacks the virus triggers. With the aim of understan ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 12 2007 - 12:13pm

Study: Binge Drinking By Pregnant Women Doesn't Harm The Baby

There is little substantive evidence that binge drinking while pregnant seriously harms the developing fetus, finds a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Consistently heavy drinking throughout pregnancy has been associated with birth ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2007 - 11:26pm

USA: Vaccine-Preventable Diseases At All-Time Low

A comparison of illness and death rates for 13 vaccine-preventable diseases in the U.S., before and after use of the vaccine, indicates there have been significant decreases in the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths for each of the diseases exami ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2007 - 1:03pm

Rebuilding The Evolutionary History Of HIV-1 Unravels A Complex Loop

An essential component of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) molecular machinery responsible for infecting cells consists of functionally-specialized layers, according to a study by investigators at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Antiv ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 22 2007 - 7:30am

A Mathematical Explanation For Precision Of Inherited "Time Bomb" Diseases

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute have proposed a mechanism which explains the precision of prognoses for trinucleotide repeat diseases and say it may lead researchers in the direction of a possible prevention or cure. Based on the literature on some tw ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 22 2007 - 12:30am

A Day Full Of Red Ribbons

In two days, December 1st, the media all over the world will be filled again with those pretty red ribbons, at the edge of a newspaper, on the corner of the TV screen, beside the logo of major websites. It is that special day of every year that many people ...

Article - Harris Georgiou - Nov 29 2007 - 7:51am

Amyloid Fibrils In Semen 'Drastically' Enhances HIV Infection

A plentiful ingredient found in human semen drastically enhances the ability of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to cause infection, according to a report in the journal Cell. The findings help to understand the sexual transmission of HIV and suggest ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 13 2007 - 9:30am

Did Columbus Introduce Syphilis To Europe?

Did Columbus and his men introduce the syphilis pathogen into Renaissance Europe after contracting it during their voyage to the New World? Or does syphilis have a much longer history in the Old World? The most comprehensive comparative genetic analysis co ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 14 2008 - 9:25pm

Early Results Look Promising In Malaria Vaccine Trial

Malaria is a leading killer in Africa and other developing countries, claiming more than 1 million lives each year, most of them children. A small clinical trial conducted by an international team of researchers in Mali has found that a candidate malaria v ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 23 2008 - 9:31am