SAN FRANCISCO, CA — October 10, 2010 — Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) have found that an enzyme associated with the storage of fat in the liver is required for the infectious activity of the hepatitis C vir…
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Rutgers researchers have discovered how HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, resists AZT, a drug widely used to treat AIDS.
The scientists, who report their findings in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, believe their di…
A team of Welsh scientists have successfully cloned a human virus offering new hope for the treatment of potentially life-threatening diseases.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a major infectious cause of congenital malformations worldwide. The vi…
AMARILLO — A microscopic look into the genes of a Colorado wheat variety has allowed Texas AgriLife Research scientists to identify a wheat streak mosaic virus-resistance gene.
Wheat streak mosaic virus is one of the most common wheat viruses fo…
New studies show that treatments targeting specific viral genes protected monkeys infected with deadly Ebola or Marburg viruses. Furthermore, the animals were protected even when therapeutics were administered one hour after exposure — suggesting t…
SALT LAKE CITY — Following up a pioneering 2007 proof-of-concept study, a University of Utah biochemist and colleagues have developed a promising new anti-HIV drug candidate, PIE12-trimer, that prevents HIV from attacking human cells.
Michael S…
The SARS virus is contagious enough to cause a very large epidemic if left unchecked, but could nonetheless be controlled with rigorous public health measures, two research teams report. These results are being released today by the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
At about 4 a.m. this morning, scientists at the BC Cancer Agency’s Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre completed the first publicly available draft sequence for a coronavirus implicated in SARS. “This is a huge step forward in the fight to control the spread of SARS,” says Dr. Caroline Astell, projects leader at the Genome Sciences Centre. Since receiving 1 millionth of a gram of purified viral genetic material from Dr. Frank Plummer at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, relayed by the BC Centre for Disease Control, scientists at the Genome Sciences Centre have worked around the clock to complete the sequence, using both molecular techniques and state-of-the-art laboratory automation.
A close relative of a common little-understood human virus that causes an estimated 23 million episodes of intestinal illness, 50,000 hospitalizations and 300 deaths each year has been discovered in mice. The finding by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is reported in the March 7 issue of the journal Science. Discovery of the new virus, known as murine norovirus 1 (MNV-1), may lead to a better understanding of its disease-causing cousins known as Norwalk viruses, or human noroviruses (HNVs). HNVs cause 90 percent of epidemic viral gastroenteritis worldwide, including those that sweep through cruise ships, nursing homes and military encampments causing debilitating diarrhea and vomiting.
The 2002 outbreak of phocine distemper virus, or PDV, in European harbor seals may reduce the population by more than half and that future outbreaks with similar characteristics would significantly increase the risk of population declines. Their findings are the first epidemiological data reported on the 2002 outbreak, which is still underway, and may help predict the recurrence of the outbreaks and the impact on the long-term growth and survival of the European harbor seal population.