Could new flu spark global flu pandemic? New bird flu strain seen adapting to mammals, humans
A genetic analysis of the avian flu virus responsible for at least nine human deaths in China portrays a virus evolving to adapt to human cells, raising concern about its potential to spark a new global flu pandemic.
For the first time, complete lab-grown kidneys have been successfully transplanted into rats, filtering and discharging urine as a normal kidney would.
There’s a lot of urgent work to do, according to scientists in far-flung labs, who also got samples of the virus at the end of last week.
In fact, the urgency increased this weekend with the discovery that a 7-year-old girl in Beijing fell ill with this new bird flu last Thursday. She was the daughter of poultry sellers, and contact with poultry may be the way many people have become infected.
She’s reportedly in stable condition, but the fact that the virus has begun to sicken people nearly 700 miles from the epidemic’s epicenter in Shanghai is a strong signal that the virus will not be contained to one region of China — and perhaps not to China.
” Scientists Race To Stay Ahead Of New Bird Flu Virus
Which flu? from Information is Beautiful
An open letter to my dad on the occasion of his recent anti-vax Facebook postings by Tara C. Smith
…So, we’re agreed that vaccines are potential money-makers for pharmaceutical companies (though, comparatively, not a lot). Let’s look now at those who started the most recent iteration of vaccine panic, including Andrew Wakefield. Wakefield is the British doctor whose study first drew an association between the measles/mumps/rubella (“MMR”) vaccine and autism. Except, first of all, it really didn’t if you look at the original article. And, you might note that article has a big “RETRACTED” notice at the top. This means that the journal took away its support of the paper–it shows that it never should have been published. That’s because, for that study and several others, Wakefield lied about data, unethically recruited test subjects, and/or just outright made shit up. Why might he do this? Well, a British lawyer had paid him to find evidence of this connection between MMR and autism, so that the lawyer could sue on behalf of the parents. Oh, and did I mention that Wakefield stood to make money for a replacement for the MMR vaccine as well? Follow the money indeed–though in this case, it didn’t lead to the pharmaceutical companies. Wakefield was tried in England and stripped of his medical license, but has since moved to the United States and still spreads misinformation about vaccines.
What about other anti-vaccine players? Jenny McCarthy has made millions selling books about how she “cured” her son Evan of his autism. Joseph Mercola makes millions selling dietary supplements (untested and largely unregulated, by the way), and lives in a two million dollar mansion. I know you’ve criticized creationists; well, these people are the creationists of the medical field. They distort, they cherry-pick their evidence, and they cause the public to lose confidence in credentialed scientists because of their writings. Credentialed scientists like myself, who carry out the vast majority of this research but certainly don’t live in million-dollar homes.
Potential Map to More Effective HIV Vaccine
“This project could only have been carried out by a multidisciplinary team working closely together,” said Haynes, who led the work as a project of the Duke Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology-Immunogen Discovery (CHAVI-ID) consortium, which is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “For the first time, we have mapped not only the evolutionary pathway of the antibody, but also the evolutionary pathway of the virus, defining the sequence of events involved that induce the broadly neutralizing antibodies.”
The key to this finding was a person in Africa whose HIV infection was detected so early that the virus had not yet mutated to avoid the immune assault. The individual also exhibited a fortuitous trait that occurs in only about 20 percent of people infected with HIV — an immune system that produces broadly neutralizing antibodies. These immune weapons attack vulnerable sites of the virus that are conserved despite mutations. In identifying the early viral infection, the team found the outer envelope, the viral surface glycoprotein, which triggered the start of the broadly neutralizing antibody development.
By tracking the precise virus and antibody pathways involved, the Duke CHAVI-ID and NIH teams now have a detailed road map for development of a potential vaccine, which involves immunogens with an outer envelope specifically selected to stimulate the production of broadly neutralizing antibodies.
“The next step is to use that information to make sequential viral envelopes and test them as experimental vaccines,” Haynes said. “This is a process of discovery and we’ve come a long way with regard to understanding what the problem has been.”
Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis A Rising Threat
Without expanded treatment and funding, the global fight against tuberculosis could decline - an alarming threat - the World Health Organization (WHO) warned yesterday.
A virus that can steal its host’s immune system
…Tufts University researchers recently uncovered an adaptation they could only describe as “remarkable”: a virus that captures its host’s immune system, which it then uses for an ensuing attack.
The study, which now appears in Nature, is the first to ever show that a virus, in this case a bacteriophage (or just “phage”), can acquire a fully functional and adaptive immune system. It’s a discovery that threatens to complicate the debate over whether viruses are a form of life or simply complex streams of DNA or RNA.
Can genetically modified mosquitoes prevent disease in the US?
A British company, Oxitec, has come up with a plan to control the bugs and combat dengue fever. Its scientists have designed genetically modified mosquitoes that have one mission - to kill off the rest of their species.
But is the plan too radical for its own good? Read more…
New vaccine temporarily halts HIV
…The therapeutic vaccine, a shot that treats an existing disease rather than preventing it, was safe and led to a dramatic drop in the amount of the virus detected in some patients, said the study, published in Science Translation Medicine.
After 12 weeks of the trial, the HIV viral load dropped by more than 90% among 12 of the 22 patients who received the vaccine. Only one among the 11 patients who received a control injection without the vaccine experienced a similar result.
After 24 weeks, the effectiveness had begun to decline, however, with seven of the 20 remaining patients receiving the vaccine enjoying a similar 90% slump in viral load. No one in the control group of 10 patients experienced such a decline in the virus.
Molecule That Polices TB Lung Infection Discovered: Could Lead to Vaccine
For the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the researchers studied human TB-infected cells as well animal models of the disease. They found that granulomas that contain ectopic lymphoid structures, which resemble lymph nodes, are associated with effective suppression of TB, and that granulomas that don’t contain them are associated with active TB. They also learned that immune cells called T cells that had a surface marker molecule called CXCR5 were associated with the presence of ectopic lymphoid structures.
It’s akin to reporting a break-in, Dr. Khader said. If a person calls 911 because of a robbery, but doesn’t give a specific address, the immune system police could come to the neighborhood but don’t know for certain which home was invaded.
“The presence of CXCR5 provides a specific address for the infected cells that tells the immune cells where to focus their attention to contain the problem,” she explained. “That results in the formation of ectopic lymphoid structures and the protective granuloma that keeps TB infection under control, unlike in active disease. Without CXCR5, those structures did not form and active TB was more likely.”
Paranoia is a keystone in our government’s political policy of instilling fear to maintain a strong image in the war on terror. This policy has created an overblown fear of a massive terrorist attack with biological and chemical weapons.” Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure
Click through for the full story from Slate.
