News

Despite decades of malaria research, the disease still afflicts hundreds of millions and kills around half a million people each year -- most of them children in tropical regions. Part of the problem is that the malaria parasite is a shape-shifter, making it hard to target. But another part of the problem is that even the parasite's proteins that could be used as vaccines are unstable at tropical temperatures and require complicated, expensive cellular systems to produce them in large quantities. Unfortunately, the vaccines are most needed in areas where refrigeration is lacking and funds to buy vaccines are scarce. A new approach developed at the Weizmann Institute of Science, recently reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), could, in the future, lead to an inexpensive malaria vaccine that can be stored at room temperature.

Researchers in Germany have developed a transgenic mouse that could help scientists identify new influenza virus strains with the potential to cause a global pandemic. The mouse is described in a study, “In vivo evasion of MxA by avian influenza viruses requires human signature in the viral nucleoprotein,” that will be published April 10 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Humans, like most non-human primates, are social beings and profit in many respects from the benefits of a community. However, their closeness to conspecifics is an opportunity for pathogens and parasites to infect new hosts. It is therefore advantageous to avoid sick individuals. Scientists including Clémence Poirotte from the German Primate Center investigated how mandrills, an Old World monkey species inhabiting equatorial rainforests of Gabon, recognize conspecifics infected with intestinal parasites and avoid an infection. The monkeys are able to smell an infected group member and consequently groom them less than healthy individuals. This component of the "behavioral immune system" of mandrills plays a crucial role in the co-evolution of host and parasite (Science Advances 2017).

Rutgers University scientists have determined the three-dimensional structure of the target of the first-line anti-tuberculosis drug rifampin. They have also discovered a new class of potential anti-tuberculosis drugs that kill rifampin-resistant and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria.

In 2015, more than 20,000 cases of whooping cough were identified in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that there are 16 million pertussis cases worldwide.

Synthetic biologists at Rice University have engineered gut bacteria capable of sensing colitis, an inflammation of the colon, in mice. The research points the way to new experiments for studying how gut bacteria and human hosts interact at a molecular level and could eventually lead to orally ingestible bacteria for monitoring gut health and disease.

Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have found that an experimental treatment cured 100 percent of guinea pigs and rhesus monkeys in late stages of infection with lethal levels of Marburg and Ravn viruses, relatives of the Ebola virus. Although the Marburg and Ravn viruses are less familiar than Ebola virus, both can resemble Ebola in symptoms and outcomes in people, and both lack preventive and therapeutic countermeasures.

A University of British Columbia-developed system that uses bacteria to turn non-potable water into drinking water will be tested next week in West Vancouver prior to being installed in remote communities in Canada and beyond. The system consists of tanks of fiber membranes that catch and hold contaminants--dirt, organic particles, bacteria and viruses--while letting water filter through. A community of beneficial bacteria, or biofilm, functions as the second line of defense, working in concert to break down pollutants.

Zika virus is the first virus known to be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and through sex with an infected person. Over the course of 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO), along with the global research community, quickly built evidence that Zika virus transmission through sex was not only possible, but more common than previously assumed.  But many questions still remain unanswered: How long does the virus stay in the body? Could the virus remain dormant in a person and reappear at a later stage? WHO is coordinating a research study in Brazil, called ZikaBra, to address these questions. The answers will help WHO sharpen its recommendations on how best to prevent Zika virus infection.