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When new AIDS virus particles bud from an infected cell, an enzyme named protease activates to help the viruses mature and infect more cells. That's why modern AIDS drugs control the disease by inhibiting protease. Now, University of Utah researchers found a way to turn protease into a double-edged sword: They showed that if they delay the budding of new HIV particles, protease itself will destroy the virus instead of helping it spread. They say that might lead, in about a decade, to new kinds of AIDS drugs with fewer side effects.

Once inside the human body, infectious microbes like Salmonella face a fluid situation. They live in a watery world, surrounded by liquid continually flowing over and abrading their cell surfaces--a property known as fluid shear. In new research appearing in the Nature Publishing Group journal npj Microgravity, Cheryl Nickerson, PhD, and her colleagues explore the effects of physiological fluid shear on ST313--a particularly dangerous type of Salmonella, which is resistant to multiple antibiotics and currently ravaging regions of sub-Saharan Africa.

The mosquitoes known as Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus transmit arboviruses that are increasing threats to human health in the Americas, particularly dengue, chikungunya, and Zika viruses. Therefore, accurate and up-to-date information for the geographical ranges of these mosquitoes have been urgently needed to guide surveillance and enhance control capacity for these mosquitoes.

Can you use the “ick factor” to get healthcare workers to clean their hands more often? Yes, according to a new study being presented on June 11 at the 43rd Annual Conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).