Scientists Find Clues to Neutralizing Coronaviruses Such as MERS
March 2nd 2016When the respiratory illness SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) emerged in 2003, it killed at least 775 people before it was contained. Nine years later, MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) began circulating in the human population-and has gone on to have a 36 percent case fatality rate.
Researchers Discover Expansion of Lone Star Ticks in Kansas
March 2nd 2016Climate change may have a new way of getting under your skin. Researchers in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University have validated a model showing growth in Kansas for the habitat of the troublesome lone star tick. Previously thought only to live in the eastern third of the state, computational modeling and live specimens have revealed the existence of these ticks as far west as Colby, which is only 55 miles from the Colorado state line.
Cholera-like Disease is 'Piggybacking' on El Nino to Reach New Shores
March 2nd 2016New research just published has highlighted how El Niño could be transporting and spreading waterborne diseases like cholera thousands of miles, across oceans, with significant impacts for public health. The study, published in the journal Nature Microbiology from a team of international researchers in the UK and U.S., explores how the arrival of new and devastating Vibrio diseases in Latin America has concurred in both time and space with significant El Niño events.
Neutrophils 'Vacuum' Microbes Away From the Brain
March 1st 2016Researchers from the University of Maryland, College Park, and Nanjing Medical University, China, have discovered a new way that white blood cells (neutrophils) defend our brains from infection -- they move the microbes from our brains' blood vessels or vasculature so they can be disposed elsewhere instead of just killing them at the site of infection. The final version of the report appears in the March 2016 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "We hope our study opens a new field by using in vivo imaging to investigate how white blood cells interact with microbes in the brain, providing the scientific basis for targeting white blood cells as preventive and therapeutic interventions in brain infections," says Meiqing Shi, DVM, PhD, a researcher involved in the work from the Division of Immunology, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.To make their discovery, the University of Maryland and Nanjing Medical University scientists used a form of microscopy, known as intravital microscopy, to visualize in mice the dynamic interactions of neutrophils with C. neoformans arrested in the brain microvasculature. This process enabled the observance of events in real time in living animals. They found that a therapeutic strategy aimed at enhancing the accumulation of neutrophils could help prevent cryptococcal meningoencephalitis. "New technologies, including the ability to microscopically visualize and watch the behavior of germs and immune cells in living tissues, are revolutionizing our understanding of infections and other diseases," says John Wherry, PhD, deputy Eeitor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. "These new studies that demonstrate the ability to neutrophils to move dangerous germs away from the brain makes us rethink the coordination in the immune response since these cells were previously thought to simply be soldiers killing germs wherever they found them."Reference: Mingshun Zhang, Donglei Sun, Gongguan Liu, Hui Wu, Hong Zhou, and Meiqing Shi. Real-time in vivo imaging reveals the ability of neutrophils to remove Cryptococcus neoformans directly from the brain vasculature. J. Leukoc. Biol. 99:467-473; doi:10.1189/jlb.4AB0715-281RSource: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Case Study: St. Mary's Goes the Distance to Protect Patients
March 1st 2016This case study explores how St. Mary's Health Care System in Athens, Ga. was the first healthcare institution in northeast Georgia to use UV light to treat high-utilization areas as an adjunct strategy to drive down their rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
Capsule Shedding: A New Bacterial Pathway That Promotes Invasive Disease
February 29th 2016St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have identified an enzyme that acts early in pneumococcal infections to promote bacterial survival and invasive disease by removing the bacteria's capsule. The research appears today in the scientific journal Nature Communications.