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With proof-of-principle in his pocket and a new $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), SLU scientist John Tavis, PhD, will take his 25 year mission to finally develop a cure for the hepatitis B virus into the next phase.

Scientists looking at the antiviral mechanisms of two previously identified human monoclonal antibodies have found they potently inhibit chikungunya virus (CHIKV) at multiple stages of infection. Funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, scientists at Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI) in San Francisco and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that neutralizing antibodies that engage epitopes including residue E2-W64 are highly potent at inhibiting the virus in mice, due to the importance of E2-W64 in pathogenicity. Furthermore, these antibodies prevent CHIKV from both entering and exiting cells, whereas prior studies of neutralizing antibodies to CHIKV and multiple other classes of viruses have focused on the capacity to block viruses from entering a cell. The research was published today in Cell Reports, an open-access journal from Cell Press.

Smallpox virus, which killed millions of humans through the ages, ranks among the world's most feared bioterrorism agents. In a new report, virologists from the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and their collaborators at Oklahoma State University demonstrate how poxviruses such as smallpox defeat the body's host immune defenses. The implications extend beyond viral infections to cancer therapy, says senior author Yan Xiang, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, UT Health Science Center.

Viruses that attack bacteria -- bacteriophages -- can be fussy: they only inject their genetic material into the bacteria that suit them. The fussiness of bacteriophages can be exploited in order to detect specific species of bacteria. Scientists from Warsaw have just demonstrated that bacteriophage-based biosensors will be much more efficient if prior to the deposition on the surface of the bacteriophage sensor their orientation is ordered in electric field.

When you get cold sores, the reason is likely related to stress. In particular, the neurons in which the herpes simplex virus (HSV) reside, are under stress. For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine discovered a cellular mechanism that allows the virus to reactivate. They also found how brain cells are duped into allowing bits of virus to escape the very repressive environment in neurons and cause disease.

Within weeks, flu will start spreading across North America, sickening millions of people. It will hit people with health problems and weak immune systems hardest, and may kill tens of thousands of them. Multiple national recommendations urge all healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination, to reduce the chances they will pass the virus on to their patients. But a new study finds that more than half of hospitals still don't require their doctors, nurses and other health care providers to get vaccinated against the flu -- despite the fact that they're in contact with the people most vulnerable to flu every day.