Improving HIV treatment in children and adolescents — the right way
Globally, around 2.6 million children and adolescents are currently living with HIV, the majority of them in Africa. These young people are much more likely to experience treatment failure than adults. Experts long assumed that testing for viral drug resistance could improve treatment in cases where treatment has failed. However, a research team led by […]
Autoantibodies behind lifelong risk of viral infections
A new study shows that about two percent of the population develop autoantibodies against type 1 interferons, mostly later in life. This makes individuals more susceptible to viral diseases like COVID-19. The study, conducted by UZH researchers together with a USZ team, is based on an analysis of a large collection of historical blood samples. […]
Llama nanobodies: A breakthrough in building HIV immunity
A research team at Georgia State University has developed tiny, potent molecules that are capable of targeting hidden strains of HIV. The source? Antibody genes from llama DNA. The research, led by Assistant Professor of Biology Jianliang Xu, uses llama-derived nanobodies to broadly neutralize numerous strains of HIV-1, the most common form of the virus. […]
Cirrhosis affects twice as many transgender adults as cisgender adults, study finds
Cirrhosis is chronic, progressive end-stage liver disease that occurs when scar tissue prevents the liver from functioning normally. Studies have shown that two of the leading causes of cirrhosis — alcohol use disorder and viral hepatitis — occur more frequently in transgender individuals, but there has been little research examining if these risk factors translate […]
Advancing toward a preventative HIV vaccine
A major challenge in developing a vaccine for HIV is that the virus mutates fast — very fast. Although a person initially becomes infected with one or a few HIV strains, the virus replicates and mutates quickly, resulting in a “swarm” of viral strains existing in a single body. But scientists at Scripps Research; IAVI; […]
Researchers take step toward development of universal COVID-19 antibodies
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, continues to evolve and evade current vaccine and therapeutic interventions. A consortium of scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed), the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Columbia University have developed a promising new human monoclonal antibody that appears a step closer to a universal antibody […]
Novel vaccine concept generates immune responses that could produce multiple types of HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies
Using a combination of cutting-edge immunologic technologies, researchers have successfully stimulated animals’ immune systems to induce rare precursor B cells of a class of HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs). The findings, published in Nature Immunology, are an encouraging, incremental step in developing a preventive HIV vaccine. HIV is genetically diverse making the virus difficult to […]
A trial HIV vaccine triggered elusive and essential antibodies in humans
An HIV vaccine candidate developed at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial. The finding, reported May 17 in the journal Cell, not only provides proof that a vaccine can elicit these antibodies […]
An active agent against hepatitis E
At present, there is no specific active substance against hepatitis E. As the disease kills 70,000 people every year, researchers are actively searching for one. The team from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, may have found what they’re looking for. The researchers showed that the compound K11777 prevents […]
GPS-like system shows promise as HIV vaccine strategy to elicit critical antibodies
A team led by the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) has developed a vaccine approach that works like a GPS, guiding the immune system through the specific steps to make broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. Publishing in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the study describes an approach that provides step-by-step directions for the immune […]
