ViroBlogy

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

In 2009, researchers reported that an AIDS vaccine had for the first time protected people against HIV. Since then, the researchers have been wondering, How did it work?

AIDS researchers have only been able to guess at what these critical weapons against HIV could be, which is partly why their efforts to create a vaccine have thus far been marked by a long line of failed attempts. But when the RV144 trial in Thailand showed promise in 2009, scientists finally had something to work with. The vaccine was only modestly effective — protecting just 31% of heterosexual adults from infection — especially compared with inoculations against other common infectious agents like measles or mumps, which are 95% to 98% effective. But it was a start.

Ummmmm…yes.  Well – sort of.  The vaccine was only marginally effective, and my opinion is that it may not have very much to say to us at all.

Via healthland.time.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

A naturally-occurring harmless human virus may be able to boost the effects of two standard chemotherapy drugs in some cancer patients, according to early stage trial data published in Clinical Cancer Research.

RT3D, trade name Reolysin, is a new drug developed by Oncolytics Biotech Inc with preclinical and clinical studies conducted at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and The Royal Marsden Hospital. It is based on a virus (reovirus type 3 Dearing) that is found in almost all adults’ respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts without causing any symptoms.

Reoviruses rule….

Via www.medicalnewstoday.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

For the past 10–15 years, bats have attracted growing attention as reservoirs of emerging zoonotic viruses. This has been due to a combination of factors including the emergence of highly virulent zoonotic pathogens, such as Hendra, Nipah, SARS and Ebola viruses, and the high rate of detection of a large number of previously unknown viral sequences in bat specimens.

Via www.sciencedirect.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

Opinion: The Risk of Forgoing Vaccines |…

“Given the direct benefit to the individual of immunity against disease, vaccination, is not completely altruistic. However, immunization provides a significant benefit to society. One can liken a human newborn, or a person who cannot get vaccinated, to a vulnerable bird with ticks on the top of its head. As individuals, we cannot fully protect these people from infectious disease, and instead we rely on herd immunity. If society is made up mostly of “suckers” that have expended the energy and cost to get vaccinated, then the vulnerable will be protected due to the absence or reduction of disease transmission. But if a significant percentage of individuals decides against vaccination, for one reason or another, we may lose herd immunity, and infectious disease will spread.”

I cannot get over how stupid some people can be.  I certainly won’t let their children play with my children – they might benefit from a herd imunity they are not entitled to.

Via the-scientist.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

The safety, stability, and ability for repeat homologous vaccination makes the DNA vaccine platform an excellent candidate for an effective HIV-1 vaccine. However, the immunogenicity of early DNA vaccines did not translate from small animal models into larger non-human primates and was markedly lower than viral vectors. In addition to improvements to the DNA vector itself, delivery with electroporation, the inclusion of molecular adjuvants, and heterologous prime-boost strategies have dramatically improved the immunogenicity of DNA vaccines for HIV and currently makes them a leading platform with many areas warranting further research and clinical development.

Nice review – even if they don’t mention our extended HIV vaccine group’s work once…ah, the imperialism inherent in HIV vaccine research!

Via www.sciencedirect.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

Map of the latest alerts on infectious disease around the world…

Houston rabies case poses new questions about age-old illness
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At the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], she’s called the “Texas wild child.” She was a 17-year-old who had run away from home when she walked into a Houston hospital with a fever and puzzling neurological symptoms. Her name is veiled by medical privacy laws, as is the identity of her family back in Missouri; exactly how she was exposed to the virus that sickened her 3 years ago is a mystery. Where she is now, no one seems to know. Her disappearance is part of one of the area’s most intriguing medical mysteries: The CDC says she is the only known person in the US to survive rabies after the onset of clinical symptoms, and without prior vaccination or intensive hospital care.

Good account of the current state of rabies therapy – or lack of it.

Image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media

Via www.promedmail.org

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

A new study suggests that the vaccine can significantly cut the likelihood of HPV-related disease even among women who have had surgery for cervical cancer caused by HPV.

Via www.nytimes.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

The worldwide emergence of ‘superbugs’ and a dry antibiotic pipeline threaten modern society with a return to the preantibiotic era. Phages – the viruses of bacteria – could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Phage therapy was first attempted in 1919 by Felix d’Herelle and was commercially developed in the 1930s before being replaced by antibiotics in most of the western world.

I have long had a fascination for the use of phages to treat disease – and now it looks like its the new-new wave of the future, as antibiotics begin to fail.

Image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media

Via www.futuremedicine.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology and Bioinformatics from Virology.ca

The worldwide emergence of ‘superbugs’ and a dry antibiotic pipeline threaten modern society with a return to the preantibiotic era. Phages – the viruses of bacteria – could help fight antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Phage therapy was first attempted in 1919 by Felix d’Herelle and was commercially developed in the 1930s before being replaced by antibiotics in most of the western world.

I have long had a fascination for the use of phages to treat disease – and now it looks like its the new-new wave of the future, as antibiotics begin to fail.

Image courtesy of Russell Kightley Media

Via www.futuremedicine.com

Via Scoop.it – Virology News

Intriguing website to learn about practical infection prevention strategies through the nanobugs ™. More than 50 cartoon microbes (bacteria, viruses, and fungi) that entertain and educate.

Desperately simplistic, but fun.

Via www.nanobugs.com