Immunology
The widespread introduction of a chicken pox vaccine in Australia in 2006 has prevented thousands of children from being hospitalized with severe chicken pox and saved lives, according to a national study of chicken pox admissions at four participating Australian children's hospitals.
Chicken pox is a highly contagious infection spread by airborne transmission or from direct contact with the fluid from skin lesions caused by the disease. In its most serious form, chicken pox can cause severe and multiple complications, including neurological conditions, and even death.
Researchers found the…
A University of Granada researcher has a new hypothesis concerning why bacteria seem to becoming increasingly more resistant to antibiotics.
Bacteria are incredibly versatile - they have been found in some of the most extreme conditions on the planet, and it may be just evolution in action. In this instance, Mohammed Bakkali, a scientist in the Genetics Department at the Faculty of Science of the UGR,
believes that bacteria that are non-resistant to antibiotics acquire resistance 'accidentally' because they take up the DNA of others that are resistant, due to the stress to…
If I were a virus, I think I’d like to be Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).
What is that, you ask? Exactly my point.
Our lungs are the only organ in our body that is exposed to the filth of our environment. Because of this, our lungs have to fight off bacteria, viruses and pollutants, and yet try to function normally to help us breathe.
Asked to name a respiratory virus, our mind immediately jumps to influenza, the big daddy of viruses that affect our lung. Yet, there is a virus that infects more infants throughout the world (in developed and developing countries), that nearly all of…
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is more accurately known as herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), one of 8 viruses in the herpes family and one of the most common viruses in humans, affecting more than 90 percent of the population worldwide and over 95% of adults in America - so common it is almost hard to attribute it to anything.
The Epstein-Barr viruswas first discovered in the early 1960s. Infections in early childhood usually have no symptoms, but it remains for life and also people infected during adolescence or young adulthood may develop mononucleosis. It has been associated with Hodgkin's…
Bats are the stealth bombers of the animal kingdom. Equipped with radar-like echolocation, the dark form of the bat allows this creature to stay in the shadows before launching into attack on its unsuspecting prey. Scientists are now increasingly interested in bats for the biological payloads they carry: these include highly pathogenic viruses such as Ebola, rabies, and SARS.
After rodents, bats are the second most numerous mammal species on earth. The increasing interaction between bats and humans might be due to mankind’s need for more land, bringing him closer and closer to the jungle.…
A biological marker in the immune system predicts our ability to fight off the common cold, starting at about age 22, according to a recent paper in JAMA.
The study found that the length of telomeres, the protective cap-like protein complexes at the ends of chromosomes, predicts resistance to upper respiratory infections in young and midlife adults.
Telomeres shorten as you get older and as a cell's telomeres shorten, it loses its ability to function normally and eventually dies. Having shorter telomeres is associated with early onset of aging related diseases such as cardiovascular…
Bacteria didn't just impact our evolution, we impacted the evolution of bacteria also, according to a study of DNA preserved in calcified bacteria on the teeth of ancient human skeletons.
The ancient genetic record reveals the negative changes in oral bacteria brought about by the dietary shifts as humans became farmers, and later with the introduction of food manufacturing in the Industrial Revolution.
"This is the first record of how our evolution over the last 7500 years has impacted the bacteria we carry with us, and the important health consequences," says Professor Alan Cooper, Director…
RNL BIO CO LTD has announced the filing of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) to initiate clinical trials phase II and III assessing the company's RNL-Astrostem(TM) stem cell drug in patients with cerebral palsy.
Cerebral Palsy is caused by non-progressive brain damage from single or multiple defect(s) on the nerve/muscular system and results in disorder in motion and sensory integration. According to Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the prevalence of cerebral palsy is 3.5 per 1000 male to 2.8 per 1000 female…
Adding fruits and vegetables to diets may help protect the kidneys of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) with too much acid build-up, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). This is good news, since it has also been shown that frequent dialysis poses risks for kidney patients.
Western diets based on animal and grain products are highly acidic and can lead to metabolic acidosis, when too much acid builds up in the body, a condition particularly common in patients with
chronic kidney disease…
Compared with standard dialysis, frequent hemodialysis, requires accessing the blood more often than conventional hemodialysis, can cause complications related to repeated access to the blood, requiring patients to undergo more repair procedures to the site through which blood is removed and returned, according to a study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
Frequent hemodialysis is usually done via a long-lasting site through which blood can be removed and returned. While daily or nightly dialysis seems to improve patients' health and quality of life…