Infections
Hepatitis B virus capsid-like particles stimulate protective antibody responses
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According to recently published research from Germany, hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid-like particles (CLPs) can display the complete, dimeric outer surface protein C and stimulate production of protective antibody responses against Borrelia burgdorferi infection.
“HBV CLPs, icosahedral assemblies formed by 90 or 120 core protein dimers, hold promise as immune-enhancing vaccine carriers for heterologous antigens. Insertions into the immunodominant c/e1B cell epitope, a surface-exposed loop, are especially immunogenic.
“However, display of whole proteins, desirable to induce multispecific and possibly neutralizing antibody responses, can be restrained by an unsuitable structure of the foreign protein and by its propensity to undergo homomeric interactions,” wrote C. Skamel and colleagues, University of Freiburg Hospital.
Streptococci from children in Nepal share genetic relatedness with isolates from other countries
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Genetically diverse group A streptococci from children in far western Nepal share high genetic relatedness with isolates from other countries.
According to a study from the United States, “The genetic diversity of group A streptococci (GAS) throughout much of the world has not been adequately explored.”
“To assess genetic variation among GAS in western Nepal, 120 noninvasive GAS, collected from eight different villages, were genetically characterized using emm typing, sof sequencing, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). A high level of genetic diversity was observed among these isolates, with 51 genotypes based upon 51 multilocus sequence types (STs), 45 emm sequence types, and 28 sof sequence types,” said Varja Sakota and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ignorance promotes leprosy in China
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Despite advances in treatment, China has hundreds of “leper colonies” because of deep-rooted ignorance about the disease, medical experts say.
So strong is the stigma that children have been abandoned, while others are deprived of proper care because their parents are concerned their extended family may be ostracized.
“One recovered leper I know was sent away by his parents for medical help. When he recovered, he wanted to go home but his family wouldn’t take him back and told him to remain in his village,” said Michael Chen of Handa, a non-governmental group that looks after people who have recovered from leprosy.
Waterborne infectious diseases could soon be consigned to history
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Waterborne infectious diseases, which bring death and illness to millions of people around the world, could largely be consigned to history by 2015 if global health partnerships integrate their programmes, according to Alan Fenwick writing in Science.
Professor Fenwick, from Imperial College London, argues that up to seven neglected tropical diseases including river blindness could be brought under control, with infection by some eliminated entirely, if existing programmes increase their coverage.
In Africa some 500 million people need treatment to control diseases such as disfiguring elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), river blindness (onchocerciasis), schistosomiasis, intestinal worms and the blinding eye infection trachoma.
Herpes infections decline: study
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The proportion of Americans with the herpes virus has declined, due perhaps to a curb in promiscuity among young people following earlier jumps in rates of infection, researchers said on Tuesday.
While U.S. infection rates have declined 19 percent among 14- to 49-year-olds since the early 1990s, genital herpes is still being spread. Herpes infections increase susceptibility to the deadly virus that causes AIDS.
The decline of herpes infections among adolescents and young adults “provides biological evidence supporting findings from behavioral surveys that sexual risk behaviors decreased in adolescents,” said the study published in this week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
New Approach Assesses Risk of Water-Borne Pathogen Disease
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Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, along with colleagues at the University Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, have developed a novel approach for assessing the risk to humans of acquiring leptospirosis - a severe, water-borne disease that is the common cause of severe jaundice, renal failure and lung hemorrhage in urban areas throughout the developing world - from environmental water exposure.
The approach, which uses advanced molecular methods to measure risk for infection, may also be applicable to other water-borne bacterial diseases. The findings will be published on line August 21 in advance of the September issue of the journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine.
“What we found supported our hypothesis that severe leptospirosis in the Peruvian Amazon is associated with higher concentrations of more virulent forms of the bacteria at sites of exposure and transmission,” said Joseph Vinetz, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine in UCSD’s Division of Infectious Diseases.
Electrically charged acyclovir speeds herpes healing
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A device that uses “iontophoresis” to enhance tissue penetration of topically applied acyclovir speeds the healing of cold sores, a study shows.
Iontophoresis refers to the use of a small electric current to move ionized substances through the skin into tissues.
“The results of this study are very exciting because of the timing of treatment,” Dr. Dennis I. Goldberg from Transport Pharmaceuticals, Framingham, Massachusetts told Reuters Health.
Racial differences in hepatitis C viral responses
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African American patients with hepatitis C (HCV) infections experience a lower response rate to the peginterferon alfa-2a and ribavirin combination treatment than Caucasian Americans*, according to a study published in the August issue of Gastroenterology, the journal for the members of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).
Racial differences in viral responses were seen as early as the fourth week of treatment. A pegylated interferon combined with ribavirin is standard therapy for HCV.
Researchers from the Study of Viral Resistance to Antiviral Therapy for Chronic Hepatitis C (Virahep-C), which is funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), conducted the study to determine the potential mechanisms of antiviral resistance among patients who fail to respond to current optimal therapy regimens. While African Americans have a higher prevalence of HCV infection, they have been underrepresented in most therapeutic clinical trials, making it difficult to estimate response rates in these patients.
Man aged 50 dies in Scotland from anthrax
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A 50-year-old man has died in Scotland from the deadly toxin anthrax—the first such case there since 1987, health officials said on Wednesday, stressing that there was little risk to anyone else.
The man, who worked with materials including untreated animal hides, died in July after a short illness and the cause of death has only just been diagnosed.
“Anthrax is a very rare disease and generally presents as a skin infection,” Health Protection Scotland said in a statement. “Working with animal hides is known to be a risk factor for acquiring anthrax.”
GenoMed’s West Nile virus trial endorsed by expert
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GenoMed has announced the endorsement of its trial for West Nile virus encephalitis by an authority in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Neal Handly.
Dr. Handly is Associate Director of Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. Dr. Handly chairs the Academy’s Subcommittee on Information Technology.
Skin test predicts remaining immunity to smallpox
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Skin testing with killed vaccinia virus, which is related to smallpox, is a simple and reliable way of predicting residual immunity to smallpox, a study shows.
“Residual immune response decades after smallpox vaccination is important for public health and vaccine development,” the study team notes. The current findings suggest that skin testing with inactivated vaccinia virus is useful in assessing this response, they add.
Dr. Myoung-don Oh, from the Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, and colleagues administered the skin test to 83 subjects, 63 of whom had a history of smallpox vaccination. Two days later, all of the subjects underwent smallpox vaccination.
Drug-resistant E. coli likely started in poultry
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The food-contaminating bug E. coli—which can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections and more severe illness in humans—appears to be developing resistance to antibiotics called fluoroquinolones in chickens, a study shows.
The problem is arising largely because of antibiotic treatment of the animals, which forces the microbes to mutate and become resistant. Food-borne resistant E. coli can then be transmitted to humans.
Action to interrupt the transmission of resistant bacteria from animals to humans may become necessary, the researchers say. Such measures could include “limiting antimicrobial use in food animals, adopting more hygienic food-processing and distribution practices, irradiating food, and improving kitchen hygiene.”
Tick-borne fever claims victims in Turkey
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A tick-borne viral fever related to the more deadly Ebola virus may have claimed its 12th victim in Turkey this year, the state Anatolian news agency said on Wednesday.
Health officials told Reuters they were conducting tests on samples from 53-year-old Bayram Sacinti, who died earlier in the day after being hospitalised on suspicion of contracting the disease, known as Crimea-Congo haemorrhagic fever.
“We are carrying out tests. We have not yet confirmed the cause of his death,” one official said.
Antihistamine could fight malaria, U.S. study shows
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An allergy drug pulled off the market in 1999 could work to treat malaria, U.S. researchers reported on Sunday.
The drug is called astemizole and marketed under the brand name Hismanal by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, and can kill the Plasmodium falciparum parasite that causes malaria.
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health tested astemizole in test tubes and in mice. Moderate doses reduced the numbers of Plasmodium parasites by 80 percent in mice whose infection also could be affected by the malaria drug chloroquine.
CDC’s advisory committee recommends changes in varicella vaccinations
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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in its meeting in Atlanta today, voted to recommend a second dose of varicella (chickenpox) vaccine for children four to six years old to further improve protection against the disease.
The first dose of varicella vaccine is recommended at 12 to 18 months old.
Fifteen to 20 percent of children who have received one dose of the vaccine are not fully protected and may develop chickenpox after coming in contact with varicella zoster virus. Additionally, one dose of the vaccine may not continue to provide protection into adulthood when chickenpox is more severe. A second dose of varicella vaccine provides increased protection against varicella disease compared to one-dose. The ACIP also recommended that children, adolescents and adults who previously received one dose should receive a second dose.
