Sanofi has now received approval for the use of Dengvaxia, a new vaccine against Dengue fever, in Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines. The vaccine has been tested in patients within the age range of 9-45 years, in whom three vaccination rounds resulted in the prevention of the 4 forms of Dengue fever in 65% of…Continue reading A vaccine for Dengue fever?
Category: science
Fluorescent wound dressings signal infection
Researchers in the UK have developed a wound dressing that produces fluorescent light when it comes into contact with the toxins produced by a biofilm in which pathogenic bacteria are residing in the wound. The visual cue is supposedly helpful in starting antibiotic therapy at an earlier time point, which might be helpful in preventing the…Continue reading Fluorescent wound dressings signal infection
Zika virus outbreak in Brazil
Some facts about the current Zika virus ‘outbreak’ in Brazil: A few deaths have been reported in people who had been diagnosed with dengue fever and who died due to worsening symptoms. These patients were shown post-mortem to be infected with Zika virus. Worsening of dengue-fever-like symptoms hence will need to be treated as such…Continue reading Zika virus outbreak in Brazil
Micro-organisms in paper form
A short moment of WAUW! for this artist! Celebrating life’s diversity by creating micro organisms in paper form.. Paper Life – The artist Rogan Brown cuts thousands of microorganisms in paper The image above comes from http://www.ufunk.net/en/artistes/rogan-brown/
A targeted sequence panel for detecting 34 vertebrate virus families at once
The challenge in detecting a set of viruses simultaneously in clinical samples lies in the large variety of their genomes, i.e. there is no gene that is present in all viruses. With the advent of new sequencing technologies, including high throughput parallel sequence analysis, it became possible to process more sequence data. So much more…Continue reading A targeted sequence panel for detecting 34 vertebrate virus families at once
MIME: Mutational Interference Mapping Experiment – RNA viruses
MIME (Mutational Interference Mapping Experiment) is used to investigate the interaction of RNA with its respective interaction partners in greater detail. In this approach, the RNA of interest is randomly mutated and amplified. The vast pool of resulting mutated RNAs is then mixed with a possible interaction partner, e.g. a protein, is added. Next, the…Continue reading MIME: Mutational Interference Mapping Experiment – RNA viruses
New ancestral origin for Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a single stranded RNA virus that belongs to the picornaviridae (from pico: very small and RNA viruses). The virus causes hepatitis in humans, especially in areas of low socioeconomic status. Until now no related virus has been found in other species. The publication below reports for the first time that…Continue reading New ancestral origin for Hepatitis A
Chestnut leaf extracts and antibiotic resistance
An interesting publication about the sensitivity of Staphylococcus aureus to European Chestnut (Castanea sativa) leaf extracts. These extracts were traditionally used in folk medicine to treat skin and soft tissue infections. The active compounds within the chestnut extracts showed that quorum sensing (a way for bacteria to communicate with each other; the phenomenon is related…Continue reading Chestnut leaf extracts and antibiotic resistance
An interesting link between Alzheimer’s disease and MK5
Admitted, this one is a bit of an odd one out between all the microbial stuff, but it is a subject near to my heart, as I used to work with MK5 (essentially, an enzyme that transfers phosphate groups to its substrate). During our work with the protein we suspected that the protein would play…Continue reading An interesting link between Alzheimer’s disease and MK5
A missing link between the brain and the immune system
A new discovery that will change textbooks forever: Previously it was thought that these vessels were absent in the brain, as they hadn’t been found. However, now scientists have discovered through the use of live imaging that there exist lymphatic vessels within the brain. The vessels were located very close blood vessels, which might have…Continue reading A missing link between the brain and the immune system