6,170 results
- Health & Medicine
Hepatitis B link to cancer is clarified
A kind of hepatitis B called genotype C is more likely to lead to liver cancer than are other genotypes of the hepatitis virus.
- Health & Medicine
Phage Attack: Antibacterial virus might suppress cholera
Bacteria-attacking viruses that infect bacteria hold cholera bacteria in check throughout most of the year except during the rainy season when these viruses become diluted.
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Infectious Evolution: Ancient virus hit apes, not our ancestors, in the genes
A potentially deadly infection wormed its way into the DNA of ancestral chimpanzees and gorillas between 4 million and 3 million years ago, thus altering the evolution of these African apes while keeping clear of human ancestors on that same continent.
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Poisonous Partnership
Tools from molecular biology are providing new insights into the viruses employed by parasitoid wasps to manipulate their caterpillar hosts.
- Health & Medicine
Striking a Better Bargain with HIV
Because a drug frequently used to block the transmission of HIV from mother to infant may have negative consequences for the mothers, researchers are looking for inexpensive treatments that will benefit both mother and child.
- Health & Medicine
Fast Start: Sex readily spreads HIV in infection’s first weeks
People with HIV are many times more infectious to their sexual partners in the weeks or months just after they acquire the virus than they are later on, a study in Uganda demonstrates conclusively.
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Phages take breaks while ejecting DNA
Bacterial viruses, or phages, inject DNA into their prey in a way that is more complicated than researchers had previously thought.
- Health & Medicine
Oral Exams
Scientists are taking advantage of the components in spit to develop new, saliva-based diagnostic tests.
- Health & Medicine
Vaccine protects monkeys from Ebola virus
A combination of a DNA vaccine and a vaccine based on a genetically modified common cold virus enables monkeys to resist Ebola virus, the first evidence that an Ebola vaccine works in primates.
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Obesity may aggravate flu
At least in mice, obesity can greatly exaggerate the severity of flu by impairing the body's immune response.
- Health & Medicine
When Ebola Looms: Human outbreaks follow animal infections
A network of organizations in an African region prone to Ebola epidemics has identified the virus in wild-animal remains prior to two recent human outbreaks, suggesting that animal carcasses may provide timely clues that could prevent the disease from spreading to people.
- Health & Medicine
Neuron Savers: Gene therapy slows Alzheimer’s disease
Putting extra copies of the gene for a cellular growth factor into the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease appears to slow the degenerative condition.
