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Origin of Theiler hepatitis was a century-old puzzle. For almost 100 years, veterinarians have puzzled over the cause of Theiler disease, a mysterious type of equine hepatitis that is linked to blood products and causes liver failure in up to 90% of afflicted animals. A team of US scientists has now discovered that the disease is caused by a virus that shares just 35% of its amino acid sequences with its closest-known relative. The team named it Theiler disease-associated virus (TDAV), and published the discovery in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. Led by Amy Kistler at the...

It's not quite the ‘elephant in the room’, but an 18 megadalton viral assembly is perhaps the biggest thing in the mass spectrometer (MS). Dutch and US researchers have used quadrupole time-of-flight (QToF) native MS to investigate intact capsids from a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. While there is theoretically no upper limit on the mass of a particle that might be analysed using ToF MS, the work is far from trivial in breaking through the record.The late John Fenn shared the 2002 Nobel prize in chemistry for his pioneering work on electrospray ionisation techniques in mass...

An international team of researchers has developed a new class of anti-flu drug that could prevent new virus strains developing resistance and help control future pandemics while more effective vaccines are prepared. Each year, flu viruses cause up to five million cases of severe illness worldwide, resulting in up to 500 000 deaths.The preferred drug treatments for flu – neuraminidase inhibitors including Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and Relenza (zanamivir) – treat infection by stopping the viral surface enzyme neuraminidase from interacting with its natural substrate, sialic acid. It is this interaction that releases the virus from an infected cell and allows it...

As someone who cares for about 100 raccoons a year, Melanie Piazza knows that a listless, placid raccoon is not a healthy one. "A lot of the calls were, 'There's a raccoon sitting on my porch and he hasn't moved all day, and I open the door and he doesn't move,' and that's not normal," said Piazza, the director of animal care at WildCare, a wildlife refuge in San Rafael and one of several Bay Area care centers baffled in recent years by a rise in strange raccoon behavior. The centers would occasionally collect raccoons like this and try to...

Enlarge Image Harboring trouble. A new study suggests venomous cottonmouths may harbor Eastern equine encephalitis virus through the winter. Credit: iStockphoto/Thinkstock Every year as the days grow warmer, the Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) reemerges along the eastern coast of the United States, where it causes devastating disease in horses and, more rarely, humans. Scientists have long wondered how the virus, which is transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito, survives the cold, mosquito-killing North American winters. Now, a new study suggests that snakes harbor the virus through the winter, but experts disagree on whether the finding clinches...

For years historians, epidemiologists, and virologists have been attempting to peel back the cobwebs of time in order to analyze the deadliest pandemic in human history; the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. John Barry’s The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Greatest Plague in History, has probably done more to reawaken memories of that awful time than any other source, but many gaps in our knowledge remain. Jeffrey K. Taubenberger and David Morens - both researchers at NIAID – have added considerably to our understanding of the H1N1 virus and the events surrounding its emergence. Taubenberger was the first to...

A newly discovered virus from the family that causes rabies may be responsible for three linked cases of hemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of the Congo more than 3 years ago. Ebola virus, Marburg virus, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, and dengue are well known viruses from four different viral families that can cause hemorrhagic fever. But an international team of researchers report in PLoS Pathogens today that the rhabdovirus family, which typically causes brain swelling or flulike disease, can join the club of hemorrhagic fever agents, which are among the most virulent pathogens known to humans....

A SARS-like Virus Has Been Detected In The Middle East Joshua BerlingerSeptember 24, 2012 Health experts are monitoring a SARS-like virus that has killed one individual and hospitalized another in the Middle East. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that the 49-year-old Qatari man was admitted to an intensive care unit in Doha on September 7, suffering from "acute respiratory infection and kidney failure" after traveling to Saudi Arabia. He was transferred to Britain by air ambulance on September 11. The British Health Protection Agency also released a statement on Sunday addressing the infections. The WHO said virus...

This year is on track to be the worst on record for West Nile virus in the United States. As of 11 September, more than 2,600 new cases, including 118 deaths, had been reported from across the country to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Symptoms of the mosquito-borne disease range from none (in most people) to life-threatening brain inflammation, and it can leave survivors with long-term disabilities including paralysis and fatigue. Researchers are now investigating suggestions that even mild infections may leave another lasting burden — kidney disease. “We are early in our...

Enlarge Image Safe haven. Bats harbor viruses both dangerous and benign for other animals. Credit: CSIRO When it comes to harboring viruses deadly to humans, bats are grand champions. The flying mammals are the reservoir for everything from rabies to Ebola. Now, scientists have found a new virus hosted by bats, one that doesn't seem to be able to cause disease in other animals. The discovery may provide clues to what enables some viruses to cause severe disease. The new Cedar virus is named after the town of Cedar Grove in Queensland, Australia, where it was found in 2009....

Enlarge Image Hot spots. Three mutations in or near hemagglutinin's binding site (yellow) and one on its stalk increased transmissibility. Credit: H.-L. Yen and J. S. M. Peiros, Nature, Adavanced Online Edition, (2012) One of two influenza papers at the center of an intense, 6-month international debate has finally seen the light of day. Today, Nature published a controversial study in ferrets that shows how scientists can engineer an avian influenza strain to transmit between mammals through respiratory droplets such as those created by coughing or sneezing. The 11-page study, led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin,...

Once considered unimportant "junk DNA," scientists have learned that non-coding RNA (ncRNA) -- RNA molecules that do not translate into proteins -- play a crucial role in cellular function. Mutations in ncRNA are associated with a number of conditions, such as cancer, autism, and Alzheimer's disease. Now, through the use of "deep sequencing," a technology used to sequence the genetic materials of the human genome, Dr. Noam Shomron of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine has discovered that when infected with a virus, ncRNA gives off biological signals that indicate the presence of an infectious agent, known as a...

Enlarge Image Credit: D. Cima/American Red Cross Measles deaths dropped dramatically in the first decade of the 21st century, but progress has stalled since 2007, new estimates show. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Pennsylvania State University calculates that global measles deaths fell from 535,000 in 2000 to 139,000 in 2010—an impressive 74% reduction, but short of WHO's goal of 90%. More worryingly, the paper, released in The Lancet today, shows that those numbers have essentially remained flat since 2007. The measles virus is one of the...

Enlarge Image Viral attack. A handful of P1 phages pierce the membrane of an E. coli bacterium, as seen under electron microscopy (left panels) and a 3D reconstruction (right). Credit: Adapted from J. Liu et al., Virology, 417 (1 September 2011) Forget needles in haystacks. Try finding the tip of a needle in a virus. Scientists have long known that a group of viruses called bacteriophages have a knack for infiltrating bacteria and that some begin their attack with a protein spike. But the tip of this spike is so small that no one knew what it was made...

For the first time ever, a government advisory board is asking scientific journals not to publish details of certain biomedical experiments, for fear that the information could be used by terrorists to create deadly viruses and touch off epidemics. In the experiments, conducted in the United States and the Netherlands, scientists created a highly transmissible form of a deadly flu virus that does not normally spread from person to person. It was an ominous step, because easy transmission can lead the virus to spread all over the world. The work was done in ferrets, which are considered a good model...

Broad-spectrum antibiotics, which are active against a whole range of bacterial pathogens, have been on the market for a long time. Comparably versatile drugs to treat viral diseases, on the other hand, have remained elusive. Using a new approach, research teams led by Dr. Albrecht von Brunn of LMU Munich and Professor Christian Drosten from the University of Bonn have identified a compound that inhibits the replication of several different viruses, including the highly aggressive SARS virus that is responsible for severe acute respiratory syndrome. The new method exploits the fact that interactions between certain host proteins and specific viral...

Adenovirus remained infectious after crossing species barrier. A class of virus has for the first time been shown to jump from animals to humans — and then to infect other humans. The virus is described in PLoS Pathogens today1. The team that discovered it might also have found the first human to be infected: the primary carer for a colony of titi monkeys (Callicebus cupreus) that suffered an outbreak. The culprit is an adenovirus, one of a class of viruses that cause a range of illnesses in humans, including pneumonia. But this particular strain has never been seen before. It...

Contact: Daniela Hernandez dfh2101@columbia.edu 310-991-2391 Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health In a study to be published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report the discovery of a novel hepatitis C-like virus in dogs. The identification and characterization of this virus gives scientists new insights into how hepatitis C in humans may have evolved and provides scientists renewed hope to develop a model system to study how it causes disease. The research was conducted at the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, the University...

First of the parasitic parasites to be discovered in a natural environment points to hidden diversity. A genomic survey of the microbial life in an Antarctic lake has revealed a new virophage — a virus that attacks viruses. The discovery suggests that these life forms are more common, and have a larger role in the environment, than was once thought. An Australian research team found the virophage while surveying the extremely salty Organic Lake in eastern Antarctica. While sequencing the collective genome of microbes living in the surface waters, they discovered the virus, which they dubbed the Organic Lake Virophage...

TRANSITIONAL ORIENTATION The last days had dwindled down to a final few. Evil was moving and extremely confident while Good was leaderless. The Middle East was in turmoil and Evil was now in position to finally achieve its only goal - the destruction of mankind. That destruction was to start, to no one's surprise, with the annihilation of Israel. Annihilation was now portable. A few travelers to whom death was an honor would deliver suitcases filled with devices of ultimate horror. Those suitcases had been gathered and assembled from around the world by a cabal that transcended race, religion, culture...