Research News

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at least 5.8 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease, which is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for Alzheimer’s, in part because scientists do not yet have a full understanding of what causes the disease. But a new study from Scripps Research is shedding light on the molecular drivers that could contribute to Alzheimer’s progression.

Vaccinia viruses are therapeutic tools with different biomedical applications depending on the susceptibility characteristics. For example, the strain called MVA (modified vaccinia Ankara), which is unable to replicate in mammalian cells, triggers a potent immune system response and is used to develop vaccines against COVID-19 or AIDS. In contrast, other strains such as Western Reserve (WR) or Copenhagen (Cop), which replicate efficiently in tumour cells, are used to develop cancer treatments.

An HIV vaccine candidate developed at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial.

The finding, reported May 17 in the journal Cell, not only provides proof that a vaccine can elicit these antibodies to fight diverse strains of HIV, but that it can also initiate the process within weeks, setting in motion an essential immune response.

An experimental treatment made from a plant virus is effective at protecting against a broad range of metastatic cancers in mice, shows a new study from the University of California San Diego.

Nature gave ticks, mosquitos and leaches a quick-acting way to keep blood from clotting while they extract their meal from a host.

Now the key to that method has been harnessed by a team of Duke researchers as a potential anti-clotting agent that could be used as an alternative to heparin during angioplasty, dialysis care, surgeries and other procedures.