Flu virus shifting east, hitting older adults hardest

Influenza season may seem like a routine occurrence every winter season has become a more pronounced problem in the Northwest this flu season. Flu activity decreased slightly but were at high level in mid February. Some states only saw isolated instance of influenza illness while most saw widespread infection. The most astonishing characteristic of this flu season has been the great number of middle age adults that have been hospitalized. The cohort with the second highest percentage of hospitalizations has traditionoally been 0-4 year olds but this year 50-64 year olds have taken the spot. With 33 per 100.000 adults 50 to 64 being hosptilazied and 21 per 100,000 children  up to age 4 getting hospitalized, scientists are wondering what is leading to this trend. While the predominant strain of flu can shift from year to year, the predominant strain this year H3N2 has been seen before and did not induce such a high rate in middle aged adults. The vaccine effectiveness has determined to be even higher at 48% overall compared to 47% in the past thus is not the cause of the increase. The good news is that the worst of the flu season is though to be over and rate of hospitalizations have begun to go down.

Vander Harris

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/24/health/flu-report-hospitalizations-deaths/

Women of indigenous communities prefer self screening for cancer causing virus

Cervical cancer is caused by human papillomavirus 16 and 18 and is a preventable disease if detected early enough. But many low-income communities in Latin America do not have access to early detection programs to diagnose abnormalities. A study conducted by University of Michigan found that the low income and ingenious communities who lack access to a hospital might have another option to get screened. The studied population of Guatemalans have less than 40% of women getting screened for cervical cancer. A common method for screening is getting a pap smear but this requires traveling to a hospital multiple times which may not be feasible for Guatemalan women particularly the community of Santiago Atitlan which was focused on in the study. Thus the researchers developed an alternative testing method, a self-collection. The participants self test and send in the sample. 79% of the participants found the test comfortable and 100% said they would perform the test routinely. This was promising as self testing may be the answer to increasing screening of vulnerable populations regarding HPV.

Vander

Link: http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/24462-women-of-indigenous-communities-prefer-self-screening-for-cancer-causing-virus

Virus Hydrophobicity Can Help Purify Vaccines

Scientists at Michigan Technological University want to manipulate and better understand the surface proteins of Porcine Parvovirus. In vaccine purification the interaction between the virus and the surrounding heterogeneous mixture are important to the effectiveness of the vaccine. If the viral components fall apart then the mixture cannot be used as a therapeutic. Also the viruses’ surfaces contain many co receptors that are important for cell recognition and replication in a host. The main finding of the paper was improving the computational methods of viral surface chemistry as compared to the experimental calculations. The researchers compared the hydrophobicity of PPV to the to other studied models of viral proteins that can repel and attract water. They focused on the most accessible area of the PPV virus known as the solvent accessible surface area. As the viral capsid was too large to look at all the capsid proteins they focused on VP2, the most abundant one. The strong correlation between experimental and computational results shows that PPV like other viruses have a measurable hydrophobicity. This may lead to better techniques to catch viruses or purify them.

Vander Harris

Link: http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2017/march/virus-hydrophobicity-can-help-purify-vaccines.html

Dengue and Zika: Viral Kissing Cousins

Although Dengue and Zika are different viral species, new research suggests that they are similar enough to elicit similar T-cell responses in patients. Of particular interest is the fact that when a patient has been infected with Dengue one time, if they are subsequently infected with Zika, there immune system behaves much like it is seeing one of the other three Dengue serotypes, and not like it is responding to a totally new virus. This is interesting because Zika and Dengue share similar geographic ranges and a common mosquito vectors, and it appears that both viruses are here to stay. A secondary infection of a different serotype of dengue than the primary infection can result in antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), a serious complication that can lead to hemorrhagic fever. While there is a small concern that this type of antibody enhancement could occur between Dengue and Zika if a patient gets both over a life course, preliminary results suggest that it is unlikely that we will see ADE between these two species. It is more likely that vaccine developers may be able to use this information during Dengue or Zika vaccine formulation.

Elisa Hofmeister ‘18

Source:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170313135639.htm

Dengue and Zika: Viral Kissing Cousins

Although Dengue and Zika are different viral species, new research suggests that they are similar enough to elicit similar T-cell responses in patients. Of particular interest is the fact that when a patient has been infected with Dengue one time, if they are subsequently infected with Zika, there immune system behaves much like it is seeing one of the other three Dengue serotypes, and not like it is responding to a totally new virus. This is interesting because Zika and Dengue share similar geographic ranges and a common mosquito vectors, and it appears that both viruses are here to stay. A secondary infection of a different serotype of dengue than the primary infection can result in antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE), a serious complication that can lead to hemorrhagic fever. While there is a small concern that this type of antibody enhancement could occur between Dengue and Zika if a patient gets both over a life course, preliminary results suggest that it is unlikely that we will see ADE between these two species. It is more likely that vaccine developers may be able to use this information during Dengue or Zika vaccine formulation.

Elisa Hofmeister ‘18

Source:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170313135639.htm