Research News

For HIV-infected mothers whose immune system is in good health, taking a three-drug antiretroviral regimen during breastfeeding essentially eliminates HIV transmission by breast milk to their infants, according to results from a large clinical trial conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and India

Biologists and mathematicians from MIPT, Stony Brook University and other scientific research centres have taught a computer to predict the structure of protein complexes in a cell 10 times faster than before. The study has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Bacteria are rapidly developing resistance mechanisms to combat even the most effective antibiotics. Each year in the United States over 23,000 people die as a result of bacterial infections that have no treatment options, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Infections with antibiotic-resistance bacteria are extremely difficult to treat, requiring costly or toxic medications that do not always work. Scientists are constantly working to understand the mechanisms bacteria use to outsmart antibiotics and develop resistance. These mechanisms include metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs), enzymes produced by bacteria that can bind to and inactivate antibiotics. Enzymes like MBLs are one way bacteria are defying all available tools and becoming antibiotic resistant.

Diseased blood vessels in the brain may contribute more significantly to Alzheimer's disease dementia as per novel research by Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center.

The study conducted at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country describes for the first time how these receptors participate in spermatogenesisInfertility has become a major medical and social problem worldwide and many of the cases are due to male infertility. Yet the molecular mechanisms involved in spermatogenesis are only now beginning to emerge. A piece of research led by the UPV/EHU doctor Nerea Subirán has for the first time described the presence of opioids in the cells involved in the formation of spermatozoa. The work has been published in Plos One.

 A single dose of either of two experimental Zika vaccines fully protected mice challenged with Zika virus four or eight weeks after receiving the inoculations. The research, conducted by investigators supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, suggests that similar vaccines for people could be similarly protective.

High triglycerides a type of fat, or lipid, in the blood  increase the risk of heart disease and perhaps type 2 diabetes. For the first time, it has been shown that profoundly lowering triglycerides in diabetics improves their insulin sensitivity over time, which helps them maintain healthy glucose - blood sugar levels. Volanesorsen, an experimental lipid-lowering medication, improved insulin sensitivity and glucose control by significantly decreasing patients' overall hemoglobin A1c the standard clinical measurement of blood glucose levels for diabetics in a new study reported by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The results are published online this month in Diabetes Care.