Infectious Diseases

Immune system discovery could lead to EBV vaccine to prevent mono, some cancers
The researchers discovered that the virus triggers molecular events that turn off key proteins, making infected cells invisible to the natural killer T (NKT) immune cells that seek and destroy EBV-infected cells. Eurekalert!

Beyond antibiotics: 'PPMOs' offer new approach to bacterial infection, other diseases
Researchers at Oregon State University and other institutions today announced the successful use of a new type of antibacterial agent called a PPMO, which appears to function as well or better than an antibiotic, but may be more precise and also solve problems with antibiotic resistance. In animal studies, one form of PPMO showed significant control of two strains of Acinetobacter, a group of bacteria of global concern that has caused significant mortality among military personnel serving in Middle East combat.

PPMO stands for a peptide-conjugated phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer – a synthetic analog of DNA or RNA that has the ability to silence the expression of specific genes. Compared to conventional antibiotics, which are often found in nature, PPMOs are completely synthesized in the laboratory with a specific genetic target in mind. Eurekalert!

Mammalian body cells lack ancient viral defense mechanism
A team led by Chris Sullivan, a professor of molecular biosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, has provided the first positive evidence that RNA interference (RNAi), a biological process in which small RNA molecules prevent genes from being expressed, does not play a role as an antiviral in most body, or "somatic," cells in mammals. Their research was published in Cell Host & Microbe. PhysOrg

Clean Water, Sanitation Ease Cholera in Haiti (CME/CE)
Clean water and improved sanitation reduced the rate of cholera in part of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, researchers reported. But such public health interventions will probably not be enough to eradicate the disease, which broke out in Haiti for the first time in the wake of the 2010 earthquake, according to Claude-Lyne Valcin, MD, of Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues.

Instead, the disease is likely to become endemic in Haiti and "will prove a continued threat to its fragile public health system" for years to come, Valcin and colleagues argued in the October issue of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. MedPage Today