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Brazilian and European researchers have demonstrated exactly how a nanotechnology-based compound delivers an oral vaccine against hepatitis B to the immune system. When particles containing silica and an antigen combine, even though they are different sizes, they reach the intestine without being destroyed by the acidity of the digestive system. A compound of nanostructured SBA-15 silica and HBsAg, the hepatitis B surface antigen, was submitted to different types of X-ray imaging in European [...]

An immune mechanism that makes babies more likely than adults to die from sepsis has been identified by scientists affiliated with the Center for Research on Inflammatory Diseases (CRID in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State (Brazil). The study is published in Critical Care. The scientists are planning to test new therapeutic approaches based on the discovery. "We're designing a clinical trial with drugs that have been approved for human use and are known to induce this [...]

The origin of the virus responsible for the ongoing yellow fever epidemic in Brazil, the worst for 40 years, has just been identified by scientists affiliated with two Brazilian institutions: Adolfo Lutz Institute (IAL) and the University of São Paulo (USP). By means of a molecular study of yellow fever viruses found in dead monkeys and in mosquitoes, the group discovered that the strain behind the current epidemic originated in Pará State in North Brazil in 1980. The virus [...]

A study conducted by an international group of researchers has overturned the understanding of life-threatening inflammatory diseases such as sepsis, pointing to a biochemical agent that may be involved in the rapid decline in blood pressure that occurs in the advanced stage of sepsis and usually causes the patient's death. This discovery could pave the way for novel therapeutic approaches. Sepsis is the leading cause of death in Brazilian intensive care units (ICUs), with a mortality rate [...]

A new technique for the decontamination of organs before transplantation using ultraviolet and red light irradiation has been developed by Brazilian and Canadian researchers and is described in an article published in the journal Nature Communications. The research is supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP and has been partially conducted at the Optics and Photonics Research Center (CEPOF), hosted by the University of São Paulo (USP) at São Carlos in São Paulo State [...]

Although neglected diseases account for 11 percent of the global disease burden, they are targeted by only a small proportion of the new drugs developed every year. Between January 2012 and September 2018, a total of 256 new drugs entered the market, but only eight (3.1 percent) were designed to treat neglected diseases. This value exceeds the proportion for 1975-99, which was 1.1 percent, but falls short of the 4.3 percent mark recorded for 2000-11. The term "neglected diseases" refers to [...]

A new compound that inhibits the replication of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in several stages of its lifecycle -- and is also capable of acting on bacteria, fungi and cancer cells -- has been synthesized by researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil. The study was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP via several research projects [see list below] and described in an article published in Scientific Reports, an online journal owned by Springer Nature. "What we did [...]

A study performed at the University of São Paulo’s Biomedical Science Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil shows that sofosbuvir, a drug used to treat chronic hepatitis C, is capable of eliminating chikungunya virus and yellow fever virus. “Human cells infected by chikungunya virus were treated with sofosbuvir, and the drug eliminated the virus without damaging any cells. The drug proved to be 11 times more effective against the virus than against cells,” said Rafaela Milan Bonotto, a coauthor [...]

The relationship between influenza and pneumonia has long been observed by health workers its genetic and cellular mechanisms have now been investigated in depth by scientists in a study involving volunteers and conducted in the United Kingdom. Published in the journal Nature Immunology, the paper describes for the first time a cellular mechanism that controls the proliferation of pneumococci - the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria that cause pneumonia -- and their movement from the nose to [...]