Virology News

March 30, 2025

Top Headlines

How Zika Virus Knocks out Our Immune Defenses

Mar. 25, 2025 — This research comes as many mosquito-borne viruses are spreading ...

'Low-Sugar' Vaccine Can Provide Broad Immunity Against Coronavirus Variants

Mar. 25, 2025 — Early animal studies show that a single vaccine could protect the recipient from different variants of the coronaviruses that cause COVID-19, the flu and the common cold. In addition to creating antibodies that target a specific region of the spike ...

Starting Points for the Control of Protein Synthesis

Mar. 20, 2025 — The research field of 'cellular IRESes' lay dormant for decades, as there was no uniform standard of reliable methods for the clear characterization of these starting points for the ribosome-mediated control of gene expression. Researchers have now ...

How Bacteria 'Vaccinate' Themselves With Genetic Material from Dormant Viruses

Mar. 21, 2025 — Scientists say they have shed new light on how bacteria protect themselves from certain phage invaders -- by seizing genetic material from weakened, dormant phages and using it to 'vaccinate' ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:16am EDT

Current Antivirals Likely Less Effective Against Severe Infection Caused by Bird Flu Virus in Cows' Milk

Mar. 17, 2025 — Existing antivirals may be less effective against this H5N1 bird flu strain, and prevention measures, such as avoiding raw milk consumption and ...

Study Identifies Viruses in Red Tide Blooms for the First Time

Mar. 20, 2025 — Identifying viruses associated with red tide can help researchers forecast the development of blooms and better understand environmental factors that can cause blooms to terminate. The study marks an ...

Protecting Crops: Researchers Open Up New Avenue to Combat a Widespread Plant Virus

Mar. 18, 2025 — New RNA-based active agents reliably protect plants against the Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), the most common virus in agriculture and horticulture. ...

Older Adults Might Be More Resistant to Bird Flu Infections Than Children

Mar. 13, 2025 — Older adults who were exposed to seasonal flu viruses that circulated prior to 1968 are more likely to have some protection against H5N1, and children would benefit more from H5N1 ...

Researchers Develop Method to Identify Dormant Cells That Carry HIV

Mar. 13, 2025 — Study findings provide a new gene pathway for potential treatment of the virus affecting ...

Intranasal Herpes Infection May Produce Neurobehavioral Symptoms

Mar. 10, 2025 — A study finds that herpes infection through the nose can lead to anxiety, motor impairment and cognitive issues. The research shows that by exploiting a cellular enzyme, the virus can produce ...

Research Identifies Key Antibodies for Development of Broadly Protective Norovirus Vaccine

Mar. 5, 2025 — Scientists have discovered a strategy to fight back against norovirus, a leading cause of gastroenteritis worldwide. Their new study identifies ...

New Antibodies Show Potential to Defeat All SARS-CoV-2 Variants

Mar. 5, 2025 — A team has found two antibodies that can work together to neutralize the virus that causes COVID-19 in all its current known variations in a laboratory environment. More research is needed, but the ...

Cold Sore Discovery IDs Unknown Trigger for Those Annoying Flare-Ups

Feb. 28, 2025 — Scientists have a new target to prevent cold sores -- and genital herpes flare-ups caused by the same virus -- after researchers discovered an unexpected way the herpes virus re-activates in the ...

From Dormant to Danger: How VZV Reactivation Is Driving Central Nervous System Infections

Feb. 27, 2025 — Researchers observed a rise in adult central nervous system (CNS) infections, primarily aseptic meningitis caused by the varicella zoster virus ...

Immunity Against Seasonal H1N1 Flu Reduces Bird Flu Severity in Ferrets, Study Suggests

Feb. 26, 2025 — Pre-existing immunity against seasonal H1N1 flu might help explain why most reported human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. have not resulted in lethal ...

Understanding the World Within: Study Reveals New Insights Into Phage--Bacteria Interactions in the Gut Microbiome

Feb. 25, 2025 — Researchers are investigating whether certain viruses known as bacteriophages, or phages, which specifically infect bacteria but not human cells, affect the development of type 1 diabetes in young ...

As Dengue Spreads, Researchers Discover a Clue to Fighting the Virus

Feb. 24, 2025 — This research comes as dengue-carrying mosquitoes expand their territory into new regions, including Southern ...

Backyard Poultry Face Bird Flu Risk When Migrating Mallards Stop to Rest

Feb. 24, 2025 — Knowing where, when and for how long mallard ducks -- natural carriers of avian influenza -- stop and rest as they migrate can help predict the probability that they will spread bird flu to backyard ...

Research Suggests Common Viral Infection Worsens Deadly Condition Among Premature Babies

Feb. 24, 2025 — Researchers say they found that infection with a common virus that can be transmitted from mother to fetus before birth significantly worsens an often-fatal complication of premature birth called ...

Stealth Virus: Zika Virus Builds Tunnels to Covertly Infect Cells of the Placenta

Feb. 21, 2025 — Infection with Zika virus in pregnancy can lead to neurological disorders, fetal abnormalities and fetal death. Until now, how the virus manages to cross the placenta, which nurtures the developing ...

Digging Into a Decades-Old Hepatitis B Mystery Suggests a New Potential Treatment

Feb. 20, 2025 — In their effort to answer a decades-old biological question about how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is able to establish infection of liver cells, researchers have identified a vulnerability that opens ...

Scientists Warn of Increased Mpox Transmission

Feb. 20, 2025 — International researchers warn that the ongoing mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has the potential to spread across borders more rapidly. The mpox virus has mutated, and ...

New Research Shows Neonatal HSV Infections May Lead to Long-Term Cognitive Impairment

Feb. 19, 2025 — Very early exposure to even a very small dose of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in infant mice can lead to cognitive decline later in life, according to new findings. This is significant because of ...

Designing Antivirals for Shape-Shifting Viruses

Feb. 18, 2025 — Viruses, like those that cause COVID-19 or HIV, are formidable opponents once they invade our bodies. Antiviral treatments strive to block a virus or halt its replication. However, viruses are ...

Killing H5N1 in Waste Milk -- An Alternative to Pasteurization

Feb. 14, 2025 — Researchers have found that acidification can kill H5N1 in waste milk, providing dairy farmers an affordable, easy-to-use alternative to ...

Mpox: Better Understanding of Tecovirimat Resistance

Feb. 12, 2025 — A virus originally found in animals, mpox -- which causes the disease of the same name -- is now circulating in humans. Since 2022, it has been the cause of major epidemics spreading outside endemic ...

Influenza A Viruses Adapt Shape in Response to Environmental Pressures

Feb. 10, 2025 — Influenza A virus particles strategically adapt their shape -- to become either spheres or larger filaments -- to favor their ability to infect cells depending on environmental conditions, according ...

Potential New Pathway to Fight Viruses

Feb. 7, 2025 — Scientists have identified genetic components in bats that provide insight into their immune ...

An Unexpected Mechanism Regulates the Immune Response During Parasitic Infections

Feb. 7, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown mechanism that regulates the immune response against parasites. During a parasitic infection, specific immune cells, known as virtual memory T cells ...

Some Species Are Susceptible to Broad Range of Viruses

Feb. 6, 2025 — A study of fruit flies shows some species are highly susceptible to a wide range of ...

How Sudan Virus Binds to Human Cells

Feb. 4, 2025 — The Sudan virus, a close relative of Ebola, has a fatality rate of 50% but remains poorly understood in terms of how it infects cells. Currently, no approved treatments exist. To address this ...

Hijacking of Plasmin by Dengue Virus for Infection

Feb. 3, 2025 — Biological scientists have uncovered how the dengue virus uses its envelope protein to capture human plasmin from a blood meal to enhance the permeability of the mosquito midgut for ...

Antibody Treatment Prevents Severe Bird Flu in Monkeys

Jan. 30, 2025 — The antibody targets a stable part of the bird flu virus, ensuring that the immune protection can resist new variants and offer long-term protection against the globally spreading airborne ...

Zika Uses Human Skin as 'Mosquito Magnet' to Spread Virus Further

Jan. 30, 2025 — Zika virus hijacks the skin of its human host to send out chemical signals that lure more mosquitoes to infect and spread the disease further, new research ...