Luca Cicalese and Giulio Taglialatela have revealed that a treatment taken daily by organ transplant recipients to prevent organ rejection also protects against Alzheimer’s disease. The data shows that the prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s in the transplant patient group was significantly lower, in fact almost absent, when compared to national data from the general population. The findings were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Mariano Garcia-Blanco is an integral member of a collaborative group that is the first to explain the how the Dengue virus has optimized its ability to cause outbreaks as it travels across the globe. The investigators examined the different types of Dengue virus-2 circulating around Puerto Rico in 1994 when a severe epidemic broke out. Looking at the differences between the virus strain most commonly seen from 1986 to 1995 and the new, more potent viral strain that was first isolated in 1994 was the key to figuring out why this outbreak occurred. The findings were published in Science.

Michelle Meyer and Alex Bukreyev, in collaboration with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Institutes of Health, have developed an inhalable vaccine that protects primates against Ebola. The study’s findings provide the basis for advancing this experimental vaccine to an NIH phase I clinical study. Pending approval through an Investigational New Drug Application, the aerosolized form of the vaccine will be evaluated for a study in adults. The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Sanjiv Sur has uncovered a mechanism involving neutrophils that is central to the formation and continuation of allergic responses to inhaled ragweed pollen in people suffering from asthma or seasonal nasal allergies. The research suggests a unique strategy for preventing pollen-induced allergic disorders. The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.

Lucas Blanton has found that after decades with little activity in Galveston County, murine typhus may be making a comeback. While there were more than 5,300 cases in the U.S. in 1944, the disease was nearly eradicated by the mid-1950s thanks to the use of DDT to kill fleas on rats (the original reservoir of the bacteria). Blanton worked with Galveston County animal control officers to collect blood and flea samples from trapped opossums and found that nearly 2 out of 3 opossums tested positive for the disease.

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