DeVincenzo study breakthrough in RSV research

Findings published in New England Journal of Medicine

2014-08-28

(Press-News.org) MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The New England Journal of Medicine published research results on Aug. 21 from a clinical trial of a drug shown to safely reduce the viral load and clinical illness of healthy adult volunteers intranasally infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center researcher Infectious Disease Specialist John DeVincenzo, MD, is lead author of this study.

RSV is the most common cause of lower respiratory tract infections in young children in the United States and worldwide. It hospitalizes 125,000 children in the United States each year, and was the cause for 1.5 million outpatient visits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). DeVincenzo and his fellow researchers have been part of virtually every experimental therapeautic advancement, developmental pathway and antiviral therapy created to tackle the virus in the past 15 years. Learn more about his research at http://www.lebonheur.org/for-providers/physician-publications/delivering-on-a-promise/spring-2014/index.dot.

"No effective antiviral treatment currently exists for RSV, which is the leading cause of severe childhood respiratory infections, and is extremely dangerous for babies and children," said DeVincenzo. "We were pleased that our study, for the first time, shows that the infection caused by the RSV virus can be effectively reduced after the infection has started. This is also the first time to prove that once we reduce the amount of virus in a patient, they begin to feel better very quickly. The next step is to explore clinical trials in naturally infected patients."

The challenge study of Gilead Sciences Inc.'s GS-5806, an investigational oral RSV fusion inhibitor, achieved primary and secondary endpoints of lower viral load, improvements in total mucus weight and symptom diary score compared to placebo. Volunteers in the study were given the oral drug after being infected with RSV using the experimental challenge model. The model is based on a clinical isolate from an infant hospitalized with RSV bronchiolitis which can be safely used to infect adults, and that was developed by DeVincenzo in 2007 to test proof-of-concept antivirals.

INFORMATION: The New England Journal of Medicine article and corresponding information can be found here:

Original Article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401184 Editorial: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1407467 Perspective: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1408554

DeVincenzo also serves as medical director of the Molecular and Viral Diagnostics Laboratories at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital and also serves as a professor of Pediatrics and professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

About Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., treats more than 250,000 children each year in a 255-bed hospital that features state-of-the-art technology and family-friendly resources. Nationally recognized, Le Bonheur is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a Best Children's Hospital. Serving as a primary teaching affiliate for the University Tennessee Health Science Center, the hospital trains more pediatricians than any other hospital in the state. For more information, please call (901) 287-6030 or visit lebonheur.org. Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/lebonheurchild or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/lebonheurchildrens.

About the University of Tennessee Health Science Center As Tennessee's only public, statewide, academic health system, the mission of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is to bring the benefits of the health sciences to the achievement and maintenance of human health, with a focus on the citizens of Tennessee and the region, by pursuing an integrated program of education, research, clinical care, and public service. Offering a broad range of postgraduate and selected baccalaureate training opportunities, the main UTHSC campus is located in Memphis and includes six colleges: Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Health Sciences, Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy. UTHSC also educates and trains cohorts of medicine, pharmacy and/or allied health students -- in addition to medical residents and fellows -- at its major sites in Knoxville, Chattanooga and Nashville. Founded in 1911, during its more than 100 years, UT Health Science Center has educated and trained more than 56,000 health care professionals in academic settings and health care facilities across the state. For more information, visit http://www.uthsc.edu.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Small molecule acts as on-off switch for nature's antibiotic factory

2014-08-28

DURHAM, N.C. -- Scientists have identified the developmental on-off switch for Streptomyces, a group of soil microbes that produce more than two-thirds of the world's naturally derived antibiotic medicines. Their hope now would be to see whether it is possible to manipulate this switch to make nature's antibiotic factory more efficient. The study, appearing August 28 in Cell, found that a unique interaction between a small molecule called cyclic-di-GMP and a larger protein called BldD ultimately controls whether a bacterium spends its time in a vegetative state or ...

Second-hand e-cig smoke compared to regular cigarette smoke

2014-08-28

E-cigarettes are healthier for your neighbors than traditional cigarettes, but still release toxins into the air, according to a new study from USC. Scientists studying secondhand smoke from e-cigarettes discovered an overall 10-fold decrease in exposure to harmful particles, with close-to-zero exposure to organic carcinogens. However, levels of exposure to some harmful metals in second-hand e-cigarette smoke were found to be significantly higher. While tobacco smoke contains high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – cancer-causing organic compounds – the level ...

Healthy Moms program helps women who are obese limit weight gain during pregnancy

2014-08-28

PORTLAND, Ore., August 28, 2014 — A new study finds that women who are obese can limit their weight gain during pregnancy using conventional weight loss techniques including attending weekly group support meetings, seeking advice about nutrition and diet, and keeping food and exercise journals. Results of the Healthy Moms study, published in Obesity, also show that obese women who limit their weight gain during pregnancy are less likely to have large-for-gestational age babies which can complicate delivery and increase the baby's risk of becoming obese later in life. "Most ...

University of Montana cicada study discovers 2 genomes that function as 1

2014-08-28

MISSOULA, Mont. – Two is company, three is a crowd. But in the case of the cicada, that's a good thing. Until a recent discovery by a University of Montana research lab, it was thought that cicadas had a symbiotic relationship with two important bacteria that live within the cells of its body. Since the insect eats a simple diet consisting solely of plant sap, it relies on these bacteria to produce the nutrients it needs for survival. In exchange, those two bacteria, Hodgkinia and Sulcia, live comfortably inside the cicada. Since all three divvy up the nutritional roles, ...

Non-adaptive evolution in a cicada's gut

2014-08-28

Organisms in a symbiotic relationship will often shed genes as they come to rely on the other organism for crucial functions. But now researchers have uncovered an unusual event in which a bacterium that lives in a type of cicada split into two species, doubling the number of organisms required for the symbiosis to survive. Cicadas of the genus Tettigades feed only on sap they suck out of plants. To create some of the essential amino acids they rely on two bacterial helpers — Candidatus Hodgkinia cicadicola and Candidatus Sulcia muelleri — with which they have lived in ...

How studying damage to the prefrontal lobe has helped unlock the brain's mysteries

2014-08-28

Until the last few decades, the frontal lobes of the brain were shrouded in mystery and erroneously thought of as nonessential for normal function—hence the frequent use of lobotomies in the early 20th century to treat psychiatric disorders. Now a review publishing August 28 in the Cell Press journal Neuron highlights groundbreaking studies of patients with brain damage that reveal how distinct areas of the frontal lobes are critical for a person's ability to learn, multitask, control their emotions, socialize, and make real-life decisions. The findings have helped experts ...

Circulating tumor cell clusters more likely to cause metastasis than single cells

2014-08-28

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters – clumps of from 2 to 50 tumor cells that break off a primary tumor and are carried through the bloodstream – appear to be much more likely to cause metastasis than are single CTCs, according to a study from investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center. Their report in the August 28 issue of Cell also suggests that a cell adhesion protein binding CTC clusters together is a potential therapeutic target. "While CTCs are considered to be precursors of metastasis, the significance of CTC clusters, which are ...

NYU researchers ID process producing neuronal diversity in fruit flies' visual system

2014-08-28

New York University biologists have identified a mechanism that helps explain how the diversity of neurons that make up the visual system is generated. "Our research uncovers a process that dictates both timing and cell survival in order to engender the heterogeneity of neurons used for vision," explains NYU Biology Professor Claude Desplan, the study's senior author. The study's other co-authors were: Claire Bertet, Xin Li, Ted Erclik, Matthieu Cavey, and Brent Wells—all postdoctoral fellows at NYU. Their work, which appears in the latest issue of the journal Cell, ...

Zombie bacteria are nothing to be afraid of

2014-08-28

VIDEO: Heidi Arjes of Washington University in St. Louis explains how the failsafes in the bacterial cell cycle work. A bacterium that fails to pass either failsafe enters a zombified state... Click here for more information. A cell is not a soap bubble that can simply pinch in two to reproduce. The ability to faithfully copy genetic material and distribute it equally to daughter cells is fundamental to all forms of life. Even seemingly simple single-celled organisms must have ...

Research shows how premalignant cells can sense oncogenesis and halt growth

2014-08-28

Cold Spring Harbor, NY -- What happens inside cells when they detect the activation of a cancer-inducing gene? Sometimes, cells are able to signal internally to stop the cell cycle. Such cells are able to enter, at least for a time, a protective non-growth state. Since the 1980s, scientists have known that mutations in a human gene called RAS are capable of setting cells on a path to cancer. Today, a team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) publishes experiments showing how cells can respond to an activated RAS gene by entering a quiescent state, called senescence. CSHL ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Global cervical cancer vaccine roll-out shows it to be very effective in reducing cervical cancer and other HPV-related disease, but huge variations between countries in coverage

Personalised “cocktails” of antibiotics, probiotics and prebiotics hold great promise in treating a common form of irritable bowel syndrome, pilot study finds