(Press-News.org) WHAT:
National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers have developed a model of infection in rhesus macaques that will help scientists around the world better understand how an emerging coronavirus, first identified in September 2012, affects people. The virus has so far infected at least 17 people in the Middle East and Europe, killing 11 of them. The NIH team established the nonhuman primate model in December 2012 and is using it to study how the virus causes disease and to evaluate potential vaccines and antiviral treatments.
The model shows that clinical signs of coronavirus disease appear within 24 hours of infection. These signs include reduced appetite, elevated temperature, increased respiratory rate, cough, goose bumps and hunched posture. In monkeys and humans, the infection causes disease deep in the lungs, leading to pneumonia. Scientists are exploring whether the virus' foothold in the lower respiratory tract impedes its ability to spread efficiently.
Researchers at NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) developed the model after obtaining coronavirus samples from collaborators at Erasmus Medical Center in The Netherlands.
INFORMATION:
ARTICLE:
Munster et al. Novel Human Coronavirus Causes Pneumonia in a Macaque Model Resembling Human Disease. New England Journal of Medicine DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1215691 (2013).
WHO:
Vincent Munster, Ph.D., chief of the virus ecology unit in NIAID's Laboratory of Virology, is leading the NIAID team investigating the new coronavirus.
CONTACT:
To schedule interviews, please contact Ken Pekoc, 301-402-1663, niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov.
NIH scientists develop monkey model to study novel coronavirus infection
2013-04-04
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Laser light zaps away cocaine addiction
2013-04-04
By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers.
"When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone," said Antonello Bonci, MD, scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH's National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), ...
Ancient climate questions could improve today's climate predictions
2013-04-04
SAN FRANCISCO -- About 4 to 5 million years ago, the Earth was warmer than today. Now that greenhouse gas pollution has the planet's temperature rising again, researchers want to know more about why this early Pliocene period was so warm, with the hopes of improving future climate predictions.
A new study in the journal Nature concludes that it is difficult to model the exact conditions behind the pattern of warming in the early Pliocene. None of the proposed mechanisms—from high carbon dioxide levels to changes in global ocean circulation patterns—can explain why the ...
Ancient pool of warm water questions current climate models
2013-04-04
A huge pool of warm water that stretched out from Indonesia over to Africa and South America four million years ago suggests climate models might be too conservative in forecasting tropical changes.
Present in the Pliocene era, this giant mass of water would have dramatically altered rainfall in the tropics, possibly even removing the monsoon. Its decay and the consequential drying of East Africa may have been a factor in Hominid evolution.
Published in Nature today, the missing data for this phenomenon could have significant implications when predicting the future ...
Gel safe and acceptable as approach to preventing HIV from anal sex
2013-04-04
PITTSBURGH, April 3, 2013 – A reformulated version of an anti-HIV gel developed for vaginal use was found safe and acceptable by HIV-negative men and women who used it rectally, according to a Phase I clinical trial published today in PLOS ONE. The study, led by researchers with the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), tested a reduced glycerin formulation of tenofovir gel, and has spurred the development of an expanded safety study of the gel, expected to launch later this year.
Rectal microbicides, gel-based antiretroviral ...
'A better path' toward projecting, planning for rising seas on a warmer Earth
2013-04-04
More useful projections of sea level are possible despite substantial uncertainty about the future behavior of massive ice sheets, according to Princeton University researchers.
In two recent papers in the journals Nature Climate Change and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers present a probabilistic assessment of the Antarctic contribution to 21st-century sea-level change. Their methodology folds observed changes and models of different complexity into unified projections that can be updated with new information. This approach ...
Ability to 'think about thinking' not limited to humans
2013-04-04
ATLANTA – Humans' closest animal relatives, chimpanzees, have the ability to "think about thinking" – what is called "metacognition," according to new research by scientists at Georgia State University and the University at Buffalo.
Michael J. Beran and Bonnie M. Perdue of the Georgia State Language Research Center (LRC) and J. David Smith of the University at Buffalo conducted the research, published in the journal Psychological Science of the Association for Psychological Science.
"The demonstration of metacognition in nonhuman primates has important implications ...
2013 wintertime Arctic sea ice maximum fifth lowest on record
2013-04-04
VIDEO:
This animation shows the seasonal change in the extent of the Arctic sea ice between March 1, 2012 and February 28, 2013. The annual cycle starts with the maximum extent...
Click here for more information.
Last September, at the end of the northern hemisphere summer, the Arctic Ocean's icy cover shrank to its lowest extent on record, continuing a long-term trend and diminishing to about half the size of the average summertime extent from 1979 to 2000.
During the cold ...
Green Pea galaxies could help astronomers understand early universe
2013-04-04
ANN ARBOR—The rare Green Pea galaxies discovered by the general public in 2007 could help confirm astronomers' understanding of reionization, a pivotal stage in the evolution of the early universe, say University of Michigan researchers.
Reionization occurred a few hundred million years after the Big Bang as the first stars were turning on and forming the first galaxies. During this period, the space between the galaxies changed from an opaque, neutral fog to a transparent charged plasma, as it is today. Plasma is gas that's electrically charged.
As for how this happened, ...
ORNL microscopy uncovers 'dancing' silicon atoms in graphene
2013-04-04
Jumping silicon atoms are the stars of an atomic scale ballet featured in a new Nature Communications study from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The ORNL research team documented the atoms' unique behavior by first trapping groups of silicon atoms, known as clusters, in a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon called graphene. The silicon clusters, composed of six atoms, were pinned in place by pores in the graphene sheet, allowing the team to directly image the material with a scanning transmission electron microscope.
The "dancing" movement ...
The North American Cordillera: Constructive collisions
2013-04-04
The mountain ranges of the North American Cordillera are made up of dozens of distinct crustal blocks. A new study clarifies their mode of origin and identifies a previously unknown oceanic plate that contributed to their assembly.
The extensive area of elevated topography that dominates the Western reaches of North America is exceptionally broad, encompassing the coastal ranges, the Rocky Mountains and the high plateaus in between. In fact, this mountain belt consists of dozens of crustal blocks of varying age and origin, which have been welded onto the American continent ...