Mediaboss Marketing

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

19-Dec-2013

Contact: Dr. Christian Mnz christian.muenz@uzh.ch 41-446-353-716 University of Zurich

More than 90 percent of all adults are carriers of the oncogenic Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV). Primary infection with this herpes virus as a young child is generally not linked to any symptoms, and usually offers life-long protection from its cancer-causing effect. However, for people who do not become infected with the virus until adolescence, the infection often leads to infectious mononucleosis (commonly known as glandular fever). Our immune systems can generally fend off this disease after a period of between one and several months. However, there is an increased risk of developing Hodgkin lymphoma at a later stage, a cancerous tumor of the lymphatic system. Immunologists from the University of Zurich have now discovered a risk factor that is in part responsible for the outbreak of infectious mononucleosis in young people.

Young natural killer cells combat primary infection

The researchers used an animal model to show that the loss of innate immune control by young natural killer cells can lead to infectious mononucleosis. "Young natural killer cells, which small children in particular have in abundance, seem to be especially suited to killing off the cells that multiply EBV", according to Christian Mnz, Professor of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich. "This weakens the primary infection and infectious mononucleosis does not break out".

Without the defense of the natural killer cells, EBV multiplies so dramatically during the primary infection phase that the aggressive response of the adaptive immune system chiefly of the T killer cells makes the infected person sick with infectious mononucleosis. "In the animal model we also observed weight loss and the increased occurrence of EBV-associated lymphomas. Consequently, natural killer cells seem to play a key role in the development of the primary infection with Epstein-Barr Virus". This is how Christian Mnz explains the results of the study.

Young people could benefit from a vaccination

Adolescents who are not yet carriers of EBV are at an increased risk of developing infectious mononucleosis. Christian Mnz's work group is currently examining vaccinations that could protect against EBV infection. This could prevent the outbreak of infectious mononucleosis and reduce the related risk of developing Hodgkin lymphoma.

###

Original post:
Young killer cells protect against infectious mononucleosis

By MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - Can an experimental drug developed to treat epilepsy block the AIDS virus? A preliminary lab study suggests it's possible, and researchers are eager to try it in people.

Scientists experimented with the drug after uncovering details of how they believe HIV cripples the immune system to bring on AIDS.

When tested in human tissues in the laboratory, the drug "works beautifully" to prevent HIV from destroying key cells of the immune system, said Dr. Warner Greene of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. Those results appear in a paper by Greene and others published online Thursday by the journal Nature.

In that work, and a companion study published in Science, Greene and colleagues focus on how HIV kills vital CD4 cells of the disease-fighting immune system.

Researchers have long known it infects some CD4 cells and turns them into virus-producing factories, killing them in the process. But far more cells die without undergoing that transformation. What is going on in these "bystander"CD4 cells?

The new work provides evidence that HIV enters these cells but fails to produce a full-blown infection, and in response the cells trigger a lethal attack on themselves by the immune system.

It's "more of a suicide than a murder," Greene said. "I believe this is the major mechanism through which CD4 cells are depleted, which is the hallmark of AIDS."

The epilepsy drug, which is not on the market, blocks an enzyme that the research identified as playing a key role in that immune system attack.

Prior studies of the drug in people show it is safe, Greene said. So the researchers are talking to the drug company about testing it in people infected with HIV. No timeline for such studies has been set, he said.

Read more here:
Drug blocks HIV in lab study, human tests planned

C.J.Guerin, MRC Toxicology Unit/ Science Photo Library

Nerve cells (red) that act as receptors for hypocretins, hormones that regulate the sleep cycle, are attacked by the immune system in narcolepsy patients.

As the H1N1 swine flu pandemic swept the world in 2009, China saw a spike in cases of narcolepsy a mysterious disorder that involves sudden, uncontrollable sleepiness. Meanwhile, in Europe, around 1 in 15,000 children who were given Pandemrix a now-defunct flu vaccine that contained fragments of the pandemic virus also developed narcolepsy, a chronic disease.

Immunologist Elizabeth Mellins and narcolepsy researcher Emmanuel Mignot at Stanford University School of Medicine in California and their collaborators have now partly solved the mystery behind these events, while also confirming a longstanding hypothesis that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks healthy cells.

Narcolepsy is mostly caused by the gradual loss of neurons that produce hypocretin, a hormone that keeps us awake. Many scientists had suspected that the immune system was responsible, but the Stanford team has found the first direct evidence: a special group of CD4+ T cells (a type of immune cell) that targets hypocretin and is found only in people with narcolepsy.

Up till now, the idea that narcolepsy was an autoimmune disorder was a very compelling hypothesis, but this is the first direct evidence of autoimmunity, says Mellins. I think these cells are a smoking gun. The study is published today in Science Translational Medicine1.

Thomas Scammell, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, says that the results are welcome after years of modest disappointment, marked by many failures to find antibodies made by a person's body against their own hypocretin. Its one of the biggest things to happen in the narcolepsy field for some time.

It is not clear why some people make these T cells and others do not, but genetics may play a part. In earlier work2, Mignot showed that 98% of people with narcolepsy have a variant of the gene HLA that is found in only 25% of the general population.

Environmental factors, such as infections, probably matter too. Mellins working model is that narcolepsy happens when people with a genetic predisposition, which involves having several narcolepsy-related gene variants, encounter an environmental factor that mimics hypocretin, triggering a response from the immune system. The 2009 H1N1 virus was one such trigger: the team found that these same special CD4+ T cells also recognize a protein from the pandemic H1N1 virus.

Narcolepsy of course was around long before the 2009 pandemic. And since new cases of the disease tend to arise right after winter following the seasonal peak in flu it's possible that other strains or even other viruses are involved, too.

See more here:
Narcolepsy confirmed as autoimmune disease

Common Answers Compete with the rest of the world by predicting the most common answers to 10 easy questions.

Unfair Mario This is not a normal platform game - this one is out to get you!

Click It How many times can you click the mouse in a minute?

Fat Slice Slice up shapes by dragging your mouse through them.

That Gravity Game Play as a marshmallow who falls into a gravity machine.

Avalanche Blocks are falling from the sky. Climb them as quickly as you can to avoid the rising liquid!

Bloons Popping balloons is fun. Pop your way through all 50 levels in this exceptionally fun puzzle.

Christmas Factory Balls Drag and drop a ball over the tools to produce the required Christmas balls.

Popopop Set off wonderfully colourful chain reactions and pop all the balls to win each level.

50 Quick Shot Shoot fifty target as fast as possible, the ultimate reflex test.

Continued here:
BrainBashers : Virus Killer - BrainBashers Games : Games ...

METROPOLITAN POLICE Attention! Illegal activity was revealed! is the fake virus warning which has nothing to do with the Metropolitan Police of Great Britain. This is just the next fraudulent way developed by cyber hackers in order to collect money from users whose PC security has been greatly compromised or weakened. Nominating it with the right definition of various sorts of malware programs, this is nothing but the ransomware-type threat which requires of you to immediately effect the payment in order to restore control over your infected workstation. Another variant of such ransomware application was noticed previously, being known to substitute the Windows desktop with a bogus warning supposedly originated by the German Federal Police (BUNDESPOLIZEI). Obviously, cyber criminals change their virus application to suit various countries where they want to get as many victims as they can. So, this time they chose Great Britain as the platform for spreading their malware and reaching their evil plots. If your system is contaminated with this type of threat, you will encounter the difference immediately. Your desktop will be substituted permanently with the scareware warning titled as METROPOLITAN POLICE.

Metropolitan Police fake warning

It will prevent you from using or even having access to your files, programs and system applications. In fact, you will not be able to use your PC as you normally do. Even if you reboot your computer into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking youll get the same problem. The virus states that you were noticed while watching illegal pornographic web-pages and claims that if you dont pay 75 within 24 hours then your PC will be wiped clean, with all your important files and settings being erased. However, dont ever get nervous, the virus is not capable of performing what it claims to be able to do. On the other hand, none of us would really want to stand any chance of losing important files or other valuable information, so there is a great probability that some person might actually become the victim of these frauds who developed the Metropolitan Police threat program. In order to get rid of the METROPOLITAN POLICE virus from your system please be so kind to follow the removal milestones in the uninstall section provided below. Of course, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time should your require our assistance on these or other matters.

Safe Mode with command prompt

You know how it normally looks like, dont you? Well, here is the screenshot of it:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionWinlogon

In the right-side panel select the registry entry named Shell. Right click on this registry key and select Modify option. Its default value should be Explorer.exe. However, Metropolitan Police virus did its job, and so after you click Modify you would see totally different value of this registry entry.

See more here:
PCEU virus removal - Trojan Killer