Narrow Results

Previous studies have suggested that Taiji practice may improve immune function. This study was intended to examine whether 5 months of moderate Taiji and Qigong (TQ) practice could improve the immune response to influenza vaccine in older adults. Fifty older adults (mean age 77.2 ± 1.3 years) participated in this study (TQ N = 27; wait-list control [CON] N = 23). Baseline pre-vaccine blood samples were collected. All subjects then received the 2003–2004 influenza vaccine during the first week of the intervention. Post-vaccine blood samples were collected 3, 6 and 20 weeks post-intervention for analysis of anti-influenza hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers. We found a significant (p < 0.05) increase in the magnitude and duration of the antibody response to influenza vaccine in TQ participants when compared to CON. The vaccination resulted in a 173, 130, and 109% increase in HI titer at 3, 6, and 20 weeks post-vaccine, respectively, in the TQ group compared to 58, 54, and 10% in CON. There was a significant between group difference at 3 and 20 weeks post-vaccine and at 20 weeks the TQ group had significantly higher titers compared to the pre-vaccine time point, whereas the CON group did not. A higher percentage of TQ subjects also responded to the influenza A strains with a protective (> 40HI) antibody response (37% TQ vs. 20% CON for the H1N1 strain and 56% TQ vs. 45% CON for the H3N2 strain), but the differences between groups were not statistically significant. Traditional TQ practice improves the antibody response to influenza vaccine in older adults, but further study is needed to determine whether the enhanced response is sufficient to provide definitive protection from influenza infection.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the clinical evidence of an herbal medicine (HM) treatment on influenza and describe the potential benefits and adverse events by reviewing all relevant randomized controlled trials. All papers published from 2010 to 2019 in all languages in six databases were searched, including all randomized controlled trials on adults and children, testing herbal medicine for treatment of influenza, alone or in combination with conventional antiviral therapy. The main outcome parameters of interest were total effective rate, time to resolution of fever, adverse events, complications, and duration of viral shedding. 25 trials of 3044 patients were included. Herbal medicine compared to placebo significantly reduced time to fever resolution by 4.96h (mean difference, $-$4.96; 95% CI, $-$7.11 to $-$2.80; $P<0.00001$), herbal medicine compared to oseltamivir showed no significant difference (mean difference, $-$1.82; 95% CI, $-$6.08 to 2.44; $P=0.40$), and herbal medicine plus oseltamivir combined treatment significantly reduced duration of fever by 7.84h compared to a single treatment with oseltamivir (mean difference, $-$7.84; 95% CI, $-$12.51 to $-$3.17; $p=0.001$). Herbal medicine compared to placebo showed a significantly better total effective rate (risk ratio, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.18 to 3.07; $P=0.008$), herbal medicine compared to oseltamivir indicated significantly better effective rate (risk ratio, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.29; $P=0.01$), and combined treatment showed a significantly better total effective rate compared to a single treatment with oseltamivir (risk ratio, 1.20; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.36; $P=0.004$). Regarding safety, no serious adverse events were reported in HM treatment. HM presented fewer adverse events compared to oseltamivir, but the difference was not significant (risk difference, $-$0.04; 95% CI, $-$0.09 to 0.00; $P=0.08$), and the combined treatment did not increase adverse events compared to oseltamivir (risk difference, $-$0.02; 95% CI, $-$0.06 to 0.02; $P=0.30$). Research findings show that herbal medicine treatments have beneficial therapeutic effects on influenza and could decrease duration of fever and improve total effective rate. In addition, herbal medicine plus oseltamivir combined therapy could increase the therapeutic effect compared to a single treatment with oseltamivir.

Influenza is a sudden and serious viral breathing and lung-related infectious disease that causes significant deadliness and death worldwide. Now, the international treatment is oseltamivir. Chinese patent medicine (CPM) as a kind of different therapy is used in the treatment of influenza in China. The aim of this study was to interpret the clinical efficacy and safety of CPM combined with oseltamivir in the treatment of adult influenza by reviewing all relevant randomized controlled trials, and to provide new ideas and methods for the treatment of influenza. PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, SinoMed, CNKI, and Wanfang Database were searched from the date of beginning until 1 June 2021, for the references on treatment of influenza with CPM. According to standard information extraction tables, two people worked to find and aggregate information independently. Review Manager 5.2 was used to study data carefully and evaluate risk of bias. A total of nine trials of 906 patients were included. Based on the meta-analysis, compared to oseltamivir, CPM combined with oseltamivir had better effect in the time of defervescence [MD = –17.68, 95% CI (–25.93, –9.44), P < 0.0001], the time of symptom improvement [MD = –22.28, 95% CI (–26.77, –17.80), P < 0.00001], and the time of hospitalization [MD = –2.04, 95% CI (–3.45, –0.63), P = 0.005]. Related to safety [RR = 0.69, 95% CI (0.38, 1.23), P = 0.21], the experimental group had fewer adverse reactions than the control group, but there is no statistical significance. The findings show that CPM combined with oseltamivir in adult influenza has a better efficacy in shortening the time of defervescence and symptom improvement, reducing the time of hospitalization. However, publication bias is inevitable due to the low methodological quality check of the clinical research about diagnostic criteria, definition of adult influenza, and small number of articles, and further large sample sizes and multi-center clinical trials are needed to give better proof for its efficacy and safety.

We present an optimal control model for influenza vaccination strategies in an open population. The model is based on an extended Kermack–McKendrick model with the vaccination rate being a measurable function. The objective of this optimal control model is to describe the vaccination strategies so that the total cost arising from vaccination and infections is minimized. We show that the optimal control is a non-singular bang-bang control which has a finite number of switchings. A scheme for the solution of the optimal control problem is formulated using the shooting method. We also carry out numerical simulations to illustrate the general results and to examine the effects of parameters on the optimal vaccination strategy. The simulations show that the ratio of the per capita treatment cost and per capita vaccination cost has a significant effect on the optimal strategy, while the vaccination rate of the newly recruited class turns out to have less effect.

Flu is an acute respiratory infection caused by the influenza virus. The outbreak usually occurs every year in temperate region during the fall and winter seasons, but it is present year-round in tropics. Perceived risk of infection, affordability and lack of awareness among the population results in a low level of vaccination coverage. To control disease transmission and promote vaccination, public health officials use media coverage to spread awareness on vaccine safety, vaccine coverage, disease prevalence in the population through public health websites, advertisements, and other social media web pages. Media coverage acts as an incentive as it helps to decrease overall transmission potential and also at the same time increases the vaccination coverage in the population. Since the public health department has a limited budget, it needs to make optimum allocation of its effort to reduce the total cost of infection. Our paper investigates the effect of media coverage using SIR model of disease transmission. We look at three possible functional relationships — linear, exponential, and hyperbolic — the way media coverage may affect the disease transmission and vaccination rate. We derive necessary conditions of optimal solution using Optimal Control Theory and Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP) to minimize the total cost for infection. Analysis of our paper demonstrates that the cost of optimal management is four times less than the cost of constant control effort, and putting more effort into reducing transmission is optimal rather than an effort to increase vaccination at the beginning of the outbreak. Analysis of the role of media coverage under three different scenarios may help in formulating policies for public health programs in mitigating the influenza outbreak.

Study Leave Benefits Queensland Doctors.

Breast Cancer and Family History Link to be Investigated.

Study on Burden of Obesity and Diabetes.

China Rapidly Developing Biotechnology and Bioindustry.

China to Build World's Largest Chinese Bone Marrow Bank.

Influenza Major Cause of Hospitalization of Children.

India Needs Better Biotech Policy.

Online Database for Cancer Therapies.

US Corn Cargo Sold to Japan Contains Banned Organism.

Korea Invests in Biochemical Technology.

Korea's Big Biotechnology Plans for 2003.

Scientists Confirm Toxicity of Fungus Found in Homes.

School Based Health Care to be Improved.

Taiwan has East Asia's Highest Rate of Gout.

Life Therapeutics Announces Influenza Program.

Bharat Biotech to Launch New Vaccines and Set up Manufacturing Facility in Malaysia.

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Completes the Genome Sequencing of Rice Malt.

Cuba and China Sign Biotech Accord.

New Oral Vaccine Combats Common Strains of Rotavirus and Boosts the Immunity of Children.

A Rising Fear—Resistance to Tamiflu.

Sinovac Biotech Begins Pandemic Flu Vaccine Clinical Trials.

Korean Stem Cell Scientist Apologizes for Fake Research Results.

Two Ventures To Make Bio-fuels from Palm Oil.

Beijing Approves Drug Using Virus To Treat Cancer.

CyGenics' Subsidiary to Distribute Bird Flu Test Kits.

Acrux Enters Commercial Manufacturing Alliance with Orion Corporation

Agilent Technologies and University of Technology, Sydney Establish Unique “Elemental Bio-Imaging” Facility

DuPont and Hexima Partner to Develop and Commercialize Fungal Disease Resistance Technology

Canopus Biopharma and Leading Chinese Researcher Team Up to Treat Avian Influenza

All Asia Licensing Announces Proposed Joint Venture with Bio Research Firm for Bovine Testing, Beef Grading

Piramal Healthcare Launches French Dermo-cosmetic Range from Pierre Fabre

Avesthagen and ICMR Join Hands to Promote Biomedical Research in India

ICRISAT and DBT to Establish New Facility for Agri-biotechnology Research

Philips Launches Its First Patient Monitoring System “Designed For Emerging Markets” in India

Biocon, Abraxis Launch Abraxane in India to Treat Breast Cancer

Carna Signs Reagent Supply Agreement with Caliper Life Sciences

American Peptide Company to be Acquired by Otsuka Chemical Company

EpiCept and GNI Partner to Develop Anti-Viral Hepatitis Drug in Asia

USM Signs Nanotechnology Agreement with BiotechCorp

AstraZeneca Partners with Singapore Institutions to Develop Anti-Cancer Compounds

Metabasis Therapeutics Collaborates with Roche to Develop Liver-Targeted Compounds for the Treatment of Hepatitis C

Genelabs Signs Research Agreement with National Health Research Institutes of Taiwan and Genovate Biotech

Taiwan Liposome Inks Deal with Japanese Company

AUSTRALIA – Brain Gene Can Lead to Testis, Male Genitalia in Females.

AUSTRALIA – ALSIS 2010 Heats Up Aussie Biotech.

AUSTRALIA – World First Research on Jet Fuel Exposure Syndrome.

AUSTRALIA – Genetic Link Found Between Spinal Arthritis and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

AUSTRALIA – Superbug in Melbourne.

AUSTRALIA – Possible Peanut Allergy Treatment Discovered.

CHINA – Bank to Freeze Eggs of Women Cancer Patients.

INDIA – Asia's First Biodegradable Stent.

INDIA – Swine Flu Returns - 20 Cases in a Week.

INDIA – Rare Double Hip Replacement in Noida.

SINGAPORE – Hydrogel Innovation Promises Multiple Uses.

SINGAPORE – Software Detects Genetic Mutations in Influenza.

SINGAPORE – NCCS to Establish Peritoneal and Pelvic Cancer Center.

OTHER REGIONS – Common Blood Test Could Detect Heart Disease.

Opening Minds: The Use of Technology to Provide a Personalised Population-based Mental Health Programme.

Future Perspectives for Influenza Prevention – A Global Paradox.

INDONESIA – Biomed Analysis: Indonesia needs a central science fund.

KOREA – Agilent Technologies helps City of Daegu and Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology search for biomarkers for neurological diseases.

SINGAPORE – New S$6.5m facility at NTU by SCELSE and Carl Zeiss to boost used water treatment and environmental life sciences engineering research in Singapore.

SINGAPORE – Chugai expands in Singapore with opening of second satellite research institute.

SINGAPORE – Rising Above the Present into the Next-Generation.

SINGAPORE – Austrianova Singapore announces new pancreatic cancer models.

SINGAPORE – IBN and Fortis Colorectal Hospital establish tissue bank for colorectal cancer research.

SINGAPORE – Electronic medical records progress from an enterprise-centric solution to a customer-specific application, finds Frost & Sullivan.

SINGAPORE – Global perspectives on Health IT from Harvard Medical School thought leader, Dr Blackford Middleton.

AUSTRALIA – World's first fluorescent flowers.

UNITED KINGDOM – AbD Serotec introduces bovine and ovine Dendritic Cell Growth Kits and antibodies.

USA – Medicago Successfully Completes the Production of More Than Ten Million Doses of H1N1 VLP Influenza Vaccine in One Month.

USA – Research validates BioNano genomics' mapping platform for complex human genome analysis.

USA – Nine population strategies to stop short of 9 billion.

USA – Virtual science libraries to be launched in Central Asia.

USA – Vaginal ring may help reduce HIV infections.

Vaccines: Where are we headed?

Cancer Vaccines – History, Recent Breakthroughs and Commercial Perspectives.

Virus Sensitizer Technology: A New Boost for Cell-Based Vaccine Production.

A Novel Method for Making Pandemic Influenza Vaccines.

Agilent Technologies supports Professor's work developing transformative NMR applications for structural biology.

Alchemia announces multi-target drug discovery collaboration with AstraZeneca on VAST discovery platform.

DSM and DecImmune Therapeutics sign agreement to develop N2 pathway blocking antibody.

Novel technology from Columbia University for Neurobiological Research.

A new EU-funded industry-academia drug discovery partnership targets challenging kinases.

Avian Influenza A (H7N9) threatens, GenScript supports researchers in impending battle.

BioScience Managers banks on growth of anti-infectives market.

Rodin Therapeutics applies insights of epigenetics to neurological disorders.

LBT Innovations finalizes joint venture to drive global production of world-class automated diagnostics technology.

Phylogica expands collaborations with Janssen for peptide-drug conjugates.

Immune Design and Medicago announce license agreement and collaboration to develop novel adjuvanted pandemic influenza vaccines.

Bayat Foundation inaugurates new pediatric critical care facility at Indira Gandhi Hospital in Kabul.

AUSTRALIA – Origins of plague: Scientists reveal the cause of one of the most devastating pandemics in human history.

AUSTRALIA – Admedus releases interim phase I results for Herpes study.

CAMBODIA – Study tags cause of malaria drug resistance in Cambodia.

JAPAN – Discovery of mechanism by which sex hormone regulates aggressive behavior.

SINGAPORE – Singapore's first influenza vaccines demonstrates favorable immunogenicity and tolerability in clinical testing.

SINGAPORE – Scientists from Genome Institute of Singapore and Stanford University show RNA architecture expanding understanding of human genetics.

SINGAPORE – “Bio-Timer” that synchronizes growth.

SINGAPORE – Researchers make new discovery of protein as a promising target for treatment of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

AFRICA – African project aims to stop rats in their tracks.

AFRICA – African monsoon project to benefit crops and healthcare.

CANADA – Cancer researchers discover pre-leukemic stem cell at root of AML relapse.

EUROPE – Understanding heart failure at the cellular level.

INDIA – Africa and India cultivate agricultural research ties.

UNITED STATES – Three major genes set feather hue in pigeons.

UNITED STATES – Mouse study shows gene therapy may be possible cure for Hurler syndrome.

UNITED STATES – The ultimate decoy: Scientists find protein that helps bacteria misdirect immune system.

SINGAPORE – Agilent Technologies and A*STAR’s Bioprocessing Technology Institute Collaborate on New Bioanalytical Methodologies

Malaysia – Malaysian Scientists Published the Latest Results on Colorectal Cancer Screening Using the M2-PK Rapid Test in the Renowned Journal PLOS ONE

Japan – Panasonic’s Solar Lanterns Donated to UNDP Have Begun to be Distributed to Ebola Affected Regions

France – Carbon Capture is a Mirage for Poor Nations

Germany – apceth and University of Cologne to Join Forces on Combination Cellular Immunotherapies for Cancer

Ethiopia – New Development Financing Framework must take into account emerging Global Challenges and be Risk-Informed, says UN Development Chief

Tanzania – DIY Treatment of Malaria Nets could foil Resistant Mosquitoes

Kenya – Diabetes Screening in Kenya – ‘It Takes Only 5 Seconds’

United States & Denmark – Dislike Needles? Novo Nordisk has a Friend for You

United States – Protein Sciences Receives Approval from FDA for 2015/16 Formulation of Flublok® Influenza Vaccine

Five Prime Therapeutics Establishes Strategic Research Collaboration and License Agreement with Inhibrx for Novel GITR Antibodies

Elsevier Launches Health Library to Accelerate Patient Education, Engagement and Outcomes via Direct Access to Trusted Content

Cervical Cancer is Highly Preventable. Don’t Succumb to It.

Do Your Part to Stop Infectious Disease from Spreading: Insights from Infectious Diseases Expert — Dr. Leong Hoe Nam.

Infectious Diseases in Asia Pacific: Top Five Targets for Prophylaxis Vaccines.

The following topics are under this section:

• ASIA-PACIFIC — Research Institute in Singapore to help empower oral health research and innovation in Asia
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Lien Centre for Palliative Care celebrates tenth year of providing quality palliative care services for citizens
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Smartphone device for monitoring water quality provide fish farmers with high-tech and low-cost solution
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Discovering possible treatments for liver cancer
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Existing treatments and vaccines no longer effective against dengue virus
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Singapore-led global diabetes study relevant on an international stage
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Genetic analyses reveals new species of seaweed
• ASIA-PACIFIC — Preliminary results draw attention to the need to understand risk factors of influenza
• ASIA-PACIFIC — New strategy for rice plant resilience to change in climate conditions
• REST OF THE WORLD — Study finds that cancer patients have higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• REST OF THE WORLD — Researchers discover signs of damage due to brain inflammation in obese adolescents
• REST OF THE WORLD — Shedding light on healthcare-associated infection pathogens
• REST OF THE WORLD — Nutrient-producing silk coats can help seeds germinate in unfavourable conditions

Avian influenza viruses from migratory birds have managed to cross host species barriers and infected various hosts like human and swine. Epidemics and pandemics might occur when influenza viruses are adapted to humans, causing deaths and enormous economic loss. Receptor-binding specificity of the virus is one of the key factors for the transmission of influenza viruses across species. The determination of host tropism and understanding of molecular properties would help identify the mechanism why zoonotic influenza viruses can cross species barrier and infect humans. In this study, we have constructed computational models for host tropism prediction on human-adapted subtypes of influenza HA proteins using random forest. The feature vectors of the prediction models were generated based on seven physicochemical properties of amino acids from influenza sequences of three major hosts. Feature aggregation and associative rules were further applied to select top 20 features and extract host-associated physicochemical signatures on the combined model of nonspecific subtypes. The prediction model achieved high performance ($\mathrm{\text{Accuracy}}=0.948$, $\mathrm{\text{Precision}}=0.954$, $\mathrm{\text{MCC}}=0.922$). Support and confidence rates were calculated for the host class-association rules. The results indicated that secondary structure and normalized Van der Waals volume were identified as more important physicochemical signatures in determining the host tropism.

Influenza viruses are persistently threatening public health, causing annual epidemics and sporadic pandemics due to rapid viral evolution. Vaccines are used to prevent influenza infections but the composition of the influenza vaccines have to be updated regularly to ensure its efficacy. Computational tools and analyses have become increasingly important in guiding the process of vaccine selection. By constructing time-series training samples with splittings and embeddings, we develop a computational method for predicting suitable strains as the recommendation of the influenza vaccines using recurrent neural networks (RNNs). The Encoder-decoder architecture of RNN model enables us to perform sequence-to-sequence prediction. We employ this model to predict the prevalent sequence of the H3N2 viruses sampled from 2006 to 2017. The identity between our predicted sequence and recommended vaccines is greater than 98% and the $P_{\mathrm{\text{epitope}}}<0.2$ indicates their antigenic similarity. The multi-step vaccine prediction further demonstrates the robustness of our method which achieves comparable results in contrast to single step prediction. The results show significant matches of the recommended vaccine strains to the circulating strains. We believe it would facilitate the process of vaccine selection and surveillance of seasonal influenza epidemics.