zika

By engineering structures out of DNA, scientists could potentially prevent larger viruses, like coronaviruses and influenza viruses, from interacting with cells.

Flavivirus infections alter the skin microbiome of mice to increase the production of a sweet-smelling compound that attracts the viruses’ insect vectors, a study finds.

Pregnant mosquito females deploy the microbe Elizabethkingia to speed larval growth; the larvae, in turn, help the bacteria outcompete other strains.

Sherif Zaki worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more than 30 years, and was renowned for uncovering crucial intel on various outbreak-causing scourges, from Ebola and Zika to SARS and influenza.

By avoiding the production of antibodies, something vaccines ordinarily induce, the immunization sidesteps the problem of antibody-dependent enhancement, which can amplify infection by a similar virus and is known to occur with dengue and Zika.

After years of push back, the first batch of Oxitec’s engineered mosquitoes, designed to reduce population numbers, have been released in the Keys.

A study explains how Zika was present among mosquitoes in Africa for decades without causing the harm to human health seen outside the continent in recent years.

A study of Nicaraguan children links prior Zika virus infection with aggravated dengue fever symptoms.

There have been no reports of health or environmental harm in other locations where genetically modified mosquitoes have been introduced over the last decade.

Elevated levels of a neurotoxin in northeastern Brazil’s drinking water and a high incidence of microcephaly in the region led scientists to look for a link, and they found one.

By infecting glioblastoma cells but not healthy brain tissue, some form of the virus could serve a therapeutic purpose.

The biotech Oxitec had released the genetically engineered insects with the hope that they would breed with wild populations and produce offspring that die young. But that’s not always happening.

Researchers use two techniques—Wolbachia infection and irradiation—to suppress reproduction in populations of Asian tiger mosquitoes at two study sites in China.

Executives at a biotech that develops new antibodies argue that Ram Sasisekharan didn’t come up with the structures for at least two experimental therapies that his group has described.

Animal and cell culture studies show evidence that dengue antibodies can both neutralize and enhance Zika, but human investigations have only found protective effects.

Children were 38 percent less likely to show signs of Zika infection if they had previously had dengue.

From 500-million-year-old fat to a newly discovered virus, here are some stunners from The Scientist in 2018.

Climate change may open up new habitats suitable for the virus’s spread.