The research on novel vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 with improved characteristics continues. These ideal features include rapid development to target variants of concern, easy manufacturing, and an excellent safety profile while inducing humoral and cellular immune responses.

Neuraminidase (NA) is an essential surface protein of influenza viruses with potential as an effective drug and vaccine target. However, knowledge of the NA antigenic landscape remains limited, and most current influenza vaccines induce antibodies against the surface glycoprotein hemagglutinin.

CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator) has announced an award of $1.06 million to the Helmholtz Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Saarland (HIPS) to develop a new class of small-molecule inhibitors of bacterial sliding clamp (DnaN), a pivotal component of DNA replication machinery, which is a clinically unproven but promising novel mechanism for targeting bacteria.

In a recent study led by Soman Abraham from Duke University, investigators observed that an increase in nociceptive sensory nerves in urinary tract biopsies from patients with recurrent urinary tract infections (rUTIs) was linked to elevated nerve growth factor (NGF) from monocytes and mast cells. This overgrowth of nerve cells appeared to cause lingering symptoms after rUTIs. These findings, appearing in the March 1, 2024, online edition of Science Immunology, have the potential to provide a new approach to managing symptoms of rUTIs that would reduce unnecessary antibiotic usage.

On March 4, 2024, several groups of scientists discussed the challenges of investigating the effects of HIV in the central nervous system (CNS) at the oral abstract session on neuropathogenesis of HIV held during the 31st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), in Denver. A cure for HIV will require eliminating the virus in all its reservoirs, those tissues where HIV remains latent but retains the capacity for reactivation and replication. However, despite antiretroviral therapy (ART), the virus could continue to replicate continuously at a low level in some reservoirs, including the CNS.

On March 4, 2024, several groups of scientists discussed the challenges of investigating the effects of HIV in the central nervous system (CNS) at the oral abstract session on neuropathogenesis of HIV held during the 31st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), in Denver. A cure for HIV will require eliminating the virus in all its reservoirs, those tissues where HIV remains latent but retains the capacity for reactivation and replication. However, despite antiretroviral therapy (ART), the virus could continue to replicate continuously at a low level in some reservoirs, including the CNS.