Viruses

Two studies published Thursday in the journals Science and Diabetologia provide evidence that common viruses may cause childhood diabetes, paving the way for potential vaccines, researchers said. One team showed that enteroviruses, which cause colds, were found frequently in pancreases of youths who had recently died from Type 1 diabetes, but not in healthy samples. This suggests a virus could trigger the disease in children genetically predisposed to the condition, said Alan Foulis of the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow, Scotland, who worked on one of the studies.

Citing recent evidence that HIV infections are best managed when treated early, an influential panel of medical experts has finalized its recommendation that all people ages 15 to 65 be screened for the virus that causes AIDS. The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force seeks to address one of the key challenges in the fight against HIV/AIDS: The window during which patients respond best to treatment is also the time when symptoms of the disease are least noticeable.

Viruses are tricky for a host of reasons: There are many different types, so a drug that fights one may not fight another. They use our cells' own machinery to replicate, so often drugs that would fight them would be toxic to our bodies. Plus they replicate in huge numbers, and often sloppily -- producing many new forms. If one of those rare new forms happens to be resistant to an anti-viral drug, it will have a selective advantage and multiply -- and pretty soon you have a drug-resistant strain on your hands.

Even if the horror-thriller "Antiviral" wasn't written and directed by David Cronenberg's son, Brandon, this meat locker of a movie might still invite comparisons to much of the elder filmmaker's signature output. Stark, startling and weirdly inventive, "Antiviral" is set in a vaguely futuristic dystopia where the cult of celebrity has become that much more, well, cultish. The deal: Fans can get closer than ever to their favorite superstars by being injected with famous folks' viruses, which are harvested and brokered by high-security clinics.

Good news, pimple poppers: The solution to your acne problem may already be all over your face. A new study has found that a specific group of benign viruses that live alongside zit-causing bacteria have the power to stop acne before it starts. The bacterium Propionibacterium acnes generally causes acne, which lives inside skin pores. When people hit puberty, an increase in hormones leads to a drastic increase in P. acnes , which in turn causes an inflammatory response on the skin.

An extract from sharks seems to fight a broad array of viruses, according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The chemical, called squalamine, was discovered in 1993 by Dr. Michael Zasloff, now at Georgetown University Medical Center and the lead investigator of the paper. He's been studying it ever since, mostly for its immune properties. Working with a variety of scientists at Georgetown, UCLA and elsewhere, Zasloff and his colleagues tested the ability of squalamine to fight off infections by a variety of viruses including dengue virus, yellow fever and hepatitis A, B and D. Some of the experiments were done in tissue culture cells of various types: human liver cells for the hepatitis viruses, for example, and human blood vessel cells for the dengue virus.  In other cases, such as yellow fever and cytomegalovirus, the tests were done in hamsters and mice.

After last week's column mentioned IBM's new anti-virus Web site, two Pasadena-based virus researchers wrote to point out that they too have a Web site devoted to debunking myths about computer viruses. The site is the creation of George Smith, editor of the anti-virus Crypt Newsletter, and Bob Rosenberger, a virus myths researcher. In addition to providing information about virus hoaxes, the site is in the midst of soliciting votes for the "1996 John McAfee Awards for Computer Virus Hysteria."

Re "Fast-Moving Virus Hits Computers Worldwide," May 5: What a shame! I wish I had a thimbleful of the talent those individuals who write viruses have. I could do so much more with my life, using it to better things instead of damaging things. They are the graffiti vandals of the Internet industry, causing so much frustration. RORY O'BRIEN Manhattan Beach For all the media attention given to the latest virus, it's amazing how little is said about this fundamental fact: that computer viruses are carefully conceived and written by a human being with the specific intent to cause damage.

Here's a posting from the "ick" files. Scientsts are now delving into an uncharted environment to study human and other viruses: raw sewage. In a study published Tuesday in the online journal mBio, researchers from the U.S. and Spainfound that untreated human wastewater -- "the effluence of society," they wrote -- contains an incredible diversity of viruses ... and that the vast majority are viruses we hadn't known of before. Click for the abstract . At this point, biologists know of about 3,000 different viruses, representing 84 different viral families -- but they suspect that those known bugs are just the tip of the iceberg.

A new villain has taken over movies, but this one doesn't have razor-sharp fangs and didn't arrive in a spaceship. It can, however, reproduce at astronomical rates and loves to mutate. Viruses are the hottest bad guys on the big and small screens, multiplying with abandon in films such as "Contagion" (opening Friday), this summer's "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and any recent zombie-centric movie or TV show like AMC's "The Walking Dead. " They're an excellent cinematic expression of evil--invisible to the naked eye, they kill scores with no remorse.

Circumcision is known to reduce a man's risk of HIV infection by at least half, but scientists don't know why. A new study offers support for the theory that removing the foreskin deprives troublesome bacteria of a place to live, leaving the immune system in much better shape to keep the human immunodeficiency virus at bay. Anyone who has ever lifted a rock and watched as the earth beneath it was quickly vacated by legions of bugs and tiny worms...

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department issued a warning Friday about an uptick in complaints about an Internet virus that locks computers and demands payment after falsely alleging the user is guilty of a crime. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center first issued an alert in August about the virus known as Reveton ransomware virus, a malware program that can engage as soon as a victim clicks on a compromised website. The virus then locks the victim's computer and displays a message claiming that there has been a violation of federal law. The computer often displays a fake message purporting to be from the FBI or Department of Justice, claiming that the user's Internet address has been associated with child pornography sites or other illegal activity.

They call it "break-bone fever" because of the agonizing muscle and joint pain it causes, while extremely severe cases can trigger internal hemorrhaging. Although the mosquito-borne dengue virus was thought to be fully eradicated in the continental United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Wednesday that the tropical disease had indeed returned. In a study published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases , authors identified Key West, Fla., as ground zero for transmission of dengue in the U.S..

For the first time, doctors are reporting that a child born with HIV and put on an unusually aggressive treatment regimen has been functionally cured of the infection. Now 2 years old, the Mississippi girl has only trace amounts of HIV in her bloodstream and has been able to keep the virus that causes AIDS in check without the help of medication, doctors said Sunday at a medical conference in Atlanta. If researchers demonstrate that the same treatment can work in other children, it could drastically alter the lives of the estimated 1,000 babies born with HIV every day, most of them in Africa, doctors said.

U.S. health officials announced plans for scientists to move forward with controversial research on the deadly H5N1 bird flu and said that any discoveries about how the virus might gain the ability to spread easily among humans should be shared with other scientists and the public. The new policy, released Thursday by the National Institutes of Health, requires that studies aimed at making the virus more dangerous would now be subject to a heightened level of review. Effective immediately, researchers will have to explicitly delineate the potential science and health benefits - as well as safety risks - involved in their work before they can get government funding, said Dr. Amy Patterson, NIH associate director for science policy.

A newly identified virus tied to five deaths worldwide since April appears capable of transmission from one person to another, British health officials said Wednesday. The virus, part of a family called coronaviruses that range from the common cold to SARS, was found in a British resident who was apparently infected by a relative. It can cause fever, coughing and breathing problems. Until now, health officials had little evidence of whether the virus could be transmitted from person to person.

Two new recipients of the MacArthur fellowships -- the so-called genius awards that provide $500,000 each to recipients to help them pursue any projects they like -- will use their prize money to delve into the inner workings of some of nature's tiniest structures: viruses and stem cells. Elodie Ghedin, a 44-year-old genomics scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, decodes the genomes of pathogens such as parasites and viruses to understand how they adapt to their hosts and evolve.

NEW YORK - Federal prosecutors said they had foiled an international cyber-crime ring that targeted bank accounts in the U.S. and around the globe. The criminal charges, disclosed Wednesday, highlight the vulnerabilities of online consumer banking, which has become more popular in the digital age. It also comes just months after most every major U.S. bank suffered a relentless round of online attacks by Middle Eastern hackers. In the case unveiled Wednesday, three men - a Russian, a Latvian and a Romanian - allegedly created and spread a virus they called "Gozi" that infected more than 1 million computers around the globe, including at least 40,000 in the United States.

Bird flu researchers said Wednesday that they would end a self-imposed moratorium on controversial experiments to determine how the deadly H5N1 virus might mutate and gain the ability to spread easily among humans. In a statement published online by the journals Science and Nature, 40 scientists said they were poised to resume their investigations - but only in countries that have established clear rules for conducting the research safely. The U.S., which is the largest funder of influenza research, is not yet among those nations.