Researchers discover new tick-borne virus in the Alps

It is not yet possible to tell which consequences the newly discovered virus infection will have for animal and public health

31-Jan-2025 - A European study just published in the internationally journal “Viruses”, led by the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, has identified a new, previously unknown tick-borne virus for the first time. The new flavivirus subtype was found in diseased Alpine chamois and attached ticks from ...

Giant Viruses Infect Deadly Parasite

New unusual giant virus discovered in wastewater treatment plant

26-Apr-2024 - The single-celled organism Naegleria fowleri ranks among the deadliest human parasites. Researchers around Matthias Horn and Patrick Arthofer from the Center for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science at the University of Vienna, in an international collaboration, have discovered viruses ...

Putting out the fire in the brain

New potential treatment against serious autoimmune disease

07-Mar-2023 - In autoimmune encephalitis, a rare but serious and sometimes life-threatening inflammation of the central nervous system, the body’s own defences are directed against the central nervous system. This disease was first identified in 2007, and the most common type is Anti-NMDA receptor ...

Tick saliva modulates immune system

Study demonstrates for the first time that ticks weaken skin's immune response

29-Sep-2022 - Hitherto, scientists have not fully understood why ticks are such dangerous disease vectors. A research team led by Johanna Strobl and Georg Stary from MedUni Vienna's Department of Dermatology shows that tick saliva inhibits the skin's defence function, thereby increasing the risk of diseases ...

A call for help from the brain

How immune cells are lured to the brain in encephalitis

30-Jun-2021 - Certain viruses can cause inflammation of the meninges or even the entire brain, so-called viral encephalitis. In addition to the rabies virus and the West Nile virus, these also include the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) in the mouse model. The immune cells needed to fight the infection must ...

Evolution of a deadly virus

Genomic sequences reveal that Florida is a major source of a mosquito-borne virus

25-May-2018 - Infections caused by the mosquito-borne eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEEV) are severe and have high mortality rates for horses - 90 percent - and humans - 33 percent, with significant brain damage in most human survivors. Florida has been hypothesized to be the source of EEEV epidemics, but ...

Paving the way for the development of vaccines for emerging viruses

31-Jan-2018 - The search for vaccines, treatments and preventive methods against infection by emerging viruses is one of the major challenges of global epidemiology. New pathological agents continue to emerge, such as the arbovirus transmitted by insects (in this case mosquitoes) that causes West Nile fever, ...

Biting, non-biting, a matter of genes in mosquitoes

21-Dec-2017 - Mosquito bites can be an itchy nuisance but they can also be deadly. Diseases such as malaria, Dengue fever and West Nile virus can spread with a single bite. Understanding the genetic variation -- identifying those genes that differentiate biters from non-biters -- is the first step toward ...

New treatment for a rare form of encephalitis

10-Jan-2017 - Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is an inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system. It is a rare autoimmune disease that results in the body producing antibodies against the NMDA receptor, a protein that plays an important role in signal transduction in the brain. Using a new ...

How do immune cells enter the cerebrospinal fluid and what is their function there?

11-Mar-2016 - A research team headed by scientists at the Institute of Neuroimmunology and the Institute for Multiple Sclerosis Research (IMSF), University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG), has gained new insights into the immune function of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). They used real-time microscopy to film the ...