Syrian opposition fighters sit on the front line in the city of Deir Ezzor on Oct. 13. Ongoing violence has ravaged the city since March 2011.
AFP/Getty Images
Syrian opposition fighters sit on the front line in the city of Deir Ezzor on Oct. 13. Ongoing violence has ravaged the city since March 2011.
AFP/Getty Images
The World Health Organization is investigating a cluster of possible polio cases in an eastern province of Syria.
If the cases are confirmed, they'd be the first ones in the war-torn nation in more than a decade. The country eliminated polio in 1999.
The suspected polio cases are in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor (pink), which borders Iraq.
Courtesy of Map data (c) 2013 Basarsoft, Google, Mapa GISrael, ORION-ME
The suspected polio cases are in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor (pink), which borders Iraq.
Courtesy of Map data (c) 2013 Basarsoft, Google, Mapa GISrael, ORION-ME
Syria used to have one of the highest polio vaccination rates in the region. If the virus has returned, it would be a high-profile example of the ramifications of the collapse of Syria's once-vaunted public health system.
Initial tests from the Syrian national laboratory in Damascus suggested that polio has crippled two children in the east, the WHO said Saturday. Further laboratory tests related to the cases are underway at the WHO's regional offices.
"We still need final confirmation from a laboratory, but all the indicators show that this is polio," Oliver Rosenbawer from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative toldThe Telegraph on Sunday.
The Syrian Ministry of Health says that it's treating the cases as part of a polio outbreak and beginning emergency vaccination campaigns in the area. The cluster of paralysis cases is in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, which straddles the Euphrates River. That river flows east from Syria across Iraq.
Over the last two decades, the world has nearly eradicated polio. There were only 223 cases recorded globally in 2012, and they were all from remote areas of Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This year, there have been 296 cases worldwide, but more than half of them have been in Somalia, which had eliminated polio in 2007.
Before the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the WHO estimated that 83 percent of Syrian children were fully vaccinated against polio. By 2012 that vaccination rate had fallen to 52 percent.
The WHO has issued a regional polio surveillance alert in response to the cases from Syria. It is urging neighboring countries to launch supplementary polio vaccination campaigns to keep the virus from spreading.
In September, Israel underwent an emergency immunization drive after polio appeared in sewers around the country. The campaign aimed to give polio boosters to 1 million children under the age of 9.
But carrying out such vaccination campaigns in Syria amid the ongoing civil war, however, could prove very difficult.
Apple's holding a big event Tuesday in San Francisco at which new iPads, Macs, and software are expected. Join CNET for the news as it happens, with pictures and running commentary.
The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, where Apple's event will take place.
The presentation is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. PT. We'll start our live blog about an hour before Apple officially kicks off its event, along with a live video show from CNET's headquarters just a few blocks away from the venue.
You can tune in to the live blog by clicking the image below, which also includes a way to schedule an e-mail reminder:
Apple held a similar event almost exactly one year ago in San Jose, Calif., where the first iPad Mini appeared. The company has used this particular venue in downtown San Francisco several times before, including for the first iPad's introduction in 2010.
Editors' note: The original version of this story was published October 21 at 12:00 a.m. PT.
Flu virus wipes out immune system's first responders to establish infection
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
20-Oct-2013
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Contact: Matt Fearer fearer@wi.mit.edu 617-452-4630 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (October 20, 2013) -- Revealing influenza's truly insidious nature, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered that the virus is able to infect its host by first killing off the cells of the immune system that are actually best equipped to neutralize the virus.
Confronted with a harmful virus, the immune system works to generate cells capable of producing antibodies perfectly suited to bind and disarm the hostile invader. These virus-specific B cells proliferate, secreting the antibodies that slow and eventually eradicate the virus. A population of these cells retains the information needed to neutralize the virus and takes up residence in the lung to ward off secondary infection from re-exposure to the virus via inhalation.
On the surface of these so-called memory B cells are high-affinity virus-specific receptors that bind virus particles to reduce viral spread. While such cells should serve at the body's first line of defense, it turns out that flu virus exploits the specificity of the cells' receptors, using them to gain entry, disrupt antibody production, and ultimately kill the cells. By dispatching its enemies in this fashion, the virus is able to replicate efficiently before the immune system can mount a second wave of defense. This seemingly counter-intuitive pathway to infection is described this week in the journal Nature.
"We can now add this to the growing list of ways that the flu virus has to establish infection," says Joseph Ashour, a co-author of the Nature paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member Hidde Ploegh.
"This is how the virus gains a foothold," adds Ploegh lab postdoc Stephanie Dougan, also a co-author of the study. "The virus targets memory cells in the lung, which allows infection to be established -- even if the immune system has seen this flu before."
Discovering this dynamic of the virus was no small task, in part because virus-specific B cells are found in exceedingly small numbers and are extremely difficult to isolate. To overcome these challenges, Dougan together with students Max Popp and Roos Karssemeijer leveraged a protein-labeling technology developed earlier in the Ploegh lab to attach a fluorescent label to influenza virus, thus identifying flu-specific B cells by their interaction with fluorescent flu micelles. This step was essential because no flu protein can be tagged in the conventional manner with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the context of an infectious virus. Dougan then introduced the B cells' nuclei into enucleated mouse egg cells via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) -- a cloning technique she learned in Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch's lab -- to generate a line of mice with virus-specific B cells and cell receptors.
Though complicated, the generation of mice with B cells specific for a known pathogen allowed Dougan and Ashour to track the virus's interactions with the cells in unprecedented fashion. Because the infectious process they discovered is likely not exclusive to influenza virus, these scientists believe their approach could have implications for other viruses as well.
"We can now make highly effective immunological models for a variety of pathogens," says Dougan. "This is actually a perfect model for studying memory immune cells."
Adds Ashour: "This is research that could help with rational vaccine design, leading to more effective vaccines for seasonal flu. It might even suggest novel strategies for conferring immunity."
###
This work is supported by the Cancer Research Institute, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Human Frontiers Science Program, and the National Institutes of Health.
Written by Matt Fearer
Hidde Ploegh's primary affiliation is with Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Full Citation:
"Antigen-specific B- cell receptor sensitizes B cells to infection by influenza virus"
Nature, October 20, 2013
Stephanie K. Dougan (1), Joseph Ashour (1), Roos A. Karssemeijer (1), Maximilian W. Popp (1,2), Ana M. Avalos (1), Marta Barisa (1), Arwen F. Altenburg (1), Jessica R. Ingram (1), Juan Jose Cragnolini (1), Chunguang Guo (3), Frederick W. Alt (3), Rudolf Jaenisch (1), and Hidde L. Ploegh (1,2)
1. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
2. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139
3. Boston Children's Hospital, Karp Family Research Building, One Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA, 02115
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Flu virus wipes out immune system's first responders to establish infection
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
20-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Matt Fearer fearer@wi.mit.edu 617-452-4630 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (October 20, 2013) -- Revealing influenza's truly insidious nature, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered that the virus is able to infect its host by first killing off the cells of the immune system that are actually best equipped to neutralize the virus.
Confronted with a harmful virus, the immune system works to generate cells capable of producing antibodies perfectly suited to bind and disarm the hostile invader. These virus-specific B cells proliferate, secreting the antibodies that slow and eventually eradicate the virus. A population of these cells retains the information needed to neutralize the virus and takes up residence in the lung to ward off secondary infection from re-exposure to the virus via inhalation.
On the surface of these so-called memory B cells are high-affinity virus-specific receptors that bind virus particles to reduce viral spread. While such cells should serve at the body's first line of defense, it turns out that flu virus exploits the specificity of the cells' receptors, using them to gain entry, disrupt antibody production, and ultimately kill the cells. By dispatching its enemies in this fashion, the virus is able to replicate efficiently before the immune system can mount a second wave of defense. This seemingly counter-intuitive pathway to infection is described this week in the journal Nature.
"We can now add this to the growing list of ways that the flu virus has to establish infection," says Joseph Ashour, a co-author of the Nature paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Whitehead Member Hidde Ploegh.
"This is how the virus gains a foothold," adds Ploegh lab postdoc Stephanie Dougan, also a co-author of the study. "The virus targets memory cells in the lung, which allows infection to be established -- even if the immune system has seen this flu before."
Discovering this dynamic of the virus was no small task, in part because virus-specific B cells are found in exceedingly small numbers and are extremely difficult to isolate. To overcome these challenges, Dougan together with students Max Popp and Roos Karssemeijer leveraged a protein-labeling technology developed earlier in the Ploegh lab to attach a fluorescent label to influenza virus, thus identifying flu-specific B cells by their interaction with fluorescent flu micelles. This step was essential because no flu protein can be tagged in the conventional manner with green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the context of an infectious virus. Dougan then introduced the B cells' nuclei into enucleated mouse egg cells via somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) -- a cloning technique she learned in Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch's lab -- to generate a line of mice with virus-specific B cells and cell receptors.
Though complicated, the generation of mice with B cells specific for a known pathogen allowed Dougan and Ashour to track the virus's interactions with the cells in unprecedented fashion. Because the infectious process they discovered is likely not exclusive to influenza virus, these scientists believe their approach could have implications for other viruses as well.
"We can now make highly effective immunological models for a variety of pathogens," says Dougan. "This is actually a perfect model for studying memory immune cells."
Adds Ashour: "This is research that could help with rational vaccine design, leading to more effective vaccines for seasonal flu. It might even suggest novel strategies for conferring immunity."
###
This work is supported by the Cancer Research Institute, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Human Frontiers Science Program, and the National Institutes of Health.
Written by Matt Fearer
Hidde Ploegh's primary affiliation is with Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, where his laboratory is located and all his research is conducted. He is also a professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Full Citation:
"Antigen-specific B- cell receptor sensitizes B cells to infection by influenza virus"
Nature, October 20, 2013
Stephanie K. Dougan (1), Joseph Ashour (1), Roos A. Karssemeijer (1), Maximilian W. Popp (1,2), Ana M. Avalos (1), Marta Barisa (1), Arwen F. Altenburg (1), Jessica R. Ingram (1), Juan Jose Cragnolini (1), Chunguang Guo (3), Frederick W. Alt (3), Rudolf Jaenisch (1), and Hidde L. Ploegh (1,2)
1. Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142
2. Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139
3. Boston Children's Hospital, Karp Family Research Building, One Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA, 02115
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Traveling Across the Pond to the delight of UK fans, George Clooney arrived at the airport in London on Monday (October 21).
The "Up in the Air" star flashed a smile to bystanders in a long black coat, gray hooded sweatshirt, and blue jeans as he made his way outside.
Recently, the 52-year-old silver fox got some high praise from his "The Monuments Men" co-star (whom he also directs in the film), John Goodman.
In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, John gushed, "Working with George is like working for your favorite 5-year-old kid. He knows what he wants. It’s like play. It was great.”
So, yeah, yesterday … big day for me. As is my custom, I spent most of the week complaining about how un-ready I was to run a marathon. In the hours leading up to the race, I was convinced that I was going to do poorly in the Detroit International Marathon. I’m not sure what happened … maybe someone put the voodoo on me, maybe I was caught up in the beauty of running the streets of a city I love so much but I managed to beat my previous personal best marathon time by 40 minutes! I felt really good for much of the race and was pacing about an hour faster than my previous best time but I knew that I would have to slow down a bit near the end so I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. I just kept looking forward toward the finish line and was completely overwhelmed by emotion when I crossed the line. It was a great, great day for me :D
The race starts in Detroit but then heads into Canada over the Ambassador Bridge … we run a few miles along the riverfront in Windsor, Ontario before we run back to the US underneath the Detroit River thru the tunnel connecting the countries. The rest of the race takes place entirely in Detroit and I have to say … I started getting teary eyed as I ran thru the streets of Detroit. There are parts of Detroit that are so beautiful, I dare you not to weep at the beauty. We runners were met on the streets with high fives, cheers, free beer (yes really, a lot of beer, actually), smiles and friendly love. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere in the city was so electric … I think a little bit of all of these things in sum helped me run my fastest marathon yet. I had hoped that I’d get a sub 5 hour marathon under my belt before I retire but I didn’t think I’d be able to get near 4:30 so quickly (my official time was 4:33). Now my new goal is to get a sub 4 hour marathon under my belt so I can qualify for the Boston Marathon. Maybe my retirement will have to be delayed a bit.
Thru it all my BFFs Sarah and Mark … no, wait, they are more than BFFs … thru it all, my dear family Sarah and Mark were encouraging me thru my complaints and worries. They woke up at 5AM to brave the cold temps not only to drive me to the race but to be by my side at the race start and finish. They, too, are a huge part of my success yesterday:
When I crossed the finish line, I started crying … like, a lot. Emma saw me weep when I finished my first marathon in Hawaii last December but my fast time in the city I love was just too much. I got to hug Mark and Sarah and bawl into their necks. That’s family stuff, y’all. To keep from having my legs tighten up completely, we decided to not rest and just keep moving … so we made our way to a Cider Mill, the perfect way to end a great trip home to Michigan:
The flight home last night was painful, I can assure you but I’m feeling much, much better today. I want to thank all of you guys out there for YOUR support as well. On Facebook, on Instagram and here on the blog, you have constantly enriched my life in such a way that I can never express properly. I carry you guys in my heart, always. We have a bit of a family around here too. To see all the love you have heaped on Shannon and her family, it just makes me so proud to “know” you guys. Thank you.
I’m home in LA again and have a pretty full week ahead. No rest for the weary :) Have a great Monday! Love you all!!
The number of active iPhone 5S devices is now about double the number of 5C devices, not triple, according to a new report from mobile analytics firm Localytics
Apple's iPhone 5C comes in multiple colors.
(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)
Apple's iPhone 5C has narrowed its gap with the iPhone 5S in terms of activations, according to a new report, but the pricier phone is still about twice as popular.
For every iPhone 5C activation in the US, there are 1.9 iPhone 5S activations, according to mobile analytics firm Localytics. Globally, the gap widens to 2.3 iPhone 5S devices per iPhone 5C. Still, the difference is much better than a couple weeks ago when Localytics found that the iPhone 5S outpaced the iPhone 5C by a factor of 3.4.
The smaller gap in the US indicates the cheaper device is more popular here than in other markets, including the much-desired developing regions, the firm said. It examined 20 million devices as part of the iPhone study.
The iPhone 5S is still outselling the 5C globally by more than double, according to Localytics.
(Credit: Localytics)
While Apple still sells a truckload of iPhones, the fate of its continued growth is a little less certain. The Cupertino, Calif., company may have invented the modern generation of touchscreen smartphones, but it faces stiff competition from companies unafraid to offer dirt-cheap, but functional, phones. While the iPhone remains king in the US, it has since ceded its leadership position elsewhere around the world. Globally, Apple has been losing market share to Android devices, particularly from Samsung.
The company also has faced more competition in tablets. Apple on Tuesday will unveil its newest iPads as it attempts to stave off competition from Android devices.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The Kenyan government says it believes it has recovered the remains of the four gunmen who stormed a shopping mall on Sept. 21 and killed more than 60 people.
Joseph Ole Lenku, Cabinet secretary for interior, said that on Sunday "we recovered a fourth body, which we know from CCTV footage to be that of a terrorist." He said in his message late Sunday that officials believe the remains of three people recovered at the mall last week are also "those of the terror suspects." Closed-circuit TV footage from Westgate Mall shows four gunmen taking part in the attack.
Lenku said "DNA and other investigations will confirm their identities."
So far, one gunmen has been identified: Hassan Abdi Dhuhulow, a Somali-Norwegian.
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