Enterovirus D68 has caused an increasing number of infections during the past decade and is associated with acute flaccid myelitis, a polio-like condition that mostly affects children and causes sudden weakness and paralysis.

The antibodies may have clinical benefit as antiviral drugs to treat potentially life-threatening infections in elderly and immunosuppressed patients.

The findings reported in the journal Immunity support the development of a monoclonal antibody for prevention and treatment of influenza B — and will help guide efforts to develop a universal influenza vaccine.

Infectious diseases researcher H. Keipp Talbot, MD, MPH, has been appointed chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A new study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers has identified key immune cell populations that predict how well pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) recipients will respond to the influenza vaccine.

The avian (bird) influenza vaccine creates a more robust immune response when paired with a potent ingredient known as an adjuvant, according to Vanderbilt research published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Reporting Nov. 6 in Cell Reports Medicine, Ivelin Georgiev, PhD, and colleagues demonstrated that antibodies isolated from children’s blood samples displayed high levels of neutralization and potency against variants of the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, even when the children had not previously been exposed to or vaccinated against those variants.