Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus affects around a quarter of a billion people globally, and it can increase risk of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Such infection is typically treated with nucleoside analogues, which do not eliminate it entirely. Therefore researchers have been searching for effective vaccines that could work not only in the classical sense of preventing infection from becoming chronic, but also in a therapeutic sense of curing already chronic infection.

The nucleoside tunicamycin, naturally produced by Streptomyces through fermentation, is widely used as an antibiotic against mycobacteria in livestock, but it often leads to neurological, renal and hepatic toxic effects in cattle, sheep and pigs.

The threat of another influenza pandemic arising from bird-to-human and then human-to-human transmission drives continuing efforts to develop effective vaccines against avian influenza. In the latest advance in this area, researchers at Novavax Inc. have reported a new vaccine against avian influenza strain A(H5N1) clade 2.3.4.4b.

Bacteria also defend themselves against pathogen attacks using mechanisms like those of the immune system. But if there is a system to repel an attack, it can also be dismantled. Scientists at the University of Southampton have described the components of Kiwa, a protein complex that blocks the entry of phage DNA, which are viruses that infect bacteria. They have also uncovered how Kiwa interacts with other bacterial defense strategies.

Around 10 million people globally live with the life-threatening human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1), yet it remains a poorly understood disease that currently has no preventative treatments and no cure. That could soon change after Australian researchers discovered that existing HIV drugs can suppress transmission of the HTLV-1 virus in mice.

Centauri Therapeutics Ltd. and Kinvard Bio Inc. have separately announced new funding from CARB-X (Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator). The funds will support Centauri's ABX-01 program for multidrug-resistant bacterial strains and Kinvard Bio's oxepanoprolinamides program targeting lower respiratory tract infections as well as skin and soft tissue infections.