Scientists have discovered that a deadly parasite, known to cause ill health in pregnant women and immunocompromised patients, could potentially be used to treat various types of tumours.

The research, published today in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy Cancer, was carried out by experts from the University of Nottingham, Ningbo University and Shanxi Agricultural University in China.

Rice University researchers have introduced an online portal to help researchers screen COVID-19 drug candidates that might attack specific proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Lydia Kavraki, a computer scientist at the George R. Brown School of Engineering, and her colleagues at the University of Houston, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Federal University of Ceará, Brazil, have posted a "user-friendly" web server offering scientists the chance to screen their drug candidates virtually in relation to known protein binding pockets on the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

A needle-free COVID-19 vaccination could be possible, with University of Queensland scientists successfully protecting mice from the virus by administering a US-developed vaccine candidate with a ‘patch’.

The University of Texas Hexapro vaccine candidate - delivered via the UQ-developed and Vaxxas-commercialised high-density microarray patch (HD-MAP) - provided protection against COVID-19 disease with a single, pain-free 'click' from a pocket-sized applicator.

Scientists from Queen's University Belfast have developed a computer-aided data tool that could improve treatment for a range of illnesses.

The computer modelling tool will predict novel sites of binding for potential drugs that are more selective, leading to more effective drug targeting, increasing therapeutic efficacy and reducing side effects.

A study conducted by a consortium of Brazilian researchers has demonstrated that a hyperimmune serum consisting of purified antibody fragments produced in horses may be an efficient approach to combat COVID-19. Tests conducted in hamsters improved the animal clinical conditions. The neutralizing activity of the sera developed by the scientists has been proved to be high against the P.1 (Gamma) and P.2 variants.

A drug used to treat agitation in people with dementia is no more effective than a placebo, and might even increase mortality, according to a new study.

The research, led by the University of Plymouth and published in The Lancet, has shown that antidepressant mirtazapine offered no improvement in agitation for people with dementia - and was possibly more likely to be associated with mortality than no intervention at all.

People who had received a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and received an mRNA vaccine for their second dose had a lower risk of infection compared to people who had received both doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. This is shown in a nationwide study performed by researchers at Umeå University, Sweden.