About the Study: Is combined inhibition of programmed cell death 1 protein (PD-1) and lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG-3) added to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) safe and effective in (formerly HER2)-negative early-stage breast cancer at high risk of recurrence? This phase 2 randomized clinical trial including 78 participants with -negative breast cancer found that combining cemiplimab and fianlimab with paclitaxel-based NAC improved rates of pathologic complete response in all participants, including those with triple-negative and hormone receptor−positive subtypes. Patients positive for the ImPrint immune signature were highly sensitive to the combination, providing a potential biomarker of treatment response. These results indicate that combined PD-1 and LAG-3 inhibition warrants further investigation in -negative breast cancer.

Corresponding Author: Claudine Isaacs, MD, Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University, 3800 Reservoir Rd NW, Corridor B, Room 414A, Washington, DC 20007 (isaacsc@georgetown.edu).

10.1001/jamaoncol.2026.2576

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Journal

JAMA Oncology

McCallin, S., Classen, A.Y., Lieberknecht-Jouy, S.C. et al. Combined phage therapy and faecal microbiota transplantation to treat recurrent urinary tract infection: a case series.
Nat Microbiol 11, 2112–2118 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02409-0

August 2026

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma represents one of the most common and lethal subtypes of kidney cancer, characterized by distinct molecular features that drive both tumor progression and treatment response. The hallmark genetic alteration in ccRCC is the loss of the VHL tumor suppressor gene, which occurs in the majority of cases and leads to constitutive activation of hypoxia-inducible factors. However, recent comprehensive genomic analyses have revealed a complex landscape of additional mutations that profoundly influence disease biology and therapeutic susceptibility.

Among the most significant discoveries in ccRCC genomics are recurrent mutations in chromatin remodeling genes, particularly PBRM1, BAP1, and SETD2. These genes encode proteins that modify chromatin structure and regulate gene expression through histone modifications and DNA methylation. PBRM1, which encodes a subunit of the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex, is mutated in approximately 40% of ccRCC cases. BAP1, a deubiquitinase involved in chromatin regulation and DNA damage response, is mutated in about 15% of cases and is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis.

The functional consequences of these chromatin remodeling mutations extend beyond epigenetic dysregulation. Emerging evidence suggests that defects in these genes impair DNA damage repair pathways, rendering tumor cells vulnerable to specific therapeutic interventions. This phenomenon, known as synthetic lethality, has been successfully exploited in other cancer types and holds promise for ccRCC treatment.

Importantly, the genetic landscape of ccRCC also shapes the tumor immune microenvironment. Tumors with different driver mutations exhibit distinct patterns of immune cell infiltration, cytokine expression, and checkpoint molecule presentation. For instance, PBRM1-deficient tumors tend to have enhanced immune cell infiltration and may respond differently to immune checkpoint inhibitors compared to BAP1-mutant tumors. This observation provides a mechanistic basis for the variable responses to immunotherapy observed in ccRCC patients.

The integration of genomic and immunologic profiling in ccRCC has revealed additional layers of complexity. Tumors with high mutational burden, often associated with DNA repair defects, may generate more neoantigens and thus be more susceptible to immune recognition. Conversely, defects in antigen presentation machinery can enable immune evasion despite high neoantigen loads. Understanding these interactions is critical for optimizing treatment selection and developing rational combination therapies.

Therapeutic implications of these insights are already being explored in clinical trials. Combination strategies pairing DNA damage response inhibitors with immune checkpoint blockade represent a promising approach based on the premise that enhancing genomic instability may increase tumor immunogenicity. Additionally, patient selection based on mutational status may improve response rates and minimize unnecessary toxicity.

Future directions in ccRCC research include further characterization of the functional consequences of specific mutations, development of biomarkers to predict treatment response, and exploration of novel therapeutic targets arising from genetic vulnerabilities. The continued integration of genomic, epigenomic, and immunologic data promises to refine our understanding of ccRCC biology and improve outcomes for patients with this challenging disease.

DOI

10.1007/s11684-025-1136-4

Kramer, D., Santos Rocha, C., Gaulke, C.A. et al. Microbiota-derived 10-hydroxystearic acid activates PPARα to restore gut epithelial barrier integrity and enhance anti-retroviral therapy.
Nat Microbiol 11, 2365–2383 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-026-02433-0

August 2026

MANAUS, Brazil — A team led by researchers at the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA), in Manaus, has found evidence that the “zombie-ant” fungus (genus Ophiocordyceps), globally known for controlling ant behavior and forcing infected ants to bite onto plants before dying, also lives hidden inside mosses in the Amazon rainforest.

By analysing the DNA of mosses collected at the Ducke Reserve in Manaus, the scientists detected the same parasitic fungus present not only in infected and manipulated insects, but also in the mosses where the infected insect is manipulated to bite. This indicates that the fungus has one life stage as an insect parasite and another, endophytic (living inside the plant) stage that had gone unnoticed until now.

The genus Ophiocordyceps comprises more than 350 species of fungi known for infecting a wide range of insects. Some of these species are famous for a behaviour that sounds like science fiction: after infecting an ant, the fungus alters its behaviour and forces it to leave the colony, climb the vegetation, and clamp its mandibles onto a specific spot, the so-called “death grip,” shortly before dying and releasing its spores.

In 2020, studies in China had already shown that a species from the same genus, known as “Himalayan gold” (O. sinensis), lived endophytically in plants in alpine regions. The major breakthrough of this new INPA study is demonstrating this same dual lifestyle in fungi that manipulate the insect to specifically and consistently bite plants that harbor the endophytic stage of the “zombie fungus.” This suggests that the behavioral manipulation goes beyond the fungus-ant association, and that the plant harbouring the fungus’ endophytic phase may also possibly influence the manipulation itself.

The research was carried out at the Adolpho Ducke Forest Reserve, north of Manaus, and relied on metabarcoding, a technique that allows researchers to read the DNA of all fungi present in an environmental sample at once. The results revealed that the fungus was present not only in infected ants but also consistently in the surrounding mosses, including in plants located more than 10 metres away from any ant infected by the parasite.

In the Amazon, researchers had already noticed that some manipulated ant species predominantly seek out mosses to bite for the “death grip,” but little was known about a possible prior colonisation of the moss by the same insect-parasitising fungus. DNA analyses showed that even highly host-specialised fungal lineages, such as O. camponoti-nidulantis (infecting Camponotus nidulans) and O. kniphofioides (infecting Cephalotes atratus), were sheltered within bryophytes in the surrounding vegetation.

The discovery reshapes our understanding of the life cycle of these fungi and how these organisms evolve and survive. The ability to associate with plants may help the fungus persist through periods when insect hosts are scarce, and could also help explain the intriguing fidelity of certain fungal lineages to specific moss types.

“We have always thought of this fungus (Ophiocordyceps) as a parasite exclusive to insects, especially the ones it manipulates. What our data suggest is that the story is much larger: the same fungus appears to be ubiquitous in the surrounding moss communities. Our results illustrate a far closer link between the lifecycles of the plants and fungi involved in the behavioral manipulation of Amazonian ants.”
 — Tales Alves Jr., biologist, Master’s in Botany from INPA and lead author of the study.

“The well-known behavioral manipulation caused by Ophiocordyceps may not result solely from the interaction between fungus and ant, but from a complex relationship among the fungus, its host, and the plant where the same fungus lives silently as an endophyte.”

 — João Paulo Machado de Araújo, co-author and researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark (University of Copenhagen).

Osaka, Japan—The creation of fully artificial organs is a sci-fi dream, and we may be one step closer to reality with researchers from Japan developing a new photofabrication technique (i.e., a light-controlled synthetic method) for constructing arteriole-scale tubular hydrogels.

For a synthetic tissue or organ to be fully functional in reality, not only must the artificial tissue be constructed, but a vascular network around the tissue must also be created. This network of surrounding blood vessels supplies oxygen and nutrients to tissues; without it, engineering functional artificial organs is impossible. Currently, building this network is a bottleneck in artificial tissue development, and constructing mid-sized blood vessels, or arterioles, is particularly challenging.

“While numerous methods have shown promise in the synthesis of smaller capillaries and larger arteries, the ability to construct arterioles that provide the link between these systems is an unresolved problem in the development of artificial vascular networks” says senior author Keisuke Morishima. “However, our team has recently developed a method to bridge this critical gap by continuously forming ring structures at meniscus interfaces.”

This technique uses an innovative strategy leveraging the surface tension that forms a meniscus at an oil–hydrogel interface in a small channel. The meniscus effect creates a curve in the liquid, similar to the surface of a glass of water. Shining UV light onto this curved surface causes the hydrogel to form a ring-like structure at the channel wall. Repeating this process at precise points along the channel builds up a series of rings, gradually forming a hollow tubular hydrogel structure. This approach was successfully used to construct hydrogel structures similar in size and shape to natural arterioles.

Hydrogel tubular structures could be created with controlled lumen sizes and complex geometries, including curved and branched configurations, and multiple materials could be combined in one structure, reducing the material-switching steps and waste of conventional fabrication. “Such complex architecture would be necessary in the successful creation of a synthetic vascular network” explains Morishima. In addition, lack of stability has been an issue in the development of softer tubular hydrogels, but the team was able to form tubular structures using biologically relevant softer hydrogels that had good stability. The process could also be automated by combining image processing and synchronized UV irradiation, which created smoother surfaces than the previous discrete layer-by-layer fabrication.

“Integrating these hydrogel fabrication systems with precise microfluidic flow control components has strong potential for the facile production of vascular models of living systems—a key step toward the development of fully synthetic tissues,” says lead author Yuki Kamiya.

While the creation of fully functioning artificial tissues is still a long way off, this research paves the way for creating vascular models to investigate how the dream of artificial tissues and organs may one day become a reality. Beyond artificial organs, potential applications include drug discovery, disease modeling, food technology, soft robotics, and biohybrid systems.

The article “Meniscus-Guided Interfacial Ring-by-Ring Assembly for In Situ Fabrication of Tubular Hydrogel Structures” was published in Advanced Materials at DOI:

About The University of Osaka

The University of Osaka was founded in 1931 as one of the seven imperial universities of Japan and is now one of Japan’s leading comprehensive universities with a broad disciplinary spectrum. This strength is coupled with a singular drive for innovation that extends throughout the scientific process, from fundamental research to the creation of applied technology with positive economic impacts. Its commitment to innovation has been recognized in Japan and around the world. Now, The University of Osaka is leveraging its role as a Designated National University Corporation selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to contribute to innovation for human welfare, sustainable development of society, and social transformation.

Website:

Journal

Advanced Materials

Funder

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

DOI

10.1002/adma.74064

Feeding wild animals is a popular activity at tourist destinations. While these interactions often appear harmless, scientists are recognizing how these supplemental feeding of wild animals can alter the ecosystem in unexpected ways. These activities not only affect the animals that are being fed but also other species that share the same environment.  A similar effect is unfolding at the Okunoshima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Okunoshima attracts large numbers of visitors each year who come to interact with its free-ranging rabbits. However, researchers now suggest that the intensive feeding by tourists may be contributing to broader ecological changes on the island.

The study grew out of a collaboration with the creators of the children’s picture book Usagi no Shima (Rabbit Island; Eri Kondo & Hiroshi Tateno, Sekaibunka, 2025). At their request, researchers from Fukushima University set out to investigate the origins of the island’s rabbit population and document the status of local wildlife. The study was authored by Professor Shingo Kaneko from the Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science and Engineering, Fukushima University, Japan, and co-authored by Associate Professor Asami Ogura from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kure College, Japan, in collaboration with researchers from Kobe College, and was published in the Journal of Ecotourism on 29 July 2026.

 “When we first heard that a wild boar had preyed on a live rabbit, we were surprised,” explains Dr. Kaneko. “Wild boars are known to scavenge animal carcasses, but they are not generally regarded as animals that actively hunt live prey.”

“At the same time, during our fieldwork, we were struck by how closely wild boars, rabbits, and humans were interacting on the island. Within this isolated environment, events unlike those we usually observe elsewhere appeared to be occurring throughout the island.”

Unlike native Japanese hares, the rabbits on Okunoshima are European domestic rabbits that were introduced to the island and have since become established there. Their population is considered to be largely supported by the food provided by tourists, allowing rabbit numbers to exceed what the island’s natural environment could otherwise support. This is evident from the previous observations, which show that the rabbit abundance dramatically increased before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it declined when tourism temporarily decreased. This underscores the dependence of the island’s rabbit population on human provisioning.

Notably, the ecological effects of this artificial support are also visible throughout the island. Heavy grazing by rabbits has altered the vegetation structure of the island, producing a distinct “rabbit line,” where much of the low-growing vegetation and lower tree branches have been eaten away by rabbits. These environmental changes indicate that the island has already been experiencing ecological pressures associated with the unnaturally high rabbit population.

However, the researchers propose that these conditions are also promoting unusual interactions among different animal species. They observed wild boars consuming leftover rabbit food, scavenging rabbit carcasses, and demonstrating occasional predation attempts on live rabbits. While the study does not conclude predation as the central issue, it highlights the symptoms of ecological changes driven by long-term supplemental feeding.

According to the authors, several mechanisms might be occurring simultaneously. “Food left by tourists may be attracting wild boars into the areas heavily populated by rabbits. High rabbit densities may increase the availability of rabbit carcasses and may also lead to frequent encounters between the two species,” notes Dr. Kaneko. These factors together could be encouraging the behaviors that are rarely observed under natural conditions.

Moreover, the effects may extend beyond wild boars. Other opportunistic species, including crows and black kites, have also been observed to exploit leftover food and animal remains on the island, suggesting that tourist feeding may be influencing ecological networks more broadly.

The authors emphasize that their study does not suggest that wildlife tourism is harmful. Rather, it indicates that the feeding practices during the tourism should be carefully managed and monitored to avoid unintended consequences for the ecosystem. The researchers recommend establishing a long-term management framework for Okunoshima. Suggested measures include regulating feeding practices and food sales, monitoring rabbit populations and vegetation recovery, and analyzing the impacts on other wildlife species. Additionally, promoting cooperation among local communities, tourism operators, researchers, and government agencies could help establish effective strategies for wildlife tourism and animal welfare.

About Fukushima University

Popularly referred to as “Fukudai,” Fukushima University is a national university with a main campus in Kanayagawa, Fukushima Prefecture. It was established in 1949 and consists of five faculties—Human Development and Culture, Administration and Social Sciences, Economics and Business Administration, Symbiotic Systems Science, and Food and Agricultural Sciences—and four graduate schools —Regional Design, Professional Teacher Education, Symbiotic Systems Science and Technology, and Food and Agricultural Science. Approximately 4,500 students study on the campus, while actively engaging in extracurricular activities such as clubs, circles, and volunteer activities.

Fukushima University attaches great importance to education and aims to produce graduates who can take up the challenge of addressing problems in modern society. The university’s educational philosophy is “education based on problem solving.” Learning at Fukushima University is not limited to the acquisition of systematic knowledge from books. The students undergo holistic development by going out into the community, where they talk with residents and gain experiences that allow them to develop their own approach to identifying problems in the real world.

Website:

About Professor Shingo Kaneko from Fukushima University

Shingo Kaneko is a Professor at the Faculty of Symbiotic Systems Science at Fukushima University, Japan. He earned his doctoral degree from Hiroshima University in 2008. His research interests include molecular ecology, conservation ecology, biodiversity and systematics, and conservation genetics, with a particular focus on understanding the ecology and evolutionary history of wild organisms through DNA analysis. He has authored more than 120 scientific publications and has contributed extensively to research on wildlife conservation and biodiversity management. Through his research, he aims to promote the conservation and sustainable management of wild animals and plants.

About Associate Professor Asami Ogura from the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kure College

Asami Ogura is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Institute of Technology (KOSEN), Kure College, Japan. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from Hiroshima University. Her research interests include ecology and environmental science, environmental conservation, international peacebuilding, and supporting children with foreign roots. She has authored more than 36 scientific publications on topics including environmental sustainability, sustainable tourism, and biodiversity conservation. Through her research, she seeks to develop sustainable approaches that balance human activities with the conservation of ecosystems and wildlife.

Journal

Journal of Ecotourism

Funder

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

DOI

10.1080/14724049.2026.2705843

Microbial ecology research is generating unprecedented amounts of data, and analyzing these datasets remains challenging. Researchers often need to combine multiple software tools, manually adjust numerous parameters, and reconcile different data formats before biological patterns can be effectively interpreted. These fragmented workflows increase technical complexity and make it difficult to achieve consistent and reproducible results across studies.

In a new study published in Microbiome and One Health, a research team has developed LorMe (Lightweight One-Line Resolving Microbial Ecology), an open-source R framework designed to provide a unified approach for standardized microbiome analysis. The researchers introduced an analytical platform that enables the transition from raw microbiome data processing to publication-ready visualization through a streamlined workflow.

LorMe is freely available through the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN: and GitHub ( allowing researchers from diverse fields, including agriculture, environmental science, and health-related microbiome studies, to adopt and further develop the framework.

“Microbial community analysis has become increasingly complex because researchers need to combine many different computational methods and software packages,” says first author Ningqi Wang from Nanjing Agricultural University. “To that end, LorMe was designed to reduce this technical burden by providing a common framework where different analytical approaches can work together while maintaining flexibility and transparency.”

Unlike conventional approaches that require researchers to work across separate analytical frameworks and data structures, LorMe allows seamless data exchange with widely used microbiome analysis packages, including phyloseq and microeco.

“This compatibility allows us to integrate diverse analytical approaches without repeatedly restructuring their datasets, providing a more consistent framework for microbiome data analysis,” says Wang. “The framework also introduces a one-command pipeline that performs major microbiome analyses, including microbial community profiling, identification of taxa associated with experimental conditions, co-occurrence network construction, and meta-network analysis integrating microbial associations with differential taxa.”

In a demonstration dataset containing approximately 22,000 microbial features, the complete workflow was completed within seconds on a standard laptop while generating figures, statistical results, and intermediate files required for reproducible research.

The researchers further evaluated LorMe using a real rhizosphere microbiome dataset from eggplants with contrasting resistance to bacterial wilt. “The analysis successfully reproduced biologically meaningful microbial patterns, demonstrating that the framework can support practical ecological investigations while providing a standardized analytical workflow,” adds Wang.

“By lowering technical barriers and improving reproducibility, we hope LorMe can help researchers focus more on understanding microbial ecological mechanisms rather than managing complicated computational workflows.” says senior and co-corresponding author Zhong Wei.

###

Contact the author: Zhong Wei and Gaofei Jiang, Jiangsu Provincial Key Lab for Organic-based fertilizer development and its manipulation on soil health, Key Lab of Organic-Based Fertilizers of China, Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Solid Organic Wastes, Educational Ministry Engineering Center of Resource-saving fertilizers, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. weizhong@njau.edu.cn and gjiang@njau.edu.cn

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Funder

National Natural Scientific Foundation of China,
Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province,
National Natural Scientific Foundation of China,
Anhui Provincial Postdoctoral Research Project,
Jiangsu Province Excellent Postdoctoral Program,
National Natural Science Foundation of China,
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation,
National Key Research and Development Program of China

DOI

10.1016/j.micoh.2026.100003

Ports rank among the most disturbed marine environments. Pollutants like trash, oil, and toxins from antifouling paints tend to accumulate in enclosed harbors. Invasive species arriving in ballast water may displace native wildlife, while ship  propellers, sonars, and dredging cause noise pollution which can interfere with animal communication. There is thus a great need for effective ways to clean up harbors. One promising method is renaturalization, where hardy species that can survive under these conditions are deliberately introduced to act as pioneers.

“Here we show that some sponge species have exceptional potential for use in the restoration of degraded harbor habitats,” said Dr Manuel Maldonado, group leader at the Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes in Girona, Spain. “In our new study in Frontiers in Marine Science, we tested five species, and among them the chicken liver sponge Chondrosia reniformis demonstrated an outstanding ability to adapt to these challenging conditions and even thrive.”

Sponges are true ecosystem engineers. Sponge populations filter thousands of liters of seawater daily, removing heavy metals, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and organic particles while recycling nutrients through their symbiotic microbes. This doesn’t just improve water quality, but also delivers energy and organic matter to the food web. Sponges also provide shelter for worms, crustaceans, and juvenile fish.

Sponging the pollution off
As a first step towards using sponges for renaturalization of Mediterranean ports, Maldonado set out to identify the most pollution-tolerant species. To host their experiments, they chose Girona’s recreational port ‘Marina Palamós’. The authors had shortlisted five candidates, all abundant at low depths off Santa Anna Point, 30km from Marina Palamós: Corticium candelabrum, Crambe crambe, Scalarispongia scalaris, Ircinia oros, as well the chicken kidney sponge. These species are only distantly related and differ in key functional and anatomical traits, such as the presence or absence of an endoskeleton, its mineral composition, and the density of microbial symbionts in their tissue.

After collecting the sponges, the scientists transported them to the nearby Blanes marine research center and kept them, grown attached to ceramic plates, in 500-liter tanks with unfiltered running seawater. Over the course of 2024 and 2025, they transplanted these plates bearing a total of 42 sponges onto ‘artificial reefs’, made of metal grids coated in calcium carbonate and fixed to the underwater seawall at Marina Palamós. An exception was C. candelabrum, as every collected individual had failed to attach to the tank substrate and died in the laboratory. After transplanting the sponges, the authors regularly monitored their health and survival through underwater photography and visual close-up inspection.

‘Creepy’ sponges

All individuals of C. crambe, S. scalaris, and I. oros gradually shrank in size and lingered between 20 and 165 days before dying. In contrast, C. reniformis thrived and even reproduced asexually: 91.7% of the original animals survived in the port throughout the entire monitoring period of 455 days. The remainder of the original individuals of this species, as well as several offspring clones, were lost to follow-up through letting go from the substrate or ‘creeping’, a natural behavior where sponges reorganize their body into fragments for asexual reproduction and dispersal. 

The authors concluded that chicken liver sponges are particularly resilient and an excellent candidate for the next phase of harbor restoration trials.

“Unlike many sponges, the chicken kidney sponge can ‘creep’ away if local conditions deteriorate – for example, when nearby organisms compete. It can also relocate from the exposed upper surface of a rock, where it is subjected to UV radiation, polluted sediments, and predators, to sheltered crevices where these stresses are greatly reduced. It also reproduces asexually by fission: this allows populations to expand rapidly and later reproduce sexually, increasing the chances of successful fertilization.”

“Our next step is to monitor the transplanted sponges over several years. We are particularly interested in tracking shifts in their communities of symbiotic microbes – highly abundant in tissue of the chicken kidney sponge, a so-called ‘high microbial abundance’ species – to find out if these help them to tolerate pollutants,” said Maldonado. “But we will also continue testing more sponge species.”

Genetic material is not unpacked

It has long been known that the hepatitis E virus cannot establish an infection in mice, but the reasons were unknown. The virology research team in Bochum therefore systematically examined the replication cycle of the virus in liver cell cultures of mice. “We observed that most processes of viral infection also function in mouse cells,” reports Frericks. Viral particles attached to murine hepatocytes andnew virus particles could also be formed and released from the host cell if viral entry was bypassed. “But functional cell entry is blocked,” the scientist continues. “Even when our findings indicate that the virus particles are imported, the viral genetic material is likely not unpacked in the mouse cells.”

This is important for a variety of reasons: For one, it improves our understanding of the host range of this zoonotic virus and help assess the risk of transmission to other animal species. Secondly, it could pave the way for establishing a mouse model to study the disease. “This would be immensely helpful in testing therapeutic approaches,” says Frericks. “There is still no specific, effective treatment for hepatitis E.”

Hepatitis E

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is one of the main causes of acute viral hepatitis. Up to about 70,000 people die every year from the disease. After the first documented epidemic outbreak from 1955 to 1956, it took approximately 50 years before researchers began to intensively study the topic. Acute infections normally cure themselves in patients with intact immune systems, but HEV can become chronic in individuals with a reduced or suppressed immune system, as well as organ transplant recipients or persons infected with HIV. The virus is also particularly dangerous to pregnant women. There is no vaccination or specific active antiviral available in Europe.