dengue treatment dengue fever and west nile fever are mosquitoborne diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year but there is no vaccine against either of the related viruses a team of scientists at the university of michigan and purdue university have discovered a key aspect both to how the viruses replicate in the cells of their host and how they manipulate the immune system as they spread in a study in the journal science researchers led by janet smith of the um life sciences institute describe for the first time the structure of a protein that helps the viruses replicate and spread infection seeing the design of this key protein provides a target for a potential vaccine or even a therapeutic drug smith said the protein ns1 is produced inside infected cells where it plays a key role in replication of the virus ns1 is also released into the bloodstream where it may help disguise the infection from the patients immune system and may play a role in the haemorrhage in severe dengue infections facial expressions a commonlyheld belief first proposed by paul ekman posits there are six basic emotions which are universally recognised and easily interpreted through specific facial expressions regardless of language or culture these are happiness sadness fear anger surprise and disgust new research published in the journal current biology by scientists at the university of glasgow has challenged this view and suggested that there are only four basic emotions their conclusion was reached by studying the range of different muscles within the face or action units as researchers refer to them involved in signalling different emotions as well as the timeframe over which each muscle was activated the generative face grammar platform developed at the university has made this possible