Polymerase News and Research

RSS

Influence of age on innate and adaptive immunity in COVID-19 patients

A new study investigates how age influences SARS-CoV-2 replication, innate and adaptive immune responses.

21 Oct 2021

Children show lower seroconversion rates than adults with mild COVID-19

A new study finds that following mild COVID-19, children are more likely to remain seronegative than adults, irrespective of the viral load or symptom severity.

20 Oct 2021

Biomarker predicts severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients

A new study investigates a biomarker to predict the severity of disease in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2.

20 Oct 2021

Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effective in preventing COVID-19 hospitalization among adolescents

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study to determine the vaccination efficacy in the adolescent population, published recently.

20 Oct 2021

Regular testing of SARS-CoV-2 positive vaccinated HCWs may reduce need for long quarantines

A new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine conducted systematic surveillance involving 2,397 HCWs who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162 vaccine at the ASST Settelaghi hospitals, Italy, in February 2021.

19 Oct 2021

The biochemical mechanisms of remdesivir-mediated RNA synthesis inhibition

A new preprint suggests a fruitful approach to develop such drugs based on biochemical and molecular modeling studies of the drug remdesivir.

19 Oct 2021

Many people's T-cells recognize the same components of SARS-CoV-2

A new study published on the bioRxiv* preprint aimed to identify highly immunoprevalent CD8 T-cell epitopes specific to SARS-CoV-2 that are confirmed to be endogenously processed and presented on frequently expressed HLA alleles.

18 Oct 2021

NIH RADx initiative announces $77.7 million to develop new rapid COVID-19 diagnostic tests

The NIH Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative announced today that it has issued contract awards totaling $77.7 million to develop and manufacture 12 new rapid diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

15 Oct 2021

Lateral flow tests are more accurate at detecting Covid-19 than previously reported

Lateral flow tests are more accurate than previously reported and cannot be compared directly to how PCR tests work, finds a new paper led by UCL researchers.

15 Oct 2021

Study reveals a highly effective COVID-19 screening system utilizing a live cell-based assay

A new study reports a cell-based assay that involved the isolation and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro in human cells in the absence of other proteins.

14 Oct 2021

Small portion of COVID-19 patients infectious long-term

In late December 2019, a novel pneumonia-like lung infection was reported in the Chinese province of Hubei. This, in turn, led to the ongoing coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is closely related to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and MERS (the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus).

13 Oct 2021

Study reveals the zoonotic potential of the rat Sialodacryoadenitis virus

A new review aimed to describe the current state of knowledge on Sialodacryoadenitis virus, along with its characteristics and potential zoonotic threat.

13 Oct 2021

Role of CRISPR-Cas12a visual biosensor in detection of SARS-CoV-2

A new study aimed to develop a novel CRISPR-Cas12a powered visual biosensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.

13 Oct 2021

Comparing lateral flow testing with RT-PCR to detect SARS-CoV-2

Lateral flow devices (LFDs) are point-of-care tests that require significantly more time to develop than RT-PCR assays but can be used locally with minimal to no training, some of which can provide results in as little as 30 minutes. However, there have been some worries about the sensitivity of such kits. As a result, researchers from Micropathology Ltd have been comparing the two methods.

12 Oct 2021

Research reveals components of Sinbis virus ribonucleoproteins

To address this gap in research regarding the understanding of post-replicative alphavirus RNPs, scientists have created a novel proteome-wide approach known as viral RNA interactome capture (vRIC). This study is available in the bioRxiv* preprint server while awaiting peer review.

11 Oct 2021

A new bacterial two-hybrid assay to study SARS-CoV-2 interactome

Recently, scientists have developed a bacterial two-hybrid (B2H) system to study the PPIs of SARS-CoV-2 in a heterologous non-eukaryotic system. This study is available on the bioRxiv* preprint server. Put simply, the B2H system could be used to analyze the SARS-CoV-2 proteome.

11 Oct 2021