Nasopharyngeal News and Research

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Scientists estimate transmission advantage of Omicron over Delta variant as +105%

Researchers use statistical models to assess the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron using variant-specific screening tests and genome sequencing.

5 Jan 2022

Wistar announces initiation of Phase 2 clinical study of VK-2019 in patients with advanced head and neck cancer

The Wistar Institute announces the initiation of a Phase 2 clinical study of VK-2019 in patients with advanced Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and lymphoma.

5 Jan 2022

Study suggests increased vaccine breakthrough for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Houston, Texas

A recent study reveals early signals of substantially increased vaccine breakthrough for the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in Houston, Texas.

4 Jan 2022

Characteristics and outcomes in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in South Africa

A new research letter assessed patients hospitalized with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test during the fourth wave compared to the previous waves.

4 Jan 2022

Echinacea, a potent antiviral against SARS-CoV-2

Researchers present available evidence on the activity of Echinacea purpure against coronavirus infections.

3 Jan 2022

Animal study suggests Omicron is less infectious than previous SARS-CoV-2 strains

A new study suggests the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant is not as infectious as scientists initially assumed.

29 Dec 2021

Study suggests saliva swabs may be more suitable for omicron detection

New study findings reveal that saliva samples are more useful than mid-turbinate samples for the accurate detection of omicron infection.

29 Dec 2021

Coinfection of SARS-CoV-2 and human rhinovirus associated with more severe health outcomes

Researchers discuss the incidence and effect of coinfections with SARS-CoV-2 and human rhinovirus.

23 Dec 2021

Role of novel SARS-CoV-2-derived svRNAs and the involvement of tRF in COVID-19

A new study revealed new long sv-COV-2 using T4 PNK pretreatment and qRT-PCR and also identified piRNAs and tRFs as the most abundant sncRNAs in COVID-19 positive samples.

22 Dec 2021

Children with isolated symptoms as likely as those with multiple symptoms to test COVID-19 positive

A new study compares rates of coronavirus disease 2019 infection in children who reported no symptoms, one isolated symptom, or two or more symptoms during the circulation of the Delta variant.

21 Dec 2021

Efficacy of the mRNA-1273 vaccine against emerging COVID-19 variants

A new study emphasized the effectiveness of two doses of mRNA-1273 in preventing infection with SARS-CoV-2 and hospital admission with covid-19 due to variants including delta.

21 Dec 2021

How SARS-CoV-2 affects the male reproductive system

Researchers review the potentially harmful consequences on the male reproductive system in COVID-19 patients.

15 Dec 2021

Impact of exogenous antibody therapy by convalescent plasma against SARS-CoV-2

Researches have been investigating the possibility of using convalescent plasma to help patients recover from COVID-19.

15 Dec 2021

Eating before saliva collection may interfere with detection of SARS-CoV-2

A new study, published on the medRxiv* preprint server, has aimed to determine if children's diet impacts the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva. Scientists performed diagnostic tests to detect this virus using real-time self-collected specimens provided by five healthy children. The samples were collected before and after eating selected foods. The specific time of collection of samples after eating were 0 minutes, 20 minutes, and 60 minutes after eating.

15 Dec 2021

Self-collected samples on par with gold standard for detection of SARS-CoV-2

Researchers directly compare the diagnostic sensitivity of self-collected samples.

14 Dec 2021

Novel breathalyzer relies on viral RNA detection to diagnose SARS-CoV-2

In a new study in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, published by Elsevier, investigators report on the design and testing of a breathalyzer, known as the Bubbler, that relies on viral RNA detection to diagnose SARS-CoV-2.

13 Dec 2021

Iota-carrageenan inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs

Scientists have recently reported the efficacy of carrageenan against both the SARS-CoV-2 original strain as well as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta VOCs.

13 Dec 2021

Even if SARS-CoV-2 Omicron evades antibodies, immunity still exists

Researchers determined antibody-mediated neutralization efficacy against the authentic SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

12 Dec 2021

Saliva samples show better sensitivity for early stages of COVID-19 detection

Study explores the advantages of saliva compared to MTS and recommends the use of saliva for large-scale screening of COVID-19, especially in pre-symptomatic patients.

6 Dec 2021

Northwestern researchers continue to tackle every facet of COVID-19 pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic nears the two-year mark, Northwestern Medicine scientists continue to tackle every facet of the disease, from investigating coronavirus vaccines' potential for providing immunity against similar coronaviruses to developing novel rapid antigen-based tests and examining disparities in COVID-19 case and mortality rates in Chicago.

30 Nov 2021