SARS CoV 2 News and Research

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Six novel coronaviruses found in bats

While the world grapples with the pandemic, which has spread to 185 countries and territories, infecting more than 2.15 million people and killing more than 143,000 people, a team of researchers at the Smithsonian's Global Health Program has found six novel coronaviruses in bats in Myanmar.

16 Apr 2020

Research shows speed of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Boston homeless shelter

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is straining healthcare resources across the globe, prompting countries to impose social distancing measures to reduce the transmission of the virus. The problem is, the virus can spread even if the infected person has no symptoms, making contact tracing and isolation measures more difficult. Now, a new study reveals the rapidity of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 transmission that occurred in a Boston homeless shelter.

16 Apr 2020

Are overactive immune cells causing COVID-19-related deaths?

While the COVID-19 pandemic is devastating many regions, the world over, a new paper published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in April 2020 describes the possibility that the critical or very severe cases of COVID-19 are due to the production of neutrophil extracellular traps (NET) due to hyperactivated immune cells.

16 Apr 2020

Pregnancy and fetal outcomes with COVID-19

A new study published preprint in the non-peer-reviewed journal medRxiv in April 2020 provides a systematic review of maternal and fetal outcomes in pregnancy affected by COVID-19, as well as the risk of vertical transmission of the virus.

16 Apr 2020

Gold-containing drug auranofin kills 95% of SARS-CoV-2 virus in 48 hours in lab conditions

A drug called auranofin, approved for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, effectively inhibits severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in laboratory conditions, as described in a new study by Georgia State University researchers.

16 Apr 2020

Scripps Research establishes collaborative global effort to rapidly find drugs against COVID-19

With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to spread across the globe, Scripps Research has quickly established an international network of collaborating scientific laboratories to leverage ReFRAME, the world's leading drug repurposing collection, to find antiviral compounds against the novel coronavirus.

16 Apr 2020

Researchers design peptide inhibitors for potential COVID-19 treatments

Scientists across the globe are rushing to find inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic.

16 Apr 2020

Specialized proteins could soak up excess cytokines in COVID-19 patients

One of the defining features of Covid-19 is the excessive immune response that can occur in severe cases. This burst of immune overreaction, also called a cytokine storm, damages the lungs and can be fatal.

16 Apr 2020

WHO-recommended hand rub formulations effective against novel coronavirus

When used correctly, both alcohol-based hand disinfectants recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) are effective against the novel coronavirus Sars-Cov-2, as confirmed by an international research team headed by Professor Stephanie Pfänder from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

16 Apr 2020

Public health precautions to lower airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus

Researchers are urging health authorities to immediately recognize the role of airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus droplets from an infected person beyond 1.5m in order to stem the disease’s spread.

16 Apr 2020

FDA grants Emergency Use Authorization to Ortho’s COVID-19 total antibody test

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced it granted Emergency Use Authorization to Ortho Clinical Diagnostics' total antibody assay for COVID-19—the VITROS Immunodiagnostic Products Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Reagent Pack and Calibrators.

From Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. 16 Apr 2020

Screening blood samples for COVID-19 using artificial intelligence

A promising new study published in the preprint online journal medRxiv in April 2020 shows the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) for developing a patient classifier that can separate patients likely to be negative for COVID-19 from among a pool of suspected patients visiting an emergency room (ER).

15 Apr 2020

Remdesivir drug stops novel coronavirus from replicating

Scientists from the University of Alberta have published findings that the antiviral drug remdesivir prevents replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by inhibiting RNA replication. The study, published in April 2020 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, follows on the heels of earlier reports from the same lab in February, showing the drug's effectiveness against the related Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

15 Apr 2020

Anosmia (loss of smell) confirmed as a clinical feature of COVID-19

Earlier last month, the association of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists in the UK issued a public statement advising patients with a sudden loss of smell or taste to get tested for COVID-19. They cited not only their own observations but those from numerous other ENT consultants the world around. A review of multiple papers on the sinus and nasal symptoms and signs related to the diagnosis of COVID-19, published in April 2020, in the journal Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, reiterates this finding.

15 Apr 2020

Coronavirus able to survive near boiling point of water, study shows

A startling paper by a team of French scientists published in the preprint journal bioRxiv in April 2020 suggests that the novel coronavirus is capable of surviving at high temperatures. This could mean that laboratory technicians handling the virus are at danger of infection.

15 Apr 2020

COVID-19 modeling shows that social distancing is a must, must, must

A new study shows that using mathematical modeling and accounting for several factors such as age distribution and density of the population, a clearer picture of COVID-19 infection in a population could be gained. The study titled, "Level of under-reporting including under-diagnosis before the first peak of COVID-19 in various countries: Preliminary Retrospective Results Based on Wavelets and Deterministic Modeling," is published as an accepted manuscript in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.

15 Apr 2020

New coronavirus possibly circulated within humans before COVID-19 pandemic

Genetic variation analysis and the evidence of recombination events point towards the conclusion that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) might have circulated cryptically among humans for years, as reported by a recent paper on a preprint server bioRxiv.

15 Apr 2020