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Copper surfaces can inactivate SARS-CoV-2 in as little as one minute, study finds

A new study by researchers at the University of Southampton, UK, has found that SARS-CoV-2 can inactivate on copper surfaces in as little as 1 minute. This is faster than the findings of previous studies in which it took as much as 4 hours before the virus was inactivated.

5 Jan 2021

Modeling the phases of quarantine reveals two-phase route is always better than one

New research into this question shows that the second wave of an epidemic is very different if a population has a homogenous distribution of contacts, compared to the scenario of subpopulations with diverse number of contacts.

23 Dec 2020

Researchers control cardiac waves with light to study abnormally rapid heart rhythms

Over 300,000 people die each year in the U.S. due to sudden cardiac death. In many cases, sudden cardiac death is caused by abnormally rapid heart rhythms called tachycardias, which means the heart cannot pump adequate blood to the body.

22 Dec 2020

Cholesterol in the plasma membrane is essential for SARS-CoV-2 entry and syncytia formation

A preprint indicates that SARS-CoV-2 requires cholesterol to accomplish entry into the host cells and membrane fusion.

17 Dec 2020

$Using fractional exponents in epidemic models could improve predictions of disease spread$

Using fractional exponents in epidemic models could improve predictions of disease spread

A new class of epidemiological models based on alternative thinking about how contagions propagate, particularly in the early phases of a pandemic, provide a blueprint for more accurate epidemic modeling and improved disease spread predictions and responses, according to a study published recently in Scientific Reports by researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions.

8 Dec 2020

Reducing aerosol transmission could help tackle COVID-19 pandemic

Aerosols and their spread play an essential role in the transmission of COVID-19. However, the risk of transmission could be significantly reduced if more could be done to reduce indoor airborne viruses.

8 Dec 2020

Study reveals low detection of SARS-CoV-2 on environmental surfaces across oncology settings

Researchers from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, evaluated the frequency of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on various environmental surfaces in outpatient and inpatient hematology/oncology settings located within Rutgers Cancer Institute and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas Health facility.

7 Dec 2020

Chemical compounds in foods can block the function of key SARS-CoV-2 enzyme

Chemical compounds in foods or beverages like green tea, muscadine grapes and dark chocolate can bind to and block the function of a particular enzyme, or protease, in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to a new study by plant biologists at North Carolina State University.

30 Nov 2020

A mutant SARS-CoV-2 subspecies from minks may evade antibody detection

In a recent research letter published on the bioRxiv preprint server, scientists from Japan discovered that the mutation of spike glycoprotein in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) derived from farmed minks can also be found in the group of individuals with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and subsequently evade detection by our immune system.

30 Nov 2020

Ipom-F inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro

An international team of researchers showed the small molecule inhibitor, ipomoeassin F (Ipom-F), blocks the translocation/insertion of the three protein targets for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

27 Nov 2020

SARS-CoV-2 likely circulating in China as early as mid-October 2019

Researchers in the United States have conducted a modeling study suggesting that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – could have been circulating in the Chinese province of Hubei as early as mid-October 2019.

25 Nov 2020

The role of micro-RNA in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19

A team of researchers based in Iran have explored the role of micro-RNA in COVID-19. Their study titled, “The emerging role of microRNAs in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection,” was published in the latest issue of the journal International Immunopharmacology.

24 Nov 2020

Furin inhibition may mitigate severe COVID-19, study finds

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald, a researcher at the Institute for Functional Medicine in the United States, has explained the role of furin protease in developing severe COVID-19 illness.

20 Nov 2020

Researchers present overview of benefits from tree-sourced foods

Two of humanity's biggest problems - the climate crisis and abysmal eating habits - can partly be solved by one healthy solution: eating more food from trees, specifically tropical ones.

5 Nov 2020

Global collaboration provides a COVID-19 disease map

A collaboration of researchers from 120 different institutes across 30 countries including France, Germany, Australia, Japan, USA, India, Turkey, Brazil, and Canada initiated an effort to develop a COVID-19 Disease Map - a collection of computational models and diagrams of molecular mechanisms implicated in COVID-19.

2 Nov 2020

Seroprevalence and immune response to SARS-CoV-2 in Paris

François Anna et al. published this study in a recent medRxiv* preprint paper, where they present the results of assessing the serological response in the selected population. They tested for specific IgG response against the SARS CoV-2 Nucleoprotein and Spike protein and performed a pseudo-neutralization assay in sera of urban dwellers in Paris.

30 Oct 2020

New machine learning-based approach helps detect atrial fibrillation drivers

Researchers from Skoltech and their US colleagues have designed a new machine learning-based approach for detecting atrial fibrillation drivers, small patches of the heart muscle that are hypothesized to cause this most common type of cardiac arrhythmia.

29 Oct 2020

Travel surges before lockdown undermine the SARS-CoV-2 containment effort

Recently, researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston; the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; and the University of California, USA, assessed the impact of the announcement and implementation of restrictions such as lockdowns on mobility patterns of humans.

28 Oct 2020

Study shows ultrasound treatment can destroy cancer cells without surgery

Focusing ultrasound energy on a target site in the body to generate heat can burn and destroy the tissue in the site without a surgical procedure.

27 Oct 2020

IBA doses do not benefit cycad propagation, shows study

The newly published thesis research of University of Guam Master of Environmental Science graduate Benjamin Deloso now adds to the body of knowledge about asexual propagation of the most endangered plant group in the world, cycads.

22 Oct 2020