Respiratory News and Research

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Nose-to-brain: Nasal delivery of biopharmaceuticals to the brain

Placing medications as close as possible to the site of the disease: This sounds completely believable in theory, but is unfortunately not so simple in practice. While this works well for many drugs via the bloodstream or the digestive tract, it does not apply to the brain.

9 Jun 2021

Trained dogs can accurately identify COVID-19 by scent

An interesting new medRxiv* preprint reveals that with careful training, the exquisite scent sensitivity of dogs may be exploited to rule out the presence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in human beings in real-time.

9 Jun 2021

Review of COVID-19's long-term effects

In a recent study, Canadian researchers documented the prevalence of post-COVID-19 conditions 4-12 weeks (short-term) and >12 weeks (long-term), by conducting a systematic review of peer-reviewed literature. This work is posted to the medRxiv* preprint server.

9 Jun 2021

Warmer conditions are not enough to prevent COVID-19 transmission, research shows

New research shows transmission of the virus behind COVID-19 varies seasonally, but warmer conditions are not enough to prevent transmission.

9 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 enzyme inhibitors among drugs screened for repurposing

A new bioRxiv* preprint describes the identification of some promising pharmaceutical compounds that could be developed as antiviral drugs against COVID-19.

9 Jun 2021

New cell-penetrating peptide may protect against life-threatening microbial inflammation

A cell-penetrating peptide developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center can prevent, in an animal model, the often-fatal septic shock that can result from bacterial and viral infections.

9 Jun 2021

DNA on-off switches for SARS-CoV-2 host receptor as potential therapeutic targets

Researchers in the United States and Canada have identified DNA on/off “switches” within the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) gene that may control the expression of this host cell receptor before, during and after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

9 Jun 2021

Cold winter temperatures may accelerate spread of SARS-CoV-2

Writing in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, the team from Weifang Medical University said: “We believe that the low-temperature environment in winter may accelerate the spread of the outbreak and that new outbreaks may occur.”

9 Jun 2021

Smoking and vaping increase ACE2 levels and virus spike binding in airway epithelium

A new bioRxiv preprint attempts to make some sense of why certain people experience more severe forms of COVID-19 as compared to others by pointing to the increase in virus binding that occurs in the presence of smoking or vaping.

9 Jun 2021

Researchers in Canada conduct a comparative study of household secondary attack rates connected with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Scientists are considering a third surge in COVID-19 incidence owing to the emergence of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC). SARS-CoV-2 is the causal agent of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Some of these VOCs have been reported to have a rate of transmission much higher than the infectivity of the ancestral strain that had emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019.

9 Jun 2021

Researchers review the therapeutic potential of resveratrol nasal formulations in COVID-19

In a recently published article in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, scientists have reviewed the existing literature on antiviral and anti-inflammatory efficacy of resveratrol-based inhaled formulations in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection and reducing COVID-19 severity.

9 Jun 2021

Structural analogs of triterpenoids show strong inhibitory activity against coronaviruses

In a recent study published in the journal Pathogens, researchers carried out a molecular docking study for 17 structural analogs prepared from natural maslinic and oleanolic acids and screened them against SARS-CoV-2 main protease. They also experimentally validated the data by determining the half-maximal cytotoxic and inhibitory concentrations of each of the 17 compounds. The researchers investigated whether the compound with antiviral activity affected viral adsorption, replication, or viricidal effect using a plaque infectivity reduction assay.

9 Jun 2021

Pathogenic airway neutrophilia drives ARDS in Black patients with severe COVID-19 in case study

Researchers from the US used a systems immunology approach where they combined high-dimensional flow cytometry and multi-omics single-cell sequencing analyses of immune profiles taken from the airways and matching blood samples of Black/AA patients.

9 Jun 2021

What are the challenges of SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance in COVID-19 vaccine recipients?

An opinion paper by researchers from the US and Italy recently discussed various aspects of monitoring anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies before and after receiving COVID-19 vaccination to highlight the pros and cons of this monitoring strategy. This paper is published in the open-access journal Diagnostics.

9 Jun 2021

Social media ‘bots’ continue to spread misinformation on mask wearing amid COVID-19 pandemic

While not a new problem, the spread of misinformation throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has exploded on almost every social media platform. Recently, a group of researchers analyzed conversations on public Facebook groups to explored automated misinformation on mask-wearing. The team published their findings as a research letter in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal.

9 Jun 2021

A closer look at how COVID-19 damages human lungs

A recent study conducted at the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provides the first atomic-level detailed model of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) envelope protein when bound to human proteins within the lungs. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.

9 Jun 2021

Radiometer launches the next generation of transcutaneous monitoring in Canada

Radiometer has unveiled its Health Canada licensed TCM5 transcutaneous monitor, addressing the critical care needs of neonatal, pediatric, and adult patients, as well as sleep clinic

From Radiometer Medical 9 Jun 2021

Study explores the immune response to COVID-19-specific vaccines in Brazilian healthcare workers

An Australian-led study will investigate whether it's possible to predict who remains susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 variants after having COVID-19 or receiving a COVID-19-specific vaccine.

9 Jun 2021

Cyperus rotundus medicinal plant shows promise for novel COVID-19 therapeutics

Cyperus rotundus is a plant with a history as herbal medicine, containing many chemical substances frequently found to be drug-like in character: flavonoids, terpenoids, and the like. Compounds sourced from the plant have demonstrated some inhibitory activity against HIV by modulation of the CYP3A4 enzyme, and thus in a drug lead discovery effort, Kumar et al. (July 2021) computationally screened these natural compounds against MPRO in a paper recently published to Computers in Biology and Medicine.

9 Jun 2021

Potent antibody responses to BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine among Japanese healthcare workers

In a paper recently uploaded to the preprint server medRxiv* by Nakajima et al. (June 4th, 2021), the antibody responses of over 2,000 Japanese healthcare workers were tracked over a period of several months, with particular regard to serum Immunoglobulin G (IgG) against the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

8 Jun 2021

Respiratory News and Research

Nose-to-brain: Nasal delivery of biopharmaceuticals to the brain

Trained dogs can accurately identify COVID-19 by scent

Review of COVID-19's long-term effects

Warmer conditions are not enough to prevent COVID-19 transmission, research shows

SARS-CoV-2 enzyme inhibitors among drugs screened for repurposing

New cell-penetrating peptide may protect against life-threatening microbial inflammation

DNA on-off switches for SARS-CoV-2 host receptor as potential therapeutic targets

Cold winter temperatures may accelerate spread of SARS-CoV-2

Smoking and vaping increase ACE2 levels and virus spike binding in airway epithelium

Researchers in Canada conduct a comparative study of household secondary attack rates connected with SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Researchers review the therapeutic potential of resveratrol nasal formulations in COVID-19

Structural analogs of triterpenoids show strong inhibitory activity against coronaviruses

Pathogenic airway neutrophilia drives ARDS in Black patients with severe COVID-19 in case study

What are the challenges of SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance in COVID-19 vaccine recipients?

Social media ‘bots’ continue to spread misinformation on mask wearing amid COVID-19 pandemic

A closer look at how COVID-19 damages human lungs

Radiometer launches the next generation of transcutaneous monitoring in Canada

Study explores the immune response to COVID-19-specific vaccines in Brazilian healthcare workers

Cyperus rotundus medicinal plant shows promise for novel COVID-19 therapeutics

Potent antibody responses to BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccine among Japanese healthcare workers

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

From Puberty to Menopause: Clue’s CEO, Audrey Tsang on the Power of Femtech

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