SARS CoV 2 News and Research

RSS

Reopening after COVID-19 lockdown and impact on disease

The study shows that 8 of 11 European countries had significantly more cases after reopening, but Germany, the UAE, and Poland had fewer. In five of the eight, the cases increased, peaked, and then dropped before the reopening happened, while Romania and Serbia showed a rapid rise before reopening.

10 Aug 2020

SARS-CoV-2 droplets travel further and last longer than thought, and even more in humid air

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is spread by respiratory aerosols, in which tiny droplets of saliva and mucus containing the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are expelled from the upper respiratory tract. Though quite a few studies have investigated the viral load of such droplets, not much is known about how far these droplets move or how long they linger in the air, even though such information is crucial to determining how infectious they are.

10 Aug 2020

Planning low-risk school re-opening in the U.S.

With the rapid and extensive spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, the USA witnessed an almost universal closure of schools in March 2020. Now, after months of enforced online schooling, federal authorities are impatient for schools to re-open. However, how should this be done without endangering the lives of teachers, administrative and other non-teaching staff, and students at school, and parents/other family members at home?

10 Aug 2020

People may have a pre-existing immune response to COVID-19 thanks to common colds

Now, a new study shows that some people have immune responses against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, thanks to how the body reacted the last time it caught a cold. This means that even if a person has not been exposed to the novel coronavirus, the body has a memory of it and can trigger an immune response to fight the infection.

10 Aug 2020

Vaccine 'nationalism' will slow coronavirus fight if poor countries are left exposed

As the coronavirus vaccine race charges on, many of the investigational candidate vaccines are nearing the final stages of human trials. The results of these trials will determine if they will be granted the green light to manufacture and distribute the vaccine to countries across the globe.

10 Aug 2020

COVID-19 patient with repeatedly undetectable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

A recent case study published in the Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine in August 2020 illustrates this with its finding of persistent seronegativity in a patient confirmed to be SARS-CoV-2 positive.

10 Aug 2020

DHODH inhibitor PTC299 shows potential as a COVID-19 therapeutic

As COVID-19 continues to take a heavy toll on human health and life in many parts of the world, there is still no effective antiviral drug or vaccine. This has fueled an intensive search for small molecules and proteins that can inhibit viral entry and replication.

10 Aug 2020

USA the source of most of New Zealand's coronavirus cases

New Zealand, an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, is marked by its early and fierce determination to totally arrest the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the viral illness that is causing the current COVID-19 pandemic.

9 Aug 2020

How have non-pharmaceutical interventions helped in COVID-19?

The COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of abating, with outbreaks in many spots still occurring across the world. From the start, health organizations and governments were focused on implementing non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) in the absence of any effective antivirals or vaccines.

9 Aug 2020

Speed of Novavax vaccine development does not compromise quality of the SARS-CoV-2 immunogen

A new study by researchers from the Scripps Research Institute and Novavax Inc. in the US affirms the structural integrity of the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein immunogen. It enables the interpretation of immune responses to this multivalent nanoparticle immunogen. Their results are currently available on bioRxiv preprint server.

9 Aug 2020

Encouraging results from Phase I NovaVax SARS-CoV-2 nanoparticle vaccine trial

NVX-CoV2373, a recombinant nanoparticle vaccine developed by Novavax and manufactured at Emergent Biosolutions, was found to be well tolerated and immunogenic – inducing T-cell response and neutralization antibodies four-fold higher than the mean observed in hospitalized coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, shows a recent study available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

9 Aug 2020

Cutting edge synthetic peptides block SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

Researchers at Ligandal Inc., the University of California San Francisco and Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, have designed novel synthetic peptides that potently inhibit the ability of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to infect host cells.

9 Aug 2020

Community-based sampling needed for COVID-19 control, say researchers

Researchers in the UK have warned that it will be essential to carry out community-based sampling in addition to symptomatic testing if the ongoing transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARs-CoV-2) is going to be properly understood and controlled.

9 Aug 2020

Scientists develop a simple approach to visually evaluate mask effectiveness

Using inexpensive and widely available tools, scientists have developed a simple approach to visually evaluate how effectively different types of masks prevent the spread of droplets that could contain SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, according to a new study.

9 Aug 2020

New platform shows potential to generate most effective vaccines with fewest side effects

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is shining a bright spotlight on vaccine development. As numerous vaccines race through clinical trials, physicians and researchers continue to work on developing new vaccine technologies to generate the most effective vaccines with the fewest side effects.

7 Aug 2020

New process could fast track antiviral and anticancer drug discovery

Discovering antiviral and anticancer drugs will soon be faster and cheaper thanks to new research from Simon Fraser University chemist Robert Britton and his international team.

7 Aug 2020

A titanium oxide nanowire-based air filter can trap and destroy pathogens

Filter “paper” made from titanium oxide nanowires is capable of trapping pathogens and destroying them with light. This discovery by an EPFL laboratory could be put to use in personal protective equipment, as well as in ventilation and air conditioning systems.

7 Aug 2020

Study identifies five immune response markers that may predict COVID-19 patient outcomes

Galit Alter, PhD, Group Leader at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Helen Chu, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, University of Washington School of Medicine, and UW Medicine physician, have recently published a paper which identifies five immune response markers which, collectively, were able to correctly classify both convalescent COVID-19 patients and those who did not survive the disease.

7 Aug 2020

Immunothrombotic dysregulation is key marker of disease severity in COVID-19

In severe cases of COVID-19, the infection can lead to obstruction of the blood vessels in the lung, heart and kidneys. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers have now shown that activated immune cells and blood platelets play a major role in these pathologies.

7 Aug 2020

Coronavirus-specific structure in cells may lead to new antiviral strategies

By visualizing coronavirus replication in an infected host cell, researchers may have answered a long-standing question about how newly synthesized coronavirus components are able to be incorporated into fully infectious viruses.

7 Aug 2020