Severe Acute Respiratory News and Research

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Should Australia re-open international borders?

Australian scientist Jessica Liebig from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), along with fellow researchers at the Queensland University of Technology and the University of New South Wales, studied the risks involved in re-opening the international borders for travelers to Australia.

15 Oct 2020

Mendelian randomization helps evaluate impact of circulating proteins in COVID-19

Researchers identify circulating proteins influencing COVID-19 susceptibility and severity by employing a large-scale two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study.

15 Oct 2020

COVID-19 can cause sudden permanent hearing loss in rare cases

Many complications have been reported, including heart disease and prolonged respiratory issues in a group of people called “long-haulers.” Now, a new worrying finding shows that COVID-19 can cause sudden and irreversible hearing loss in patients.

15 Oct 2020

News coverage contributes to drug shortages in COVID-19

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital in the U.S. have reported that the recent shortage of medicines used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be due to extensive news media coverage that results in individual hoarding or institutional stockpiling of medicines.

15 Oct 2020

Previous infections with seasonal coronaviruses might protect against SARS-CoV-2

Seasonal coronaviruses, which generally cause mild respiratory illness and symptoms of the common cold, belong to the same viral family as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes COVID-19.

15 Oct 2020

Blood purification outside the body in COVID-19 patients

Rodney Rosalia et al., in a recent medRxiv preprint research paper, study the longitudinal variation of parameters involved with systemic inflammation in critically ill COVID-19 patients upon EBP treatment.

15 Oct 2020

Study links SARS-CoV-2 seasonality to increased spread at lower temperatures

In a recent paper available on the bioRxiv preprint server, US researchers show that individual particles of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) undergo structural destabilization at relatively mild but elevated temperatures – strengthening the case for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resurgence in the winter.

15 Oct 2020

Researchers identify potential drugs that could be repurposed as pan-coronavirus treatments

A large international consortium of almost 200 researchers from 14 leading institutions in six countries has studied three different coronaviruses - SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV - with the aim of finding vulnerabilities shared by these three pathogens.

15 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 can infect brain cells and damage neurons

Researchers have found that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect the brain cells, mainly the astrocytes, and negatively affects cognition and neuronal cells.

15 Oct 2020

Capillary blood microsampling could prove a breakthrough in SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance

As COVID-19 seems to be making a comeback in many areas of the world, including Japan, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 shows the relevance of microsamples of blood in serosurveillance of this disease.

15 Oct 2020

Rapid SARS‐CoV‐2 IgM‐IgG combined antibody test

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 reports a new diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 based on the detection of antibodies.

15 Oct 2020

Human bivalent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies more potent

A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 reports more effective viral neutralization by bivalent anti-spike antibodies. This could promote the development of better therapeutics and vaccines.

15 Oct 2020

Ct values can be used to estimate epidemic dynamics

Researchers recently showed that the varying population distribution of Cycle threshold (Ct) values from positive SARS-CoV-2 samples could help infer epidemic dynamics.

14 Oct 2020

The COVID-19 vaccine pipeline

Researchers from Mayo Clinic, United States of America, have reviewed the immunity developed against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 disease.

14 Oct 2020

Scientists use dehumidifiers to detect airborne SARS-CoV-2

Now, a team of researchers at the University of Maryland presented a simple approach that can potentially provide information about the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the atmosphere at any location.

14 Oct 2020

Characterization of prognostic markers to predict COVID-19 severity

A team of scientists from the United Kingdom has revealed that markers of endothelial cell injury are associated with severe and fatal outcome of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

14 Oct 2020

Exploring the effects of smoking tobacco on COVID-19 risk

A study conducted by researchers in China has shed light on how certain tobacco compounds might prevent cells from becoming infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

14 Oct 2020

Testing, tracing and mask-wearing can prevent COVID-19 resurgences

Researchers in Australia, Denmark, and the United States have conducted a study showing the extent to which community testing, contact tracing, and mask-wearing can lower the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Australian state of New South Wales.

14 Oct 2020

Alternate primers for whole-genome SARS-CoV-2 sequencing

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in October 2020 describes the gap frequencies and positions in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome and a set of alternative primers with a sequencing scheme to provide better genomic coverage and quality.

14 Oct 2020

ACE2 binding causes dissociation of trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike, may be used to inhibit further infection

A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 shows that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binding to the human host receptor could cause the typical trimeric spike protein to come apart, forming a stable monomer instead with the receptor.

14 Oct 2020