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Baltimore’s ‘squeegee boys’: ‘If we don’t go out, we don’t eat’

On the corner of South President and East Pratt streets in Baltimore a little over a month ago, a young man in a black hoodie stood out on an otherwise empty intersection.

8 Jun 2020

Rapid changes to health system spurred by COVID might be here to stay

The U.S. health care system is famously resistant to government-imposed change. It took decades to create Medicare and Medicaid, mostly due to opposition from the medical-industrial complex. Then it was nearly another half-century before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

8 Jun 2020

Study reports reduced intake of fruit and vegetables among children since lockdown

In a study conducted by Northumbria University's Healthy Living Lab around half of the children who received free school meal vouchers are reporting a significant drop in their intake of fruit and vegetables since schools closed in March.

8 Jun 2020

Genetic studies analyze genome-wide set of genetic variants in different individuals

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) analyze a genome-wide set of genetic variants in different individuals to see if any are associated with a trait or disease.

8 Jun 2020

Study: Surfaces play a key role in viral transmission

Virus DNA left on a hospital bed rail was found in nearly half of all sites sampled across award within 10 hours and persisted for at least five days, according to a new study by UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH).

8 Jun 2020

Monocytes could be critical in dysregulated immunity in COVID-19

A new study by Spanish researchers as part of the GEN-COVID Project, and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020, suggests that monocytes are primarily involved in triggering the hyperinflammatory immune response that may underlie severe COVID-19 infection.

8 Jun 2020

The receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2

With the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) across most of the world, scientists are working strenuously to find effective therapies or vaccines. Most strategies being worked on at present are targeting viral entry into the host cells, mainly through the interaction of the SARS-CoV-2 S protein with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor.

8 Jun 2020

Inhibition of coronavirus spike protein binding to ACE2

A novel coronavirus, CoV-19, and a later phenotype CoV-2 were identified as the primary cause for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS CoV-2). The spike (S) protein of CoV-2 is one target for the development of a vaccine to prevent the viral entry into human cells. The inhibition of the direct interaction between ACE2 and the S-protein could provides a suitable strategy to prevent the membrane fusion of CoV-2 and the viral entry into human cells. Using MD simulations, we investigate the assembly process of a Coronavirus Spike protein fragment, the hexapeptide YKYRYL on the ACE2 receptor and its inhibitzory effect on the aggregation and activation of the CoV-2 spike receptor protein at the same receptor protein.

8 Jun 2020

SARS-CoV-2 genome variants in India

A new study published online on the preprint server bioRxiv in June 2020 surveys the genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 strains in India.

7 Jun 2020

SARS-CoV-2 invasion of central nervous system through olfactory tract

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives throughout the world, the evidence is mounting that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) affects the respiratory tract as well as the central nervous system. Now, a new study by German researchers published on the preprint server bioRxiv in June 2020 describes various neurological manifestations of COVID-19, as well as the underlying pathophysiology.

7 Jun 2020

Tocilizumab in COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation

Now, a new study by researchers from the University of Michigan and published on the online preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 shows that the cytokine inhibitor tocilizumab could have a favorable effect on survival in the most severely infected patients who require mechanical ventilation. This needs to be confirmed by clinical trials.

7 Jun 2020

New strategy may facilitate development of multi-epitope peptide vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

By combining T and B lymphocyte analysis with manufacturability heuristic, researchers from the US and Germany proposed a set of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine peptides to use in subsequent animal studies and clinical trials. Their paper is currently available on the bioRxiv preprint server.

7 Jun 2020

Kidney enzyme renalase a potential therapy for severe COVID-19

Researchers from Yale School of Medicine have discovered that a low blood level of an enzyme called renalase is associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

7 Jun 2020

Zinc-finger antiviral protein makes SARS-CoV-2 highly susceptible to interferons

By looking into zinc-finger antiviral proteins (ZAP), a new study from Germany and the United Kingdom (UK) and available on the preprint server bioRxiv suggests that zoonotic transmission of a coronavirus with a specific genetic make-up facilitated the pandemic spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but also its sensitivity to interferons.

7 Jun 2020

Lockdown adversities could affect sleep and mental health

Researchers at University College London warn that the adversities people are facing in the UK as a result of lockdown during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may be causing sleep problems that could affect mental health.

7 Jun 2020

People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis with increased disease activity have high thrombosis risk

People suffering from rheumatoid arthritis with increased disease activity are more often affected by thrombosis.

5 Jun 2020

Approved drug could help dampen massive immune response associated with severe COVID-19

The drug acalabrutinib, FDA-approved for the treatment of several types of B cell cancers, improved the oxygenation levels and decreased molecular markers of inflammation in a majority of 19 patients hospitalized for the treatment of severe COVID-19, according to a new study by Mark Roschewski and colleagues.

5 Jun 2020

High mortality rates among coronavirus-positive dialysis patients

Spain is one of the European countries besides the UK and Italy that was particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic in March.

5 Jun 2020

Bystander CPR benefits outweigh the risks of COVID-19 infection

Analysis of Seattle emergency medical services and hospital data from January 1 to April 15, 2020, indicates bystander CPR is a lifesaving endeavor whose benefits outweigh the risks of COVID-19 infection, according to a new article published yesterday in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

5 Jun 2020

Kidney impairment significantly higher among hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Germany was not hit as hard by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as many other European countries. The reason for this is that the wave of infection reached Germany later, that the authorities were warned by the situation in Italy and Spain and at an early stage ordered a lockdown and conducted extensive testing.

5 Jun 2020