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Can early use of colchicine reduce COVID-19 mortality?

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has caused well over 2.3 million deaths in a little over a year. A new meta-analysis reports the potential utility of colchicine in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection and forestalling severe and life-threatening inflammation of the lungs and other organs.

8 Feb 2021

Bioengineered ankyrin compounds show high in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 mutants

A new study describes the use of DARPin (designed ankyrin repeat proteins) therapeutic agents, each of which contains three different DARPin domains within the same molecule.

8 Feb 2021

Could graphene be an effective antiviral platform against SARS-CoV-2?

The urgent need for novel therapeutics has spurred investigation into broad-spectrum inhibitors of viral infection and replication. A new study describes the antiviral activity of synthesized graphene platforms, pointing to new therapeutic approaches against this virus.

8 Feb 2021

SARS-CoV-2 escape mutations identified against monoclonal antibodies and polyclonal immune sera

A recent study describes the experimental selection of SARS-CoV-2 mutants associated with resistance to antibodies, with important implications for vaccine development and therapeutic antibody use.

8 Feb 2021

Why the U.S. is underestimating Covid reinfection

Kaitlyn Romoser first caught Covid-19 in March, likely on a trip to Denmark and Sweden, just as the scope of the pandemic was becoming clear. Romoser, who is 23 and a laboratory researcher in College Station, Texas, tested positive and had a few days of mild, coldlike symptoms.

8 Feb 2021

Online searches can help predict later surges and declines in COVID-19 cases

Online searches for mobile and isolated activities can help to predict later surges and declines in COVID-19 cases, a team of researchers has found.

8 Feb 2021

Research from Israel shows mRNA vaccine is ~50% effective in reducing severe cases

In a report published on the pre-print server medRxiv, researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Trento, and the Racah Institute of Physics suggest that the shape of the outbreak in patients over 60 years old has changed because of the vaccinations.

8 Feb 2021

Americans plan to continue many of the pandemic precautions even after COVID-19

A new national survey of more than 2,000 Americans by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center finds most plan to continue many of the pandemic precautions in the name of public health, even when the pandemic is over.

8 Feb 2021

COVID-19 pandemic and nanotechnology

Writing in the International Journal of Nanomedicine, Professor Dongki Yang, from the Department of Physiology, Gachon University, South Korea, has reviewed the available knowledge on the coronaviruses, current approaches to tackle the newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the innovative application of nanotechnology in the COVID-19 pandemic.

8 Feb 2021

Experimental antiviral drug can significantly speed up recovery for COVID-19 outpatients

A clinical study led by Dr. Jordan Feld, a liver specialist at Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, University Health Network (UHN), showed an experimental antiviral drug can significantly speed up recovery for COVID-19 outpatients – patients who do not need to be hospitalized.

8 Feb 2021

Commentary on severe allergic reaction to mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines

A commentary by John M. Kelso, Division of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Scripps Clinic, published in the latest issue of the journal Vaccines, discusses anaphylactic reactions to these novel mRNA SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 vaccines.

8 Feb 2021

Healthy people volunteering to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 should be paid, experts suggest

Multidisciplinary team of international experts suggests participants should receive a "substantial" amount, be paid ethically.

7 Feb 2021

SARS-CoV-2 delays interferon signaling in host cells

A team of scientists from Sweden and India has recently conducted a study to evaluate type I interferon (IFN-I) responses in cells infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a delayed and dysregulated IFN-I response and that pretreatment with IFN-I can reduce the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

7 Feb 2021

Symptomatic COVID-19 cases extremely low among YMCA summer campers in North Carolina

Cases of symptomatic COVID-19 were extremely low among children and staff at a network of YMCA summer camps held last year in North Carolina that took precautions like masking and physical distancing, with close to zero transmissions occurring at the camps, according to researchers at Duke Health, Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian.

7 Feb 2021

Visualization of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by fluorescence in situ hybridization probes

A team of scientists from France has recently designed fluorescence in situ hybridization probes (CoronaFISH) to visualize severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in infected cells. A detailed description of the probe design, validation, and application is currently available on the bioRxiv preprint server.

7 Feb 2021