Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Initial lockdown in France substantially curbed COVID-19, but many remain susceptible to the virus

Now, a new study by researchers at the Santé Publique France conducted seroprevalence estimates in France, one of the countries with high COVID-19 cases in Europe.

22 Oct 2020

DNA vaccine-induced antibodies neutralize SARS-CoV-2

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is far from over as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to ravage across the globe. With the vast spread of the virus, many countries who reported flattening the curve over the past months have reported clusters of new cases and second waves of the outbreak.

22 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 mutations dictate severity of COVID-19 disease

A recent study by researchers from Semmelweis University and Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest, Hungary, published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020, shows the relationship of specific mutations on the disease's outcome.

22 Oct 2020

COVID-19 containment measures affecting other seasonal respiratory viruses

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in October 2020 indicates that so far, the containment measures put in place to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have effectively prevented the transmission of many other respiratory viruses.

21 Oct 2020

Brain metabolic changes associated with loss of smell in COVID-19

A recent study detailed in a preprint paper published in medRxiv, researchers from Belgium, discuss how they investigated possible central nervous system (CNS) involvement in COVID-19 patients with a sudden loss of smell using a hybrid positron emission tomography (PET)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system (PET-MR).

21 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 mutations possibly making virus less virulent

In their bioRxiv* preprint paper, the researchers focus on mapping the clade-specific mutations' effects on the protein structures' conformation and stability. They identified the mutations in the set of seven proteins - orf8, nsp2, nsp4, nsp6, nucleocapsid protein (N), and Spike protein (S).

21 Oct 2020

"Immunological imprinting" could influence antibody response to COVID-19

Researchers in the United States and Spain have shown that prior exposure to seasonal coronaviruses may influence antibody responses to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

21 Oct 2020

More than 2.5 million person-years of life lost in US due to COVID-19

In a recently published study, researcher Stephen Elledge from Harvard Medical School has described converting the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) death toll from individual deaths to “person-years” lost in order to provide a more accurate picture of the pandemic’s toll on the population.

21 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 hijacks mitochondria

An important phase of the viral protein translation relies on the mitochondrial translation machinery. Towards this goal, the molecular mechanism involved in the SARS-CoV-2 entry into human cells is studied by Zhenguo Cheng et al.

21 Oct 2020

Researchers explore SARS-CoV-2 at single cell resolution in human airway epithelial cells

The cellular tropism of the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects several aspects of infection, such as the spread of the virus within and between hosts, tissue pathology, immune control mechanisms, and the response to treatment with promising antiviral drugs.

21 Oct 2020

CDC says 'mask up' when traveling

These updates focus on the prevention of the spread of the infection during travel. Since the onset of the pandemic, international and intra-state travel has been restricted across many nations.

20 Oct 2020

Researchers explore effect of temperature on molecular structure of SARS-CoV-2 spike

Didac Martí et al., from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, in a recent bioRxiv preprint research paper, explore the effect of the temperature on the molecular structure of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. The study specifically focuses on the spike glycoprotein's molecular structural integrity at different temperatures (within 25 ºC and 100 ºC) using atomistic computer simulations.

20 Oct 2020

3D imaging of SARS-CoV-2 infection in ferrets using light sheet microscopy

Researchers from the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health demonstrate the ability to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in 3D tissue samples in ferrets. This will allow the detection of infection patterns in tissues and their interrelations.

20 Oct 2020

Engineered decoy receptor could protect against coronaviruses

Researchers in the United States have shown that an engineered soluble decoy receptor tightly binds the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated viruses. This could potentially provide protection against zoonotic betacoronaviruses such as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

20 Oct 2020

Precision epidemiology could help explain variability in COVID-19 symptoms

Researchers from National Taiwan University have presented a multi-omics view of how mutations in angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) affect infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and progression of coronaviruses disease 2019 (COVID-19).

20 Oct 2020

Researchers develop a molecular docking based webserver to predict drug targets

A highly effective drug therapy is urgently required to combat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The authors of this article have developed a molecular docking based webserver, namely D3Targets-2019-nCoV, with two functions, one is for predicting drug targets for drugs or active compounds observed from clinic or in vitro/in vivo studies, the other is for identifying lead compounds against potential drug targets via docking.

20 Oct 2020

Fever and cough best indicators for COVID-19 in children and adolescents

Most testing is driven by fever, persistent cough of recent onset, and abnormalities in smell. Such symptoms are considered indicative of continuing SARS-CoV-2 infection, requiring quarantine of all such individuals until they test negative for the virus. This approach is justifiable in adults since fever and cough from other causes are rare in healthy adults.

20 Oct 2020

Androgen deprivation strategies could help mitigate SARS-CoV-2 infection

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have noted that women are generally less severely affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This has led to the exploration into estrogen and androgens' role in the hyperinflammatory clinical phenotypes of COVID-19. A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv shows that drugs targeting androgens and TMPRSS2 inhibitors may potentially combat the pandemic.

20 Oct 2020

The connection between severe COVID-19 and white blood cell counts

However, in other research, white blood cells' exact roles and subtypes in severe COVID-19 are still unclear. The team writes, "It is unknown if blood cell counts before infection are associated with the risk of developing severe COVID-19." They explained that the numbers of these cell types could be influenced by several factors such as age, gender, disease status, and medications.

19 Oct 2020

Adult stem cell-based lung organoid models emulate host immune response in fatal COVID-19

Recently, a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego and The Scripps Research Institute, CA, USA, showed that an integrated stem cell-based disease modeling and computational approach is crucial for simulating the host immune response in fatal COVID-19 patients.

19 Oct 2020