Vaccine News and Research

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Researchers identify mechanism that explains lower-quality immune response in COVID-19 patients

The release of massive amounts of proteins called cytokines can lead to some of the most severe symptoms of COVID-19.

20 Aug 2020

Cytokine storms may prevent the development of long-term immunity to SARS-CoV-2

Shiv Pillai, MD, PhD, investigator in the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard and professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS), recently published a paper in Cell showing that that high levels of some cytokines seen in COVID-19 patients, as part of a cytokine storm, may prevent the development of long-term immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

19 Aug 2020

Researchers use heparin to block co-receptor for SARS-CoV-2 infection

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam have conducted a study showing that heparan sulfate proteoglycans are important co-receptors that severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires to infect host cells.

19 Aug 2020

CUNY School of Medicine and TechnoVax announce COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough

The CUNY School of Medicine at The City College of New York and TechnoVax, Inc., a biotechnology developer of novel vaccines, announce a breakthrough in their collaborative effort to develop a vaccine for COVID-19.

19 Aug 2020

UIC's first-of-its-kind contraceptive receives FDA approval

A first-of-its-kind contraceptive developed at the University of Illinois Chicago has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

19 Aug 2020

Mathematical modeling helps researchers track and tackle COVID-19 pandemic

The Editor-in-Chief Vitaly Volpert of the Institut Camille Jordan, University ofLyon, France, reviews how the public's new favourite scientific discipline, mathematical modelling, is being used to track and tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

19 Aug 2020

Single-dose adenovirus-vectored vaccine protects mice against SARS-CoV-2

The researchers selected the human adenovirus type 5 on which to base their vaccine because this replication-defective vector had already been used in their Ebola vaccine, with an excellent safety and immunogenicity profile in a phase 1 trial. The current study aimed to produce a vaccine that could offer mucosal vaccination and enhanced protection against this respiratory virus.

19 Aug 2020

Structural analysis of SARS-CoV-2 can help develop COVID-19 vaccines

At the start of a COVID-19 infection, the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 docks onto human cells using the spike-like proteins on its surface.

19 Aug 2020

The world is 'nowhere near herd immunity,' WHO says

Now, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the world is nowhere near the amount of coronavirus immunity needed to induce herd immunity, where enough people would develop the antibodies to stop the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

19 Aug 2020

Routine BCG immunization in infancy and COVID-19 containment in Japan

. A new study explores whether and how the practice of routine BCG vaccination of infants may have curbed the initial spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in Japan. The research is published in the Journal of Infection.

19 Aug 2020

COVID immunity related to how bad you get it

Researchers at Stanford University in California have shown that severely ill patients hospitalized with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection develop significantly higher levels of antibodies against the virus than asymptomatic individuals and outpatients.

18 Aug 2020

Gene editing approach removes oral herpes

Infectious disease researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have used a gene editing approach to remove latent herpes simplex virus 1, or HSV-1, also known as oral herpes.

18 Aug 2020

When a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine arrives, who should be vaccinated first?

This new study by the researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, Tacoma and published on the preprint server medRxiv in August 2020 describes one viewpoint concerning the optimized allocation of the vaccine, showing that under different efficacy scenarios, either the old or the young may be the best candidates for initial vaccination.

18 Aug 2020