Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

New guideline for juvenile idiopathic arthritis gives emphasis to disease-modifying treatments

The American College of Rheumatology will preview the 2021 Guideline for the Treatment of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis at ACR Convergence, the ACR's annual meeting.

6 Nov 2020

Lupus patients receiving prophylactic therapy are at high risk for adverse reactions

New research shows that adults with systemic lupus erythematosus, who receive trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), a prophylactic therapy to help prevent pneumocystis pneumonia, are at high risk for adverse reactions to the drug, particularly if they are also positive for anti-Smith (anti-Sm) antibodies.

6 Nov 2020

Study: Genetically edited form of herpes simplex virus outperforms leading vaccine candidate

A genetically edited form of a herpes simplex virus -- rewired to keep it from taking refuge in the nervous system and eluding an immune response -- has outperformed a leading vaccine candidate in a new study from the University of Cincinnati, Northwestern University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

6 Nov 2020

How escalating COVID cases forced one state to change its masking strategy

In Montana's conservative Flathead County, prosecutors and local leaders were turning a blind eye to businesses that flouted state mask and social distancing mandates, even as the area's COVID infections climbed to their highest levels.

6 Nov 2020

Research describes novel molecules designed to treat or prevent COVID-19 infection

Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc., "Neoleukin" (NASDAQ:NLTX), a biopharmaceutical company utilizing sophisticated computational methods to design de novo protein therapeutics, today announced the publication in Science of research describing novel molecules designed to treat or prevent infection by the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2.

6 Nov 2020

Study shows iscan method could be effective for rapid COVID-19 testing

A simple COVID-19 test kit combines virus amplification with a CRISPR-Cas system for effective SARS-CoV-2 detection. The kit, called iSCAN, uses reagents that can be locally manufactured.

6 Nov 2020

Reducing the airborne transmission risk for SARS-CoV-2

Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open-access overlay journal published by the MIT Press that accelerates peer review of COVID-19-related research preprints, is currently soliciting reviews of the following COVID-19 preprints.

6 Nov 2020

Mobile phone data shows how Japan averted large-scale outbreaks of COVID-19

Why did Japan largely contain COVID-19 despite famously jam-packed Tokyo and despite the country's proximity to China? With no penalties and only requests for cooperation, Japan's state of emergency somehow averted the large-scale outbreaks seen elsewhere. At least one viable answer has now emerged.

6 Nov 2020

Study may help develop effective drugs against COVID-19

Scientists at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Justus-Liebig University, Germany, have uncovered how the genome of SARS-CoV-2 - the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 - uses genome origami to infect and replicate successfully inside host cells.

5 Nov 2020

Anxiety disorders increase among US citizens during COVID-19 pandemic

Scientists from the University of North Carolina and City University New York have recently revealed that a majority of United States citizens have suffered from anxiety disorders amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Financial adversity is one of the major causative factors for anxiety symptoms. The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

5 Nov 2020

A digital CRISPR-based method for quick detection and absolute quantification of SARS-CoV-2

In a recent medRxiv* preprint manuscript, researchers from Singapore and the United States report the development of a digital CRISPR method for the sensitive, specific, and rapid detection of viral nucleic acids at a constant temperature, which could be exploited for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

5 Nov 2020

New Zealand case study shows room for improvement in genomic sequencing of COVID-19 outbreaks

Researchers in New Zealand, the United States and Australia have demonstrated the effectiveness of real-time genomic sequencing at tracking the re-emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in New Zealand, in August this year.

5 Nov 2020

Pre-existing anti-IFN autoantibodies may worsen COVID-19 in lupus patients

“Our observations suggest that the presence of these autoantibodies may predispose SLE patients to infection with SARS-CoV-2 with a more severe presentation and represent an additional risk factor in this patient population,” write Sarthak Gupta and colleagues from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland.

5 Nov 2020

Persistent and extensive lung damage seen in COVID-19 patients

A team of researchers at the University of Trieste in Italy aimed to determine the extent and the causes of lung damage from COVID-19 to better understand the pathological correlates of the disease.

5 Nov 2020

Llama antibodies could be a potent nanoweapon against COVID-19

Today in Science, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine describe a new method to extract tiny but extremely powerful SARS-CoV-2 antibody fragments from llamas, which could be fashioned into inhalable therapeutics with the potential to prevent and treat COVID-19.

5 Nov 2020