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Using antibodies to detect Alzheimer’s disease

News-Medical speaks to Professor Vendruscolo about his research that uses antibodies to detect Alzheimer's disease, which could help to improve drug discovery.

8 Jun 2020

Family meals promote healthy communication

Engaging in family meals may be a matter of improving communication and support at home. A new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier.

8 Jun 2020

Researchers develop hospice video educational tool for cancer patients

An educational video about hospice care can provide valuable information for patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers, improve perceptions of this quality form of care at the end of life, and increase its use.

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

Sleep is also essential for artificial brains, shows study

No one can say whether androids will dream of electric sheep, but they will almost certainly need periods of rest that offer benefits similar to those that sleep provides to living brains, according to new research from Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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

Majority of hospitalized patients with advanced cancer have functional impairment

New research from Mass General Cancer Center, published in the June 2020 issue of JNCCN--Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, found 40.2% of hospitalized patients with advanced, incurable cancer were functionally impaired at the time of admission, meaning they needed assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) like walking, bathing, getting dressed, or other routine tasks. Patients with functional impairment also had higher rates of pain, depression, and anxiety, and were more likely to have longer hospital stays and worse survival.

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