COVID-19 not only causes symptoms characteristic of a typical respiratory disorder, but has also been known to trigger a wide range of other symptoms in people who had been infected, some lasting even long after individuals test negative for the virus. These symptoms can include abnormal blood clotting, heart damage and failure, kidney disease, brain […]
With the growing concern about the emergence of pandemics, such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, drug development and repurposing are paramount. A recent study available on the preprint server bioRxiv* investigated the influence of colloidal aggregation on early drug development in repurposing screens. Specifically, whether colloidal aggregators, one of the most common artifacts […]
German experts recently explained why the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) delta variant is more infectious and pathogenic than its ancestor. By conducting a series of in vitro experiments, they have revealed that increased ability to induce cell-to-cell fusion (syncytia) and reduced susceptibility to vaccine and infection-induced antibodies make the delta variant more […]
Researchers in the UK have demonstrated the potential of modulating the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as a novel host-directed therapeutic approach to protecting against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The human ACE2 receptor is the main host structure that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds to as the initial stage of the […]
A new study led by Hans-Martin Jäck of the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany engineered clusters of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies using a transgenic mouse model. A unique characteristic for the antibodies was the different ways it bound to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the overall reduction in the viral spread for […]
A new study, released on the bioRxiv* preprint server, shows that rapamycin, an immunosuppressive drug used in some cancers, and its analogs, may have an undesirable effect on viral entry into the host cells. This finding could inform their use to treat symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). There is a serious lack of effective antivirals […]
The lack of new or repurposed drugs to treat patients with severe or critical coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been one of the biggest hurdles to reducing mortality rates in the ongoing pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A new study, published online in the journal Drug Development Research, describes […]
The rollout of vaccines is on in an attempt to achieve population immunity against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, the recent emergence of several variants that have altered transmissibility, infectivity and virulence characteristics has cast doubt on the feasibility of this goal. A […]
A new study published in the journal Science Immunology analyzed lung epithelial cells from patients infected with COVID-19 and found the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces the complement system as a dangerous weapon for viral infection. The complement system is an extension of the innate immune system to recognize pathogens and remove […]
The effect of different neutralizing antibodies, both vaccine-elicited and from convalescent sera, suggests new variants are emerging that can evade the human immune response. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds to host cells via its spike protein, which has two parts, the S1 and S2 subunits. The S1 subunit has the receptor-binding […]
