While several COVID-19 vaccines have been approved to date, the constant evolution of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor-binding domain (RBD) has challenged the efficacy of these vaccines. The B.1.1.7 (UK), B.1.351 (South Africa), and P.1 (Brazil) variants, in particular, have negatively impacted convalescent sera and immunotherapies that were approved for emergency use. […]
It is essential to face some grim facts about the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogen. The ongoing COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, started in December 2019, may last for many years. SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, is the seventh member of the Coronaviridae family known to infect humans. Study: Computational designing […]
Researchers in the UK have developed a protein-based subunit vaccine directed against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that could serve as an alternative to the mRNA-based vaccines currently approved for protecting against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team – from the University of Liverpool and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge […]
In a new study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, researchers from the United States report that two iminosugar glucosidase inhibitors have the ability to suppress the replication of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in tissue culture – at concentrations of at least 100 times lower than required for cytotoxic effects. As […]
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread across the globe. The virus first emerged in Wuhan City, China, in late December 2019, with scientists pointing to pangolins as intermediate hosts. Since SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic pathogen, it can jump from animals to humans. As […]
Researchers in the United States have conducted a study showing the efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines at eliciting a robust T cell response against variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team – from Gladstone Institute of Virology in San Francisco […]
UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists have identified the first cases of the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 infection in North Texas using next-generation sequencing technologies along with PCR testing. UT Southwestern sequencing protocols show the U.K. variant (B.1.1.7) has become dominant in North Texas – found in about 55% of sampled individuals – followed by 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 […]
