Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Managing cancer patients during COVID-19 pandemic

An ESMO interdisciplinary expert consensus paper on how to manage cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic has been published today in Annals of Oncology.

31 Jul 2020

TAVR market shows hopeful signs of resiliency, says GlobalData

“Following Edwards Lifesciences’ announcement of an expected 5% growth for its transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) business, GlobalData observes hopeful signs of resiliency in the TAVR market.

31 Jul 2020

Social distancing is a useful tool in preventing further spread of COVID-19

According to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the implementation of social distancing policies corresponded with significant reductions in transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and reduced community mobility, both in the U.S. and globally, providing evidence that social distancing is a useful tool in preventing further spread of COVID-19.

31 Jul 2020

War of sugars - estrogen provides protection in COVID-19

Now a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 reports that sex hormones could affect the function of the fusion protein that is dependent upon the human ACE2 receptor, thus preventing the entry of the virus into the host cell.

31 Jul 2020

Researchers report a liquid biopsy for COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 reports the potential of cell-free DNA as a marker of the severity of disease in COVID-19. This could help triage patients as well as provide a prognostic marker.

30 Jul 2020

Lab profiles differentiate MIS-C from severe COVID-19 in children

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus seemed only rarely to have serious complications in children.

30 Jul 2020

Researcher uses in silico analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to fast-track passive immunity

With millions of COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, people are turning to antibody tests to find out whether they have been exposed to the coronavirus that causes the disease. But what are antibodies? Why are they important? If we have them, are we immune to COVID-19? And if not, why not?

30 Jul 2020

CZI, CZ Biohub, and The State Of California join forces to track COVID-19 transmission

Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, in partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, announced that it will provide free whole genome sequencing and analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to all California Departments of Public Health and California local health jurisdictions through a newly-launched effort called the California COVID Tracker.

30 Jul 2020

Research shows how Zika virus succeeds in protecting key parts of its genome

To fight viruses, cells can deploy defence enzymes that progressively destroy viral genome strands starting from one of the two strand ends. However, this degradation mechanism is not effective against epidemic viruses such as Zika.

30 Jul 2020

From swab to sequencing - scalable method for identifying SARS-CoV-2

A research group headed by Stanford University scientists has developed a scalable, high throughput method to generate high fidelity whole genome and HLA sequencing, viral genomes, and representation of human transcriptome from single nasopharyngeal swabs of coronavirus disease (COVID19) patients. Their results are published on the medRxiv preprint server.

30 Jul 2020

Novel vaccine candidate robustly protects non-human primates against SARS-CoV-2

The development of a safe and effective vaccine will likely be required to end the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of scientists, led by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center immunologist Dan H. Barouch, MD, PhD, now report that a leading candidate COVID-19 vaccine developed at BIDMC in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson raised neutralizing antibodies and robustly protected non-human primates against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

30 Jul 2020

Smoking worsens COVID-19 severity, warn researchers

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggests that smoking increases the risk of more severe lung disease in cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

30 Jul 2020

Researchers show usefulness of potential 'phage cocktail' therapy on wound infections

Australian researchers have shown how viruses can be used to save lives, developing the potential use of bacteriophages in bandages to treat life-threatening golden staph infections which may not respond to traditional antibiotics.

30 Jul 2020

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Republicans in COVID disarray

President Donald Trump's pivot to a more serious view of the coronavirus pandemic didn't last long. This week, he was again touting hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug that has not been shown to work against the virus.

30 Jul 2020

Get the data: Hollowed-out public health system faces more cuts amid virus

There is no comprehensive data on government public health spending and staffing in the U.S., and KHN and the Associated Press spent months gathering different datasets, each measuring a slightly different concept of "public health," into a unique repository of public health data at the local, county and state levels.

30 Jul 2020

New test rapidly determines neutralizing antibodies against Sars-Cov-2

To determine immunity to Sars-Cov-2 and the effectiveness of potential vaccines, the amount of neutralizing antibodies in the blood of recovered or vaccinated individuals must be determined.

30 Jul 2020

Scientists develop human lung organoids to study SARS-CoV-2 infection

Now, a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 reports the development of a human distal lung culture system that can be functionally tested. This will help not only to understand how this infection produces disease but also to test the proliferative capacity of the stem cells in this part of the body.

30 Jul 2020

Study reports highly potent anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 reports that a series of potent enzyme inhibitors have been designed to suppress severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) replication by interfering with one of the primary viral proteases.

30 Jul 2020

Study suggests stay-at-home-cooling strategies during COVID-19 pandemic in the US

A new study from Australian scientists at the forefront of climate and health modeling suggests electric fans and water dousing could be a viable stay-at-home cooling strategy as the United States (US) anticipates extreme heat.

30 Jul 2020

New model can help local entities to prevent COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations

With communities throughout the United States combating surges in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Northwestern University have created a framework that helps policymakers determine which data to track and when to take action to protect their communities.

30 Jul 2020