Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Smoking increases ACE2 protein in the lungs which may promote COVID-19 infection

Previous data from COVID-19 patients suggests that cigarette smokers are more likely to have health complications.

18 May 2020

Most Australians do not understand difference between bacterial and viral infection

Public awareness matters amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; however, a new study shows that more than 92 percent of the Australian population cannot differentiate between a bacterial and viral infection.

18 May 2020

Coronavirus pandemic may spark mental health crisis, U.N. warns

A mental health crisis is looming as millions of people are affected by deaths, disease, poverty, and isolation. All of these factors could cause severe psychological distress. The U.N. warns that due to the stress faced by people in physical isolation, a mental health crisis is approaching.

18 May 2020

New vaccine appears to be highly protective against Ebola infection in mice

As the world focuses on finding a COVID-19 vaccine, research continues on other potentially catastrophic pandemic diseases, including Ebola and Marburg viruses.

18 May 2020

Human immune repertoire may not commonly produce cross-neutralizing antibodies to coronaviruses

Patients infected with either severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) or SARS-CoV-2 produce antibodies that bind to the other coronavirus, but the cross-reactive antibodies are not cross protective, at least in cell-culture experiments, researchers report May 17 in the journal Cell Reports.

18 May 2020

Tocilizumab improves survival in COVID-19 patients with ARDS

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2), has already nearly 4.8 million confirmed cases and more than 318,000 deaths.

18 May 2020

Neuroscientists trace brain-to-gut pathways

Neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute have traced neural pathways that connect the brain to the stomach, providing a biological mechanism to explain how stress can foster ulcer development.

18 May 2020

People with Hepatitis D have up to three times the risk of developing fatal liver cancer

Of all the hepatitis viruses, D is the most poorly known. This small virus, which can only infect people already infected with Hepatitis B, has so far been little studied.

18 May 2020

Common mutations in SARS-CoV-2 related to non-variable segments of structural proteins

The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is thought to have originated from an animal species, most likely bats, which succeeded in crossing over to humans. However, the exact species of origin has not yet been confirmed.

18 May 2020

Local variations in climate not likely to drive early COVID-19 pandemic

Local variations in climate are not likely to dominate the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Princeton University study published May 18 in the journal Science.

18 May 2020

Potential new treatment approach to fatal COVID-19

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Pathways Bioscience in the United States have found that activating a transcription factor involved in oxidative stress regulation, antiviral activity, and inflammation may serve as a new treatment approach to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

18 May 2020

SMART researchers awarded NMRC funding to develop rapid paper-based COVID-19 tests

Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, has received a grant from the National Medical Research Council COVID-19 Research fund for the acceleration of research and development of rapid paper-based serological and diagnostic tests for COVID-19.

18 May 2020

Novel insights on SARS-CoV-2 cell entry may inform further vaccine and treatment development

A research group from Harvard Medical School reported two cryo-electron microscopy structures derived from a single preparation of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein in their paper available on the preprint server bioRxiv. Understanding the nuances of prefusion and postfusion conformations shed light on viral cell entry and may, in turn, guide the development of vaccines and drugs.

18 May 2020