Page 24 - Ace2 News Today

A recent study conducted by a team of international scientists has revealed that the infectivity and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 strongly depend on the genetic background of both the virus and the host.

A snake venom enzyme shows anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity in vitro As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to infect people worldwide, specific pharmaceutical interventions have been found to be few. As the logistics of mass vaccination are still being ironed out, most public health measures across the globe still largely involve non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as physical distancing, hand and face hygiene, mask-wearing, isolation of infected people and tracing of c...

Nanobodies have potential to be developed into a treatment for COVID-19 Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed, in collaboration with researchers in Germany and the U.S., new small antibodies, also known as nanobodies, which prevent the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus from entering human cells. The research study, published in Science, shows that a combined nanobody had a particularly good effect - even if the virus mutated. According to the researchers, the nanobodies have the p...

One such strain is the South African 501.V2 and UK B1.1.7 strains, which have been isolated from many countries and seem to spread faster than the ancestral strain. A preprint that recently appeared on the bioRxiv server reports the computational structure of this strain and the possible effect of the mutations on infectivity and neutralization.

Hypoxia signaling pathway could lead to COVID-19 treatments Researchers in Spain have demonstrated that studying the hypoxia signaling pathway could provide opportunities for treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team conducted a study showing that hypoxic (oxygen-deficient) conditions reduced the expression of host cell receptors for the causative agent – severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Hypoxic conditions reduced expression of angiotensin-converting ...

Using both mouse and human brain tissue, researchers at Yale School of Medicine have discovered that SARS-CoV-2 can directly infect the central nervous system and have begun to unravel some of the virus's effects on brain cells.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Pirbright Institute in the UK have identified key genetic changes in SARS-CoV-2 that may be responsible for the virus’s jump from bats to humans. The team also determined which animals contain cellular receptors that allow the virus to enter cells more effectively, zoning in on potential animals that acted as an intermediary host in facilitating SARS-CoV-2’s zoonosis.

Structure of SARS-CoV-2 cytoplasmic tail uncovered The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has claimed over 1.9 million lives so far, and scientists have been racing to develop vaccines that will curtail its spread. Most of these target the spike (S) protein of the virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The spike is anchored to the host cell membrane, as it mediates viral binding to the host cell receptor. This is the angiotensin-converting enz...

Researchers pinpoint spike protein regions as targets for passive and active COVID-19 vaccines Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified regions of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that have relatively few mutations and might therefore serve as important targets for prophylactic agents against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Drugs that target these “less variable” regions are more likely to be effective against future va...

SARS-CoV-2-induced innate immune responses may vary with disease severity, finds study A team of scientists from Germany and China recently conducted a large meta-analysis using transcriptome data of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to evaluate the routes of viral entry and the characteristics of innate immune responses induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study reveals that SARS-CoV-2 may enter human cells via multiple routes and that angiotensin-converting enzyme 2...