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IMAGE: Schematic of our proposed evolutionary history of the nCoV clade and putative events leading to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. view more
Credit: MacLean OA, et al. (2021), Natural selection in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in bats created a generalist virus and highly capable human pathogen. PLoS Biol 19(3): e3001115. CC-BY.
How much did SARS-CoV-2 need to change in order to adapt to its new human host? In a research article published in the open access journal
PLOS Biology Oscar MacLean, Spyros Lytras at the University of Glasgow, and colleagues, show that since December 2019 and for the first 11 months of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic there has been very little important genetic change observed in the hundreds of thousands of sequenced virus genomes.
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BOSTON SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated throughout the pandemic. New variants of the virus have arisen throughout the world, including variants that might possess increased ability to spread or evade the immune system. Such variants have been identified in California, Denmark, the U.K., South Africa and Brazil/Japan. Understanding how well the COVID-19 vaccines work against these variants is vital in the efforts to stop the global pandemic, and is the subject of new research from the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital.
In a study recently published in
In asthma, the airways become hyperresponsive. Researchers from Uppsala University have found a new mechanism that contributes to, and explains, airway hyperresponsiveness. The results are published in the scientific journal Allergy.
Credit: Carsten A. Skjøth
Grass pollen is a major outdoor allergen, responsible for widespread and costly respiratory conditions including allergic asthma and hay fever (rhinitis). Now, researchers re-porting in the journal
Current Biology on March 11 suggest that environmental DNA could help to better understand which grasses are the worst offenders. These findings represent a first step towards changing and improving our understanding of the complex relationships between pollen and population health, said Benedict Wheeler of the University of Exeter, UK. If confirmed and refined, this research could help to improve pollen forecasts and warnings in the future, supporting individual and community-level prevention strategies and management of healthcare system responses.
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Parents of children with food allergies face significant worry, severe anxiety and post-traumatic stress - according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Between six and eight per cent of children suffer a food allergy - with eggs, milk, and peanuts being the most common causes. They can cause vomiting, cramps, hives, swelling, eczema, breathing problems and in severe cases anaphylactic shock, which can lead to hospitalisation or death.
A new study published today finds that more than 80 per cent of parents face significant worry about their child s food allergy, while 42 per cent met the clinical cut-off for post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and 39 per cent reported moderate to extremely severe anxiety.