Covid19-Sources

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Johann Holzmann, PhD on Twitter
Johann Holzmann, PhD on Twitter
1 Tag nach Injektion der Erstdosis Biontech/Pfizer; 30 mcg Spike mRNA verpackt in LipidNanoPartikel (LNP).Was ist passiert, wo ist das Zeugs?Nach Injektion in den Oberarm bleibt der Großteil im Muskel bzw in den Lymphknoten der Achselhöhle. Ein beträchtlicher Teil...1/n pic.twitter.com/YyIOGeP4xG— Johann Holzmann, PhD (@JohannHolzmann) May 15, 2021
·twitter.com·
Johann Holzmann, PhD on Twitter
Evidence That the Coronavirus Can Mess With Our DNA Is Far From
Evidence That the Coronavirus Can Mess With Our DNA Is Far From
Science is hard. This is not meant to dissuade anyone from going into the sciences. It’s just a statement of fact with which all scientists would probably agree, and it’s a sort of mantra we can repeat to ourselves to recalibrate our expectations once in a while. There is a paper that came out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (or PNAS) that I fear will be weaponized by anti-vaccine activists. It is not a study that should be casually dismissed, nor can its results be embraced and spun into catastrophic conclusions. Again, science is hard. It has to do with the claim (and I must repeat, the claim) that the genetic material from the coronavirus could integrate itself inside our own genetic material, that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA could get turned into DNA and mingle with our own. Anti-vaxxers, who downplay the threat of COVID-19, don’t typically see this as a problem with the virus itself; rather, they use this claim (again, claim) to scare the bejesus out of people contemplating one of the COVID-19 vaccines. You see, the COVID-19 vaccines in use right now contain genetic instructions (either RNA or DNA) to tell our body to manufacture the coronavirus’ spike protein. What if, anti-vaccine activists will argue to stir up the flames of anxiety, the genetic material inside these vaccines shoves itself inside your DNA, disrupting the order of things and mutating you in unpredictable ways? Last December, they found a study they could use to bolster their claim. It had not been officially reviewed by other scientists, and it had not yet been accepted for publication in an academic journal. It was a pre-print. In it, scientists claimed to have discovered bits of the genetic material from the coronavirus fused to human DNA. This pre-print was met with thunderous rebuttals from many in the scientific community, and it was flown as a victory flag by the anti-vaccine movement. Now, this pre-print has been tweaked, peer-reviewed, and published in the journal PNAS. Its authors claim they “found that DNA copies of SARS-CoV-2 sequences can be integrated into the genome of infected human cells.” It sure sounds scary but, as always, the devil is in the details. And it begins with jumping genes. Whose LINE is it anyway? Our organs are made of tissues, and these tissues are made of cells. Inside the cell, there is a glob called the nucleus. It’s the command center of the cell and it contains our DNA. (There are powerhouses outside the nucleus called mitochondria, and they have a tiny ring of DNA, but we will put that aside for today.) This DNA is a very, very long spaghetti noodle that occasionally bunches up into discrete chromosomes, and that interminable noodle contains stretches that play different roles. There are genes—not as many as we once thought, about 20,000 in humans—and these genes get transcribed into RNA that is itself translated into a specific protein, the effector of the cell. But protein-coding genes only make up a tiny portion of the entirety of our DNA. If you keep roaming down that long spaghetti noodle, you are bound to see a LINE-1 element. In fact, you will see many. That is because they are estimated to make up about 17% of human DNA or almost one-fifth. They are long stretches of DNA with recognizable sequences and they technically have the ability to pack up their stuff and move elsewhere in the genome. They can jump around. Most of them, though, are molecular fossils. They used to be able to jump around in our DNA eons ago, but they lost this ability and have been silenced. I reached out to Professor Geoffrey J. Faulkner at the University of Queensland, who studies these jumping bits of DNA like LINE-1 elements. We are known to have about 500,000 of these LINE-1 sequences in our genome. “Of those, in each of us,” he told me, “there are about 100 copies that have the potential to jump. That’s a very small number out of half a million.” And these 100 are not typically seen jumping around in recent times; only about five or six of them do. It’s like our DNA is littered with the tired bodies of long jumpers, with only a handful still able to compete for Olympic gold. I bring up LINE-1 elements because the authors of that PNAS paper about bits of the coronavirus possibly integrating into our DNA have evidence that puts LINE-1 elements at the scene of the alleged crime. As with most police procedurals, we should not jump to conclusions. What the researchers are alleging based on their laboratory experiments and their scrutiny of the genetic material collected from people with severe COVID-19 is that our own LINE-1 elements—these stretches of DNA that have the machinery necessary to pluck themselves free from the DNA molecule and reintegrate elsewhere—can grab hold of the coronavirus’ RNA that is floating around, transform it back into DNA, and integrate it inside our own DNA as if it were a long jumper competing for the gold. To be fair, some viruses can do that. Famously, HIV, a retrovirus, comes with the necessary machinery to slide itself into our genome. Some viruses that are not retroviruses can even do that. Our genome and that of other animals bear the marks of many viruses that, over the course of millennia, have been swallowed up by our DNA. But, and this is a telltale “but,” as Professor Aris Katzourakis, who studies the integration of viruses into animal genomes at the University of Oxford and who was critical of this PNAS paper on Twitter, told me, “there are no known integrations of coronaviruses at all in any of the genomes that have been published.” At the start of the pandemic, he consulted databases out of professional curiosity to see if he could find traces of the genetic material from any of the many coronaviruses in existence integrated in any of the couple of thousands of animal genomes available. He did not find anything even remotely coronavirus-like. After hundreds of millions of years of evolution, despite LINE-1 elements existing and despite coronaviruses infecting animals left and right, there was no trace of coronaviruses having jumped inside animal genomes. What were the odds that this brand-new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus managed to do just that in a matter of months? “That would be a really big surprise,” he said to me. When claims meet evidence The claim that bits of the SARS-CoV-2 virus might be integrated inside our DNA is thus an extraordinary claim given the context. Professor Faulkner reminded me of a famous saying popularized by Carl Sagan—that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence—especially when they have public health consequences. “When I think of this [paper], I think of that quote. The claims are extraordinary but the evidence is not.” One of the reality checks we need to bring up with regards to the paper is that most (but not all) of their data comes from an experimental system that does not reflect reality, but rather acts as a proof of principle. If you eat your first meal with cilantro and you can’t really tell if you like the herb or not, you can buy some cilantro and add a lot of it to your next meal. By increasing the signal (the amount of cilantro), you can detect it better and decide if it pleases you. The researchers here did something similar. They chose a line of human cells they could grow in the laboratory, a line of cells that already expresses a lot of LINE-1, and they gave them a bit of DNA that made even more LINE-1. They wanted to crank up the system—pour a lot of cilantro on top of it—in order to see if anything would happen. The experts I asked about this agree that doing this is a good first step, but it does not represent what happens when you or I get infected by the coronavirus. You can make something happen artificially that would not happen naturally, including integration. “LCMV, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, is a non-integrating virus,” Pr. Katzourakis told me, “but if you stick it in a cell line experiment expressing very, very high levels of LINE-1 and make the cell line permissive, you can make a virus that doesn’t normally integrate into a cell line.” Moreover, some of the bits of coronavirus genetic material stuck to human DNA that the researchers detected might not be evidence of integration; rather, they may just be artefacts. When copies of genetic material are made, the enzyme that carries the work sometimes behaves like a distracted seamstress, switching off of a piece of fabric and moving on to another, sewing the two together. The coronavirus itself does this, and these artefacts can also be generated by the laboratory technology used by the researchers. This was brought up when the pre-print was published. The researchers tried to take this into account, but it’s still not a slam dunk. Finally, the sequences they report—those hybrids of coronavirus and human genetic material allegedly created by LINE-1 elements—just don’t look right, according to both the experts I spoke to and the researchers themselves. Indeed, the authors report something strange in their paper. They expected those coronavirus bits would get plopped inside our DNA at random because this is how LINE-1 elements behave. Instead, the bits they saw were 26 times more likely to be found squeezed inside the useful part of our genes. This is very bizarre. Also, certain molecular signatures accompany LINE-1-mediated events, and these signatures are not always there in the sequences reported in this paper, experts tell me. They don’t look right. The authors speculate based on some of these strange results that other mechanisms besides LINE-1 might be involved. There is a fine LINE between implausible and impossible I am not worried about the possibility that pieces of the coronavirus might integrate inside my DNA. It has never been seen before with coronaviruses. The evidence presented here is very artificial and unconvincing to me, although I applaud the researchers for not only doing important work but for collaborating with one
·mcgill.ca·
Evidence That the Coronavirus Can Mess With Our DNA Is Far From
Tomas Pueyo auf Twitter: "Vitamin D: What's its role in fighting the #coronavirus? Thread I was initially reluctant to look into it. I'm very skeptical of the supplement industry given that most supplements don't really work, which is connected to the fact that they're not regulated. [1/ https://t.co/YnMLGQKU6X" / Twitter
Tomas Pueyo auf Twitter: "Vitamin D: What's its role in fighting the #coronavirus? Thread I was initially reluctant to look into it. I'm very skeptical of the supplement industry given that most supplements don't really work, which is connected to the fact that they're not regulated. [1/ https://t.co/YnMLGQKU6X" / Twitter
Vitamin D: What's its role in fighting the #coronavirus? Thread I was initially reluctant to look into it. I'm very skeptical of the supplement industry given that most supplements don't really work, which is connected to the fact that they're not regulated. [1/ https://t.co/YnMLGQKU6X
·twitter.com·
Tomas Pueyo auf Twitter: "Vitamin D: What's its role in fighting the #coronavirus? Thread I was initially reluctant to look into it. I'm very skeptical of the supplement industry given that most supplements don't really work, which is connected to the fact that they're not regulated. [1/ https://t.co/YnMLGQKU6X" / Twitter
Vitamin D deficiency and co-morbidities in COVID-19 patients – A fatal relationship? - ScienceDirect
Vitamin D deficiency and co-morbidities in COVID-19 patients – A fatal relationship? - ScienceDirect
Infections of the respiratory tract are more frequent in the winter months and especially in the northern latitudes than they are in summer [1]. This obviously also applies to the COVID-19 infectious disease that briefly spread all over the world in the winter months and became a pandemic [2,3]. A common feature of the winter months and the inhabitants of all countries north of the 42nd parallel is a hypovitaminosis D that frequently occurs during this period [4]. In addition during cold temperature the virus will be more easily transmitted. This raises the question of whether an inadequate vitamin D supply has an influence on the progression and severity of COVID-19 disease.
·sciencedirect.com·
Vitamin D deficiency and co-morbidities in COVID-19 patients – A fatal relationship? - ScienceDirect
Heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination: initial reactogenicity data
Heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination: initial reactogenicity data
There is significant international interest in heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination to mitigate against supply shocks or shortages that might otherwise reduce the speed of vaccine roll-out. Additionally, in light of changing recommendations regarding use of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (ChAd) COVID-19 vaccine (Vaxzevria, AstraZeneca), several countries are now advising that individuals previously primed with this vaccine should now receive an alternative vaccine as their second dose, most commonly mRNA vaccines such as the BNT162b2 (BNT) COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty, Pfizer-BioNTech), administered in a heterologous prime-boost schedule.
·thelancet.com·
Heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccination: initial reactogenicity data
(7) 🔴Sandra Wyss-Aerni ✨🔴 auf Twitter: "#Lockdown war für #Kinder und #Jugendliche kein solcher Stressfaktor wie oft behauptet! ⬇️ „Als die Schweiz im Frühling 2020 in den Lockdown ging, erwarteten die Psychiatrien einen Ansturm. Doch das Gegenteil geschah: Die Fälle gingen sogar zurück.“ https://t.co/0r19RwSlpo" / Twitter
(7) 🔴Sandra Wyss-Aerni ✨🔴 auf Twitter: "#Lockdown war für #Kinder und #Jugendliche kein solcher Stressfaktor wie oft behauptet! ⬇️ „Als die Schweiz im Frühling 2020 in den Lockdown ging, erwarteten die Psychiatrien einen Ansturm. Doch das Gegenteil geschah: Die Fälle gingen sogar zurück.“ https://t.co/0r19RwSlpo" / Twitter
#Lockdown war für #Kinder und #Jugendliche kein solcher Stressfaktor wie oft behauptet! ⬇️ „Als die Schweiz im Frühling 2020 in den Lockdown ging, erwarteten die Psychiatrien einen Ansturm. Doch das Gegenteil geschah: Die Fälle gingen sogar zurück.“ https://t.co/0r19RwSlpo
·twitter.com·
(7) 🔴Sandra Wyss-Aerni ✨🔴 auf Twitter: "#Lockdown war für #Kinder und #Jugendliche kein solcher Stressfaktor wie oft behauptet! ⬇️ „Als die Schweiz im Frühling 2020 in den Lockdown ging, erwarteten die Psychiatrien einen Ansturm. Doch das Gegenteil geschah: Die Fälle gingen sogar zurück.“ https://t.co/0r19RwSlpo" / Twitter
2021
2021
·medrxiv.org·
2021
SARS-CoV-2 is detectable using sensitive RNA saliva testing days before viral load reaches detection range of low-sensitivity nasal swab tests
SARS-CoV-2 is detectable using sensitive RNA saliva testing days before viral load reaches detection range of low-sensitivity nasal swab tests
Early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection is critical to reduce asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread of COVID-19, curb the spread of viral variants by travelers, and maximize efficacy of therapeutic treatments. We designed a study to evaluate the preferred test sensitivity and sample type (saliva and nasal swab) for detecting early infections of COVID-19. We performed a case-ascertained study to monitor household contacts of individuals recently diagnosed with a SARS-CoV-2 infection. From those individuals, we obtained twice-daily self-collected anterior-nares nasal swabs and saliva samples and quantified SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral loads in those samples using high-sensitivity RT-qPCR and RT-ddPCR assays. We found that SARS-CoV-2 RNA first appears in saliva and then in nasal-swab samples. A high-sensitivity (limit of detection of ~103 copies/mL) RNA test detected SARS-CoV-2 virus in saliva 1.5 to 4.5 days before the viral load in the paired nasal-swab samples exceeded the limit of detection of low-sensitivity tests. It was possible to observe a high (>107-108 copies/mL) viral load in saliva samples while the paired nasal swab was either negative or had low (~103 copies/mL) viral load. Our results indicate that both sampling site and test sensitivity must be considered to ensure early detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection: high-sensitivity tests that use saliva can detect SARS-CoV-2 infection days earlier than low-sensitivity tests that use nasal swabs. Furthermore, early in the infection, low-sensitivity tests that use nasal swabs may miss SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals with very high and potentially infectious viral loads in saliva.
·medrxiv.org·
SARS-CoV-2 is detectable using sensitive RNA saliva testing days before viral load reaches detection range of low-sensitivity nasal swab tests
Infection and vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.1 variant
Infection and vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.1 variant
SARS-CoV-2 has caused a devastating global pandemic. The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants that are less sensitive to neutralization by convalescent sera or vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody responses has raised concerns. A second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections in India is leading to the expansion of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The B.1.617.1 variant has rapidly spread throughout India and to several countries throughout the world. In this study, using a live virus assay, we describe the neutralizing antibody response to the B.1.617.1 variant in serum from infected and vaccinated individuals. We found that the B.1.617.1 variant is 6.8-fold more resistant to neutralization by sera from COVID-19 convalescent and Moderna and Pfizer vaccinated individuals. Despite this, a majority of the sera from convalescent individuals and all sera from vaccinated individuals were still able to neutralize the B.1.617.1 variant. This suggests that protective immunity by the mRNA vaccines tested here are likely retained against the B.1.617.1 variant. As the B.1.617.1 variant continues to evolve, it will be important to monitor how additional mutations within the spike impact antibody resistance, viral transmission and vaccine efficacy. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
·biorxiv.org·
Infection and vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.1 variant
Die Pandemie ist da. Was nun, Herr Drosten? - Podcast-Folge 17
Die Pandemie ist da. Was nun, Herr Drosten? - Podcast-Folge 17
28. Februar 2020. Aus der Corona-Epidemie in China ist eine weltweite Pandemie geworden. Auch in Deutschland ist das Virus angekommen. In der 17. Folge unseres BIH Podcasts haben wir BIH Professor Christian Drosten erneut gefragt, wie die Lage um Coronavirus/COVID-19 ist. Er ist Direktor des Instituts für Virologie der Charité und forscht schon lange zum SARS- und Corona-Virus. Im Interview erzählt er, wie gut Deutschland auf die Pandemie vorbereitet ist und was er persönlich für Vorkehrungen trifft.
·bihealth.org·
Die Pandemie ist da. Was nun, Herr Drosten? - Podcast-Folge 17
Comparison of seven commercial RT-PCR diagnostic kits for COVID-19 - PubMed
Comparison of seven commercial RT-PCR diagnostic kits for COVID-19 - PubMed
The final months of 2019 witnessed the emergence of a novel coronavirus in the human population. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has since spread across the globe and is posing a major burden on society. Measures taken to reduce its spread critically depend on timely and …
·pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov·
Comparison of seven commercial RT-PCR diagnostic kits for COVID-19 - PubMed
Viki Male 💙 auf Twitter: "This @NEJM paper did long-term follow-up on 3958 #pregnant ppl who received a #COVID19 #vaccine. 👉🏻 No increased risk of pregnancy-specific adverse events (including #miscarriage). So why are ppl claiming it shows a 24x increased risk of miscarriage? 🧵 10.1056/NEJMoa2104983" / Twitter
Viki Male 💙 auf Twitter: "This @NEJM paper did long-term follow-up on 3958 #pregnant ppl who received a #COVID19 #vaccine. 👉🏻 No increased risk of pregnancy-specific adverse events (including #miscarriage). So why are ppl claiming it shows a 24x increased risk of miscarriage? 🧵 10.1056/NEJMoa2104983" / Twitter
This @NEJM paper did long-term follow-up on 3958 #pregnant ppl who received a #COVID19 #vaccine. 👉🏻 No increased risk of pregnancy-specific adverse events (including #miscarriage). So why are ppl claiming it shows a 24x increased risk of miscarriage? 🧵10.1056/NEJMoa2104983— Viki Male 💙 (@VikiLovesFACS) May 12, 2021
·twitter.com·
Viki Male 💙 auf Twitter: "This @NEJM paper did long-term follow-up on 3958 #pregnant ppl who received a #COVID19 #vaccine. 👉🏻 No increased risk of pregnancy-specific adverse events (including #miscarriage). So why are ppl claiming it shows a 24x increased risk of miscarriage? 🧵 10.1056/NEJMoa2104983" / Twitter
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein dictates syncytium-mediated lymphocyte elimination | Cell Death & Differentiation
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein dictates syncytium-mediated lymphocyte elimination | Cell Death & Differentiation
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus is highly contagious and causes lymphocytopenia, but the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We demonstrate here that heterotypic cell-in-cell structures with lymphocytes inside multinucleate syncytia are prevalent in the lung tissues of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. These unique cellular structures are a direct result of SARS-CoV-2 infection, as the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein is sufficient to induce a rapid (~45.1 nm/s) membrane fusion to produce syncytium, which could readily internalize multiple lines of lymphocytes to form typical cell-in-cell structures, remarkably leading to the death of internalized cells. This membrane fusion is dictated by a bi-arginine motif within the polybasic S1/S2 cleavage site, which is frequently present in the surface glycoprotein of most highly contagious viruses. Moreover, candidate anti-viral drugs could efficiently inhibit spike glycoprotein processing, membrane fusion, and cell-in-cell formation. Together, we delineate a molecular and cellular rationale for SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis and identify novel targets for COVID-19 therapy.
·nature.com·
SARS-CoV-2 spike protein dictates syncytium-mediated lymphocyte elimination | Cell Death & Differentiation
(3) Anthony J Leonardi auf Twitter: "This is important: B.1.617 has mutations that may *enhance* pathogenesis A mutation at P681R in combination with L452R and E484Q significantly increases syncitia formation This is when the cells fuse together, and it's linked to fatal disease. https://t.co/2VN34KDRXq" / Twitter
(3) Anthony J Leonardi auf Twitter: "This is important: B.1.617 has mutations that may *enhance* pathogenesis A mutation at P681R in combination with L452R and E484Q significantly increases syncitia formation This is when the cells fuse together, and it's linked to fatal disease. https://t.co/2VN34KDRXq" / Twitter
This is important:B.1.617 has mutations that may *enhance* pathogenesisA mutation at P681R in combination with L452R and E484Q significantly increases syncitia formationThis is when the cells fuse together, and it's linked to fatal disease. pic.twitter.com/2VN34KDRXq— Anthony J Leonardi (@fitterhappierAJ) May 11, 2021
·twitter.com·
(3) Anthony J Leonardi auf Twitter: "This is important: B.1.617 has mutations that may *enhance* pathogenesis A mutation at P681R in combination with L452R and E484Q significantly increases syncitia formation This is when the cells fuse together, and it's linked to fatal disease. https://t.co/2VN34KDRXq" / Twitter
Analyse: Was "Querdenker" mit Freiheit meinen | BR24
Analyse: Was "Querdenker" mit Freiheit meinen | BR24
Sie fordern "Freiheit" und schimpfen auf die "Corona-Diktatur". Sie setzen die Bundesrepublik mit dem NS-Regime gleich. Hinter den Botschaften der "Querdenker" steckt ein Freiheitsverständnis, das nur darauf aus ist: Selbstbestimmung um jeden Preis.
·br.de·
Analyse: Was "Querdenker" mit Freiheit meinen | BR24
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats - 2021.05.05.21256681v1.full.pdf
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats - 2021.05.05.21256681v1.full.pdf
AbstractCell autonomous antiviral defenses can inhibit the replication of viruses and reduce transmission and disease severity. To better understand the antiviral response to SARS-CoV-2, we used interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression screening to reveal that OAS1, through RNase L, potently inhibits SARS-CoV-2. We show that while some people can express a prenylated OAS1 variant, that is membrane-associated and blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection, other people express a cytosolic, nonprenylated OAS1 variant which does not detect SARS-CoV-2 (determined by the splice-acceptor SNP Rs10774671). Alleles encoding nonprenylated OAS1 predominate except in people of African descent.Importantly, in hospitalized patients, expression of prenylated OAS1 was associated with protection from severe COVID-19, suggesting this antiviral defense is a major component of a protective antiviral response. Remarkably, approximately 55 million years ago, retrotransposition ablated the OAS1 prenylation signal in horseshoe bats (the presumed source of SARS-CoV-2). Thus, SARS-CoV-2 never had to adapt to evade this defense. As prenylated OAS1 is widespread in animals, the billions of people that lack a prenylated OAS1 could make humans particularly vulnerable to the spillover of coronaviruses from horseshoe bats
·medrxiv.org·
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats - 2021.05.05.21256681v1.full.pdf
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats | medRxiv
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats | medRxiv
Cell autonomous antiviral defenses can inhibit the replication of viruses and reduce transmission and disease severity. To better understand the antiviral response to SARS-CoV-2, we used interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression screening to reveal that OAS1, through RNase L, potently inhibits SARS-CoV-2. We show that while some people can express a prenylated OAS1 variant, that is membrane-associated and blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection, other people express a cytosolic, nonprenylated OAS1 variant which does not detect SARS-CoV-2 (determined by the splice-acceptor SNP Rs10774671). Alleles enc...
·medrxiv.org·
A Prenylated dsRNA Sensor Protects Against Severe COVID-19 and is Absent in Horseshoe Bats | medRxiv
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses - s41586-021-03594-0_reference.pdf
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses - s41586-021-03594-0_reference.pdf
Betacoronaviruses (betaCoVs) caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic1–4. Vaccines that elicit protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and betaCoVs circulating in animals have the potential to prevent future betaCoV pandemics. Here, we show that macaque immunization with a multimeric SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) nanoparticle adjuvanted with 3M-052/Alum elicited cross-neutralizing antibody (cross-nAb) responses against batCoVs, SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7, P.1, and B.1.351. Nanoparticle vaccination resulted in a SARS-CoV-2 reciprocal geometric mean neutralization ID50 titer of 47,216, and protection against SARS-CoV-2 in macaque upper and lower respiratory tracts. Importantly, nucleoside-modified mRNA encoding a stabilized transmembrane spike or monomeric RBD also induced SARS-CoV-1 and batCoV cross-nAbs, albeit at lower titers. These results demonstrate current mRNA vaccines may provide some protection from future zoonotic betaCoV outbreaks, and provide a platform for further development of pan-betaCoV vaccines.
·nature.com·
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses - s41586-021-03594-0_reference.pdf
Covid-19: Ivermectin’s politicisation is a warning sign for doctors | The BMJ
Covid-19: Ivermectin’s politicisation is a warning sign for doctors | The BMJ
The drug ivermectin has divided the medical community in South Africa and elsewhere, with some arguing it can both prevent and treat covid-19. Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla explains how the case encapsulates the central argument: do doctors or scientists know best? As vaccination rollouts begin, the covid-19 pandemic continues. Doctors, particularly in low and middle income countries, are desperate to find effective treatments. Yet despite the high number of studies that have been undertaken, few have delivered clear cut results. In the mix is ivermectin, a cheap antiparasitic drug widely used for ne...
·bmj.com·
Covid-19: Ivermectin’s politicisation is a warning sign for doctors | The BMJ
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses | Nature
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses | Nature
Betacoronaviruses (betaCoVs) caused the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreaks, and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic1–4. Vaccines that elicit protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and betaCoVs circulating in animals have the potential to prevent future betaCoV pandemics. Here, we show that macaque immunization with a multimeric SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) nanoparticle adjuvanted with 3M-052/Alum elicited cross-neutralizing antibody (cross-nAb) responses against batCoVs, SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7, P.1,...
·nature.com·
Neutralizing antibody vaccine for pandemic and pre-emergent coronaviruses | Nature