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Nature Reviews Drug Discovery - The field of nucleic acid therapeutics is rapidly expanding, with mRNA drug and vaccine candidates now under development for diverse indications. However, various...

High real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, especially two doses, against infection during the Delta variant predominance in Japan was confirmed.

Dr. Shankara Chetty Discusses His COVID Management ApproachDr. Chetty has been popular world over for his successful management of the COVID patients. Let’s ...

Our understanding of COVID-19 vaccinations and their impact on health and mortality has evolved substantially since the first vaccine rollouts. Published reports from the original randomized pha...

This descriptive study compares the effect of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination with BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vs mRNA-1273 (Moderna) on the reported cases of myocarditis in the US after each vaccination dose.

Less than a year after the global emergence of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a novel vaccine platform based on mRNA technology was introduced to the market. Globally, around 13.38 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses of diverse platforms have been administered. ...

Background: COVID-19 vaccines have been linked to myocarditis which in some circumstances can be fatal. This systematic review aims to investigate potential causal links between COVID-19 vaccines and death from myocarditis using post-mortem analysis. Methods: We performed a systematic review of all published autopsy reports involving COVID-19 vaccination-related myocarditis through July 3rd, 2023. All autopsy studies that include COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis as a possible cause of death were included, without imposing any additional restrictions. Causality in each case was determined by three independent reviewers with cardiac pathology experience and expertise. Results: We initially identified 1,691 studies and, after screening for our inclusion criteria, included 14 papers that contained 28 autopsy cases. The cardiovascular system was the only organ system affected in 26 cases. In 2 cases, myocarditis was characterized as a consequence from multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS). The mean and median number of days from last COVID-19 vaccination until death was 6.2 and 3 days, respectively. Most of the deaths occurred within a week from the last injection. We established that all 28 deaths were causally linked to COVID-19 vaccination by independent adjudication. Conclusions: The temporal relationship, internal and external consistency seen among cases in this review with known COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis, its pathobiological mechanisms and related excess death, complemented with autopsy confirmation, independent adjudication, and application of the Bradford Hill criteria to the overall epidemiology of vaccine myocarditis, suggests there is a high likelihood of a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and death from suspected myocarditis in cases where sudden, unexpected death has occurred in a vaccinated person. Urgent investigation is required for the purpose of risk stratification and mitigation in order to reduce the population occurrence of fatal COVID-19 vaccine-induced myocarditis.

In 2020, prior to COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the Brighton Collaboration created a priority list, endorsed by the World Health Organization, of potentia…

Myocarditis and myopericarditis are well described adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccinations. Although reports are rea…

De novo glomerular injuries or relapse of nephropathy following COVID-19 vaccine has been reported. Here we present the first case of successful treatment of new-onset diabetes mellitus and biopsy-proven IgA nephropathy after COVID-19 vaccination. A 56-year-old ...

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 patients experience, in 10-20% of the cases, a prolonged long-COVID syndrome, defined as the persistence of symptoms for at least two

Pandemic management requires societal coordination, global orchestration, respect for human rights and defence of ethical principles. Yet some approac…

Cancer is a complex and dynamic disease. The “hallmarks of cancer” were proposed by Hanahan and Weinberg (2000) as a group of biological competencies that human cells attain as they progress fro...

The voluntary moratorium on gain-of-function research related to the transmissibility of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus should continue, pending the resolution of critical policy questions concerning the rationale for performing such experiments ...

Following a SARS-CoV-2 infection, many individuals suffer from post-COVID-19 syndrome. It makes them unable to proceed with common everyday activities due to weakness, memory lapses, pain, dyspnea and other unspecific physical complaints. Several investigators could demonstrate that the SARS-CoV-2 r …

Nature - A study demonstrates that nucleotide modifications in mRNA-based therapeutics can lead to +1 ribosomal frameshifting during translation, yielding products that can trigger immune responses.

Background Mask mandates for children during the COVID-19 pandemic varied in different locations. A risk-benefit analysis of this intervention has not yet been performed. In this study, we performed a systematic review to assess research on the effectiveness of mask wearing in children. Methods We performed database searches up to February 2023. The studies were screened by title and abstract, and included studies were further screened as full-text references. A risk-of-bias analysis was performed by two independent reviewers and adjudicated by a third reviewer. Results We screened 597 studies and included 22 in the final analysis. There were no randomised controlled trials in children assessing the benefits of mask wearing to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection or transmission. The six observational studies reporting an association between child masking and lower infection rate or antibody seropositivity had critical (n=5) or serious (n=1) risk of bias; all six were potentially confounded by important differences between masked and unmasked groups and two were shown to have non-significant results when reanalysed. Sixteen other observational studies found no association between mask wearing and infection or transmission. Conclusions Real-world effectiveness of child mask mandates against SARS-CoV-2 transmission or infection has not been demonstrated with high-quality evidence. The current body of scientific data does not support masking children for protection against COVID-19. Data are available upon reasonable request. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

Cognitive impairment is frequent in post-COVID-19 syndrome patients, but its underlying mechanisms are unclear. Fontes-Dantas et al. show that Spike brain infusion in mice induces late neuroinflammation and synapse loss, leading to long-term cognitive impairment mediated by TLR4 signaling. In patients, genotype GG TLR4-2604GA was associated with poor cognitive outcome.

Background Patients who developed myocarditis after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination show abnormalities on cardiac MRI scans. However, whether myocardial changes occur in asymptomatic individuals after vaccination is not well established. Purpose To assess myocardial fluorine 18 (18F) fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake on PET/CT images in asymptomatic patients vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 compared with nonvaccinated patients. Materials and Methods This retrospective study included patients who underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT for indications unrelated to myocarditis during the period before (November 1, 2020, to February 16, 2021) and after (February 17, 2021, to March 31, 2022) SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were available. Myocardial and axillary 18F-FDG uptake were quantitatively assessed using maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax). The SUVmax in all patients and in patients stratified by sex (male or female), age (60 years), and interval between vaccination and PET/CT were compared using the Mann-Whitney U test or the Kruskal-Wallis test with post ad hoc Dwass-Steel-Critchlow-Fligner multiple comparison analysis. Results The study included 303 nonvaccinated patients (mean age, 52.9 years ± 14.9 [SD]; 157 female, 146 male) and 700 vaccinated patients (mean age, 56.8 years ± 13.7; 344 female, 356 male). Vaccinated patients had overall higher myocardial 18F-FDG uptake compared with nonvaccinated patients (median SUVmax, 4.8 g/mL [IQR, 3.0–8.5 g/mL] vs 3.3 g/mL [IQR, 2.5–6.2 g/mL]; P .001). Myocardial SUVmax was higher in vaccinated patients regardless of patient sex (median range, 4.7–4.9 g/mL [IQR, 2.9–8.6 g/mL]) or age (median range, 4.7–5.6 g/mL [IQR, 2.9–8.6 g/mL]) compared with corresponding nonvaccinated groups (sex: median range, 3.2–3.9 g/mL [IQR, 2.4–7.2 g/mL]; age: median range, 3.3–3.3 g/mL [IQR, 2.3–6.1 g/mL]; P .001 to P = .015). Furthermore, increased myocardial 18F-FDG uptake was observed in patients imaged 1–30, 31–60, 61–120, or 121–180 days after their second vaccination (median SUVmax range, 4.6–5.1 g/mL [IQR, 2.9–8.6 g/mL]) (P .001 to P = .001), and increased ipsilateral axillary uptake was observed in patients imaged 1–30, 31–60, and 61–120 days after their second vaccination (median SUVmax range, 1.5–2.0 g/mL [IQR, 1.2–3.4 g/mL]) compared with the nonvaccinated patients (P .001 to P .001). Conclusion When compared with nonvaccinated patients, asymptomatic patients who received their second vaccination 1–180 days prior to imaging showed increased myocardial 18F-FDG uptake on PET/CT scans. © RSNA, 2023 Supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Bluemke in this issue.

Batch-dependent safety of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine

Association between Face mask use and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Cross-sectional study

Association between Face mask use and Risk of SARS-CoV-2 Infection – Cross-sectional study

Many studies have evaluated the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19. Most retrospective observational studies demonstrate a benefit of using HCQ on …

Background and Purpose To protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection, the first mRNA-based vaccines, Spikevax (mRNA-1273, Moderna) and Comirnaty (BNT162b2, Pfizer/Biontech), were approved in 2020. The str...

Biologists report they have transferred a memory from one marine snail to another, creating an artificial memory, by injecting RNA from one to another. This research could lead to new ways to treat traumatic memories with RNA -- perhaps a traumatic memory could be altered -- and perhaps new ways to restore lost memories.