by Federico Graciano, Duke-NUS Medical School A colorized scanning electron micrograph of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Credit: NIAID Exceptionally potent antibodies that can neutralize virtually all known variants of the COVID-19 virus—including omicron, as well as other dangerous animal coronaviruses that could potentially cause future outbreaks—have been discovered in a new study just published in Science Advances. The...
by Yale University Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain The constant evolution of new COVID-19 variants makes it critical for clinicians to have multiple therapies in their arsenal for treating drug-resistant infections. Researchers have now discovered that a new class of oral drugs that acts directly on human cells can inhibit a diverse range of pathogenic SARS-CoV-2...
BY KORIN MILLER PUBLISHED: SEP 6, 2022 COVID-19 vaccines have been effective at keeping people from getting severely ill and dying from the virus, but they’ve required different boosters to try to keep on top of all of the coronavirus variants that have popped up. Now, researchers have discovered an antibody that neutralizes all known COVID-19...
by Jeff Hansen, University of Alabama at Birmingham Isolation of SARS-CoV-2 S2-specific human monoclonal antibodies (hmAbs). (A) Schematic representation of the S2-STBL and S1/S2 chimera proteins used as baits for ELISA and flow cytometry. (B) Human plasma from either convalescent or healthy subjects was diluted 1:1000 in PBS and tested in duplicate in an ELISA...
by Public Library of Science Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A comparison of four COVID-19 vaccinations shows that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna perform better against the World Health Organization’s variants of concern (VOCs) than viral vector vaccines from AstraZeneca and J&J/Janssen. Although they all effectively prevent severe disease by VOCs, the research,...
A technology developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has led to the discovery of an “ultra-potent” monoclonal antibody against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, including the delta variant. The antibody has rare characteristics that make it a valuable addition to the limited set of broadly reactive antibody therapeutic candidates, researchers reported in...
Most of the recently risen coronavirus variants of interest or concern — delta, kappa, epsilon, iota, and lambda — are universally carrying a mutation in amino acid L452 of the Spike protein that helps the virus bind to host cells. Originally mutation L452R was discovered in early winter patient samples from California, first designated B.1.427 and B.1.429, and...
By Rich Haridy August 02, 2021 Currently, there are 11 coronavirus variants named after characters in the Greek alphabet [email protected]/Depositphotos In the space of a few months the Delta variant has become the dominant strain of SARS-CoV-2 around the world. But what comes after Delta, how are new variants being named, and what are “Variants...
by Anne Goffard, The Conversation Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Ever since the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 variants, a crucial question has been on everybody’s minds: will vaccines developed to protect against the “original” strain also work against new variants? It’s a legitimate concern. In late March, South Africa announced that it had sold off all its doses...
By Susan McBratney, PhD The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is an easily spread respiratory virus and the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. As countries around the world are rolling out new COVID-19 vaccines to control the outbreak, scientists are discovering new variants of the COVID-19 virus, including the variant first identified in the United Kingdom. What makes a virus...
