Science Daily November 3, 2022 An international team of researchers from 112 countries has recommend specific actions to end the persistent global threat to public health. The panel developed a set of 41 consensus statements and 57 recommendations to governments, health systems, industry, and other key stakeholders across six domains: communication; health systems; vaccination; prevention; treatment and care; and inequities. The highest-ranked recommendations call for the adoption of whole-of-society and whole-of-government approaches, while maintaining proven prevention measures using a vaccines-plus approach that employs a range of public health and financial support measures to complement vaccination. Other recommendations with at least […]
Tag Archives: COVID-19
Nanoparticle vaccine protects against a spectrum of COVID-19-causing variants and related viruses
Phys.org July 5, 2022 An international team of researchers (USA – Caltech, NIAID, University of Washington, Stanford, industry, the Rockefeller University, UK) chose eight different SARS-like betacoronaviruses—including SARS-CoV-2 along with seven related animal viruses that could have potential to start a pandemic in humans—and attached fragments from those eight viruses onto the nanoparticle scaffold. The idea was that such a vaccine could induce the body to produce antibodies that broadly recognize SARS-like betacoronaviruses to fight off variants in addition to those presented on the nanoparticle by targeting common characteristics of viral RBDs. In mice, antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 RBD were […]
New study boosts hope for a broad vaccine to combat COVID-19 variants and future coronavirus outbreaks
Science Daily August 19, 2021 Researchers in Singapore have provided data showing that potent cross-clade pan-sarbecovirus neutralizing antibodies are induced in survivors of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 1 (SARS-CoV-1) infection who have been immunized with the BNT162b2 messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. The antibodies are high-level and broad-spectrum, capable of neutralizing not only known variants of concern but also sarbecoviruses that have been identified in bats and pangolins and have the potential to cause human infection. These findings show the feasibility of a pan-sarbecovirus vaccine strategy…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Toward one drug to treat all coronaviruses
Science Daily July 21, 2021 A strategy to develop broad-spectrum inhibitors is to pharmacologically target binding sites on SARS-CoV-2 proteins that are highly conserved in other known coronaviruses, the assumption being that any selective pressure to keep a site conserved across past viruses will apply to future ones. An international team of researchers (Canada, UK) systematically mapped druggable binding pockets on the experimental structure of 15 SARS-CoV-2 proteins and analyzed their variation across 27 α- and β-coronaviruses and across thousands of SARS-CoV-2 samples from COVID-19 patients. They found that the two most conserved druggable sites are a pocket overlapping the […]
Predicting the evolution of a pandemic
Phys.org June 15, 2021 An international team of researchers (Kuwait, USA – NIST, Saudi Arabia) has developed a susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model (SEIR) with a vaccination compartment proposed to simulate theCOVID-19 spread in Saudi Arabia. The model considers seven stages of infection: susceptible (S), exposed (E), infectious (I), quarantined (Q), recovered (R), deaths (D), and vaccinated (V). As numerical models can be subject to various sources of uncertainties, they used the ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) to constrain the model outputs and its parameters with available data. They conducted joint state-parameters estimation experiments assimilating daily data into the proposed model using the EnKF […]
Ultrafast, on-chip PCR could speed diagnosis during pandemics
Phys.org May 26, 2021 Researchers in South Korea have developed a plasmofluidic PCR chip comprising glass nanopillar arrays with Au nanoislands and gas-permeable microfluidic channels, which contain reaction microchamber arrays, a precharged vacuum cell, and a vapor barrier. The on-chip configuration allows both spontaneous sample loading and microbubble-free PCR reaction during which the plasmonic nanopillar arrays result in ultrafast photothermal cycling. After rapid sample loading, two-step PCR results for 40 cycles show rapid amplification in 264 s for lambda-DNA, and 306 s for plasmids expressing SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein. In addition, the in situ cyclic real-time quantification of amplicons clearly demonstrates […]
With impressive accuracy, dogs can sniff out coronavirus
Phys.org April 15, 2021 In a proof-of-concept study a team of researchers in the US (U Penn, industry) utilized detection dogs to investigate whether SARS-CoV-2 positive urine and saliva patient samples had a unique odor signature. Using detergent-inactivated urine samples, dogs were initially trained to find samples collected from hospitalized patients confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 infection, while ignoring samples collected from controls. Dogs were then tested on their ability to spontaneously recognize heat-treated urine samples as well as heat-treated saliva from hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. Dogs successfully discriminated between infected and uninfected urine samples, regardless of the inactivation protocol, as well […]
Comprehensive report on pandemic response solutions developed by 180 leading experts
MIT News March 30, 2021 When WHO declared COVID -19 outbreak a pandemic the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, MIT Media Lab’s Community Biotechnology Initiative, and MilliporeSigma together convened more than 180 thought leaders from around the globe to collaborate asynchronously and rapidly identify solutions. The effort resulted in a comprehensive report that synthesizes data-driven insights from this expert group, known as the “Pandemic Response Supermind,” outlining the most promising solutions for pandemic response. They identified gaps and innovative solutions across five key technical areas of pandemic response, including: transmission control; diagnostics and monitoring; access to therapies and vaccines; sharing […]
AI Predicts Asymptomatic Carriers of COVID-19
IEEE Spectrum February 2, 2021 An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – industry) has developed a machine learning algorithm to determine the likelihood of asymptomatic carriers of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by using interaction-based continuous learning and inference of individual probability (CLIIP) for contagious ranking. It is based on multi-layer bidirectional path tracking and inference searching. The individual directed graph is determined by the appearance timeline and spatial data that can adapt over time, taking into account the incubation period and several features that can represent real-world circumstances, such as the number of asymptomatic carriers present. The model collects the […]
Iceland Genetically Sequences Every COVID-19 Case in World-Leading Strategy
Science Alert January 17, 2021 Researchers at the biopharma group deCODE Genetics’ laboratory in Iceland have analyzed all the around 6,000 COVID-19 cases reported in Iceland making it the world leader in COVID sequencing. They have identified 463 separate variants – which scientists call haplotypes. Authorities have used the sequencing information to decide on precise, targeted measures to curb the spread of the virus. South African variant has not been detected in Iceland, 41 people have been identified as carriers of the British variant. If there are differences between viruses with the various pattern mutations, they are not obvious. While […]