Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Testing, tracing and mask-wearing can prevent COVID-19 resurgences

Researchers in Australia, Denmark, and the United States have conducted a study showing the extent to which community testing, contact tracing, and mask-wearing can lower the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Australian state of New South Wales.

14 Oct 2020

Alternate primers for whole-genome SARS-CoV-2 sequencing

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in October 2020 describes the gap frequencies and positions in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome and a set of alternative primers with a sequencing scheme to provide better genomic coverage and quality.

14 Oct 2020

ACE2 binding causes dissociation of trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike, may be used to inhibit further infection

A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 shows that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binding to the human host receptor could cause the typical trimeric spike protein to come apart, forming a stable monomer instead with the receptor.

14 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein triggers cell signaling pathways in lung vascular cells

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 shows that vascular cells in the lung tissue begin to secrete signaling growth factors when exposed to just the spike protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), without the rest of the viral components.

14 Oct 2020

Probability sampling to slow spread of SARS-CoV-2

Their study titled, “An Innovative Non-Pharmaceutical Intervention to Mitigate SARS-CoV02 Spread: Probability Sampling to Identify and Isolate Asymptomatic Cases,” was released at the pre-publication and pre-peer review site medRxiv*.

14 Oct 2020

A "five-day switch" plan for schools reopenings during COVID-19

Researchers worked on mathematical predictions that could predict the safety of reopening schools in the U.S. Their study titled, “Safely Reopening K-12 Schools During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” is published preprint at the website medRxiv.

14 Oct 2020

First confirmed US case of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection

Of the cases of reinfections worldwide, a particular case has been reported by scientists at the Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine, University of Nevada. A 25-year-old man from Washoe County in the United States, the hardest-hit country globally, has more than 7.85 million cases.

14 Oct 2020

Children and teens can spread SARS-CoV-2 in their households

A team of researchers from the Georgia Department of Public Health and the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) aimed to determine the secondary attack rates (SAR) among household contacts of children and adolescents who contracted SARS-CoV-2 during an outbreak at an overnight camp in June.

13 Oct 2020

Pre-existing immunity to other coronaviruses may be poor

Brenda M. Westerhuis et al., in a recent medRxiv* preprint paper, investigate the antibody cross-reactivity - to explain the severe disease. COVID-19 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

13 Oct 2020

Salivary samples highly effective in detecting SARS-CoV-2

A team of scientists from the United States has found that oral salivary samples are less sensitive than nasal-oropharyngeal swabs for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA

13 Oct 2020

Mothers transmit passive protection against SARS-CoV-2 to their newborns

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 shows that newborns may be protected from acquiring severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection by antibodies in the mother’s blood that travels through the placenta.

13 Oct 2020

Are antibiotics being over prescribed in COVID-19?

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 shows that the baseline levels of inflammatory markers and C-reactive protein (CRP) in relation to antibiotic administration can rule out bacterial co-infections and help reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics.

13 Oct 2020

New computational approach improves characterization of cellular diversity

Researchers in the United States have developed a computational method called “weighted-nearest neighbor” (WNN) analysis that can significantly improve the ability to define cellular states across various biological contexts and data types.

13 Oct 2020

How SARS-CoV-2's spike protein highjacks the host cell trafficking machinery

Researchers at The Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology have conducted a study showing how the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike protein interacts with host cell factors in ways that promote the formation of syncytia.

13 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and COVID symptoms can last at least 3 months

Recent research published as a preprint on the medRxiv preprint server, Elizabeth T. Cirulli et al., studies the self-reported short and long-term symptoms in a large general adult population cohort.

13 Oct 2020

Scientists explain why some COVID-19 patients develop neurological symptoms

Now, a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv sheds light on the mechanism behind brain involvement in the COVID-19 pandemic. A team of researchers at the Krembil Research Institute and the University of Toronto in Canada aimed to understand further the potential mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 tropism for brain vasculature to see how infection occurs in the brain.

13 Oct 2020

Zinc deficiency linked to poor COVID-19 outcomes

A team of researchers from various universities and institutes in Spain recently published a paper on the preprint server medRxiv,* in which they hypothesize that serum zinc levels have a significant influence on COVID-19 progression and thus may be a useful biomarker in predicting severe disease in early stages of COVID-19 infection.

12 Oct 2020

Why blood type O might lower risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection

The author hypothesizes that people with non-O blood groups may have highest contact with the SARS-CoV-2 virus via the formation of in intermediate structure, resulting in possibly higher infection rates and more severe symptoms.

12 Oct 2020

Genoscience Pharma's GNS561 shows potential against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 shows that a combination of a new compound GNS561 and remdesivir act synergistically against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This suggests that autophagy inhibitors could be an alternative strategy for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

12 Oct 2020

Suramin shows promise as COVID-19 treatment

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv reports the elucidation of the mechanism of inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 by a non-nucleotide inhibitor called suramin. This is the first such compound to be shown to have such activity and shows promise for use as a repurposed drug against COVID-19.

12 Oct 2020