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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:27 AM
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A large international team of researchers has conducted a study that involved comparing the structure of the live poultry trade across Chinese provinces with genome sequencing of flu viruses from samples taken from birds ...
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:22 AM
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High temperature reduces influenza viral replication; however, the treatment of fevers is thought to be necessary to improve patients' conditions. We examined the effects of high temperature on viral replication and infection-induced damage to human tracheal ...
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:15 AM
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[I’ve never put a trigger warning on a post before but given the current situation the information here is potential upsetting to anyone expecting a child. I do not think that the current pandemic will be as bad as the 1918. I am also hopeful that the weather will work in our favor and that, …
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:12 AM
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The spread of COVID-19 in the United States may force some schools to close. How should they, and parents, prep for a stretch of teaching online?
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:10 AM
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“Hepatitis C affects millions of people across the country.We recommend screening all adults regardless of their risk..."...
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:47 AM
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State-funded Migal Galilee institute has been working for 4 years on a vaccine that could be customized for various viruses, so it had a head start when COVID-19 emerged...
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:46 AM
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Bosses with high emotional intelligence make their workers feel happier and more creative, researchers say.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:45 AM
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Frequently wash your hands with antibacterial soap or sanitizer to ensure the next epidemic-level pathogen has built up an immunity.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:11 AM
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Abstract BACKGROUND: The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) first broke out in Wuhan (China) and subsequently spread worldwide. Chloroquine has been sporadically used in treating SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hydroxychloroquine shares the same mechanism of action as chloroquine, but its more tolerable safety profile makes it the preferred drug to treat malaria and autoimmune conditions. We propose that the immunomodulatory effect of hydroxychloroquine also may be useful in controlling the cytokine storm that occurs late-phase in critically ill SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. Currently, there is no evidence to support the use of hydroxychloroquine in SARS-CoV-2 infection. METHODS: The pharmacological activity of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine was tested using SARS-CoV-2 infected Vero cells. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models (PBPK) were implemented for both drugs separately by integrating their in vitro data. Using the PBPK models, hydroxychloroquine concentrations in lung fluid were simulated under 5 different dosing regimens to explore the most effective regimen whilst considering the drug's safety profile. RESULTS: Hydroxychloroquine (EC50=0.72 μM) was found to be more potent than chloroquine (EC50=5.47 μM) in vitro. Based on PBPK models results, a loading dose of 400 mg twice daily of hydroxychloroquine sulfate given orally, followed by a maintenance dose of 200 mg given twice daily for 4 days is recommended for SARS-CoV-2 infection, as it reached three times the potency of chloroquine phosphate when given 500 mg twice daily 5 days in advance. CONCLUSIONS: Hydroxychloroquine was found to be more potent than chloroquine to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:07 AM
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Work on similar viruses is giving researchers clues on how to begin developing drugs against the new disease.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 11, 2020 7:26 AM
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Experts say by taking aggresive measures, governments have a shot at stamping out new chains of transmission of the coronavirus.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 11, 2020 7:16 AM
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going to cover in this article, with lots of charts, data and models with plenty of sources: How many cases of coronavirus will there be in your area? What will happen when these cases materialize? What should you do? When? When you’re done reading the article, this is what you’ll take away: The coronavirus is coming to you. It’s coming at an exponential speed: gradually, and then suddenly. It’s a matter of days. Maybe a week or two. When it does, your healthcare system will be overwhelmed. Your fellow citizens will be treated in the hallways. Exhausted healthcare workers will break down. Some will die. They will have to decide which patient gets the oxygen and which one dies. The only way to prevent this is social distancing today. Not tomorrow. Today. That means keeping as many people home as possible, starting now.With everything that’s happening about the Coronavirus, it might be very hard to make a decision of what to do today. Should you wait for more information? Do something today? What? Here’s what I’m
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
January 15, 2020 4:01 AM
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Meissa Vaccines Receives U.S.FDA Fast Track Designation for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine, MV-012-968...
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:26 AM
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In the last 150 years the world has seen an unprecedented improvement in health. The visualization shows that in many countries life expectancy, which measures the average age of death, doubled from around 40 years or less to more than 80 years.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:21 AM
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Coronavirus – COVID-19. You can’t escape it – or at least news of it. 100,000 cases globally now, with more than 3,000 deaths all around the world, and the World Health organization says that all countries must make containing the outbreak their “highest priority.” Quarantines and travel restrictions are now in place in many counties,…
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:13 AM
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Case-fatality rates for respiratory virus infections are highly uncertain. Many mild infections pass unnoticed, and if an elderly frail patient with serious heart disease is pushed over the edge by an infection, was it then a virus death or a cardiac death? I have suspected for a long time that we are the victims of mass panic. Two days ago, I read in a newspaper that the average age of those who died after coronavirus infection was 81 and that they also often had comorbidity. What if the Chinese had not tested their patients for coronavirus or there had not been any test? Would we have carried on with our lives, without restrictions, not worrying about some deaths here and there among old people, which we see every winter? I think so. The estimate for the case-fatality rate for coronavirus infections is around 2% (1). For the mild influenza pandemic in 2009, and the following years, the median case-fatality rate in the studies was around 1% for laboratory confirmed influenza (2, figure 3). WHO estimates that seasonal influenza may result in 290,000 to 650,000 deaths each year due to respiratory diseases alone (3). About 4,000 have died so far from coronavirus. Why all the panic? Is it evidence-based healthcare to close schools and universities, cancel flights and meetings, forbid travel, and to isolate people wherever they happen to fall ill? In Denmark, the government recommends cancellation of events with over 1000 participants. When some organisers crept just below 1000, they were attacked by professors in virology and microbiology. But if it is wrong to invite 990 people, it should also be wrong to invite 980, and so forth. Where does this stop? And should big shopping centres be closed, too? (4) 1 Razai MS, Doerholt K, Ladhani S, Oakeshott P. Coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19): a guide for UK GPs. BMJ 2020;368:m800. 2 Wong JY1 Kelly H, Ip DK, Wu JT, Leung GM, Cowling BJ. Case fatality risk of influenza A (H1N1pdm09): a systematic review. Epidemiology 2013;24:830-41. 3 WHO. Burden of disease. https://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/bod/en/. 4 Vibjerg T. Læger kritiserer underholdningsindustrien for ikke at tage corona-situationen alvorligt. Jyllands-Posten 2020; 8. marts:10. [Doctors criticise the entertainment industry for not taking the Corona situation seriously]
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 8:11 AM
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“According to our estimates, we are hopeful that in April some of the vaccines will enter clinical research or be of use in emergency situations,” Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s Science and Technology Development Center, said Friday.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 6:32 AM
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Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV-2) is the main causative agent associated with a group of diseases collectively known as porcine circovirus-associated disease (PCAD). There is a significant economic strain on the global swine industry due to PCAD and the production of commercial PCV-2 vaccines is expensive. Plant expression systems are increasingly regarded as a viable technology to produce recombinant proteins for use as pharmaceutical agents and vaccines. However, successful production and purification of PCV-2 capsid protein (CP) from plants is an essential first step towards the goal of a plant-produced PCV-2 vaccine candidate. In this study, the PCV-2 CP was transiently expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana plants via agroinfiltration and PCV-2 CP was successfully purified using sucrose gradient ultracentrifugation. The CP self-assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) resembling native virions and up to 6.5 mg of VLPs could be purified from 1 kg of leaf wet weight. Mice immunized with the plant-produced PCV-2 VLPs elicited specific antibody responses to PCV-2 CP. This is the first report describing the expression of PCV-2 CP in plants, the confirmation of its assembly into VLPs and the demonstration of their use to elicit a strong immune response in a mammalian model.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:46 AM
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As the virus spreads around the world, what measures are different countries implementing?
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:45 AM
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Frequently wash your hands with antibacterial soap or sanitizer to ensure the next epidemic-level pathogen has built up an immunity.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:43 AM
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Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the main cause of acute lower respiratory tract infection (ALRI) in children worldwide. Virus-host interactions affect the progression and prognosis of the infection. Autophagy plays important roles in virus-host interactions. Respiratory epithelial cells serve as the front line of host defense during RSV infection, However, it is still unclear how they interact with RSV. In this study, we found that RSV induced autophagy that favored RSV replication and exacerbated lung pathology in vivo Mechanistically, RSV induced complete autophagy flux through reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and activation of the AMP-activated protein kinase/mammalian target of rapamycin (AMPK-MTOR) signaling pathway in HEp-2 cells. Furthermore, we evaluated the functions of autophagy in RSV replication and found that RSV replication was increased in HEp-2 cells treated with rapamycin but decreased remarkably in cells treated with 3-methylademine (3-MA) or wortmannin. Knockdown key molecules in the autophagy pathway with short hairpinp RNA (shRNA) against autophagy-related gene 5 (ATG5), autophagy-related gene 7 (ATG7), or BECN1/Beclin 1 or treatment with ROS scavenger N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC) and AMPK inhibitor (compound C) suppressed RSV replication. 3-MA or shATG5/BECN1 significantly decreased cell viability and increased cell apoptosis at 48 hours postinfection (hpi). Blocking apoptosis with Z-VAD-FMK partially restored virus replication at 48 hpi. Those results provide strong evidence that autophagy may function as a proviral mechanism in a cell-intrinsic manner during RSV infection.IMPORTANCE An understanding of the mechanisms that respiratory syncytial virus utilizes to interact with respiratory epithelial cells is critical to the development of novel antiviral strategies. In this study, we found that RSV induces autophagy through a ROS-AMPK signaling axis, which in turn promotes viral infection. Autophagy favors RSV replication through blocking cell apoptosis at 48 hpi. Mechanistically, RSV induces mitophagy, which maintains mitochondrial homeostasis and therefore decreases cytochrome c release and apoptosis induction. This study provides a novel insight into this virus-host interaction, which may help to exploit new antiviral treatments targeting autophagy processes.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 12, 2020 4:08 AM
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A new survey by Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) reveals 35 active drug development programs in North America, Europe and China.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 11, 2020 8:24 AM
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Coronavirus Disease 2019 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a growing concern all over the world. South Africa’s National Department of Health and the National Institute for Communicable Diseases remain on high alert and have stated that they are adequately prepared for early detection, case management and the prevention of onward spread. With the first reported case in South Africa having been confirmed by the Minister of Health on 5 March, UCT is taking the possible threat of infection in our community extremely seriously. This page will be updated regularly with the latest information relating to COVID-19.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
March 11, 2020 7:17 AM
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The Spanish flu episode highlights some elementary mistakes made back then which must be avoided at all costs to prevent another public health disaster.
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Scooped by
Ed Rybicki
January 15, 2020 4:03 AM
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From BioPortfolio: Researchers developed and showed that a novel nanoparticle vaccine that combines two major influenza proteins is effective in providing broad, long-lasting prot...
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