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    COVID-19 tagged posts

    Surprise COVID Discovery Helps Explain How Coronaviruses Jump Species

    August 15, 2023, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    DNA-tethering and fusion of SARS-CoV-2 pseudoviruses and virus-like particles (VLP). The experiment design is schematized in panel (a), where DNA-functionalized viral particles are added to a microfluidic flow cell and allowed to bind to protein-free liposomes functionalized with complementary DNA. After unbound particles are washed away, fusion is initiated by addition of a soluble protease and monitored via lipid mixing, detected as fluorescence dequenching of Texas Red dye in the VLP or pseudoviral envelope. Representative images of a 10.1 × 9.6 μm sub-micrograph before and after lipid mixing are shown in panel (b) with a fusing particle outlined in magenta. The corresponding fluorescence intensity trace is plotted in panel (c).

    Unexpected new insights into how COVID-19 infects ce...

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    Researchers find COVID-19 causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Heart and other Organs

    August 10, 2023, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    Researchers find COVID-19 causes mitochondrial dysfunction in heart and other organs
    A summary of prominent mRNA expression changes observed in COVID-19-derived nasopharyngeal samples collected early in infection when viral titers were high, SARS-CoV-2-positive rodent lungs when viral titers were in decline, and autopsy COVID-19 samples in which the virus had been cleared. Credit: Joseph W. Guarnieri, Gabrielle Widjaja, and Douglas C. Wallace.

    Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, researchers have been trying to determine why this virus creates such negative long-term effects compared with most coronaviruses.

    Now, a multi-institutional consortium of researchers led by a team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the COVID-19 International Research Team (COV-IRT) has found that the genes of the mitochondria can be ne...

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    New study suggests that SARS-CoV-2 might induce Lasting Pain in unique way

    May 10, 2023, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Health/Medical

    COVID-19, the disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, is associated with highly variable clinical outcomes that range from asymptomatic disease to death. For those with milder infections, COVID-19 can produce respiratory infection symptoms (cough, congestion, fever) and sensory phenotypes such as headache and loss of sense of smell.

    In more severe cases, SARS-CoV-2 infection can affect nearly every organ and result in strokes from vascular occlusion, cardiovascular damage and acute renal failure. A substantial number of actively infected patients suffering from both mild and severe infections experience sensory-related symptoms, such as headache, visceral pain, Guillain-Barre syndrome, nerve pain and inflammation...

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    Researchers find an Antibody that Targets Omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants

    April 11, 2023, Categories  Uncategorized

    covid vaccine
    Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

    A team led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Scripps Research and the University of Chicago has identified an antibody that appears to block infection by all dominantvariants of the virus that causes COVID-19, including Omicron, the most recent. Their discovery could lead to more potent vaccines and new antibody-based treatments.

    In a study published March 6 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, senior author Dr. Patrick Wilson, the Anne E...

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