An experimental “decoy” has provided long-term protection from infection by the pandemic virus in mice, a new study finds. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the work is based on how the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, uses its spike protein to attach to a protein on the surface of the cells that line human lungs. Once attached to this cell surface protein, called angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), the virus spike pulls the cell close, enabling the virus to enter the cell and hijack its machinery to make viral copies.
Earlier in the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies designed monoclonal antibodies to glom onto the spike and neutralize the virus. Treatment of patients soon after infection was successful in preventing hospitalization and death...
Read More
Recent Comments