SARS tagged posts

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...

COVID-19’s imaging features are variable and nonspecific, but the imaging findings reported thus far do show...

Ultrastructural details exhibited by a single, spherical-shaped, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) virion. Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)

Researchers have long known that RNA viruses called coronaviruses cause the common cold and pneumonia. In the last two decades or so, though, researchers have found that these viruses can jump between animal and human hosts. In recent years, coronaviruses have caused lethal outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) that span multiple continents. To date, no retroviral drug has been approved to treat these infections. “These viruses are poised to cause outbreaks,” says molecular virologist Ralph C...

GS-5734 is effective against a diverse array of human and zoonotic CoV in HAE.
(A) Neighbor-joining trees created with representatives from all four CoV genogroups showing the genetic similarity of CoV nsp12 (RdRp) and CoV spike glycoprotein, which mediates host tropism and entry into cells. Text color of the virus strain label corresponds to virus host species on the left. The heatmap adjacent to each neighbor-joining tree depicts percent amino acid identity (% A.A. identity) against SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV.

A new antiviral drug candidate inhibits a broad range of coronaviruses, including the SARS and MERS coronaviruses. The findings support further development of the drug candidate for treating and preventing current coronavirus infections and potential future epidemic outbreaks.

Coronavirus...