[ad_1]
By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) – The following is a round-up of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Childhood vaccine can help prevent severe COVID-19
People whose immune systems have responded strongly to a measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine may be less likely to become seriously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus, new data suggests. The MMR II vaccine, manufactured by Merck and licensed in 1979, works by causing the immune system to produce antibodies. Researchers reported in mBio on Friday that among 50 COVID-19 patients under the age of 42 who had received MMR II as a child, plus their titers – or levels – of so-called IgG antibodies produced by the vaccine and directed against the virus mumps in particular, the less severe their symptoms. People with the highest anti-mumps antibody titers had asymptomatic COVID-19. More research is needed to prove that the vaccine prevents severe COVID-19. Still, the new findings “may explain why children have a much lower rate of COVID-19 cases than adults, as well as a much lower death rate,” said co-author Jeffrey Gold, president of the World Organization, in Watkinsville, Georgia, in a statement. . “The majority of children receive their first MMR vaccine around the age of 12 to 15 months and a second from 4 to 6 years old.” (https://bit.ly/3kPnW6P)
Related: Travelers to Europe Urged to Get MMR Vaccine
Cigarette smoke increases cell vulnerability to COVID-19
Exposure to cigarette smoke makes cells in the airways more vulnerable to infection with the novel coronavirus, UCLA researchers have found. They obtained lining cells from the airways of five people without COVID-19 and exposed some of the cells to cigarette smoke in test tubes. Then they exposed all the cells to the coronavirus. Compared to cells not exposed to smoke, cells exposed to smoke were two or even three times more likely to be infected with the virus, researchers in Cell Stem Cell reported on Tuesday. Analysis of individual cells in the respiratory tract showed that cigarette smoke reduced the immune response to the virus. “If you think of the airways as the high walls that protect a castle, smoking cigarettes is like creating holes in those walls,” co-author Brigitte Gomperts told Reuters. “Smoking reduces the natural defenses and this allows the virus to enter and take control of the cells.” (https://bit.ly/3kPAYRx)
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in the elderly
AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine produced strong immune responses in the elderly in a mid-term trial, researchers reported Thursday in The Lancet. Advanced stage trials are underway to confirm whether the vaccine protects against COVID-19 in a wide range of people, including those with underlying health conditions. The current study involved 560 healthy volunteers, including 240 aged 70 or older. The volunteers were given one or two doses of the vaccine, made from a weakened version of a common cold virus found in chimpanzees, or a placebo. No serious side effects have been reported. Participants over the age of 80, frail patients and those with significant chronic illnesses were excluded, according to an editorial published with the study. “Frailty is increasingly seen to affect the responses of older people to vaccines,” write the editorialists. “A plan for how to consider frailty in COVID-19 vaccine development is important.” (https://bit.ly/35OVrlq; https://bit.ly/3kKXDhP; https://reut.rs/2IVeod0)
Researchers examine cells infected with novel coronavirus
Cells infected with the new coronavirus die within a day or two, and researchers have found a way to see what the virus is doing to them. By integrating several imaging techniques, they saw the virus create “virus copy factories” in cells that look like clumps of balloons. The virus also disrupts the cellular systems responsible for secreting substances, researchers in Cell Host & Microbe reported on Tuesday. In addition, it rearranges the “cytoskeleton”, which gives cells their shape and “serves as a rail system to allow the transport of various cargoes within the cell,” said co-author Dr Ralf Bartenschlager of the ‘University of Heidelberg, Germany, to Reuters. When his team added drugs that affect the cytoskeleton, the virus struggled to reproduce, “which tells us that the virus needs to rearrange the cytoskeleton in order to replicate with high efficiency,” Bartenschlager said. “We now have a much better idea of how SARS-CoV-2 changes the intracellular architecture of the infected cell and this will help us understand why cells die so quickly.” Zika virus causes similar cellular changes, he said, so it would be possible to develop drugs for COVID-19 that work against other viruses as well. (https://bit.ly/2UI9BOT)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3a5EyDh in an external browser for a Reuters graphic on vaccines and treatments in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid, Kate Kelland and Alistair Smout; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
[ad_2]
Source link