The XBB variant was first sequenced in India in late August 2022. It is most definitely NOT a “Singapore Variant”. There is some anecdotal evidence that the XBB variant may have been uncovered in the United States in early August 2022, however those sequences have not been uploaded to the global Gisaid database. The current XBB
A study from the Karolinska Institutet shows that the coronavirus variant BA.2.75.2, a subvariant of omicron, more easily bypasses neutralizing antibodies in the blood and is resistant to several monoclonal antibody treatments. This means an increased risk of sars-cov-2 infection this winter, unless the new updated bivalent vaccines can strengthen the immunity of the population. The results
SARS-CoV-2, the COVID-19 virus, caused significant neuron damage and inflammation within a week of infection in rhesus macaque monkeys, according to a new study. The researchers from the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, also discovered that aged monkeys with Type 2 diabetes experienced worse virus-induced neurological damage. The findings,
“Smart surveillance” for viral spillover from animals to humans, targeted preparedness and drug and vaccine research, and worldwide cooperation on surveillance and stopping disease spread are required to reduce deaths and lessen the economic consequences of the next pandemic, according to an international team of scientists. In a perspective article published this week in Proceedings of
A fantastic diagram by Daniele Focosi showing the convergent evolution that has led to the lineages we have been discussing recently, including BQ.1.1, CA.1, BR.2 and the new XBB variant. The speed with which SARS-CoV-2 is now evolving is quite breathtaking – ever-fitter variants are now being uncovered on an almost daily basis. Just over one week
A Cleveland Clinic-led research team used artificial intelligence to map out hundreds of ways that the virus that causes COVID-19 interacts with infected cells. Through this analysis, they identified potential COVID-19 medicines within thousands of drugs already approved by the FDA for other treatments. The research focused on host-targeting therapies, which operate differently from other
Women and people who needed to be hospitalized with Covid are much more likely to develop long Covid, according to a new peer reviewed study published in JAMA on Monday, offering new insight into the persistent and sometimes disabling condition as researchers push to develop new treatments and cures. KEY FACTS An estimated 6% of people with symptomatic Covid infections develop
The world’s first wave of the recombinant SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB has apparently begun in Singapore. Twitter is alight with posts claiming that the recombinant SARS-CoV-2 variant XBB is creating a new wave of infections in Singapore, so we’ve taken a look at the latest information from the Singapore Ministry of Health and other reliable sources
Researchers from King’s College London have shown that when brain cells are directly exposed to blood taken from COVID-19 patients with delirium, there is an increase in cell death and a decrease in the generation of new brain cells. Delirium represents a state of confusion indicating that, in these patients, the COVID-19 infection had impacted
Maintenance of reparative lung macrophages may be a viable therapeutic strategy for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 and other inflammatory lung diseases In one of the largest single-center COVID-19 cohort studies to date, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, using samples collected during the peak of the pandemic in New York City,
