Convalescent plasma can become first-choice treatment for Covid-19

Antibodies from blood donated by people who recovered from the illness and hyper-immunoglobulins are becoming treatments of choice for COVID-19, with recombinant polyclonal antibody approaches to follow. A group of US academic researchers has sparked a nationwide effort to encourage people who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma, which will be used to treat patients across

Read More


Interactions between neutrophil extracellular traps and activated platelets enhance procoagulant activity. Possible role in Covid-19 complications

NETs played a pivotal role in the hypercoagulability of stroke patients. Strategies that prevent NET formation may offer a potential therapeutic strategy for thromboembolism interventions in Covid-19 patients. Sivelestat, anti-MMP9 antibody, and APC inhibit the cytotoxic effects of NET to protect ECs and decrease PCA, suggesting their critical role in preventing thrombotic complications in atherosclerosis

Read More


Overview of convalescent plasma therapeutic use in Covid-19

An extensive overview of convalescent plasma therapeutic use in Covid-19 has just been published on JAMA 30 April. The analysed points are the following: need of randomised controlled trials: Without randomized controlled trials, researchers can’t be sure whether patients recovered because of an experimental therapy or in spite of it. Yet virtually everything that’s known

Read More


New online index shows business concerns over COVID-19

Business in every sector is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of COVID-19, according to the CoRisk-Index, a new online tool from the University of Oxford. The Index is the first economic indicator of industry-specific risk assessments related to the pandemic. Preliminary findings suggest sectors, such as manufacturing and retail, report strong exposure to supply and demand

Read More


Researchers use virus genomic tracking to reveal the rise and fall of the COVID-19 epidemic in Guangdong Province

A new study led by researchers at Oxford and Guangdong Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention describes the epidemiology and genetic make-up of the COVID-19 outbreak in China’s most populous region, and shows how early and intensive testing and tracing helped to interrupt local transmission of the virus. The study combines genome sequencing and epidemiology

Read More


A SARS-CoV-2 protein interaction map reveals targets for drug repurposing

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratorydisease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and causedworldwide social and economic disruption.There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2

Read More


COVID-19: Launched a new National Convalescent Plasma Website for Healthcare providers and Patients

Treatment of COVID-19 is urgent. As part of the next step to advance the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19 infection, the National Convalescent Plasma Project has launched a website for health care providers, patients who have recovered from COVID-19 infection and want to donate plasma and those considering the treatment.  On March 25,

Read More


In Covid-19 recovered patients, South Korean KCDC experts found false positives, not reinfections

South Korea’s infectious disease experts said Thursday that dead virus fragments were the likely cause of over 260 people here testing positive again for the novel coronavirus days and even weeks after marking full recoveries. Oh Myoung-don, who leads the central clinical committee for emerging disease control, said the committee members found little reason to

Read More