Antibodies from llamas could help in fight against COVID-19
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- Category: Research
The hunt for an effective treatment for COVID-19 has led one team of researchers to find an improbable ally for their work: a llama named Winter. The team - from The University of Texas at Austin, the National Institutes of Health and Ghent University in Belgium - reports their findings about a potential avenue for a coronavirus treatment involving llamas on May 5 in the journal Cell.
Can an existing HIV medication slow the spread of COVID-19?
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- Category: Research
A team of scientists from St. Michael's Hospital, Sinai Health and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have launched a clinical trial to understand whether an existing drug used for HIV treatment and prevention may work to prevent COVID-19 infection.
Loss of smell associated with milder clinical course in COVID-19
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- Category: Research
Following an earlier study that validated the loss of smell and taste as indicators of SARS-CoV-2 infection, researchers at UC San Diego Health report in newly published findings that olfactory impairment suggests the resulting COVID-19 disease is more likely to be mild to moderate, a potential early indicator that could help health care providers determine which patients may require hospitalization.
Key nose cells identified as likely COVID-19 virus entry points
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- Category: Research
Two specific cell types in the nose have been identified as likely initial infection points for COVID-19 coronavirus. Scientists discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of the entry proteins that the COVID-19 virus uses to get into our cells. The identification of these cells by researchers from the
'Own' immune cells to target infectious diseases including COVID-19
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- Category: Research
The engineering of specific virus-targeting receptors onto a patient's own immune cells is now being explored by scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS), as a potential therapy for controlling infectious diseases, including the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2.
Oxford COVID-19 vaccine programme opens for clinical trial recruitment
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- Category: Development
University of Oxford researchers working in an unprecedented vaccine development effort to prevent COVID-19 have started screening healthy volunteers (aged 18-55) for their upcoming ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine trial in the Thames Valley Region. The vaccine based on an adenovirus vaccine vector and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is already in production but won’t be ready for some weeks still.
Lopinavir/ritonavir and Arbidol not effective for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults
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- Category: Research
An exploratory randomized, controlled study on the safety and efficacy of either lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) or Arbidol - antivirals that are used in some countries against HIV-1 and to treat influenza, respectively - as treatments for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, suggests that neither drug improves the clinical outcome of patients hospitalized with mild-to-moderate cases of the disease over supportive care.
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