Focus on Infectious Disease
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COVID-19 genetic risk variant protects against HIV

COVID-19 genetic risk variant protects against HIV

Source : https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-covid-genetic-variant-hiv.html

The genetic variants we are born with can increase or decrease our risk of falling seriously ill with COVID-19. The major genetic risk variant for severe COVID-19, one we inherited...



"This shows how a genetic variant can be both good and bad news: Bad news if a person contracts COVID-19, good news because it offers protection against getting infected with HIV," says Zeberg.

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Receptor binding and complex structures of human ACE2 to spike RBD from omicron and delta SARS-CoV-2

Receptor binding and complex structures of human ACE2 to spike RBD from omicron and delta SARS-CoV-2

Source : https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00001-0?_returnURL=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0092867422000010?showall=true

Omicron, delta, and prototype SARS-CoV-2 RBDs show similar binding strength to hACE2 * The complexes of SARS-CoV-2-RBD with hACE2 for omicron and delta variants were resolved * The roles of...




Highlights


  • Omicron, delta, and prototype SARS-CoV-2 RBDs show similar binding strength to hACE2
  • The complexes of SARS-CoV-2-RBD with hACE2 for omicron and delta variants were resolved
  • The roles of key residues in the omicron RBD for receptor recognition were identified

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An old molecule to fight SARS-CoV-2

An old molecule to fight SARS-CoV-2

Source : https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2022/02/10/an-old-molecule-to-fight-sars-cov-2/

In the spring of 2020, Université de Montréal biochemistry professor Christian Baron had an idea: why not evaluate the inhibition capacity of a commercially available molecule called VE607 on the...



In their study, done in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Ottawa and four U.S. universities, the two co-authors and their lab teams also found that VE607 stabilizes the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in its “up” conformation.

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Ultralarge Virtual Screening Identifies SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors with Broad-Spectrum Activity against Coronaviruses

Ultralarge Virtual Screening Identifies SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors with Broad-Spectrum Activity against Coronaviruses

Source : https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c08402

Drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 could have saved millions of lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is now crucial to develop inhibitors of coronavirus replication in preparation for future outbreaks. We...

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Distinct impact of DMARD combination and monotherapy in immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in rheumatoid arthritis

Distinct impact of DMARD combination and monotherapy in immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in rheumatoid arthritis

Source : https://ard.bmj.com/content/early/2022/02/07/annrheumdis-2021-221735

Objectives To evaluate the distinct impact of disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) combination and monotherapy in immune response to an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods...



Conclusions: Patients with RA under DMARD have a moderate immunogenicity to CoronaVac. We identified that nearly all DMARD combinations have a deleterious effect in immunogenicity, whereas a more restricted number of drugs (methotrexate/tofacitinib/abatacept/tocilizumab) also hampered this response as monotherapy. These findings reinforce the...