April 2020

Did you watch the IUIS Webinar on The Global Scientific Response to COVID-19 by Giuseppe Ippolito (Scientific Director at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome, Italy)."Giuseppe Ippolito shares…

Scientists in Japan found that the combination of FDA-approved drugs, Nelfinavir (a protease inhibitor) and Cepharanthine (an anti-inflammatory) showed a synergistic inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Additional studies have…

On 28 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the global risk of the spread of COVID-19 to very high.Dr Leung and colleagues Dr Lam and Dr Cheng discuss…

Webinar by Prof. Danny Altmann from Imperial College London reviews new and exciting studies on COVID-19 antibody immunology and emerging data from all around the world. We have written articles…

There is a great deal of uncertainty prevailing across the globe over the current COVID-19 pandemic, and clinicians and scientists are working hard to find a cure to treat this…

Zhang et al, investigated the infection of SARS-CoV-2 in cats by detecting specific serum Abs. A cohort of serum samples were collected from cats in Wuhan, including 102 sampled after…

Although SARS-CoV-2 shares 96.2% identity with the coronavirus RaTG13, which was detected in horseshoe bats in Yunnan province (1), it has not previously been detected in humans or other animals.…

In a short span of time, COVID-19 has become a rapidly spreading communicable disease forcing the WHO to declare it as the “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” on January…

Due to the heterogeneity of disease symptoms in those infected with the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2, Liu and colleagues (Liu et al., 2020) set out to elucidate whether there were differences…

According to Casadevall A and Pirofski using convalescent sera as passive antibody (Ab) therapy may be an option for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 that could be available as…

Natural Killer (NK) cells and CD8+ Cytotoxic T Lymphocytes (CTLs) play key roles in the control of viral infections. Zheng et al have studied the function of these lymphocytes in…

The recent emergence of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, has again heightened the need for laboratories to review their biosafety practices and to update them with the new recommendations.

An alternative method for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection would be using serological tests that detect SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody (Ab) responses. However, no SARS-CoV-2 serological assays are available at point of care..

In previous zoonotic coronavirus events (SARS & MERS), near-identical strains of the virus were found in animal intermediate hosts; however, a near-identical strain of SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be found…

Wu et al investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory and faecal samples among patients with confirmed COVID-19 (n=74). Of these, 33 had no SARS-CoV-2 RNA in their faecal…

Opinion While rigorous peer review ensures studies are held to high standards, it is not a short process, with some papers taking months or even years to get published. However,…

Bin et al isolated and characterized 206 potential therapeutic and prophylactic monoclonal Abs from 8 COVID-19 patients. The isolated Abs were found to prevent RBD-ACE-2 interaction and to have high…

Cao et al., describe a promising clinical outcome of three patients presenting with severe COVID-19 and treated with high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). According to the authors "All patients were clinically…

In an attempt to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 2014–16 West African Ebola epidemic, where clinical trials were set up late, leading to the under-recruiting of patients – in…

In an unprecedented effort to obtain scientific data during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the new SOLIDARITY trial that would include thousands of patients from…