COVID-19

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…

Biological factors that determine susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and severity of COVID-19 are yet to be fully understood. A pre-print released in medRxiv by Zhao et al suggests that the ABO…

Retrospective analysis of COVID-19 patient history showed that 12-22% and 23-30% of severe COVID-19 patients also had diabetes and hypertension, respectively. This and other reports suggest that hypertension and diabetes…

Andersen et al have described the genomic structure of SARS-CoV-2. Notably, the virus has a receptor binding domain consisting of 6 amino acids which not only differentiates it from SARS-CoV…

Since the SARS-CoV-2 virus started to circulate in the different countries that the COVID-19 pandemic has reached, a possible seasonal pattern in the presentation of the disease has been hypothesized.…

27 MarchSheahan et al recently pre-published a paper that states that ribonucleoside analog β-D-N4-hydroxycytidine (NHC, EIDD-1931) has broad spectrum antiviral activity against SARS-CoV 2, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and related zoonotic group…

Lin et al., 2020 have described a hypothetical model of SARS-CoV-2 pathogenesis based on the immune response against SARS, MERS and influenza infection. In all cases, lymphopenia accompanied by the…

Mehat, P. et al recently stated that there is accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have cytokine storm syndrome. Immunosuppression treatment could help severe…

We report findings of an Australian COVID-19 Case study of a 47 year womanThevarajan et al., aimed to determine the “kinetics and breadth of immune responses associated with clinical resolution…

A recent study by Liao et al., “comprehensively characterised the lung immune microenvironment of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from 3 severe and 3 mild COVID-19 patients and 8 previously reported…