coronavirus

An antiviral to prevent or treat SARS-CoV-2 infection

4 Comments / Basic virology / By

Vaccine development has far outpaced antiviral discovery for COVID-19. Hydroxychloroquine was a disaster, and the repurposed remdesivir, which must be administered intravenously, has modest effect when given to hospitalized patients. The situation is unfortunate because antiviral drugs may be used to either prevent infection (prophylactic) or treat infection (therapeutic). A promising antiviral drug candidate is …

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SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

19 Comments / Basic virology, Commentary, Information / By

In recent months variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected that are unusual in that they have many more genome mutations than previously found. These have been called ‘variants of concern’ (VOC) as it has been suggested that the genome mutations might impact transmission, immune control, and virulence. Below I cover each of these issues separately. …

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Camelids for COVID

2 Comments / Basic virology, Information / By

Human monoclonal antibodies that block infection with SARS-CoV-2 are being used to treat COVID-19 patients, but an alternative, antibodies produced in camelids (alpacas and llamas) might have advantages. Camelid monoclonal antibodies can be more cheaply produced in mass quantities in bacteria, and protein engineering can be quickly used to produce a better therapeutic product. Human …

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Musings of an anonymous, pissed off virologist

36 Comments / Commentary / By

by Paul Bieniasz Dr. Bieniasz is Professor and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Rockefeller University. As viruses go, SARS-CoV-2, is quite easy to neutralize with antibodies and, it turns out, straightforward to generate effective vaccines based on the spike protein. Perhaps, even probably, those two properties are causally related. Moreover, it appears …

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