SARS-CoV-2

Molnupiravir, a SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug, is mutagenic in cells

7 Comments / Basic virology / By Vincent Racaniello

Molnupiravir might be the first highly effective antiviral drug given emergency use authorization for treatment of COVID-19. Should we be concerned about the results of a recent study which show that the drug is mutagenic in cells? Molnupiravir is an orally available pro-drug of the nucleoside analog N4-hydroxycytidine (NHC). The latter is a nucleoside analogue …

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SARS-CoV-2 related viruses from bats in Laos

7 Comments / Basic virology, Information / By Vincent Racaniello

Various SARS-CoV-2 like viruses have been isolated from bats in China, Thailand, and Japan, but none have a spike protein that can bind ACE2 and allow entry into human cells. Sampling of bats in Laos has now revealed the presence of such viruses. The genome of a virus called RaTG13, from Rhinolophus affinis bats in …

A zero time point is essential

3 Comments / Basic virology, Information / By Vincent Racaniello

The recent release of grant materials from EcoHealth Alliance pertaining to their research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been used to demonstrate that gain of function research was funded by the NIH. This conclusion is correct, although not all the experiments done would fall into this category. One of the figures from the …

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Innately Immune

4 Comments / Basic virology, Gertrud Rey / By Gertrud U. Rey

New data suggest that children are less susceptible to severe COVID-19 because they have a stronger innate immune response than adults.

More coronaviruses in rodents

3 Comments / Basic virology / By Vincent Racaniello

This week President Biden received the report he commissioned on the origin of SARS-CoV-2. As I predicted three months ago, nothing was learned, because to find the origin of the virus it is necessary to conduct extensive wildlife surveys. Consequently this week I would rather write about a new study that identified coronaviruses in rodents. …

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Estimate of infectiousness during COVID-19

5 Comments / Basic virology / By Vincent Racaniello

Understanding the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is complicated by the large numbers of presymptomatic, asymptomatic, and mildly symptomatic (PAMS) patients. The reproductive number, R0, is a measure of population-level dynamics, but it cannot provide information on infectiousness of different groups such as PAMS subjects; when peak infectiousness occurs; and the effect of intrinsic properties of the …

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