| Vol. 8.24 – 24 June, 2020 |
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| Researchers studied 37 asymptomatic individuals in the Wanzhou District who were diagnosed with RT–PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections but without any relevant clinical symptoms in the preceding 14 days and during hospitalization. [Nature Medicine] |
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PUBLICATIONSRanked by the impact factor of the journal |
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| Researchers found that the monoclonal antibody CR3022 bound the receptor binding domain (RBD) tightly, neutralizing SARS-CoV-2 and report the crystal structure at 2.4 Å of the Fab/RBD complex. [Cell Host & Microbe] |
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| Scientists analyzed placenta for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 through molecular and immunohistochemical assays and by and electron microscopy, and measured the maternal antibody response in blood to this infection. [Journal of Clinical Investigation] |
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| Researchers assessed the replicative ability and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 isolates in Syrian hamsters. SARS-CoV-2 isolates replicated efficiently in the lungs of hamsters, causing severe pathological lung lesions following intranasal infection. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] |
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| Investigators report the room temperature X-ray structure of unliganded SARS-CoV-2 3CL Mpro, revealing the ligand-free structure of the active site and the conformation of the catalytic site cavity at near-physiological temperature. [Scientific Reports] |
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| Investigators developed a neutralization assay using SARS-CoV-2 strain and Vero-E6 cells. They identified the most potent sera from recovered patients for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. They also screened 136 safe-in-man broad-spectrum antivirals against the SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vero-E6 cells and identified nelfinavir, salinomycin, amodiaquine, obatoclax, emetine and homoharringtonine. [Viruses] |
| MORE IMMUNOLOGY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE |
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| Investigators discovered Enterobacter cloacae CD-NTase-associated protein 4 (Cap4) as a founding member of a diverse family of >2,000 bacterial receptors that responded to CD-NTase signals. Structures of Cap4 revealed a promiscuous DNA endonuclease domain activated through ligand-induced oligomerization. [Cell] |
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| Researchers showed that peripheral infections generated antigen-specific CD8+ memory T cells in the brain that adopted a unique tissue resident memory signature. [Nature Immunology] |
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| Researchers showed that Bacille-Calmette-Guérin vaccination in healthy human volunteers induced a persistent transcriptional program connected to myeloid cell development and function within the hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell compartment in the bone marrow. [Cell Host & Microbe] |
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| Researchers showed in multiple models that uremic mice exhibited an increased susceptibility to systemic fungal infection. Uremia inhibited Glut1-mediated uptake of glucose in neutrophils by causing aberrant activation of GSK3β, resulting in reduced ROS generation and hence impaired killing of C. albicans in mice. [Science Translational Medicine] |
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| Scientists demonstrated that TLR2, together with its co-receptors CD14 and TLR6, was an innate sensor of Dengue virus particles inducing inflammatory cytokine expression and impairing vascular integrity in vitro. [Nature Communications] |
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| Investigators determined the fate and location of S. aureus within neutrophils throughout zebrafish infection. [Journal of Autophagy] |
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| In cells from infected individuals, inhibition of heat shock factor 1 attenuated latency reversal by phorbol ester+ionomycin but not by anti-CD3+anti-CD28. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] |
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| Scientists showed that mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells mediate MR1-restricted antimicrobial activity against Escherichia coli clinical strains in a manner dependent on the activity of cytolytic proteins but independent of production of pro-inflammatory cytokines or induction of apoptosis in infected cells. [PLoS Biology] |
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| Granulocyte–macrophage colony-stimulating factor, a myelopoietic growth factor and pro-inflammatory cytokine, plays a critical role in alveolar macrophage homeostasis, lung inflammation and immunological disease. Both administration and inhibition of GM-CSF are currently being therapeutically tested in COVID-19 clinical trials. [Nature Reviews Immunology] |
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| The pattern of pro-inflammatory cytokines induced in COVID-19 has similarities to those targeted in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. Several clinical studies are underway that test the effects of inhibiting IL-6, IL-1β or TNF or targeting cytokine signaling via Janus kinase inhibition in the treatment of COVID-19. [Nature Reviews Rheumatology] |
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| The authors discuss strategies for targeting viral replication to cancerous lesions and arming them with immunogenic transgenes. They describe which modes of cell death are induced by influenza A virus infection and how these insights may be utilized to optimize influenza A virus-based oncolytic virus design. [Cell Death Discovery] |
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| The reasons Brazil has made such a perfect host for the coronavirus are diverse and not yet fully understood. [Bloomberg Businessweek] |
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| Four key government health care officials said Tuesday that despite recent remarks from President Trump, they were never ordered to “slow down” diagnostic testing for Covid-19. [STAT News] |
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| The growth in the number of COVID-19 cases is accelerating substantially in more than one-quarter of US states, as federal and local governments grapple with how to ease lockdown measures brought in to help slow the pandemic. [The Scientist] |
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| Sanofi Pasteur and Translate Bio have agreed to expand their existing 2018 collaboration and license agreement to develop mRNA vaccines for infectious diseases. [Sanofi] |
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| Mateon Therapeutics has selected IQVIA to manage C001, a Phase II randomized, controlled, multi-center clinical study of OT-101. [Mateon Therapeutics] |
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| 2020-09-30 – 2020-10-03 Virtual |
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| Ohio State University – Columbus, Ohio, United States |
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| Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation – Los Angeles, California, United States |
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| Lund University – Lund, Sweden |
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| Thomas Jefferson Universtiy – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
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| Brigham and Women’s Hospital – Boston, Massachusetts, United States |
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