SARS-CoV-2

[Immunity] Researchers showed that metformin inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation and interleukin (IL)-1β production in cultured and alveolar macrophages along with inflammasome-independent IL-6 secretion, thus attenuating lipopolysaccharide- and SARS-CoV-2-induced Acute respiratory distress syndrome.

[Cell Research] Researchers showed that the SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein alone is able to cause acute respiratory distress syndrome-like damages in vitro and in vivo.

[Twist Bioscience Corporation (BusinessWire, Inc.)] Twist Bioscience Corporation announced that it has started shipping its synthetic RNA reference controls for the SARS-CoV-2 Kappa variant strain.

[Cell] Scientists profiled vaccine-induced polyclonal antibodies as well as plasmablast derived mAbs from individuals who received SARS-CoV-2 spike mRNA vaccine.

[Cell Reports] The authors report SARS-CoV-2 spike ΔH69/V70 in multiple independent lineages, often occurring after acquisition of the receptor binding motif replacements such as N439K and Y453F known to increase binding affinity to the ACE2 receptor and confer antibody escape.

[Cell Reports] Utilizing HLA-peptidomics researchers were able to identify SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides presented by highly prevalent HLA Class-I (HLA-I) molecules using infected cells as well as overexpression of SARS-CoV-2 genes.