Researchers have discovered that a particular protein can be used as a brain marker to indicate whether emotional memories can be changed or forgotten. This is a study in animals, but the researchers hope that the findings will eventually allow people suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to return to […]
Proteins are the molecular machines that make all living things hum. They stop deadly infections, heal cells, capture energy from the sun and so much more. Proteins are built by stringing together chemical building blocks called amino acids, according to instructions in an organism's genome. These strings then "fold up" […]
Amyloid protein made in the liver can cause neurodegeneration in the brain, according to a new study in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, by John Mamo of Curtin University in Bentley, Australia, and colleagues. Since the protein is thought to be a key contributor to development of Alzheimer's disease (AD), […]
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, belongs to the Coronaviridae family. The virus consists of a single-stranded RNA genome and relies heavily on the use of the host’s cells to help it replicate and spread within the body. The pandemic has necessitated further research […]
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a primarily respiratory virus. It is the causative agent of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In severe or critical cases, however, this virus is known to trigger rapid and severe deterioration of multiple organs, including the central nervous system. […]
The importance of cross-neutralizing antibodies to the recently emerged variants of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is evident in light of the fact that these variants are highly transmissible as well as being able to evade immune responses to earlier variants of this virus. A new preprint […]
Most research testing monoclonal antibodies specific to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) use antigen probes from plasmablasts and memory B cells from donated plasma of recovered SARS-CoV-2 individuals. However, given the rise of new variants of concern worldwide, the motivation to produce more antibody-based tools against SARS-CoV-2 is […]
A promising new study, released as a preprint on the bioRxiv* server, reports on the high neutralizing efficacy of a polyclonal swine antibody against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the pathogen responsible for the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). By demonstrating the ability of this antibody to […]
The effect of different neutralizing antibodies, both vaccine-elicited and from convalescent sera, suggests new variants are emerging that can evade the human immune response. The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds to host cells via its spike protein, which has two parts, the S1 and S2 subunits. The […]
A research group from the U.S. demonstrated the practicality of a spike display system in order to accelerate vaccine design, but also to swiftly appraise the effects of mutations in emerging strains of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Their results are currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint […]