Zika Infection in Pregnant Macaques Slows Fetal Growth

Female rhesus macaque monkeys and infants at the California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Davis

Zika virus infection in pregnant rhesus macaques slows fetal growth and affects how infants and mothers interact in the first month of life, according to a new study from researchers at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The work, published Oct. 25 in Science Translational Medicine, has implications for both humans exposed to Zika virus and for other viruses that can cross the placenta, including SARS-CoV2, responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Initially I thought this was a story about Zika, but as I looked at the results, I think this is also a story about how fetal infections in general affect developmental trajectories,” said Eliza Bliss-Moreau, professor of psychology at UC Davis and senior author on the paper.

In most people, Zika virus infection causes mild or no symptoms and leaves long-lasting immunity. But during pregnancy, the virus can cross the placenta and cause damage to the nervous system of the fetus. In extreme cases, it can cause microcephaly in humans.

Scientists uncover cause of mysterious deaths of elephants in Zimbabwe

Photo Credit: Charl Durand

During this unique study, scientists from the Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust, the Animal and Plant Health Agency UK, the University of Surrey and laboratories in South Africa investigated the mysterious deaths of 35 elephants mostly between August and September 2020, in a 40 x 25 km radius of North-Western Zimbabwe. This incident followed the death of approximately 350 elephants in neighboring northern Botswana from May to June 2020, which triggered much international concern. 

African savanna elephants are an endangered species with only 350,000 remaining in the wild and ongoing losses estimated at eight percent annually. This finding is very worrying since elephants are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list already. Investigating the deaths of these elephants is crucial to sustaining the future of this majestic species. 

Post-COVID condition is not linked to ongoing infection or active brain damage

Post COVID-19 condition does not appear to be linked to direct viral invasion of the brain or active brain damage. This has been shown by a study at the University of Gothenburg. Searching for abnormal biomarkers among the participants yielded no hits in either blood or cerebrospinal fluid samples.

The condition that can follow the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, termed “Post-COVID condition,” or “long-covid” can persist for several months subsequent to the initial infection. The condition includes various combinations of fatigue, apathy, and difficulties with memory and concentration.

The current study, published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases, included 25 people with confirmed post-COVID condition, six people without residual symptoms after COVID-19, and 17 control subjects who were completely free of COVID-19.

The strength of the study lies not in the number of participants, which is fairly limited, but in the fact that they all – including the control subjects – underwent not only blood tests but also the considerably more invasive procedure of lumbar punctures to collect cerebrospinal fluid.

At the time when the samples were taken, at least three months had passed since the first symptoms of COVID-19 in those who had had the disease. The samples were taken between February and November 2021, and were analyzed for a total of 37 different biomarkers.

Preventing Airborne Infection without Impeding Communication with Ions and Electric Field

Figure 1.
Novel device for preventing airborne infection The design (a) and schematic (b) of the mechanism of the device for capturing infectious droplets and aerosols without hindering communication. The negatively charged ions attach to the droplets and the electric field guides them to the collecting electrode.
Illustration Credit: Courtesy of Tokyo Institute of Technology

A novel device developed by Tokyo Tech researchers in a new study utilizes ions and an electric field to effectively capture infectious droplets and aerosols, while letting light and sound pass through to allow communication. The innovation is significant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, since it shows promise in preventing airborne infection while facilitating communication.

Airborne infections, such as H1N1 influenza, SARS, and COVID-19, are spread by aerosols and airborne droplets. While droplet/aerosol transmission can be prevented using acrylic partitions or, as with the COVID-19 pandemic, by imposing lockdowns in severe cases, these countermeasures can significantly impede communication. This, in turn, can lead to unintended consequences.

For instance, lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic led to severe economic losses as well as a rise in cases of mental illness like depression and suicide around the world. Therefore, as we prepare for a potential future pandemic, it is necessary to develop more sustainable countermeasures that do not disrupt economic activities and daily face-to-face interactions.

To this end, a research team including Kaito Kanda, a graduate student at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) at the time of research, Assistant Professor Tetsuya Yamada, from the Institute of Innovative Research at Tokyo Tech, and Professor Takeo Fujiwara from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) and Chiba University researchers, has now developed a device that successfully captures droplets and aerosols while allowing the transmission of light and sound for effective communication.

Boosting weak immune system: scientists find an unusual weapon against virus

An overview of how the method proposed by the Sieweke group boosts weak immune system. (A) M-CSF cytokine works in the bone marrow to promote generation of monocytes and macrophages, without disturbing the formation of other immune cells; (B) Monocytes and macrophages activate natural killer cells to enable them to target virus-infected cells and kill them through cell–cell contact and the release of toxic agents.
Illustration Credit: © EMBO
(CC BY 4.0 DEED)

Infections with cytomegalovirus (CMV) are extremely common and often pose no major threat to the vast majority of people. They can, however, be deadly for people whose immune system is weakened, e.g., after bone marrow transplantation. Current treatments against CMV infections are very limited and can have severe side effects. Researchers led by Prof. Michael Sieweke at the Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) at TUD Dresden University of Technology and the Center of Immunology of Marseille Luminy (CIML) propose a new way to protect against CMV. Instead of targeting the virus, their approach boosts the weak immune system and lets it fight the virus on its own. The results were published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

Some viruses can be dormant throughout a person’s life and cause no harm but become dangerous when the immune system is weakened. One such virus is human cytomegalovirus (CMV). Harmless to the general public but life-threatening to patients with a suppressed immune system.

Targeting a coronavirus ion channel could yield new Covid-19 drugs

MIT chemists found that the SARS-CoV-2 E protein, which acts as an ion channel, has a broad opening at the bottom when in the closed state and a narrower opening in the open state.
Image Credits: Courtesy of the researchers, MIT News, and iStock
(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 DEED)

The genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes 29 proteins, one of which is an ion channel called E. This channel, which transports protons and calcium ions, induces infected cells to launch an inflammatory response that damages tissues and contributes to the symptoms of Covid-19.

MIT chemists have now discovered the structure of the “open” state of this channel, which allows ions to flow through. This structure, combined with the “closed” state structure that was reported by the same lab in 2020, could help scientists figure out what triggers the channel to open and close. These structures could also guide researchers in developing antiviral drugs that block the channel and help prevent inflammation.

“The E channel is an antiviral drug target. If you can stop the channel from sending calcium into the cytoplasm, then you have a way to reduce the cytotoxic effects of the virus,” says Mei Hong, an MIT professor of chemistry and the senior author of the study.

MIT postdoc Joao Medeiros-Silva is the lead author of the study, which appears today in Science Advances. MIT postdocs Aurelio Dregni and Pu Duan and graduate student Noah Somberg are also authors of the paper.

Antigen testing can reduce, but not eliminate, the risk of COVID-19 clusters according to mathematical model

Illustration Credit: Kojima Kyoko

A research group has created a new model to calculate the probability of the occurrence of localized clusters caused by novel coronavirus infections. Led by Shingo Iwami at Nagoya University with collaborators in the United Kingdom and South Korea model, they revealed that screening of infected persons by antigen testing is effective in significantly reducing the probability of cluster occurrence. However, their findings also suggest that it is not sufficient to prevent clusters caused by highly infectious mutant strains, such as Omicron.  

With the availability of COVID-19 vaccines and population immunity, countries around the world are seeking to resume social activities while also trying to prevent the spread of infection. However, outbreaks of new strains of the coronavirus, associated with increased infectiousness and evasion of existing immunity, continue to be a threat. In several countries, new infections are increasing as the northern hemisphere enters the autumn and winter months.

Red Algae Could Be Used to Create a Drug for Coronavirus

Chemical research on Laurencia red algae began in 1965.
Photo Credit: 🇸🇮 Janko Ferlič

Laurencia red algae can be used as a basis for new drugs against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, biochemists have found. A team of scientists from the Ural Federal University, the Institute of Organic Synthesis of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from Australia and Germany, carried out molecular docking of 300 bioactive components (ligands) of red algae and found seven compounds with the required activity. The scientists published a description of the experiments and results in the journal Microbiology Research. 

"Laurencia belongs to the family Rhodomelaceae, which is considered one of the largest families of marine red algae, with an estimated 125 genera and 700 species worldwide. Laurencia has recently been the subject of active research. Since 2015, a total of 1,047 secondary metabolites with various useful properties have been isolated from Laurencia species alone," explains Grigory Zyryanov, Chief Researcher of the UrFU Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Green Methods and Biotechnology.

SARS-CoV-2 Caused More, Deadlier Cases of Sepsis Than Thought

Life-threatening systemic inflammation known as sepsis can follow infection with SARS-CoV-2 (shown in green in this colorized electron micrograph), the virus that causes COVID-19.
Image Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

New research suggests that the virus responsible for COVID-19 was a more common and deadly cause of sepsis early in the pandemic than previously assumed — accounting for about one in six cases of sepsis from March 2020 to November 2022.

The results, published online in JAMA Network Open, suggest that clinicians should rethink how they treat sepsis while also providing a framework for future surveillance of viral sepsis.

Sepsis is a serious, sometimes fatal overreaction of the immune system to an infection. Doctors and researchers don’t know as much about sepsis that occurs in response to viral infection as they do about sepsis that arises from bacterial infection.

“Most people, including medical professionals, equate sepsis with bacterial infections,” said first author Claire Shappell, HMS instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This is reflected in treatment guidelines and quality measures that require immediate antibiotics for patients with suspected sepsis.”

Vulnerability to different COVID-19 mutations depends on previous infections and vaccination, study suggests

Image Credit: Alexandra Koch

A new study has found that people differ in how vulnerable they are to different mutations in emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.

This is because the variant of SARS-CoV-2 a person was first exposed to determines how well their immune system responds to different parts of the virus, and how protected they are against other variants.

It also means that the same COVID-19 vaccine might work differently for different people, depending on which variants of SARS-CoV-2 they have previously been exposed to and where their immune response has focused.

The discovery underlies the importance of continuing surveillance programs to detect the emergence of new variants, and to understand differences in immunity to SARS-CoV-2 across the population.

It will also be important for future vaccination strategies, which must consider both the virus variant a vaccine contains and how immune responses of the population may differ in their response to it.

Heavily mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86 not as resistant to antibodies as first feared

Image Credit: Fusion Medical Animation

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet who studied SARS-CoV-2 variant BA.2.86, found that the new variant was not significantly more resistant to antibodies than several other variants that are circulating. The study also showed that antibody levels to BA.2.86 were significantly higher after a wave of XBB infections compared to before, suggesting that the vaccines based on XBB should provide some cross-protection to BA.2.86.

"We engineered a spike gene that matches that of the BA.2.86 variant and tested the blood of Stockholm blood donors (specifically those donations made very recently) to see how effective their antibodies are against this new variant. We found that although BA.2.86 was quite resistant to neutralizing antibodies, it wasn't significantly more resistant than a number of other variants that are also circulating", says Daniel Sheward, lead author of the study and Postdoctoral researcher in Benjamin Murrell's team at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at Karolinska Institutet.

Tiny CRISPR tool could help shred viruses

Model of a minimal CRISPR-Cas13bt3 molecule generated with a cryo-electron microscope. The RNA to be recognized and cleaved is colored in light blue, while the scissor is formed by the magenta and cyan colored domains. The two loops for controlling the CRISPR-Cas13bt3 are shown in green and red.
 Illustration Credit: Courtesy of the Yang Gao lab/Rice University

Small and precise: These are the ideal characteristics for CRISPR systems, the Nobel-prize winning technology used to edit nucleic acids like RNA and DNA.

Rice University scientists have described in detail the three-dimensional structure of one of the smallest known CRISPR-Cas13 systems used to shred or modify RNA and employed their findings to further engineer the tool to improve its precision. According to a study published in Nature Communications, the molecule works differently than other proteins in the same family.

“There are different types of CRISPR systems, and the one our research was focused on for this study is called CRISPR-Cas13bt3,” said Yang Gao, an assistant professor of biosciences and Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar who helped lead the study. “The unique thing about it is that it is very small. Usually, these types of molecules contain roughly 1200 amino acids, while this one only has about 700, so that’s already an advantage.”

Gentle cleansers kill viruses as effectively as harsh soaps

Photo Credit: Maria Lin Kim

Gentle cleansers are just as effective in killing viruses – including coronavirus – as harsh soaps, according to a new study from scientists at the University of Sheffield 

Healthcare professionals often substitute alcohol-based hand sanitizers and harsh soaps for skin-friendly cleansers in order to treat or prevent irritant contact dermatitis, which develops when chemical or physical agents damage the skin surface faster than the skin can repair

Incidence and severity of irritant contact dermatitis increased from 20 per cent to 80 per cent amongst healthcare professionals during the Covid-19 pandemic

Researchers also found non-enveloped viruses such as norovirus were resistant to all hand wash products tested, and were only killed with bleach disinfectants, which aren’t a feasible option for washing hands 

Gentle cleansers are just as effective in killing viruses – including coronavirus – as harsh soaps, a new study by University of Sheffield experts has found.

Bat-Borne Sarbecoviruses Spilled Over in Southeast Asia Pre-Pandemic

Elephant loggers bring in a timber harvest in Myanmar.
Photo Credit: Tierra Smiley Evans/UC Davis

A virus previously found only in bats was detected in the antibodies of people screened for exposure to sarbecoviruses between 2017 and 2020 in rural Myanmar in Southeast Asia, according to a study from the University of California, Davis and collaborators in Myanmar and Singapore. The work is published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Sarbecoviruses are a group of coronaviruses. This study found exposure to diverse sarbecoviruses, including some known to be closely related to SARS-CoV-2, such as RaTG13.

The study found that people were significantly more likely to have been exposed to sarbecoviruses if their livelihood involved working directly with or close to bats, such as logging, hunting or harvesting bat guano.

“This study provides new evidence that bat-borne coronaviruses can and do spill over to people, underscoring the importance of surveillance in high-risk rural areas, where humans and wildlife closely interact,” said lead author Tierra Smiley Evans, an epidemiologist and research faculty with the One Health Institute in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Long Covid can impact fatigue and quality of life worse than some cancers

Photo Credit: engin akyurt

Fatigue is the symptom that most significantly impacts the daily lives of long Covid patients, and can affect quality of life more than some cancers, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Exeter.

The research, published in BMJ Open and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), examines the impact of long Covid on the lives of over 3,750 patients who were referred to a long Covid clinic and used a digital app as part of their NHS treatment for the condition.

Patients were asked to complete questionnaires on the app about how long Covid was affecting them – considering the impact of long Covid on their day-to-day activities, levels of fatigue, depression, anxiety, breathlessness, brain fog, and their quality of life.

The researchers found that many long Covid patients were seriously ill and on average had fatigue scores worse or similar to people with cancer-related anemia or severe kidney disease. Their health-related quality of life scores were also lower than those of people with advanced metastatic cancers, like stage IV lung cancer.

Overall, the team found that the impact of long Covid on the daily activities of patients was worse than that of stroke patients and was comparable to that of patients with Parkinson’s Disease.

COVID-19 can cause brain cells to ‘fuse’

Fused neurons in yellow, expressing Spike S fusogen from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the human receptor hACE2.
Image Credit: Courtesy of University of Queensland

Researchers at The University of Queensland have discovered viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can cause brain cells to fuse, initiating malfunctions that lead to chronic neurological symptoms.

Professor Massimo Hilliard and Dr Ramon Martinez-Marmol from the Queensland Brain Institute have explored how viruses alter the function of the nervous system.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been detected in the brains of people with ‘long COVID’ months after their initial infection.

“We discovered COVID-19 causes neurons to undergo a cell fusion process, which has not been seen before,” Professor Hilliard said.

“After neuronal infection with SARS-CoV-2, the spike S protein becomes present in neurons, and once neurons fuse, they don’t die.”

Scientists closing in on long-lasting swine flu vaccine

 A team led by Eric Weaver, associate professor of biological sciences, has developed a robust vaccine against a strain of swine influenza. Framed by a model of nucleic acid proteins is (from left) Weaver; Matt Pekarek, a graduate student in the Weaver Lab; Cedric Wooledge, a technician with the Institutional Animal Care Program; David Steffen, with the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center; and Nicholas Jeanjaquet and Erika Petro-Turnquist, both doctoral students in the Weaver Lab. Not pictured is Hiep Vu, assistant professor in the Nebraska Center for Virology and Department of Animal Science.
Photo Credit: Craig Chandler | University Communication and Marketing

A successful long-term experiment with live hogs indicates Nebraska scientists may be another step closer to achieving a safe, long-lasting and potentially universal vaccine against swine flu.

The results are not only important to the pork industry, they hold significant implications for human health. That’s because pigs act as “mixing vessels,” where various swine and bird influenza strains can reconfigure and become transmissible to humans. In fact, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, involving a variant of the H1N1 strain, first emerged in swine before infecting about a fourth of the global population in its first year, causing nearly 12,500 deaths in the United States and perhaps as many as 575,000 worldwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Considering the significant role swine play in the evolution and transmission of potential pandemic strains of influenza and the substantial economic impact of swine flu viruses, it is imperative that efforts be made toward the development of more effective vaccination strategies in vulnerable pig populations,” said Erika Petro-Turnquist, a doctoral student and lead author of the study recently published in Frontiers in Immunology.

To Prevent Future Pandemics, Leave Bats Alone

Photo Credit: Clement Kolopp

A new paper in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health makes the case that pandemic prevention requires a global taboo whereby humanity agrees to leave bats alone—to let them have the habitats they need, undisturbed.

Like the SARS coronavirus outbreak of 2003, the COVID-19 pandemic can be traced back to a bat virus. Whether someone handled or ate an infected bat or was exposed to a bat’s bodily fluids in a cave or some other way, or was exposed to another animal that had been infected by a bat, we will quite likely never know. Even a virus released via a lab accident would still have originally come from a bat. But we don’t need to know all of the details in order to act.

Bats are known to be reservoirs for a wide range of viruses that can infect other species, including people. They are a source of rabies, Marburg filoviruses, Hendra and Nipah paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Coronavirus, and fruit bats are strongly believed to be a source of Ebolaviruses. A new analysis points to the value of a global taboo whereby humanity agrees to leave bats alone—not fear them or try to chase them away or cull them (activities that only serve to disperse them and increase the odds of zoonotic spillover)—but to let them have the habitats they need and live undisturbed.

Researchers Identify Genetic Makeup of New Strains of West Nile

This study shows the variety of strains in circulation and what mosquitoes may be carrying as we head into summer
Photo Credit: Jimmy Chan

Researchers at Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (CVMDL) located in UConn’s College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources identified the genetic makeup of strains of West Nile virus found in an alpaca and a crow.

These findings were published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

In 2021, eight cases of West Nile virus were brought to the CVMDL for diagnosis – seven birds, both domestic and wild – and one alpaca.

“We decided to pursue some research avenues through these diagnostic cases because we had an interesting cohort of West Nile cases that had come through that fall,” says Natalie Tocco ’23 (CAHNR), a resident in anatomic pathology the Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science.

Of the eight cases, the alpaca from Massachusetts and a crow from Connecticut had the highest amount of virus in their systems at the time of diagnosis.

Focusing on these two cases, the researchers were interested in seeing if there were genetic differences between the viruses because they occurred in different species in different states.

New study explains how a common virus can cause multiple sclerosis

Olivia Thomas and Mattias Bronge
Photo Credit: Erik Holmgren

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have found further evidence for how the Epstein-Barr virus can trigger multiple sclerosis or drive disease progression. A study published in Science Advances shows that some individuals have antibodies against the virus that mistakenly attacks a protein in the brain and spinal cord.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infects most people early in life and then remains in the body, usually without causing symptoms. The link between EBV and the neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) was discovered many years ago and has puzzled researchers ever since. Increasing evidence, including two papers published in Science and Nature last year, suggests that EBV infection precedes MS and that antibodies against the virus may be involved. However, the molecular mechanisms seem to vary between patients and remain largely unknown.

“MS is an incredibly complex disease, but our study provides an important piece in the puzzle and could explain why some people develop the disease,” says Olivia Thomas, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet and shared first author of the paper. “We have discovered that certain antibodies against the Epstein-Barr virus, which would normally fight the infection, can mistakenly target the brain and spinal cord and cause damage.”