Glenn J Rapsinski, University of Pittsburgh Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How does a COVID-19 vaccine work in the body? – Wixy, age 12, New York The COVID-19 pandemic, causedRead More →
Connor Bamford, Queen’s University Belfast Right now, there’s just one virus on everyone’s minds: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. But humanity is plagued by many respiratory viruses, such as influenza A (IAV) and respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV), which cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. Most of theseRead More →
Luke O’Neill, Trinity College Dublin The World Health Organization (WHO) has added another coronavirus variant to its list to monitor. It’s called the mu variant and has been designated a variant of interest (VOI). What this means is that mu has genetic differences to the other known variants and isRead More →
Cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) fell significantly in both adults and children during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research being presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online this year. Influenza A and influenza B (which both cause flu) andRead More →
Adenoviruses are a group of common viruses that infect the lining of your eyes, airways and lungs, intestines, urinary tract, and nervous system. In general, adenoviruses are common causes of fever, coughs, sore throats, diarrhea and conjunctivitis. Adenoviruses are medium-sized (90–100 nm), nonenveloped (without an outer lipid bilayer) viruses with an icosahedral nucleocapsid containing a double stranded DNA genome. Their name derivesRead More →
Sticky webs of DNA released from immune cells known as neutrophils may cause much of the tissue damage associated with severe COVID-19 infections, according to two new studies published September 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM). The research, conducted by independent groups in Belgium and Brazil, suggests that blocking the release of theseRead More →
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have isolated the smallest biological molecule to date that completely and specifically neutralizes the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is the cause of COVID-19. This antibody component, which is 10 times smaller than a full-sized antibody, has been used to construct a drug–known as Ab8–forRead More →
In China, undocumented cases of the novel coronavirus were quite numerous before travel restrictions were put in place in late January 2020, and these undetected infections contributed to the majority of virus spread. These findings, based on a modeling study, explain the rapid geographic spread of SARS-CoV2 in China, theRead More →
Four babies born in a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, did not show signs of infection and remain healthy today Finally, some good news has emerged about the novel coronavirus that has spread to about 50 countries across the world. Chinese professors report in theRead More →
Viruses must enter cells of the human body to cause disease. For this, they attach to suitable cells and inject their genetic information into these cells. Infection biologists from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen, together with colleagues at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, haveRead More →
