A research team led by the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has successfully used specific enzymes to destroy the genetic information of SARS-CoV-2 directly after the virus penetrates the cell. The findings could serve as the basis for a therapy to treat COVID-19.

Our genome contains building instructions for proteins and other molecules. In order for these to be produced by the cell, a kind of transcript of these building instructions must first be created, which takes the form of so-called RNA molecules.

A new study using serum from human blood samples suggests neutralizing antibody levels produced by two-dose mRNA vaccines against the original and early variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus wane substantially over time, and offer essentially no protection against the omicron variant.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, dairy scientists may have a surprising role to play. In a new report published in the Journal of Dairy Science®, scientists from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) and Glanbia PLC Research and Development (Twin Falls, ID, USA) have collaborated to investigate the antiviral properties of cow milk protein against variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the illness.

The largest study to date has confirmed the link between the gut microbiome and the response to cancer immunotherapy therapy for melanoma.

The study is published today in Nature Medicine and co-ordinated by King’s College London, CIBIO Department of the University of Trento and European Institute of Oncology in Italy, University of Groningen in the Netherlands and funded by the Seerave Foundation.

Several FDA-approved drugs - including for type 2 diabetes, hepatitis C and HIV - significantly reduce the ability of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 to replicate in human cells, according to new research led by scientists at Penn State. Specifically, the team found that these drugs inhibit certain viral enzymes, called proteases, that are essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication in infected human cells.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have uncovered a new role of a chromatin-modulatory enzyme, termed EZH2, during cancer development. They then developed a new therapeutic approach with a potent small-molecule inhibitor of this enzyme.

Autoimmune diseases are triggered when the immune system malfunctions and attacks the body's own structures. Although there is not, as yet, any cure for such diseases, their progression can be slowed down by therapeutic measures. Researchers at MedUni Vienna's Center for Physiology and Pharmacology have now discovered a central signaling pathway in immune cells that may help in the development of a new therapeutic approach.