Investigators at Cedars-Sinai have identified a potential new therapy for COVID-19: a biologic substance created by reengineered human skin cells.

Scientists found the substance stopped SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from reproducing itself and also protected infected cells when tested in human lung cells.

SARS-CoV-2 viruses can hide from recognition by the immune system. However, the antiviral immune receptor RIG-I can be stimulated, which improves protection against lethal SARS-CoV-2 infections. Researchers led by Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann from the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn, in cooperation with other members of the cluster of excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn, have shown this in mice.

By combining CRISPR technology with a protein designed with artificial intelligence (AI), it is possible to awaken individual dormant genes by disabling the chemical “off switches” that silence them. Researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle describe this finding in the journal Cell Reports.

A new study has found that artificial intelligence (AI) apps helped protect small and medium-sized businesses against many of the risks that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic - yet only a quarter of small firms currently use them.

The research, undertaken by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the journal Information Systems Frontiers, surveyed 317 small and medium sized firms based in London.

Use of the drug verapamil to treat Type 1 diabetes continues to show benefits lasting at least two years, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Patients taking the oral blood pressure medication not only required less daily insulin two years after first diagnosis of the disease, but also showed evidence of surprising immunomodulatory benefits.

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.