E-Mail Don t forget the mask - although most people nowadays follow this advice, professionals express different opinions about the effectiveness of face masks. An international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, has now used observational data and model calculations to answer open questions. The study shows under which conditions and in which way masks actually reduce individual and population-average risks of being infected with COVID-19 and help mitigate the corona pandemic. In most environments and situations, even simple surgical masks effectively reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the effective reproduction number for COVID-19. In environments with potentially high airborne virus concentrations such as medical settings and densely occupied indoor spaces, however, masks with higher filtration efficiency (N95/FFP2) should be used and combined with other protective measures such as intensive ventilation.
By meta-analysis, experimentally determined COVID-19 virus T cell epitopes were compared with sequences of common cold coronaviruses (CCCoVs). Only one CCCoV-matching epitope was repeatedly identified as highly immunogenic, namely the CD8+ T cell epitope VYIGDPAQL ( VYI peptide) if presented by the MHC class I allele HLA-A 24:02. Approximately 60% of Japanese individuals carry this allele, which in combination with previous CCCoV infections might help explain the surprisingly low prevalence of COVID-19 in Japan.
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DURHAM, N.C. - A newly identified group of antibodies that binds to a coating of sugars on the outer shell of HIV is effective in neutralizing the virus and points to a novel vaccine approach that could also potentially be used against SARS-CoV-2 and fungal pathogens, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute report.
In a study appearing online May 20 in the journal
Cell, the researchers describe an immune cell found in both monkeys and humans that produces a unique type of anti-glycan antibody. This newly described antibody has the ability to attach to the outer layer of HIV at a patch of glycans the chain-like structures of sugars that are on the surfaces of cells, including the outer shells of viruses.
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IMAGE: These images show how regulatory T cells (Treg cells) boost the ability of microglia cells to promote the regeneration of the brain s white matter (right), compared to a sample not. view more
Credit: Xiaoming Hu/University of Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, May 19, 2021 - Specialized immune cells that accumulate in the brain in the days and weeks after a stroke promote neural functions in mice, pointing to a potential immunotherapy that may boost recovery after the acute injury is over, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine neurologists found.
The study, published today in the journal
Immunity, demonstrated that a population of specialized immune cells, called regulatory T (Treg) cells, serve as tissue repair engineers to promote functional recovery after stroke. Boosting Treg cells using an antibody complex treatment, originally designed as a therapy after transplantation and for diabetes, improved behavioral and cognitive functions for weeks after a s
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IMAGE: NTU LKCMedicine Asst Prof Sanjay Chotirmall and his team believe that their proposed concept of understanding infections applies to all forms of infection, and could potentially offer fresh ways of. view more
Credit: NTU Singapore
Traditionally, an infection is thought to happen when microbes - bacteria, fungi, or viruses - enter and multiply in the body, and its severity is associated with how prevalent the microbes are in the body.
Now, an international research team led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has proposed a new way of understanding infections. Their study of close to 400 respiratory samples from patients with bronchiectasis, a chronic lung condition, has shown that microbes in the body exist as a network, and that an infection s severity could be a result of interactions between these microbes.