Lung mechanics and hypoxemia in COVID-19 patients with ARDS
Researchers have created a dataset of COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome to help characterize lung compliance and hypoxemia, which may help administer better treatments.
The severity of COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), ranges from no symptoms in some patients to severe disease, including death in others. Some patients require mechanical ventilation for respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). How COVID-19 related ARDS is different from other ARDS is still a subject of debate. Previous studies have small sample sizes and often do not have data on lung mechanics.
How feasible is at-home antibody testing for COVID-19?
Researchers at King’s College, London, have found that self-administered, at-home antibody testing could be a simple method for virus surveillance on university campuses.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to almost total lockdowns in many countries, resulting in severe disruption to normal life. Education has been greatly affected by extended school and college shutdowns.
Following the initial lockdown in March 2020, the United Kingdom (UK) has had a series of reopenings and further lockdowns to curb regional transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19.
Using more than 100,000 virus genome sequences uploaded in the GISAID database, researchers found around 9,000 mutations in the virus spike protein RBD.
Researchers studying the effect of convalescent sera and monoclonal antibodies from recovered patients found the UK and South African SARS-CoV-2 variants are more resistant to neutralization compared to the wild-type virus.
Researchers update automated computation tool for SARS-CoV-2 genome analysis
Researchers updated a previous version of an automated tool to include severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome analysis. Genome analysis using the freely available software could help track the evolution of the virus and promptly identify variants that increase viral transmission or virulence.
The SARS-CoV-2 pathogen has been mutating since it was first discovered in late 2019. Some of these mutations have increased virus fitness, which may affect COVID-19 disease outcomes, its transmissibility, and, subsequently, could impact the efficacy of current vaccines. Thus, thorough and continual sequencing of as many genomes as possible across the world will be crucial in keeping on top of the pandemic.