Could an over-the-counter health shot help fight COVID-19? George Mason University researchers think it just might. Cell and Bioscience recently highlighted research led by Yuntao Wu and Ramin Hakami in which they examined the potential anti-coronavirus activities of an over-the-counter drink called Respiratory Detox Shot (RDS).
George Mason researchers investigating COVID-19 therapies
Yuntao Wu, Professor, Molecular and Microbiology, and Ramin Hakami, Associate Professor, School of Systems Biology, are conducting studies of COVID-19 therapies.
Recent work from several independent groups has demonstrated that K18-hACE2 transgenic mice serve as an appropriate animal model for studying COVID-19.
Published research has shown that ACE2 is the human cell entry receptor for both SARS and SARS-CoV-2. Research has also shown that K18-hACE2 mice can be used to establish symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection that recapitulates many of the COVID-19 findings in human patients, either by infection through the intranasal (IN) route or by intraperitoneal (IP) injection of the virus. Thus, the K18-hACE2 model of SARS-CoV-2 infection recapitulates many features of severe COVID-19 infection in humans and can be used as an in vivo model for testing vaccines and antivirals.