Combination therapy may reduce influenza-associated morbidity and mortality
A significant proportion of hospitalized patients with influenza develop complications of acute respiratory distress syndrome, driven by virus-induced cytopathic effects as well as exaggerated host immune response. Reporting in
The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, investigators have found that treatment with an immune receptor blocker in combination with an antiviral agent markedly improves survival of mice infected with lethal influenza and reduces lung pathology in swine-influenza-infected piglets. Their research also provides insights into the optimal timing of treatment to prevent acute lung injury.
Previously, the investigators found that an excessive influx of neutrophils, infection fighting immune cells, and the networks they create to kill pathogens, known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), contribute to acute lung injury in influenza infection. Formation of NETs by act
More than two-dozen University of Hawaiʻi health care students from the Mānoa, Hilo and Kapiʻolani Community College campuses earned top honors in various competitive categories at the 16th Annual Hawaiʻi Health Occupations Students of America (
HOSA)–Future Health Professionals Virtual State Leadership Conference. The international organization specializes in empowering students to become leaders in the global health community through education, collaboration and experience.
UH Hilo
Alannah Shinde, first place, health informatics
Zyrill Dayne Dela Cruz, first place, medical math
Kit Neikirk, third place, medical math
Christian Lopez, third place, pharmacology
Jerrybelle Domingo-Recto, second place, nursing assisting
Researchers in the United States and Finland have used tissues from people who died from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to generate detailed cellular maps of the pathogenetic processes that occur within affected organs during severe disease.
Why can SARS-CoV-2 infection cause neurological and cardiovascular symptoms?
Research looking at the pathophysiology behind coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, is ongoing. A team of researchers from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, USA, present results linking oxidative stress and the activation of a biochemical pathway associated with Alzheimer’s disease to SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“In this study, we propose a potential mechanism that may contribute to systemic organ failure caused by SARS-CoV-2: defective Ca
2+ regulation and its downstream signaling,” wrote the researchers. “Of particular interest is that leaky RyR2 channels in the brain were associated with activation of neuropathological pathways that are also found in the brains of Alzheimer’s Disease patients.”
New diagnostic platform can rapidly measure COVID-19-related biomarkers
The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and GBS Inc., a subsidiary of The iQ Group Global, announce that they will collaborate to validate and de-risk a specific and sensitive COVID-19 diagnostic that would integrate the Institute s eRapid technology with the company s proprietary transistor sensor technology to enable simultaneous electrochemical sensing of multiple biomarkers related to SARS-CoV-2 infection in point-of-care COVID-19 diagnostic applications.
The research collaboration further cements both parties commitment to bringing the Wyss multiplexed electrochemical detection system forward as a diagnostic tool during the pandemic and follows a licensing agreement coordinated by Harvard s Office of Technology Development (OTD) in November 2020 that granted The iQ Group Global non-exclusive, term-limited access to the eRapid technology in accordance with the Univer