Samantha Black, PhD[email protected]COVID-19Varying immune responses in COVID-19 patients come under the microscopeHealthcare providers have found that in severe cases of COVID-19, patients have had high proinflammatory cytokines, indicating that the host immune system (cellular) is involved in the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2. Over the past few months, studies have suggested varying degrees of humoral immunity involvement in COVID-19. Yet, relatively little is known about the protective immune responses induced by SARS-CoV-2.May 5, 2020COVID-19T-cell counts guide development of treatments for COVID-19The immune response against virus-infected cells often requires activation of cytotoxic T cells to clear infection. Therefore, a boost in number and function of T cells -- a specialized type of white blood cell -- should help patients recover from COVID-19, the acute respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. A recent study revealed that most patients with COVID-19 displayed low circulating white blood cell (lymphocyte) counts, but the reason for this is unknown. So, researchers studying the novel coronavirus in China retrospectively analyzed over 500 clinical samples from COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, from December 2019 to January 2020.May 4, 2020COVID-19What is the impact of aerosolized SARS-CoV-2 in hospitals?According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the SARS-CoV-2 virus in humans is thought to mainly spread between people through inhalation of respiratory droplets laden with the virus, as well as by touching contaminated surfaces followed by touching susceptible areas of the body, like the mouth, nose, or eyes.April 29, 2020COVID-19Bioinformatics helps pinpoint evolutionary mutations of SARS-CoV-2Australian researchers explored this technique in an April 19 article in Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.April 21, 2020Gastrointestinal DiseaseJury is still out on SARS-CoV-2 intermediate hostOne researcher from the University of Ottawa provides genomic evidence that dogs may be an intermediate carrier, while another study from Chinese researchers suggests that canines would be a poor transmitter of the virus.April 16, 2020GuidelineEffectiveness of masks for preventing coronavirus is up for debateThe White House on April 3 issued guidance recommending that Americans wear face coverings to prevent infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but recommended that they wear "nonmedical cloth" coverings due to a shortage of surgical and N95 masks.April 7, 2020InfectiousHorseshoe crab 'farming' preserves species, makes blood test possibleEach year, over 600,000 Atlantic horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) are harvested in the wild in the U.S. for bleeding to extract amebocytes used in the production of Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL), an aqueous extract of blood cells. The extract reacts with bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a membrane component of gram-negative bacteria.April 2, 2020COVID-19Scientists use bioinformatics, large datasets to trace origins of SARS-CoV-2Lead author Chengxin Zhang and colleagues from the department of computational medicine and bioinformatics at the University of Michigan addressed the origins of SARS-CoV-2 by examining two recent studies.March 29, 2020COVID-19Where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that can cause illnesses that range widely in severity. On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus causing severe illness, which was subsequently named SARS-CoV-2.March 18, 2020COVID-19Testing crucial for staying ahead of sneaky SARS-CoV-2Viral outbreaks are not new in the 21st century, noted Ralph Baric, PhD, an epidemiology professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Baric provided an update on the state of the coronavirus, including how the current outbreak began and what's being done to combat the spread of the disease, at a briefing held on February 26 by the Congressional Biomedical Research Caucus.March 1, 2020Previous PagePage 2 of 3Next PageTop StoriesArtificial IntelligenceAI-powered endoscope doubles detection of high-risk esophageal lesionsDeep learning has doubled the detection of high-risk lesions during routine endoscopies in a clinical trial of more than 3,000 patients in China.Mergers & AcquisitionsBruker to acquire NanoString for $392.6MTrends and FinanceDermTech receives delisting warning from NasdaqDiagnostic TechnologiesVeracyte to share bundle of genomic classifier studies at AUA 2024Sponsor ContentVisit our Molecular Diagnostics Community
