News by Subject Biology

Individuals from Black and Hispanic backgrounds in the United States are twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 than their White counterparts, according to new research in PLOS Medicine. Led by researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Yale University, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the study found this disparity even after accounting for factors such as underlying health conditions, where they live and where they receive care.

In a paper publishing on Tuesday in the SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics, Daozhou Gao of Shanghai Normal University investigated the way in which human dispersal affects disease control and total extent of an infection's spread.

A study of around 5.8 million people who receive care from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) found that Black and Hispanic people were substantially more likely than their White counterparts to test positive for COVID-19, although no differences in 30-day mortality were observed between these groups. Christopher Rentsch, Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, worked alongside colleagues to present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine on September 22, 2020.

Scientists have developed a new tool that mimics how the virus that causes COVID-19 infects a cell, potentially speeding the search for treatments against the disease. The tool is a fluorescent nanoparticle probe that uses the spike protein on the virus surface to bind to cells and trigger the process that pulls the virus into cells. The probe could be used to rapidly gauge how drugs and compounds might block the virus from infecting cells.

Although people of any age can become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, elderly patients face a higher risk of severity and death than younger patients. New research comparing the immune response among age groups, published this week in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, may help explain why. Older patients with the disease have lower frequencies of the immune cells needed to expel the virus from the body, the researchers found.

Using patient data from Cleveland Clinic's COVID-19 registry, Dr. Joe Zein found that receiving the flu vaccine does not increase risk for COVID-19 or worsen associated disease outcomes, suggesting it is safe and advisable to receive the influenza vaccine this flu season.

Arrange a get-together with friends, enjoy life out in the fresh air: Despite the corona pandemic, everyday life is returning to normal. This is indicated by the current survey results of the BfR-Corona-Monitor. According to them, only 60 percent of the respondents say that they meet up with friends less often. Only 51% state that they leave their home less often to protect themselves from an infection.

This study aims at investigating the antimicrobial and antibiofilm effect of rosemary and ginger essential oil-based nano-sized formulations on colistin resistant K. pneumonia clinical isolates.