CeSPIACE: A broad-spectrum peptide inhibitor against variable SARS-CoV-2 spikes
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Apr-2025 05:08 ET (19-Apr-2025 09:08 GMT/UTC)
Frequent mutations of SARS-CoV-2 have reduced the effectiveness of vaccines, highlighting the need for mutation-resistant treatments. In a collaborative study, researchers from the Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), Japan developed CeSPIACE, a peptide inhibitor that blocks the virus from binding to host cell receptors. Unlike some existing treatments, CeSPIACE works against many variants, including those from the original strain to Omicron XBB.1.5. This breakthrough could help prevent and treat COVID-19.
Researchers from Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan institutions analyze the barriers that low- and middle-income countries face in disseminating research on intensive care medicine, particularly in the treatment of critically ill patients. Published this month in The Lancet, the study highlights how historical and economic biases perpetuate inequalities and suggests changes to make the scientific publishing system more inclusive and representative of the global community.
Do you have lots of close friends – and work hard to keep it that way? If you’ve answered “yes”, you are probably nostalgic.
MIS-C is a serious inflammatory shock that affects children. It can occur several weeks after a COVID infection and can be life-threatening. Until now, however, the precise cause of the condition was unknown. Researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the German Rheumatology Research Center (DRFZ), an institute of the Leibniz Association, have identified that reactivation of a pre-existing, dormant infection with the Epstein-Barr virus triggers an excessive inflammatory response. The researchers have detailed their findings in an article in Nature.* These insights open the door to new treatment methods, potentially not limited to MIS-C.
Socioeconomically disadvantaged groups may still be underusing emergency departments for potentially serious illnesses in the wake of the COVID pandemic, despite an overall rebound in emergency department use by 2022. Most of the rebound had been driven primarily by patients covered by commercial insurance or Medicare fee-for-service. When stratified by insurance type, however, the rebound was found to be significantly lower among patients covered by Medicaid or dual Medicare/Medicaid, who tend to be socioeconomically disadvantaged.
Among 289 million adults in 18 European countries, more than 16 million years of life were lost from 2020 through 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published March 11th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Sara Ahmadi-Abhari of Imperial College London, UK, and colleagues.
Dental office closures early in the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with a 62-percent increase in the share of emergency department visits from toothaches, abscesses, and other painful dental issues among children covered by Medicaid, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry.
Researchers at UZH have studied the impact of pandemics on the birth rate in Switzerland for the first time. While the number of births unexpectedly rose initially during COVID-19, it fell significantly during previous pandemics in history.