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This pre-peer reviewed article compares the humoral and cellular immune response of a self-amplifying (sa)RNA encoding a pre-fusion stabilised SARS-CoV-2 spike protein encapsulated in a lipid nanoparticle (LNP) in a preclinical murine model, with the immune profile of natural infection in recovered COVID-19 patients.

Investigators in a brief communication in Nature Medicine utilised the Covid19 cell atlas database to identify gene expression of the SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor ACE2 and other genes potentially associated with pathogenesis using known single-cell RNA sequencing datasets.

A recent commentary in Nature Reviews Immunology cites the role of complement in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and that possibly targeting the inhibition of the complement cascade may be an important treatment. Complement is part of the innate immune response and is involved with the initiation pro-inflammatory...

Did you watch the IUIS Webinar on The Global Scientific Response to COVID-19 by Giuseppe Ippolito (Scientific Director at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome, Italy)."Giuseppe Ippolito shares his opinion on why policy responses to the coronavirus pandemic must be based on scientific evidence – and why policymakers must invest in science to be prepared for future infectious diseases."

Scientists in Japan found that the combination of FDA-approved drugs, Nelfinavir (a protease inhibitor) and Cepharanthine (an anti-inflammatory) showed a synergistic inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro. Additional studies have suggested that Cepharanthine targets both SARS-CoV-2 entry and viral replication.

A recent article by Eyal and colleagues suggest using “Human Challenge Studies to Accelerate Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) Vaccine Licensure”. “The proposed trial method would potentially cut the wait time for the rollout of an efficacious vaccine. Challenge studies generally require fewer participants...

On 28 February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) upgraded the global risk of the spread of COVID-19 to very high.Dr Leung and colleagues Dr Lam and Dr Cheng discuss the benefits to infection control that face masks can bring. Health authorities worldwide have advised that face masks are somewhat effective in limiting spread...

In this pre-peer reviewed article, the authors report on the development of a purified inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate which they show induces virus-specific moderately broadly neutralizing antibodies in mice, rats and non-human primates. A SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, isolated from a COVID-19 patient...

A recent perspective in Science asked whether there are lessons that can be learned from arthritis and cell therapy in cancer for COVID-19. Severe disease in 20% of COVID-19 cases appear to be from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is often fatal. This poignant piece outlines the pathways leading to cytokine release syndrome (CRS)...

Webinar by Prof. Danny Altmann from Imperial College London reviews new and exciting studies on COVID-19 antibody immunology and emerging data from all around the world. We have written articles that discuss the importance of Abs in diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, as well as detection of SARS-Cov-2 nAbs in cats.