Immune warriors known as T cells help us fight some viruses, but their importance for battling SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has been unclear. Now, two new studies reveal that infected people harbor T cells that target the virus—and may help them recover. Both studies also found that some people never infected with SARS-CoV-2 have these cellular defenses, most likely because they were previously infected with other coronaviruses.

“This is encouraging data,” says virol...

Turning ventilated patients onto their stomachs, called proning, helps them by opening their lungs. Now doctors are testing to see if it can keep others off ventilators altogether.
The surprisingly low-tech concept, called proning, can improve breathing in patients stricken by the respiratory distress that is the hallmark of the virus, doctors have found. It draws from basic principles of physiology and gravity. Lying on one’s stomach helps open airways in lungs that have become compressed...

The Bergamo province, which is extensively affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic, is a natural observatory of virus manifestations in the general population. In the past month we recorded an outbreak of Kawasaki disease; we aimed to evaluate incidence and features of patients with Kawasaki-like disease diagnosed during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.
In the past month we found a 30-fold increased incidence of Kawasaki-like disease. Children diagnose...

131 million women give birth annually. This population is particularly vulnerable to emerging infectious pathogens due to alterations in immune, respiratory, and cardiovascular physiology that occur during pregnancy. Early data regarding pregnancy outcomes in COVID-19 are reassuring: maternal outcomes are similar to non-pregnant adults, and vertical transmission and neonatal infection are rare.
However, pregnant women remain at risk of severe disease requiring intensive care, and they dese...

The pandemic has given rise to too many small and uncontrolled clinical trials.



Researchers have rallied in unprecedented ways to defeat the coronavirus pandemic. They are retooling laboratories to focus on the virus; helping with testing efforts; and, in the case of clinician–researchers, working feverishly to carry out research studies while also treating patients in overwhelmed health-care systems.




Some clinical trials — such as the World Health Organizati...

Coronaviruses make use of a large envelope protein called spike (S) to engage host cell receptors and catalyze membrane fusion. Because of the vital role that these S proteins play, they represent a vulnerable target for the development of therapeutics. Here, we describe the isolation of single-domain antibodies (VHHs) from a llama immunized with prefusion-stabilized coronavirus spikes. These VHHs neutralize MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1 S pseudotyped viruses, respectively. Crystal structures of...

Abstract
Neutralizing antibodies could be antivirals against COVID-19 pandemics. Here, we report isolation of four human-origin monoclonal antibodies from a convalescent patient, all of which display neutralization abilities. B38 and H4 block the binding between virus S-protein RBD and cellular receptor ACE2. A competition assay indicates their different epitopes on the RBD, making them a potential virus-targeting MAb-pair to avoid immune escape in future clinical applications. Moreove...

With the emergence and clear effect of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), people around the world are dramatically changing all aspects of life. This is an unfortunate circumstance that no one can escape, but as human beings are resilient creatures, we survive, and most importantly, we innovate.



StartupBlink recognizes this change, and they decided to use the technology to help spread the innovation in this global quest to stop the virus. Together with the Health Innovation Exchan...

The ENRICH in China project (European Network of Research and Innovation Centres and Hubs in China), a initiative funded under Horizon 2020, has just published a call for innovative companies with potential products or services to support the worldwide response to the COVID-19 outbreak. With a range of global investors who are looking for innovative ideas, with completed pilot tests that can be quickly scaled up to tackle the global pandemic. 


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The 3D Laboratory of the Parc Taulí joins the Networking initiative to make the 3D community available for the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic eradication. As an expert center for 3D printing medical application, a clinical utility validation of the pieces has been performed and the 3D community is made available to the catalog with the technical design parameters, material requirements and printing parameters. Also, they are available to download the STL files of each validated piece. Th...

The 3D Laboratory of the Parc Taulí joins the Networking initiative to make the 3D community available for the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic eradication. As an expert center for 3D printing medical application, a clinical utility validation of the pieces has been performed and the 3D community is made available to the catalog with the technical design parameters, material requirements and printing parameters. Also, they are available to download the STL files of each validated piece. Th...