Connect with us

Spread & Containment

Existing drugs can prevent SARS-CoV-2 from hijacking cells

Existing drugs can prevent SARS-CoV-2 from hijacking cells

Published

on

Researchers evaluate how the new coronavirus rewires human proteins for its own replication, and identify several antiviral drugs ready for clinical trials

IMAGE

Credit: Elizabeth Fischer, Miscroscopy Unit NIH/NIAID

An international team of researchers has analysed how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, hijacks the proteins in its target cells. The research, published in the journal Cell, shows how the virus shifts the cell’s activity to promote its own replication and to infect nearby cells. The scientists also identified seven clinically approved drugs that could disrupt these mechanisms, and recommend that these drugs are immediately tested in clinical trials.

The collaboration included researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the Quantitative Biosciences Institute’s Coronavirus Research Group in the School of Pharmacy at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Institut Pasteur, and the Excellence Cluster CIBSS of the University of Freiburg.

Viruses are unable to replicate and spread on their own: they need an organism – their host – to carry, replicate, and transmit them to further hosts. To facilitate this process, viruses need to take control of their host cell’s machinery and manipulate it to produce new viral particles. Sometimes, this hijacking interferes with the activity of the host’s enzymes and other proteins.

Once a protein is produced, enzymes can change its activity by making chemical modifications to its structure. For example, phosphorylation – the addition of a phosphoryl group to a protein by a type of enzyme called a kinase – plays a pivotal role in the regulation of many cell processes, including cell-to-cell communication, cell growth, and cell death. By altering phosphorylation patterns in the host’s proteins, a virus can potentially promote its own transmission to other cells and, eventually, other hosts.

The scientists used mass spectrometry, a tool to analyse the properties of a sample by measuring the mass of its molecules and molecular fragments, to evaluate all host and viral proteins that showed changes in phosphorylation after SARS-CoV-2 infection. They found that 12% of the host proteins that interact with the virus were modified. The researchers also identified the kinases that are most likely to regulate these modifications. Kinases are potential targets for drugs to stop the activity of the virus and treat COVID-19.

The extraordinary behaviour of infected cells

“The virus prevents human cells from dividing, maintaining them at a particular point in the cell cycle. This provides the virus with a relatively stable and adequate environment to keep replicating,” explains Pedro Beltrao, Group Leader at EMBL-EBI.

SARS-CoV-2 not only impacts cell division, but also cell shape. One of the key findings from the study is that infected cells exhibit long, branched, arm-like extensions, or filopodia. These structures may help the virus reach nearby cells in the body and advance the infection, but further study is warranted.

“The distinct visualisation of the extensive branching of the filopodia once again elucidates how understanding the biology of virus-host interaction can illuminate possible points of intervention in the disease,” says Nevan Krogan, Director of the Quantitative Biosciences Institute at UCSF and Senior Investigator at Gladstone Institutes.

Old drugs, new treatments

“Kinases possess certain structural features that make them good drug targets. Drugs have already been developed to target some of the kinases we identified, so we urge clinical researchers to test the antiviral effects of these drugs in their trials,” says Beltrao.

In some patients, COVID-19 causes an overreaction of the immune system, leading to inflammation. An ideal treatment would relieve these exaggerated inflammatory symptoms while stopping the replication of the virus. Existing drugs targeting the activity of kinases may be the solution to both problems.

The researchers identified dozens of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or ongoing clinical trials that target the kinases of interest. Seven of these compounds, primarily anticancer and inflammatory disease compounds, demonstrated potent antiviral activity in laboratory experiments.

“Our data-driven approach for drug discovery has identified a new set of drugs that have great potential to fight COVID-19, either by themselves or in combination with other drugs, and we are excited to see if they will help end this pandemic,” says Krogan.

“We expect to build upon this work by testing many other kinase inhibitors while identifying both the underlying pathways and additional potential therapeutics that may intervene in COVID-19 effectively,” says Kevan Shokat, Professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at UCSF.

###

European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI)

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is a global leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We help scientists realise the potential of ‘big data’ by enhancing their ability to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit humankind.

We are at the forefront of computational biology research, with work spanning sequence analysis methods, multi-dimensional statistical analysis and data-driven biological discovery, from plant biology to mammalian development and disease.

We are part of EMBL and are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, one of the world’s largest concentrations of scientific and technical expertise in genomics.
Website: http://www.ebi.ac.uk

Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI)

The Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) is a University of California organized research unit reporting through the UCSF School of Pharmacy. QBI fosters collaborations across the biomedical and the physical sciences, seeking quantitative methods to address pressing problems in biology and biomedicine. Motivated by problems of human disease, QBI is committed to investigating fundamental biological mechanisms, because ultimately solutions to many diseases have been revealed by unexpected discoveries in the basic sciences.
Website: qbi.ucsf.edu

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
Website: ucsf.edu.

Gladstone Institutes

To ensure our work does the greatest good, Gladstone Institutes focuses on conditions with profound medical, economic, and social impact–unsolved diseases. Gladstone is an independent, nonprofit life science research organization that uses visionary science and technology to overcome disease. It has an academic affiliation with UC San Francisco.
Website: gladstone.org.

Authorship and funding: This work was funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, both part of the National Institutes of Health; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Center for Research for Influenza Pathogenesis; the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; the Centers of Excellence for Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France); F. Hoffmann-LaRoche AG; Vir Biotechnology, Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies (CIBSS), European Research Council (ERC) and the Ron Conway Family. Shokat is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. A complete list of authors and full funding information is available in the Cell paper.

Media Contact
Mehdi Khadraoui
khadraoui@ebi.ac.uk

Original Source

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/press-releases/existing-drugs-can-prevent-sars-cov-2-hijacking-cells

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.034

Read More

Continue Reading

International

A Climate Of Fear

A Climate Of Fear

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

The medical, media, and political elites’ focus has shifted from facts…

Published

on

A Climate Of Fear

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

The medical, media, and political elites’ focus has shifted from facts to fomenting and magnifying fear.

In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address in 1933, the new president told a nation in the depths of the Great Depression that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Those words were true and rightfully spoken at that time. Roosevelt knew that fear is a powerful emotion that limits our ability to reason, act wisely, and work together. It’s also an emotion that’s contagious and not easily diminished or dissipated.

The Power of Fear to Fragment Society

Unfortunately, Roosevelt’s words are even more applicable today.

On a personal level, decisions made under the emotional duress of fear are rarely the best ones and often the worst. Fear can bring out the best in us, but can often bring out the worst. That’s more likely to occur the more fragmented a society becomes. Fear among different groups of people creates an us-versus-them context in the minds of individuals, or even an “every-man-for-himself” attitude, which pits one group against another or even each of us against each other.

Now elevate that sense of fear to the level of the national electorate. A people or a nation that's paralyzed with fear makes rash decisions based on their fears of what could happen, not necessarily what the current situation truly is. When that happens, a society can quickly degenerate, where our base instincts determine our behavior in a law-of-the-jungle social environment.

Roosevelt knew this, as do our leaders today. The difference is that today, rather than seeking to dispel fear, our political and media elites create it, expand it, and revel in it. Rather than promote hope and strength of character in us, in a Roosevelt- or even a Reagan-like fashion, they traffic in fear and its fellow traveler social division in order to fragment our society.

It’s the old but effective divide-and-conquer strategy, and sadly, it works far too well. The mechanism for divide and conquer is the constant drumbeat of the Big Lie, which is also a tried and true method for controlling society. It was first practiced and perfected by Joseph Goebbels in Nazi Germany using the mass media, but has been successfully used by the USSR and every other communist and dictatorial regime in the world since the 1930s.

Social Media Is Magnitudes More Powerful Than Legacy Media

The difference today is the massive and pervasive presence of social media. Its reach and social saturation throughout society are magnitudes greater than have ever been possible before. What’s more, our political and media elites create and exaggerate fear without even mentioning the word. “Fear” is driven into our collective psyches under the guise of our government keeping us “safe,” while demonizing anyone who challenges that narrative.

The repetition by the media and the pharmaceutical industry of how to stay safe from COVID-19 always involves more drugs and less freedom. That’s by design. The elites that run society know that once enough of our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others with whom we interact become more fearful than rational, they’re easily manipulated and divided into confrontational groups.

Does that sound like a conspiracy theory?

Yes, it probably does, but it’s also how the Stasi, the East German security agency, turned virtually every neighbor into an informant. The result was that people were fearful of doing anything that could be construed as being against the communist East German government. In light of what we’ve been through the last three years—and what looks to be on the horizon—the conspiracy theory accusation has lost its sting.

From Conspiracy Theory to Fact

Recall, for example, how those who received the COVID-19 vaccine turned against those who remained unvaccinated. The contrast and social division couldn’t have been clearer or more deliberate. Vaccinated people were characterized by the media and government agency spokespeople as selfless, smarter, and better human beings than those who refused the vaccine.

On the flip side, the “anti-vaxxers,” as they came to be called, were publicly derided by the medical, pharmaceutical, media, and government elites. They were accused of being low-intelligence conspiracy theory nuts who wouldn’t or couldn’t “follow the science,” even when they followed the science from experts such as Robert Malone, one of the inventors of the mRNA technology, and other medical doctors in Europe and Asia, including former Pfizer Vice President Dr. Michael Yeadon, all of whom were de-platformed from mainstream media and social media.

In fact, any “alternative” remedy to the experimental and highly dangerous mRNA vaccines, such as ivermectin, was summarily dismissed, even though nations that used ivermectin had the lowest mortality rates. As noted above, many media personalities and even medical experts with contrary opinions were silenced, shamed, and shunted into professional oblivion, being substituted by compliant replacements. That practice continues to this day, with Russell Brand being the latest example of being de-monetized by YouTube.

In light of vaccine injuries and deaths, and the staggering profits that vaccines have delivered to the pharmaceutical industry, the number of people who believe the mainstream media, the government, and in the vaccines, is much smaller today than three years ago.

Conspiracy theory narratives have become conspiracy facts.

The Endgame of Fear

So, what’s the endgame of promoting and enforcing a climate of fear throughout society?

It’s simple. Fearful people are far more compliant and, therefore, are easily controlled, pacified, monitored, and dehumanized. Next thing you know, we’ll all be eating bugs and liking it.

The antidote to fear, of course, is freedom and access to real and contrary information so that each person can make up his or her own mind. The encouragement, enablement, and empowerment of private individuals to exercise informed judgment about their health and their livelihoods are also part of the solution. A vibrant, thinking, and active society of informed individuals isn't nearly as vulnerable to the polarizing climate of fear our elites are foisting upon us.

In short, to live in fear is to live in bondage.

Tyler Durden Sat, 09/30/2023 - 20:50

Read More

Continue Reading

International

COVID-19 Vaccine Found In The Hearts Of Dead People: Study

COVID-19 Vaccine Found In The Hearts Of Dead People: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

COVID-19 vaccine…

Published

on

COVID-19 Vaccine Found In The Hearts Of Dead People: Study

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours)

COVID-19 vaccine was detected in patients who died within a month of vaccination, according to a new study.

COVID-19 vaccines in Massachusetts in a file image. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. researchers analyzed tissue samples from the autopsies of 25 people, including 20 who were vaccinated.

Samples from the hearts of three patients, all of whom died within 30 days of a Pfizer shot, tested positive for messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA).

Eight bilateral axillary lymph node samples, from people who died within 30 days of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, also tested positive. The companies' shots utilize mRNA.

The research shows "the vaccine can persist for up to 30 days, including in the heart," Dr. James Stone, with the departments of pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times via email.

The study was published by npj Vaccines. Authors declared no conflicts of interest. They said the research was supported by Massachusetts General Hospital, which is in Boston.

In testing of heart and bilateral axillary lymph node tissues from other vaccinated people who died, no vaccine was detected.

Additionally, no vaccine was detected in the liver, spleen, or mediastinal lymph nodes—vaccine was detected in the liver and spleen in preclinical rodent studies before—nor was any detected in tissues from the unvaccinated patients.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are known to cause myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that can result in death.

The people who had mRNA detected in the heart did not have myocarditis, though they did have detectable heart injuries, researchers found.

The researchers said they believed the heart injuries stemmed from underlying diseases and not the vaccines.

"There is no indication as yet that the vaccine in the heart is causing any problems in these patients; neither the causes of death nor the causes of the myocardial injury were linked to the vaccines in that study," said Dr. Stone, one of the authors of the paper.

A health care worker prepares a dose Pfizer/BioNTEch COVID-19 vaccine at The Michener Institute, in Toronto, Canada, on Dec.14, 2020. (Carlos Osorio/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

That position was challenged by Dr. Clare Craig, a British pathologist who reviewed the research.

"The vaccine should not have been there. There was evidence of heart damage. Those three people are now dead," Dr. Craig told The Epoch Times in a message.

She said the researchers were setting too high of a bar for causality.

"At postmortem if there is significant narrowing of the coronary arteries then heart damage is attributed to it on the balance of probabilities. Here this is a clear cut association, an unusual picture of myocardial injury, and a failure to call it out for what it is," Dr. Craig said.

More on Research

The tissues were collected from autopsies performed between January 2021 and February 2022 at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Researchers excluded tissues from some dead people, including from patients who had no clear history of vaccination or non-vaccination and those who had a documented prior COVID-19 infection.

The researchers wanted to test the tissue for vaccine in light of research that has found both spike protein and mRNA persisting in axillary lymph nodes and blood for weeks or even months after vaccination. The testing would help "gain a better understanding of the biodistribution and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines," they said. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Researchers ended up with tissues from 20 vaccinated patients, including six who received one dose, 12 who received two doses, and two who received three doses. They also formed a control group of five unvaccinated patients.

Six bilateral axillary lymph node samples were available for people vaccinated with Moderna's shot. Two tested positive for the vaccine. Thirteen were available for people vaccinated with Pfizer's shot. Six tested positive for the vaccine.

Overall, of the 11 bilateral axillary lymph node samples from patients who died within 30 days of a shot, eight tested positive. None of the samples from patients who died beyond 30 days of vaccination tested positive.

Researchers also examined samples from each of the vaccinated people from the cardiac left ventricle and cardiac right ventricle. Of those, four samples tested positive across three patients. These were the three who received Pfizer's shot within 30 days of dying. The samples also tested negative for COVID-19.

Vaccine was not detected in any of the unvaccinated people.

The vaccinated patients were on average older, with a mean age of 64 compared to 57. A higher percentage—55 percent to 20 percent—had recent heart injury.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/29/2023 - 18:20

Read More

Continue Reading

Government

T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO) Breaks Ground: FDA Clearance, Market Trends, and Healthcare Impact

Shares of T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ:TTOO) are soaring up over 20% today on the heels of receiving a 510(k) clearance for its T2Biothreat from the FDA. This…

Published

on

Shares of T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ:TTOO) are soaring up over 20% today on the heels of receiving a 510(k) clearance for its T2Biothreat from the FDA. This unique test directly detects six biothreat pathogens from a blood sample.

Spotting Biothreats Faster:

T2Biothreat Panel is a game-changer, being the first and only FDA-approved product that can spot these critical biothreat pathogens simultaneously. T2 Biosystems proudly stands as the first U.S. company to achieve this milestone, reshaping the field of biothreat detection.

Big Investor Sells:

Interestingly while celebrating this achievement, a significant investor, CR Group (CRG), decided to sell off a substantial chunk of shares. This sell-off, totaling 24.81 million shares, took place between Sept. 20 and Sept. 26. The timing of this sell-off alongside the FDA clearance raises some eyebrows.

Subscribe to Microcapdaily.com Right Now by entering your Email in the box below.

Subscribe to Our 100% Free Penny Stock Newsletter. We Have Something Big Coming!

New CDC Guidelines:

Regardless of CR Group selling, there still appears to be a massive opportunity according to many retail investors. Following new CDC guidelines, the U.S. government now mandates that all hospitals in the country must adopt rapid testing protocols to combat the sepsis pandemic by 2026, or risk losing Medicare funding.

Buying opportunity of the year!!! Update
byu/den1183 inTTOOstock

T2 Biosystems stands as the exclusive FDA-cleared product capable of achieving 100% accurate sepsis detection within 3 to 5 hours. Anticipating widespread adoption of T2 instruments in hospitals, the CEO foresees significant revenue generation, potentially reaching $1.3 billion annually, given the mandate.

This development drastically alters the landscape, potentially influencing the stock’s trajectory positively. With the ongoing surge in manufacturing hires and likely acceleration in orders, coupled with potential government contracts or international sales, many beleive T2 Biosystems presents an undervalued opportunity for investors.

What Borrowing Costs Tell Us:

Another interesting indicator to look at is the cost to borrow (CTB) fee. In terms of TTOO’s case, the stock has seen a massive surge in CTB fees, indicating a high demand from short sellers. When compared to the average CTB fee for other stocks, it’s pretty drastic. While this is typically not a very positive sign, retail investors seem to be buzzing with interest, given there also could be a potential short squeeze if enough buying comes in to trap the shorts.

Better News for Patients:

But let’s not forget the real impact and that’s what TTOO can do for patients. @ChengKeki a user from Twitter also shared an article about Butler Memorial Hospital and their approach to Sepsis. The hospital came up with a 2 step approach to expedite patient care.  They’re utilizing the Beckman Coulter automation line to identify changes in a person’s blood cells that might indicate the development of sepsis. Which apparently has only been used in Europe and they’re the first in the US with the technology. Then shortly after, they use T2 Biosystems panels that as you know, quicken the process from 36 hours, to just 3-5 hours.

Catching sepsis quickly is crucial because it’s a life-threatening condition that rapidly progresses throughout your body and can lead to death if not promptly diagnosed and treated. Sepsis occurs when the body responds improperly to an infection, causing widespread inflammation and potentially damages multiple organ systems. Early detection allows for immediate medical intervention.

Conclusion:

T2 Biosystems is hitting major milestones, not only in the market but in improving critical healthcare processes. The company is also a major hit with retail investors and continues to trade an astronomical amount of shares daily, the current average is ~115M shares. The FDA approval and its implications, along with the positive shift in sepsis diagnosis, showcase T2 Biosystems’ growing role in healthcare. Keep an eye on how this progresses—it’s exciting for both investors and patients alike.

We will update you on TTOO when more details emerge, subscribe to Microcapdaily to follow along!

Subscribe to Our 100% Free Penny Stock Newsletter. We Have Something Big Coming!

Picture by jarmoluk from Pixabay

 

The post T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO) Breaks Ground: FDA Clearance, Market Trends, and Healthcare Impact first appeared on Micro Cap Daily.

The post T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO) Breaks Ground: FDA Clearance, Market Trends, and Healthcare Impact appeared first on Micro Cap Daily.

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending