Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been increased interest in developing a universal antiviral that would stop a pandemic in its tracks.
Severe obesity may weaken the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in those who have never been infected with the coronavirus, according to a small Turkish study. Additionally, South African researchers have found infection with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus can significantly improve the immune system’s ability to protect against other variants, but only in people who have been vaccinated.
AstraZeneca’s Phase III Provent trial results showed a statistically significant 77 percent decrease in a patient’s likelihood of developing symptomatic COVID-19 when proactively treated with Evusheld. Additionally, results were announced by Clover Biopharmaceuticals for the Phase II/III Spectra global study investigating the efficacy of the SCB-2019 (CpG 1018/Alum) vaccine booster in patients that have previously developed a COVID-19 infection.
Jada Pinkett Smith, via her husband Will Smith’s much-discussed slap of Chris Rock following a joke about her hair loss at the 2022 Academy Awards, has again shone a bright spotlight on the autoimmune disease alopecia areata.
A year after infection with the coronavirus – when antibodies in the blood are barely detectable – the immune system continues to “remember” the virus and should respond to some extent upon re-encountering it, a study from China suggests. According to new research, women who were pregnant during the recent Omicron surge had more than eight times the rate of COVID-19 diagnoses, but lower odds of severe illness compared with pregnant women diagnosed earlier in the pandemic.
Moderna announced that the first participant was dosed in a Phase I trial of the company’s HIV trimer mRNA vaccine, mRNA-1574.
Shares of Adaptive Biotechnologies climbed on March 9 after the company announced a reorganization of priorities to spur future growth, including a workforce reduction of approximately 12 percent.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen – The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences found that activating a specialized group of neurons within the brainstem of mice restored full movement function in mice with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
The CEO of Maryland-based Novavax believes U.S. Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the company’s protein-based COVID-19 vaccine could happen “within weeks.”
A U.S. patient with leukemia has become the first woman and the third person to date to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to the virus that causes AIDS, researchers reported on February 15.