Hypertension is a common medical condition and a primary cause of cardiovascular diseases and stroke worldwide. The unaffordability of drugs is a major barrier to medication adherence among patients living in low- and middle-income areas." Wei-Li Zhang, Professor, Chinese National…
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Developing antiviral drugs is not easy—here’s why
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, recently announced the creation of an antivirus taskforce to “supercharge” the development of new antiviral drugs. At a Downing Street press conference, Johnson said: “The majority of scientific opinion in this country is still…
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New machine learning method for designing more effective antibody drugs
Antibodies are not only produced by our immune cells to fight viruses and other pathogens in the body. For a few decades now, medicine has also been using antibodies produced by biotechnology as drugs. This is because antibodies are extremely…
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Can biomaterials offer novel therapeutic strategies against COVID-19?
The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic rages on. To date, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of COVID-19, has infected over 138.3 million and caused over 2.9 million deaths the world over. Despite major gains…
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Experimental evidence that ADAM17 inhibition prevents severe COVID-19
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that is contagious in humans. It is the causal agent of the ongoing coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This virus causes a mild to severe infection and has…
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Altering a mosquito's gut genes shows promise to curb malaria
Altering a mosquito's gut genes to make them spread antimalarial genes to the next generation of their species shows promise as an approach to curb malaria, suggests a preliminary study published today in eLife. The study is the latest in…
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Hypoxia drugs join the fight against COVID-19
Oxygen is essential to all life forms, even viruses. Oxygen is fundamental to all cells, impacting key functions such as metabolism and growth. Our cellular response to oxygen levels is tightly regulated and one important pathway is controlled by the…
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Researchers identify SARS-CoV-2 antiviral compounds using protein assay
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to be a pandemic. COVID-19 is caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pathogen, which is deemed to be highly contagious…
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Homelessness associated with increased HIV and HCV risk among people who inject drugs
Homelessness and unstable housing are associated with a substantial increase in HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) acquisition risk among people who inject drugs, according to research led by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Behavioral Science and Evaluation…
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Developing orally administrable drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2
Researchers in China have reported the successful design and synthesis of two antiviral compounds that target the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)’s main protease, essential in virus replication. These compounds can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in mice…
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