PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

New study suggests better approach in search for COVID-19 drugs

2021-02-11
(Press-News.org) Research from the University of Kent, Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main, and the Philipps-University in Marburg has provided crucial insights into the biological composition of SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, revealing vital clues for the discovery of antiviral drugs.

Researchers compared SARS-CoV-2 and the closely related virus SARS-CoV, the cause of the 2002/03 SARS outbreak. Despite being 80% biologically identical, the viruses differ in crucial properties. SARS-CoV-2 is more contagious and less deadly, with a fatality rate of 2% compared to SARS-CoV's 10%. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 can be spread by asymptomatic individuals, whereas SARS-CoV was only transmitted by those who were already ill.

Most functions in cells are carried out by proteins; large molecules made up of amino acids. The amino acid sequence determines the function of a protein. Viruses encode proteins that reprogramme infected cells to produce more viruses. Despite the proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV having largely the same amino acid sequences, the study identifies a small subset of amino acid sequence positions that differ between them and are responsible for the observed changes in the behaviour of both viruses.

Crucially, these dissimilarities between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV also result in different sensitivities to drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. This is vitally important, as many attempts to identify COVID-19 drugs are based on drug response data from other coronaviruses like SARS-CoV. However, the study findings show that the effectiveness of drugs against SARS-CoV or other coronaviruses does not indicate their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2.

Martin Michaelis, Professor of Molecular Medicine at Kent's School of Biosciences, said: 'We have now a much better idea how the small differences between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 can have such a massive impact on the behaviour of these viruses and the diseases that they cause. Our data also show that we must be more careful with the experimental systems that are used for the discovery of drugs for COVID-19. Only research using SARS-CoV-2 produces reliable results.'

Professor Jindrich Cinatl, Goethe-University, said: 'Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, I have been amazed that two so similar viruses can behave so differently. Now we start to understand this. This also includes a better idea of what we have to do to get better at finding drugs for COVID-19.'

INFORMATION:

The study 'Differentially conserved amino acid positions may reflect differences in SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV behaviour' has been published in the journal Bioinformatics.
(Jake McGreig, Katie-May McLaughlin, Stuart Masterson, Mark Wass, Martin Michaelis - University of Kent; Denisa Bojkova, Marek Widera, Sandra Ciesek, Jindrich Cinatl - Goethe-University Frankfurt; Verena Krähling, Philipps-University Marburg).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btab094

ENDS

For further information or interview requests, please contact Sam Wood at the University of Kent Press Office.
Tel: 07713087981
Email: s.wood-700@kent.ac.uk

News releases can also be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/news
University of Kent on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniKent

Notes to Editors

The University of Kent is a leading UK university producing world-class research, rated internationally excellent and leading the way in many fields of study. Our 20,000 students are based at campuses and centres in Canterbury, Medway, Brussels and Paris.

With 97% of our research judged to be of international quality in the most recent Research Assessment Framework (REF2014), our students study with some of the most influential thinkers in the world. Universities UK recently named research from the University as one of the UK's 100 Best Breakthroughs of the last century for its significant impact on people's everyday lives.

We are renowned for our inspirational teaching. Awarded a gold rating, the highest, in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), we were presented with the Outstanding Support for Students award at the 2018 Times Higher Education (THE) Awards for the second year running.

Our graduates are equipped for a successful future allowing them to compete effectively in the global job market. More than 95% of graduates find a job or study opportunity within six months.

The University is a truly international community with over 40% of our academics coming from outside the UK and our students representing over 150 nationalities.

We are a major economic force in south east England, supporting innovation and enterprise. We are worth £0.9 billion to the economy of the south east and support more than 9,400 jobs in the region.

In March 2018, the Government and Health Education England (HEE) announced that the joint bid by the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University for funded places to establish a medical school has been successful. The first intake of undergraduates to the Kent and Medway Medical School will be in September 2020.

We are proud to be part of Canterbury, Medway and the county of Kent and, through collaboration with partners, work to ensure our global ambitions have a positive impact on the region's academic, cultural, social and economic landscape.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Proper fit of face masks is more important than material, study suggests

2021-02-11
A team of researchers studying the effectiveness of different types of face masks has found that in order to provide the best protection against COVID-19, the fit of a mask is as important, or more important, than the material it is made of. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, carried out a series of different fit tests, and found that when a high-performance mask - such as an N95, KN95 or FFP2 mask - is not properly fitted, it performs no better than a cloth mask. Minor differences in facial features, such as the amount of fat under the skin, make significant differences in how well a mask fits. The results, published in the journal PLoS ONE, also suggest that the fit-check routine used in many healthcare settings has high failure rates, as minor leaks ...

Vibrating 2D materials

Vibrating 2D materials
2021-02-11
Current electronic components in computers, mobile phones and many other devices are based on microstructured silicon carriers. However, this technology has almost reached its physical limits and the smallest possible structure sizes. Two-dimensional (2D) materials are therefore being intensively researched. One can imagine these materials as extremely thin films consisting of only one layer of atoms. The best known is graphene, an atomically thin layer of graphite. For its discovery, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010. While ...

Wafer-scale production of graphene-based photonic devices

Wafer-scale production of graphene-based photonic devices
2021-02-11
Our world needs reliable telecommunications more than ever before. However, classic devices have limitations in terms of size and cost and, especially, power consumption - which is directly related to greenhouse emissions. Graphene could change this and transform the future of broadband. Now, Graphene Flagship researchers have devised a wafer-scale fabrication technology that, thanks to predetermined graphene single-crystal templates, allows for integration into silicon wafers, enabling automation and paving the way to large scale production. This work, published in the prestigious journal ACS Nano, is a great example of a collaboration fostered by the ...

- How we sleep and experience psychological symptoms during pandemic

2021-02-11
During the first confinement (18 March to 10 May 2020), people who reported worse sleep quality during a night also reported an increase in negative mood, psychotic-type like experiences and somatic complaints on the next day. Furthermore, daily reports of deaths caused by Covid-19 predicted psychological symptoms on the same day and sleep quality the following night. This is the result of research carried out in three countries (Belgium, Hungary, Spain) under direction of Peter Simor with researchers at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Rebeca Sifuentes-Ortega, Ariadna Albajara Saenz, Oumaïma Benkirane, Anke Van Roy and Philippe Peigneux from the CRCN (Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences) and the UNI (ULB Neurosciences Institute) ...

Smartphone app to change your personality

2021-02-11
Personality traits such as conscientiousness or sociability are patterns of experience and behavior that can change throughout our lives. Individual changes usually take place slowly as people gradually adapt to the demands of society and their environment. However, it is unclear whether certain personality traits can also be psychologically influenced in a short-term and targeted manner. Researchers from the universities of Zurich, St. Gallen, Brandeis, Illinois, and ETH Zurich have now investigated this question using a digital intervention. In their study, around 1,500 participants were provided with a specially developed smartphone app for three months and the researchers then assessed whether and ...

RUDN University mathematician suggested a scheme for solving telegraph equations

RUDN University mathematician suggested a scheme for solving telegraph equations
2021-02-11
A mathematician from RUDN University suggested a stable difference scheme for solving inverse problems for elliptic-telegraph and differential equations that are used to describe biological, physical, and sociological processes. The results of the study were published in the Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations journal. Elliptic equations are a class of differential equations in partial derivatives that are used, among other things, to model time-independent processes. Telegraph equations are presented in a nonstationary form. They were initially obtained for a telegraph communication line, but today they are also used to model the movement of insects, the flow of blood ...

Ionic liquid uniformly delivers chemotherapy to tumors while destroying cancerous tissue

2021-02-11
PHOENIX -- A Mayo Clinic team, led by Rahmi Oklu, M.D., Ph.D., a vascular and interventional radiologist at Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with Samir Mitragotri, Ph.D., of Harvard University, report the development of a new ionic liquid formulation that killed cancer cells and allowed uniform distribution of a chemotherapy drug into liver tumors and other solid tumors in the lab. This discovery could solve a problem that has long plagued drug delivery to tumors and provide new hope to patients with liver cancer awaiting a liver transplant. The preclinical study results are published in Science Translational Medicine. Dr. Oklu, study author and director of Mayo Clinic's ...

Emissions of banned ozone-depleting substance back on decline

Emissions of banned ozone-depleting substance back on decline
2021-02-11
Two international studies of a consortium including more than a dozen institutions the world over, including Empa, published today in the journal Nature show levels of CFC-11 emissions, one of many chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) chemicals once widely used in refrigerators and insulating foams, are back on the decline - less than two years after their shock resurgence in the wake of suspected rogue production in eastern China was widely publicized. "The findings are very welcome news and hopefully mark an end to a disturbing period of apparent regulatory breaches", says Luke Western from the University of Bristol, a ...

Small is big: the need for a holistic approach to manage cerebral small vessel disease

Small is big: the need for a holistic approach to manage cerebral small vessel disease
2021-02-11
Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is characterized by damage to the blood vessels and parenchyma in the brain. It presents as a multitude of symptoms, which makes the diagnosis difficult. Matters are complicated further when SVD sets in along with other comorbidities with similar symptoms. Therefore, accurate diagnosis at an early stage of disease progression helps in defining better prognosis and management strategies for patients with cerebral SVD. A team of researchers from the United Kingdom set out to review more than 10,000 studies on clinical diagnosis, risk factors, progression, and intervention ...

A study analyses breakfast-related advertising in Mediterranean countries

2021-02-11
Experts have spent decades warning us about the rising rates of childhood obesity, which has become an epidemic among recent generations in many places around the world, including Spain. The transition from the traditional Mediterranean diet to the consumption of processed foods with low nutritional value is a key contributor, with child-targeted advertising also partly to blame. According to the Breakfast Food Advertisements in Mediterranean Countries: Products' Sugar Content in Adverts from 2015 to 2019 report produced by UOC Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences professor and researcher, Mireia Montaña, the majority of breakfast products ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] New study suggests better approach in search for COVID-19 drugs