Blocking Immune System Pathway May Stop COVID-19 Infection, Prevent Severe Organ Damage

While the world waits eagerly for a safe and effective vaccine to prevent infections from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers also are focusing on better understanding how SARS-CoV-2 attacks the body in the search for other means of stopping its devastating impact. The key to one possibility — blocking a protein that enables the virus to turn the immune system against healthy cells — has been identified in a recent study by a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.

What looked like COVID-19 wasn’t; Beaumont ER doctor’s instinct, tenacity paid off for local business executive

Gary Corbin, 63, dropped a heavy hurricane window shutter, which gashed his leg before it hit the ground. After wintering in Florida, this resident of Grosse Pointe Farms had been helping his significant other close down her Palm Beach Gardens home before they returned to Michigan in mid-June. He treated the wound and kept it covered on the drive north.

Coronavirus antibodies fall dramatically in first 3 months after mild cases of COVID-19

A study by UCLA researchers shows that in people with mild cases of COVID-19, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes the disease — drop sharply over the first three months after infection, decreasing by roughly half every 73 days. If sustained at that rate, the antibodies would disappear within about a year.

Arthritis Drug Presents Promise as Treatment for COVID-19 Pneumonia

UC San Diego Health has launched a Phase III clinical trial to assess whether a medication used to treat rheumatoid might also have therapeutic value for patient with COVID-19 who have developed or are at high risk of developing serious lung damage from SARS-CoV-2 infections.

Penn Study Paves Way for New Vaccines to Protect Infants Against Infections

A new Penn Medicine study puts researchers within closer reach of vaccines that can protect infants against infections by overcoming a mother’s antibodies, which are known to shut down immune defenses initiated by conventional vaccines. That hurdle largely explains why vaccinations for infectious diseases like influenza and measles not given until six to 12 months of age. Findings from the preclinical study were published online today in Science Translational Medicine.