Community Chat

[shoesnbags]

University of Pittsburgh scientists have isolated a biomolecule that they say “completely and specifically” neutralizes the virus that causes coronavirus.  Supposedly it would work both on patients who already have COVID and as a preventative for people who have not had COVID. 

I was hesitant to post a link, but if you google University of Pittsburgh COVID, the story comes up. If this were to turn out to be as good as it sounds, it would be a game changer. I guess time will tell.  

[sunshine45]

https://www.upmc.com/media/news/091420-mellors-dimitrov-covid-ab8

[EatWell]

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That is good news especially as the death toll in the U.S.A. approaches 200,00.

~Do your part.  Wear a mask, observe social distancing, wash hands.  It is the patriotic thing to do.~   😷 🇺🇸 

[Porcelain]

See? Science is good. Scientists and doctors all over the world are working on this. None of us have the training to perform this medical research ourselves, so we should be grateful to the scientists that they are doing it for us. We all depend on each other in this world.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is a global challenge facing humanity, but biomedical science and human ingenuity are likely to overcome it,” Mellors said. “We hope that the antibodies we have discovered will contribute to that triumph.”

This isn't a cure. So don't plan your big family reunion for next week. At the same time, every step toward beating Covid and stopping all the suffering and death, counts.

[Mindy D]

For those of you that would like to read the actual study publication, it is in preprint here DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.09.00

or use this to access

Download full text in PDF

[tototwo]

Why haven't I heard or read this on any of the news channels?  

[Still Raining]

Guess those wild mice have a good thing going on.

[Marp]

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@tototwo wrote:

Why haven't I heard or read this on any of the news channels?  

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@tototwo,  this is just one of thousands of research projects underway that are showing potential or even promise but are too early in the research process to be meaningful.  It is not even in clinical trials at this point.

There is no way even a 24/7 news station only reporting on promising research could cover all the projects.  If this, or any number of projects underway, reach the point of being considered for approval it will be covered.  Until then these projects will pretty much stay in the world of research and for the most part will be difficult to find unless one knows where to look.

[pitdakota]

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@Marp wrote:

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@tototwo wrote:

Why haven't I heard or read this on any of the news channels?  

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@tototwo,  this is just one of thousands of research projects underway that are showing potential or even promise but are too early in the research process to be meaningful.  It is not even in clinical trials at this point.

There is no way even a 24/7 news station only reporting on promising research could cover all the projects.  If this, or any number of projects underway, reach the point of being considered for approval it will be covered.  Until then these projects will pretty much stay in the world of research and for the most part will be difficult to find unless one knows where to look.

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@Marp @tototwo 

Marp, I was just going to post basically the same thing.  In my neck of the woods, the University of Louisville has a major study progressing regarding the development of an aptamer that binds to a nucleolin.  Their theory and work is by administering the aptar it prevents the coronavirus from attaching and replicating.  

Multiple academic centers across the United States are conducting major research into prevention and treatment.  

Another factor about the research cited here is that the results are based on results in mice and hamsters.  The big question is whether it would work the same way and to the same extent in humans.  I imagine their next step is to progress to apply this research to test it in the human population.  Unfortunately, we know that many times research has promising results when conducted in animal populations but fails to deliver when researched with humans.  

I certainly hope any one or several of the multiple studies going on out there ends up offering some better treatment options, but it is a wait and see game now as the studies continue to progress. 

Since you are here @Marp, there are 2 articles  I think you might be interested in reading if you haven't already seen them.  They discuss the bradykinin hypothesis as a explanation for the high incidence of cardiovascular and neuro components associated with covid-19.

https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercomputer-analyzed-covid-19-and-an-interesting-new-theory-has-eme...

and

https://elemental.medium.com/coronavirus-may-be-a-blood-vessel-disease-which-explains-everything-2c4...

One of our local well regarded infectious disease docs has talked about covid-19 being anything but a respiratory virus in his opinion, so these articles address a possible explanation or at least a theory that addresses those components of covid-19 that health care providers are seeing in their patients.