StemCell Therapy

Investigators have identified genomic alterations that appear to be associated with prognosis in men with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC).

Astudy of 424 patients with mCSPC treated at a tertiary care center revealedthat alterations in the androgen receptor (AR), TP53, cell-cycle, MYC oncogenicsignaling pathways occur more commonly in tumors with worse overall survivaland decreased time to castration-resistant disease, whereas alterations in theSPOP and MNT pathways occur more frequently in tumors with a better prognosis,according to findings published in ClinicalCancer Research.

Thegenomics of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer have not been wellcharacterized in the literature, but it is now clear that upfront treatmentintensification with taxanes or next-generation AR-directed therapies offerbenefit in the overall patient population, said the studys co-senior authorWassim Abida, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering CancerCenter in New York. The question remains whether treatment selection ortargeted therapies can be employed based on genomic characteristics.

Theassociation between alterations in cell-cycle genes and TP53 and MYC pathwaygenes and worse outcomes may pave the way for targeted therapy in thesehigher-risk groups, Dr Abida said.

Thestudy compared genomic alterations according to clinical phenotypes: high- vslow-volume disease and de novo vsmetastatic recurrence. Of the 424 patients in the study, 213 men (50%) hadhigh-volume disease (4 or more bone metastases or visceral metastases) and 211(50%) had low-volume disease; 65% had de novometastases and 35% had metastatic recurrence. At the time of sample collection, patients had a medianage of 66 years. The investigators conducted gene sequencing from May 2015 to September2018.

High- vs low-volume disease

Inadjusted analyses, men with higher-volume disease had significant 1.8- and3.7-fold increased risks of castration-resistant disease and death,respectively, compared with men who had low-volume disease. Tumor specimensfrom men with high-volume disease had more copy number alterations.

Amongmen with high-volume disease, the highest-ranking pathways were the NOTCH,cell-cycle, and epigenetic modifiers pathways.

Althoughthe prevalence of CDK12 alterations differed between patients with de novo metastatic and those with metastaticrecurrences, the groups had similar prognoses. I was actually surprised therewere not more dramatic genomic differences between de novo and relapsed disease, said study co-senior author PhilipKantoff, MD, a medical oncologist and Chair of the Department of Medicine atMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Afteradjusting for disease volume and other genomic pathways, the researchers foundthat the rates of castration resistance differed by 1.5-fold and up to 5-fold accordingto alterations in the AR, SPOP (inverse), TP53, cell-cycle, WNT (inverse), andMYC pathways. Overall survival (OS) rates varied from 2- to 4-fold according toalterations in the AR, SPOP (inverse), WNT (inverse), and cell-cycle pathways.PI3K pathway alterations were not associated with prognosis.

Docetaxeland next-generation AR axis-directed therapies have been shown to prolong OS, butit remains uncertain which patients benefit the most from intensifiedtherapies. We did not find any obvious genomic reason to explain thedifferences in docetaxel sensitivity between high- and low-volume disease, DrKantoff said.

Theauthors pointed out that genomic landscape studies of tumor DNA profiling inprostate cancer in general have excluded metastatic castration-sensitive tumors.Instead, most studies have focus on localized disease or metastaticcastration-resistant disease.

DrAbida and his colleagues acknowledged that their study has inherent biases becauseit was hospital based and enrolled patients at an academic referral center.

Moleculardeterminants of castration resistance or survival in patients with mHSPC have beenunclear, but the new study sheds new light on molecular alterations associatedwith poor outcomes in men with mHSPC, particularly alterations in the AR, cellcycle genes, MYC, and TP53 genes, said Joshi Alumkal, MD, the Leader of theProstate/Genitourinary Medical Oncology Section and Associate Division Chieffor Basic Research in the Hematology-Oncology Division at the University ofMichigan School of Medicine.

Severalrandomized phase 3 clinical trials now show a benefit of escalating treatmentin men with mHSPC by adding novel AR-targeting agents or chemotherapy plusmedical castration versus medical castration alone, Dr Alumkal said. Whetherthe addition of any of these specific agents to medical castration isassociated with improved outcomes in patients with poor-risk molecularalterations identified by the new study is a critical next question, he said.

Urologiconcologist James Mohler, MD, Senior Vice President for Translational Researchat Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, said the new study found relativelysmall differences among the clinical phenotypes, but that is not surprisingbecause the temporal differences in the evolution of tumor biology occur overlong periods of time, much of which precedes clinical presentation. The hazardratios for association between mutational analysis and oncologic outcome insome cases were statistically significant, but are so small as to not beclinically significant. Part of the reason for this may be that prostatecancer, once metastatic, is so complex that no single mutation or single genepathway is driving growth and hence targetable at a high rate beyond the long provenbenefit from androgen deprivation therapy, Dr Mohler said.

Theresults reported by these authors may be disappointing to many clinicians, butare important because they represent a comprehensive analysis of mCSPC. Theauthors appropriately acknowledge that better tumor sampling and morecomprehensive genetic analysis and larger numbers of patients may be requiredto find any benefit to genomic or somatic sequencing, Dr Mohler said. I amafraid that these limitations are not just of their work but a biologicallimitation of aggressive prostate cancer, which makes improving treatment ofadvanced prostate cancer in an individual patient extremely challenging.

Reference

Stopsack KH, Nandakumar S, Wibmer AG, et al. Oncogenic genomic alterations, clinical phenotypes, and outcomes in metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer [published online March 27, 2020]. Clin Cancer Res. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-20-0168

Originally posted here:
Genomic Alterations Linked to Outcomes in mCSPC - Renal and Urology News

Indians have some genetic advantage, but these are still early days to come to any conclusion

The fewer-than-expected cases positive to the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Indiahave spawned severaltheories, one of them being,Indians being immune to the virus.

It is theoretically possible as Indians are constantly exposed to microbes that keep the immune system primed, destroying pathogens attempting to attack. This is why children in very clean environments fall sick at the slightest exposure to a pathogen a concept known as the hygiene hypothesis.

Indians have some genetic advantage as well: Theyhave evolved to gain more genes that protect against viral infections, according to Rajalingam Raja, director of Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory at the University of California in San Francisco, US. He said:

These genes enable natural killer (NK) cells, a type of white blood cells in our body that provide a first line of defense against viral infections

Two families of genes KIR genes and HLA genes playa part in this protective function. Indians have more KIR genes than the Chinese and caucasians. This could makeIndians more immune to the virus, according to Raja.

A similar mechanismprotectsbats from viruses like Ebola and SARS. Bats are immune since they have expanded gene families that enhance NK cell function, said Raja, who first wrote about NK cells in 2008 in journal Genes and Immunity.

This alone is, however, not enough to guide Indias strategy to fight the disease or even suggest that strict measures are not needed. A team of researchers from India and the US studied umbilical cord blood of children in the two countries and found differences. The findings were published in journal PLoS One in 2018.

We interpreted our study to suggest that Indian babies could be more susceptible to early-life infections if they had lower frequencies of certain immune cells, said Holden Maecker, director of the Human Immune Monitoring Center at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Persistent pathogen assault especially early in life is almost certainly detrimental. Thisisseen in the phenomenon of environmental enteropathy, where kids with poor sanitation and high enteric pathogen loadsdevelop malnutrition and stunting, Maecker said. But he agreed exposure to pathogens could equip the immune system better to fight new assaults like Zika or coronavirus, to an extent.

This was similar to the protective effect provided by latent tuberculosis. It was certainly possible that there was increasing resistance if not specific immunity to COVID-19 in certain genetic groups. It is difficult, however, to extrapolate this to all Indians who are a diverse collection of ethnic groups.

It is a balance and my guess is that its too soon to say where Indians as a whole will fall on this balance in terms of their sensitivity to COVID-19, hesaid.

Arguments about the Indian immune systemsare mostly speculative, according to Satyajit Rath of the National Institute of Immunology. He co-authored the 2018 study with Maecker.

I am yet to see any indication that COVID-19 will, in fact, turn out to be less prevalent and/or milder in India, since the epidemic is still in its early stages in the subcontinent, he said.

There are no publications, as of now, on the differential prevalence or outcome of COVID-19 among Indians and those of other ancestries worldwide.

Good nutrition, exercise and sleep can improve the immune system.

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.

Excerpt from:
COVID-19: Do Indians have higher immunity to novel coronavirus - Down To Earth Magazine

Families across the U.S. will get a portion of money from the federal government's sweeping $2 trillion stimulus package. But how much? USA TODAY

On the day some Americans could begin receiving stimulus checks from the federal government amid the coronavirus pandemic that has eroded the country's financial footing, economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the Labor Department will report another 5.5 million initial claims for unemployment insurance.

A record 6.6 million people sought benefits for the report issued a week ago after 3.3 million claims, then a record, were reportedthe previous week.

Also Thursday, astronauts launched for the International Space Station after a "strict quarantine." And the Trump administration loosened restrictions on essential workers.

The U.S. death toll was nearing 15,000 early Thursday, with more than430,000 confirmed cases, according tothe Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. Worldwide, there are close to 1.5million confirmed cases and more than 88,500 deaths.

Our live blog is being updated throughout the day. Refresh for the latest news, and get updates in your inboxwithThe Daily Briefing.More headlines:

The US has a shortage of face masks amid coronavirus pandemic. A USA TODAY investigation shows why.

A bridge between life and death:Most COVID-19 patients put on ventilators will not survive

Are you homeschooling during coronavirus quarantine?Moms, teachers share ideas and advice.

A side of toilet paper to go?Some restaurants are serving up more than meals during coronavirus crisis.

Authorities say fake cops are taking advantage of coronavirus travel restrictions to illegally stop drivers.

Support these brands:Here are 20 retailers that are giving back during the pandemic

Much-awaited stimulus cash will beginflooding into millions of bank accounts next week in the first wave of payouts to shore up the nation's wallets.Millions of taxpayers will begin receiving the extra money to pay rent, groceries and other bills next week, or possibly as early as Thursday or Friday.The first group estimated to cover 50 million to 60million Americans would include people who have already given their bank account information to the Internal Revenue Service.

The first group also would includeSocial Security beneficiaries who filed federal tax returns that included direct deposit information, according to an alert put out today by U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell's announcementsaid the expectation is that the first direct deposits would hit inmid-April, likely the week beginning April 13.

Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press

Congress has passed, President Trump has signed, a $2 trillion stimulus bill that includes checks to taxpayers. Here's how to see what you might get. USA TODAY

Attorney General William Barr called the restrictions in effect in many states to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus "draconian" and said Wednesday they should be revisited next month.Asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about the balance betweenreligious freedomsand the need to protect people, Barr said the federal government would be "keeping a careful eye" onstates' use of broad powers to regulate the lives of their citizens.

Officials, Barr said, should be "very careful to make sure...that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of protecting people."

Nicholas Wu

The new coronavirus began spreading in New York in February and came to the area via travelers from Europe, new research suggests.Two separate teams of scientists studying the genetics of the virus came to similar conclusions: People were spreading the virus weeks before the first confirmed case in New York.

"So far, the majority seem to be coming from Europe, and this is in part I think because there was a focus on stopping travel from China," Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told AFP.Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who led the other research team, told the New York Times: "The majority is clearly European."

The first case of the new coronavirus confirmed in New York came on March 1. On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump said he would restrictentry to the United States from those traveling from China. On March 11, Trump said he was restricting travel from Europe.

Ryan W. Miller

There probably wont be much let-up in the nations grim tally of job losses, at least in the short term, as the coronavirus pandemics toll on the economy mounts.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate the Labor Department will report Thursday that 5.5 million Americans filed initial applications for unemployment insurance last week, below the record 6.6 million who sought benefits the previous week. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country.

The figures are so outsizedthat forecasting them has become something of a crapshoot. Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, predicts the latest initial claims total Thursday will be 6.5 million, and JPMorgan Chaseestimates anall-time-high of 7 million.

Paul Davidson

Another trial is underway to test the safety of a possible vaccine for the new coronavirus, and those who fear needles may be in luck: It uses a skin-deep shot that would feel like a small pinchinstead of a deep jab.The trial aims to give 40 healthy volunteers in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Missouri, two doses of the potential vaccine, INO-4800, four weeks apart.

Similar to another clinical trial that began testing for safety in Seattle last month, the potential vaccine does not rely on using the virus itself. Inovio Pharmaceuticals' trial, instead, injects a piece of synthetic DNA with a section of the virus' genetic code. The Seattle trial relies on messenger RNA. After the shot,volunteers are given a brief electrical pulse that allows the synthetic DNA to more easily enter the body.

Dozens of other potential vaccines are being developed around the world, but it could be more than a year to 18 months before a vaccine is widely available, public health officials have said.

- Ryan W. Miller

The European Union could collapse if it fails to come together over financial challenges presented by the coronavirus, Italy's prime minister said. Giuseppe Conteand some other EU leaders are pressingmore frugal members of the bloc to issue so-called "corona bonds" - sharing debt that all EU nations would help to pay off. The Netherlands is among nations that haveopposed the plan.

"If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real," Conte told the BBC.

Conte also saidItaly may start to gradually ease the world's most restrictive national lockdown. The number of new COVID-19cases, hospitalizations and deaths have started to decline across the country in recent days. Italy has reported more than 17,000 deaths, the most of any nation, and almost 140,000 confirmed cases.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing people to stay home, but three astronauts are set toexperience a different type of isolation and quarantine in space. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his fellow crewmates, Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner,blasted offaboard the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraftat 4:05 a.m. ET from Kazakhstan for a six-hour journey to the International Space Station.

Russian space officials have taken extra precautions to protect the crew during training and pre-flight preparations as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world. Speaking to journalists via video link Wednesday, Cassidy said the crew has been in a very strict quarantine for the past month and so in good health.We all feel fantastic, he said.

Associated Press

U.S. stocks were poised to give up modest ground when markets open Thursday, one dayafter the Dow Jones industrial Average raced 779.71 points higher to close at23,433.57. The Standard & Poors 500 rose 3.4% Wednesday to end at 2,749.98, driven by gains in beaten down energy, real estate and utility shares.The broad index has jumped nearly 23% since it hit a low two and a half weeks ago.

Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a 3.4% gain on Wall Street as investors chose a positive focus for data about the coronavirus outbreaks trajectory.

The prospect for progress in talks among oil producers was a big driver of Wednesday's rally, along with the signs of virus infections leveling off in several global hotspots and increased clarity in the U.S. presidential race, said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third night in intensive care beingtreated for coronavirusand is instable condition and "improving," his office said.Johnson had a "good night" in the hospital, a Downing Street statement said.However, Britain's leader, 55, is still on oxygen and has handed over day-to-day operations of his government Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Johnson's wife, Carrie Symonds, is pregnant and also suffered symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. Earlier this week, Symonds tweeted that she was feeling stronger and "on the mend."

Kim Hjelmgaard

DoesCOVID-19 have new symptoms?We checked the facts, and it's true.

Your coronavirus questions, answered:How many people have recovered? Do I need to wear gloves, too? Does UV light kill COVID-19?

Take a (virtual) field trip: Go to Jamaica, Walt Disney World, Georgia Aquarium and more.

Toilet paper production is 24/7 these days.So, why can't we find it at stores?

Black people are overwhelmingly dying from coronavirus.Nobody knows why.

Is coronavirus spreading 'quickly' on gas pumps:Here are the facts.

In a first, small step toward reopening the country, the Trump administration issued new guidelines to make it easier for essential workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 to get back to work if they do not have symptoms of the coronavirus.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Wednesday at the White House that essential employees, such as health care and food supply workers, who have been within 6 feet of a confirmed or suspected case of the virus can return to work under certain circumstances if they are not experiencing symptoms.

Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance for essential workers as it takes a small step toward reopening the country. (April 8) AP Domestic

According to new documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, 90% of the federal personal protective equipment stockpile had been depleted as the Health and Human Services Department made its "final shipments" of N95 respirators, surgical and face masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves.

The remaining 10%, HHS said, would be reserved for federal workers and would not be sent to the states.

The documents, which report the distribution of personal protective equipment to state and local governments, show that only11.7 million N95 respirator masks have been distributed across the nation, and only 7,920 ventilators have been distributed both small fractions of the estimated amount of protective equipment needed by frontline medical workers.

Nicholas Wu

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

While governors, mayors and hospital officials conduct much-publicized life-and-death struggles to acquire ventilators, for most COVID-19 patients the oxygen-providing apparatuswill merely serve as a bridge from life to death.

Dennis Carroll, who led the U.S. Agency for International Development's infectious disease unit for more than a decade, told USA TODAY perhaps one-third of COVID-19 patients on ventilators survive.

But for many, ventilators represent their last chance."If you were one of the one-third, I suspect youd be very appreciative that that capability was available," Carroll said.

Some patients may be on a ventilator for only a few hours or days, but experts say COVID-19 patients often remain on the ventilators for 10 days or more.

John Bacon

Mapping coronavirus:Tracking the U.S.outbreak, state by state.

When will life return to normal? U.S.testing is too far behind to know, says one expert.

How the 50 states are responding to coronavirus:And why eight states haven't issued stay-at-home orders.

'Scotch tape and baling wire':How some hospitals and companies are responding to meet America's ventilator shortage.

You're not 'too busy' to stay active: Health experts worry about inactivity during coronavirus quarantine.

Contributing: Paul Davidson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/09/coronavirus-live-updates-stimulus-checks-us-deaths-unemployment-claims/2970660001/

Read more from the original source:
Coronavirus live updates: Stimulus checks on the way; New York's outbreak may have come from Europe; US death toll nears 15,000 - USA TODAY

Why the two-metre rule may not be enough

SOCIAL distancing guidance is to keep two metres away from people we dont live with. This rule is thought to be based on experiments from the 1930s that suggested droplets released from coughs and sneezes can travel between one and two metres.

But this understanding may be outdated. In an experiment led by the Health and Safety Executive, a cough from a medical manikin called Violet provides a graphic illustration of just how easily and how far coronavirus particles can spread.

In the demonstration, Violet coughs up a liquid laced with a dye that shows up under ultraviolet light. The dye is meant to reveal how droplets containing coronavirus particles are propelled through the air when we cough.

"You see thousands of droplets coming out of Violets mouth, with some reaching the ceiling and the far wall, which is at least two metres away," says paediatrician Dr Guddi Singh.

"Some of these droplets land on my hand, even though I am not in the direct line of the cough. If these droplets contained the virus, I would be infected. It is incredibly contagious.

"The experiment shows me why we need social distancing of at least two metres," she says. "But even at that, you are just on the fringe of where the spread could be happening."

Indeed, new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that two metres may not be nearly far enough; that coronavirus particles can be propelled up to eight metres by sneezes and six metres by coughs.

Some experts suggest that the larger droplets in saliva and mucus the ones believed to carry Covid-19 will fall safely to the ground within two metres. However, the US researchers said their experiment calls into question our understanding of what a safe distance might be.

Another report even suggests we may have more than coughs and sneezes to worry about. The prestigious National Academy of Sciences in the US recently warned that the virus may also be spread by the fine mist we produce when we talk and breathe.

One study suggests this can spread genetic material from the coronavirus more than two metres away from patients. This raises the possibility that the virus can linger in the air and potentially infect someone who walks by later.

All this research has prompted the World Health Organisation to start a review of its advice on the use of face masks.

Dilemma of the silent spreaders

THE spread of Covid-19 by people who arent showing symptoms is one of the reasons the virus is so dangerous. A study published in the journal Science concluded that 86 per cent of cases have either no symptoms or only very mild ones.

Countries such as Iceland and South Korea have reported a huge number of silent spreaders. In South Korea, 40.2 per cent of those aged 20 to 29 fell into this bracket.

It is not known why some people dont show symptoms, but it may be due to differences in their genetics.

How long does the virus survive?

WHETHER you have symptoms or not, the virus will be released from your respiratory system into the air and the droplets can "last for many hours on different surfaces which we may then touch", says Dr Singh.

"A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed the virus can survive suspended in the air for up to three hours. It can stay on cardboard for 24 hours and plastic for 72 hours."

This, says Dr Singh, could have implications for online shopping.

"In countries that seem to have managed the outbreak pretty well, such as Singapore and Taiwan, all deliveries are treated very seriously because it is clear that this could be another mode of transmission.

"With deliveries, there is advice that plastic items should be wiped down with soap and water."

Other experts say you are unlikely to reach every nook and cranny, so would be better off keeping your hands clean.

Its not just a cough and fever

THE official advice is that the two main symptoms of Covid-19 are a high temperature and a "new and continuous cough". Indeed, data gathered by the WHO in February on more than 55,000 confirmed cases in China showed a fever to be the most common symptom, occurring in 87.9 per cent of cases, followed by a dry cough (in 67.7 per cent).

Other symptoms listed included fatigue, coughing up phlegm, sore throats, headaches and diarrhoea and vomiting.

In the last ten days of the pandemic, a new symptom has emerged: loss of sense of smell. Data collated by ENT UK, which represents ear, nose and throat specialists, suggests this inability to smell and, often, to taste may be the very first sign.

Indeed, a new report from Kings College London points to it being one of the most common symptoms.

Younger people are at risk too

It is known that older people and those with underlying conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart and lung diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are more likely to become severely ill with coronavirus. A report in The Lancet last week where researchers from Imperial College London analysed data from China showed how the risks of serious illness and death rise sharply as we get older.

While a 20-year-old has about a 1 per cent chance of their illness being so severe that they are hospitalised, the risk rises to around 4 per cent for someone in their 40s; 8 per cent for someone in their 50s; and 19 per cent for the over-80s.

Yet, younger people are not invincible. Data from NHS England shows that while the vast majority of the almost 5,000 deaths in England have been in the over-60s, 396 younger people under 60 have lost their lives to Covid-19.

It is possible some peoples genetics makes them more vulnerable. Another theory revolves around the viral load the amount of virus someone is initially exposed to.

With some viruses, the more you breathe in, the sicker you get, which could explain why young nurses who are in close contact with lots of sick patients are dying from coronavirus.

The power of handwashing

In 2018, mathematician Dr Hannah Fry, who presents the BBC2 show with Dr van Tulleken, simulated a pandemic of a deadly flu virus. Her experiment revealed how quickly the contagion could be slowed simply by handwashing.

Washing hands an extra five-to-10 times a day would halve the number of people who caught the virus in the next 100 days, she says.

"The way that pandemics spread is all exponential, which means tiny things can have a massive impact. Things like handwashing, done properly, can genuinely make a difference," says Dr Fry.

:: Coronavirus, Horizon Special, BBC2, Thursday April 9, 9pm.

Solo dmg media

Read the rest here:
Two metres may not be nearly enough: What scientists now know about the virus - The Irish News

Imagine generating a vaccine for the novel coronavirus from your immune system.

The virus that causes COVID-19 has swept the globe with about 1.3 million infections and 70,000 deaths through Sunday evening.Development of a widely available vaccine can take a year or more while a virus continues its rampage.

Key to the race to develop a vaccine for the new coronavirus is a technology that uses the virus' genetic code to essentially persuade your body to make its own vaccine.

This techniqueis faster than egg-based manufacturing, which produces the majority of annual flu vaccines and led to delays in distributing a vaccine forH1N1 during the 2009 pandemic.

And it's enablingapossible vaccine for the new coronavirus to be developed in record time.

Coronavirus updates: Get the latest in USA TODAY's live blog

Its quicker to get started, said Clem Lewin, who is working onvaccine candidates for the manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur. All you need is the blueprint for the protein."

Testing still will take time. Scientists must determine whether any of several vaccine candidates fight the virus effectively. If so, they need to determine the proper dose. This tinkering is what could take a year or more.

When the first potential vaccine from the manufacturer Moderna was injected into people on March 16, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he believed the coronavirus vaccine was being developed at a record pace. It took 63 days to go from identifying a viruss genetic sequence to testing a vaccine in people.

Scrambling egg-based production

Several manufacturers pursuing a vaccine for the latest coronavirus have been aided by a technological innovation.

The method that Moderna, Sanofi and others are pursuing is different from traditional vaccinations, in which a weakened or dead version of the virus is introduced into the body, triggering itto createantibodies that would attack the live virus should the person be exposed to it.

In the new approach, pieces of messenger RNA that hold the chemical template of a spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus are injected into a human, said Mark Slifka, a professor of viral immunology at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Oregon.

The spikes are what the virus uses to attach to a human cell the first step in sickening someone.

In response to the injection of those molecules, the cells in the body produce the spike protein encoded by that mRNA. That triggers the body tomountan immune response to that viral protein, just as in traditional vaccines.

Essentially, the patient makes their own vaccine, says the narrator of a Moderna video about the vaccine.This cuts out the middleman.

Fauci said volunteers would be given two injections of the potential coronavirus vaccine, the second after 28 days. The doses are 25 milligrams, 100 milligrams and 250 milligrams, he said.

The individuals will be followed for one year both for safety and whether it induces the kind of response that we predict would be protective, Fauci said.

Moderna, the manufacturer conducting the initial tests, projected the first commercially available vaccine in 12 to 18 months. A corporate filing March 23 said CEO Stephane Banceltold Goldman Sachs it is possible that under emergency use, a vaccine could be available to some people, possibly including healthcare professionals, in the fall of 2020.

Why change the menu from reliable eggs?

Most flu vaccines are produced from fertilized chicken eggs, a decades-old process that takes four to five months.The mRNA process ismuch faster.

Delays in producing an H1N1 vaccine spurred health officials to urge development of other technologies, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

Its a state-of-the-art technology for the 1950s, Luciana Borio, then director for medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council, said at a 2018 conference on the 100th anniversary of the Spanish flu pandemic.

A New England Journal of Medicine review of the response to H1N1 found that 78 million doses of the vaccine were eventually produced for 70 countries worldwide, but only after two waves of the illness worldwide.

The most serious operational shortcoming ...was the failure to distribute enough influenza vaccine in a timely way, the report said. The cause: distribution problems, "a shortfall in global vaccine-production capacity and technical delays due to reliance on viral egg cultures for production.

Developing a vaccine is laborious, said Harvey Fineberg, a former president of the U.S. Institute of Medicine and former dean of the public-health faculty at Harvard University.

One step is confirmingthat a possible vaccine doesn't causebad reactions in patients. Then scientists examine how much vaccine is required for an antibody response. And they must verify the vaccine actually protects against infection, which is why it's ideal to test during an outbreak.

All those steps come after scientists identifythe genetic sequence to target for a vaccine.

Its like saying,'Ive got my architectural plans my house must be ready to move into,' Fineberg said. There are a lot of things you need to do between now and being ready to open the door.

Manufacturers work with government

The manufacturers pursuing coronavirus vaccines are working closely withthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency.

Moderna is working on 13 potential vaccines. Sanofi is working on two candidates:an mRNA candidate with the company Translate Bio and another option in collaboration with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency.

Other companies are pursuing other technologies. GlaxoSmithKline is working with China-based Clover Biopharmaceuticals through a different process to produce a cell-based vaccine.

Johnson & Johnson, which is working on several possible vaccines,announced last week it wouldinvest$1 billion for vaccine research, development and testing. The company said it could produce 1 billion doses of a vaccine when the time comes.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said $3.5 billion in the coronavirus spending packagewill help develop manufacturing technologies to ensure a robust, agile, U.S.-based supply chain of vaccines, therapeutics, and active pharmaceutical ingredients.

The biggest challenge we face in the United States is not developing a vaccine, tricky as that step is, Coons said in a statement. Its that we lack the domestic manufacturing capacity to quickly produce a vaccine once its proven and deliver it to the American people.

Lewin of Sanofi said the global health emergency spurred manufacturers to try different technologies.

We and all the other manufacturers are working as quickly as possible to accelerate these programs while ensuring the vaccine is safe and effective, Lewin said. It isnt business as usual for anybody.

What about changes to flu vaccines?

The technology used todevelop a coronavirus vaccine wont affect the annual flu vaccine because they are different viruses requiring different approaches. But evenbefore the pandemic,steps were underwayto hasten changes to the flu vaccine.

President Donald Trump signed an executive orderin September calling onmanufacturers to move away from egg-based vaccines because of critical shortcomings, including the months they take to produce. The order anticipated a pandemic more lethalthanthe 1918 Spanish flu, which killed 675,000 Americans.

William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University, said one reason tochange vaccine productionis that growing the vaccine in eggs allows mutationsthat make it less effective.

People were working on this already, Schaffner said. That sort of commitment, a presidential commitment, plus the moneys that go with it, really put the pedal to the metal for future research.

Egg-based vaccine manufacturing has been reliable. Developing another process would require a multimillion-dollar investment in an industry with small profit margins, Schaffner said.

Moving away from egg-based production is not like flipping a switch, he said. Im sure all the manufacturers are all thinking about this, but how and how quickly they do it is another matter.

Other options include cell-based and recombinant processes. A cell-based vaccine is grown in a mammal's cells, such as kidney cells from monkeys or dogs, rather than in a hen's eggs. A recombinant vaccine is created synthetically from the DNA, or genetic instructions, of a protein from the flu virus. The DNA is then combined with a baculovirus, which infects invertebrates.

Other changes could address vaccine delivery, perhaps moving from injections to pills or skin patches, Schaffner said.

A loftier goal is to develop what is called a universal vaccine, which could last five years at a time. Such a vaccine could be administered any time of year during a doctor's visit, rather than just in the fall.

Doing that would require changing how the vaccine attacks the flu virus, whichis shaped like a sphere with lollipops protruding from it. Vaccines so far have targeted the candy at the end ofthe lollipop, which changes every year.

A vaccine that targetsthe stem of the lollipop could offer protection for years, Shaffner said. If you get vaccinated, youre vaccinated against a whole series of different influenza viruses,Schaffner said.

The coronavirus pandemic has come during a severe flu season. This years vaccine is about as effective as usual, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of cases through Feb. 8. The study found the severity for people up to 49 years old including hospitalizations was worse than other recent seasons, including the severe year of 2017-2018.

Current influenza vaccines are providing substantial public health benefits,"said the study in CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report."However more effective vaccines are needed."

Contributing:Elizabeth Weise

Read the rest here:
A coronavirus vaccine is being developed in record time. But dont expect that technology to speed up flu vaccines yet. - Columbia Daily Herald

This research was partly funded by the Federal Canadian government, to support the development, testing and implementation of ways to manage the pandemic. Rumours have been circulating social media platforms at the speed of light, discussing the imminence or the impossibility of a real cure. Here, we discuss the ongoing research of a trial drug that is biologically capable of preventing fatalities from Coronavirus.

The answer is by closing the door that COVID-19 uses to enter the cells of your body.The door is the ACE2 protein on the surface of the cell membrane.

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19, which is commonly known as Coronavirus. During the last major outbreak of SARS, a similar viral respiratory illness that caused global devastation in 2003, it was Dr. Penninger and his colleagues who discovered that the ACE2 protein was the key receptor for SARS. In further research, he discovered that this protein was linked to a resultant cardiovascular disease and lung failure.

The ACE2 protein is where the spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 enters the human cell, like a door being broken down. The world is looking for a cure but there is no clinically proven antiviral treatment right now, or any treatment focusing on protecting the ACE2 receptor. This means that late-stage COVID-19 can be a fatal situation for those who are already experiencing other immune or lung issues.

The NHS defines antiviral treatment as: a type of medication used specifically for treating viral infections. They act by killing or preventing the growth of viruses.

The researchers here are not proposing a treatment that could kill the virus they are exploring the potential of highly calculated self-defence, on a microscopic level. What if those cellular doors were never broken down by the invading COVID-19 forces, because they were hidden or protected?

Dr. Josef Penninger, the UBC scientist leading this study, said:

There is hope for this horrible pandemic.

The study found that in cell cultures, hrsACE2 inhibited the early stages of COVID-19 load by a factor of 1000-5000. The researchers grew organs of blood vessels and kidneys from stem cells, to quickly test their ideas on a functioning human being.

Nria Montserrat, ICREA professor at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain, said:

In these moments in which time is short, human organoids save the time that we would spend to test a new drug in the human setting.

The researchers showed that in these organs, the virus can directly infect and duplicate itself in the tissues of the blood vessel and kidney. This gave them valuable insight into how COVID-19 cases that are severe present with multi-organ failure, with evidence of cardiovascular damage.

It was found that clinical grade hrsACE2 reduced the infection in these engineered organs.

Dr. Art Slutsky, a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science of St. Michaels Hospital and professor at the University of Toronto, said:

Our new study provides very much needed direct evidence that a drug called APN01 (human recombinant soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 hrsACE2) soon to be tested in clinical trials by the European biotech company Apeiron Biologics, is useful as an antiviral therapy for COVID-19.

Apeiron Biologics write that they are currently planning a clinical pilot study in China with COVID-19 infected patients, whilst evaluating options for further clinical development. APN01 was previously being used for Acute Lung Injury and Pulmonal Arterial Hypertension, for which the company currently have APN01 in Phase-2 clinical development. It is possible, given the existing Phase-2 level of development, that the next clinical trial for COVID-19 could automatically go to Phase-3. The length of Phase-3 clinical trials in Canada are usually one to three years, which involves around 1000-3000 patients. After that, the regulatory review can take anything between six months to two years.

However, given the global urgency, funding from Canadian government and clinical trials being held in China, it is highly likely that development of APN01 will be fast-tracked. We reached out for comment to the biotech company about possible timelines but have received no response at the time of publishing.

Penninger, professor in UBCs faculty of medicine, director of the Life Sciences Institute and the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics at UBC said:

This work stems from an amazing collaboration among academic researchers and companies, including Dr. Ryan Conders gastrointestinal group at STEMCELL Technologies in Vancouver, Nuria Montserrat in Spain, Drs. Haibo Zhang and Art Slutsky from Toronto and especially Ali Mirazimis infectious biology team in Sweden, who have been working tirelessly day and night for weeks to better understand the pathology of this disease and to provide breakthrough therapeutic options.

The virus causing COVID-19 is a close sibling to the first SARS virus.

Our previous work has helped to rapidly identify ACE2 as the entry gate for SARS-CoV-2, which explains a lot about the disease. Now we know that a soluble form of ACE2 that catches the virus away, could be indeed a very rational therapy that specifically targets the gate the virus must take to infect us. There is hope for this horrible pandemic.

The findings of the study have been published in Cell.

Editor's Recommended Articles

Read more:
Researchers test drug that stops early stages of COVID-19 - Open Access Government

THERES a 70 per cent chance youre going to get a mum without MS for the first time.

Those were the words Amanda Weyman-Jones told her daughter before they hopped on a plane, in a last ditch-attempt for Amanda to take her future back.

In January, Amanda and daughter Chloe travelled halfway across the globe to Moscow, Russia for a life changing and experimental treatment in hopes it would effectively stop her three decade battle with multiple sclerosis in its tracks.

The trip was made possible with the support from the Roma community who banded together to help Amanda raise $80,000 to pay for the treatment only available in the Russian capital.

And according to Amanda, she has already seen a massive improvement with her condition.

Im walking and I would say I have improved 70 per cent already, and its only expected to get better as time goes on, the 58-year-old mother of six said.

They say that the treatment gives you an 80 per cent (chance) of curing your MS and at the moment, I feel like Im in that 80 per cent Im feeling really good about my chances.

Amanda underwent an experimental procedure called Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) treatment, which rebuilds the patients immune system.

Seven weeks on and Amanda says she feels like a new person, and has been walking around the football field everyday, which she states is a miracle as she couldnt even walk to the field before the treatment.

Ever since returning to Roma from Russia in February, all she has wanted to do is shout from the rooftops that others living with MS can also have their lives changed.

I heard about a man on a property in Blackall with MS and hes young so I want him to know he doesnt have to have this disease, you can get better, Mrs Weyman-Jones said.

This treatment gives you that infinity with people. Its life saving stuff.

Amandas brother Hayward and sister Diana were both diagnosed with MS too; Hayward died last year, and Diana is now in a wheelchair.

All too familiar with the devastating effects of MS, Amanda is determined to not become a burden on her loved ones.

Amanda who has Primary Progressive MS was given an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score of 4.5 which notes a limited walking mobility to approximately 300m without aide prior to treatment. With no action taken, she would probably have continued to progress until she was wheelchair bound. The EDSS is scored zero to 10, with 10 marking a person has died from MS.

Now, with more improvements expected to continue in the next six to 12 months, Amanda is hopeful her quality of life will improve and once her immunity has built up, to continue working at the family-owned-and-run Overlander Motel.

I will be forever grateful to Dr Frederinco, the brilliant medical team in Russia, Roma, its local businesses and the wider community for blessing me with a new life, Amanda said.

Through the generosity and support by all, I have realised how lucky I am to be surrounded by such a caring community.

Amanda said she knew that while there is a long road ahead of her, every passing day she is more feeling more hopeful.

I was told that recovery can be like a rollercoaster, so I will accept the bad days and make sure I remember the good, she said.

My walking is slowly getting safer and less hazardous to myself . and to all other pedestrians. Every morning I wake up, knowing that every days a better day.

I am a new person, it is just a miracle.

Stats about MS

With MS Queensland aware of nearly 4000 people living with Multiple Sclerosis in Queensland and over 25,600 people in Australia living with the neurological condition.

Most people with MS in Australia experience their first symptoms between 20 and 40 years of age, with about three quarters of people living with MS, female.

MS is not considered a classic genetic disease in that there is not one single gene that causes the condition. Rather, there are more than 200 different known genetic factors which contribute to the risk of developing MS. It has been estimated that genes may account for around half of the risk for MS, and those with a family history of MS are at greater risk than the general population. Even so, the majority of people with a family member with MS will not develop the disease so genes on their own are not enough.

MS is caused by a complex interaction between a persons genetics and environment factors.

Autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplant (AHSCT) is an immunosuppressive chemotherapy treatment combined with reinfusion of blood stem cells to help rebuild the immune system.

AHSCT has been used for decades for the treatment of blood cancers. However in the past ten or so years a number of international observational studies of several hundred patients have been published with some patients being followed for five to eight years.

The treatment consisted of four days of stimulation before the stem cells were collected and then Amanda was pumped full of high dose chemotherapy.

Amanda then had a rest day, and on January 29, her harvested stem cells were returned to her MS ravaged body, signalling the rebirth of her immune system with no memory of MS.

After that she was given daily steroid infusions and was put into isolation for six nights before one final dose of chemotherapy.

Response from MS Queensland about the treatment

CEO of MS Queensland Zane Ali said MS Queensland and MS Research Australia are continuing to support Australian research in the use of AHSCT to treat multiple sclerosis.

Rigorous evidence for the efficacy and safety of AHSCT in relation to other MS therapies, and the most appropriate circumstances for its use, is required for Australian hospitals and clinicians to provide this intervention with equity and with greater confidence in the potential outcomes, he said.

Australian hospitals and doctors are likely to recommend AHSCT as a possible treatment only if the other approved MS therapies are not working for an individual with MS or cannot be used in an individual for other reasons.

Despite Amandas MRI revealing her Central Nervous System was so progressed (with 35 lesions or more on the spine), she met the criteria for the treatment because of her mobility.

You have to be at a very healthy besides having MS, patients are tested from head to toe when they first arrive in hospital to ensure that they dont have any cancers or illnesses that could effect the viability of the treatment, said daughter Chloe.

The doctor was surprised after he saw how mobile mum still was considering the damage that he saw in her brain.

People arent accepted all of the time, some are told before they go and some are only told after all of the testing is completed in Moscow, then they are then sent home. International studies also suggest AHSCT does not halt or reverse progressive forms of the disease, and is therefore unlikely that

AHSCT would be recommended as a treatment for patients with secondary progressive or primary progressive MS.

Currently the treatment is provided in Australia through two observational clinical trials, at St Vincents, Sydney and Austin Health, Melbourne and by a small number of other centres on a case-by-case basis.

These centres have strict eligibility requirements that have been set by the hospital ethics committees and may only apply to limited numbers of patients with MS, Mr Ali said.

It is for this reason patients need to be referred to these centres by a neurologist, who can provide a detailed clinical history and MRI findings, Mr Ali said.

Mr Ali said that data from the large European Bone Marrow Transplant Registry suggests that in approximately 55 per cent of people with MS, treated with a range of different chemotherapy regimens, at three years of follow-up, inflammatory disease is halted with no evidence during the follow-up period of relapses, active brain lesions or disability progression.

After five years approximately 45 per cent of people remain progression free.

This case series included patients with both relapsing remitting and progressive disease, he said.

Other smaller studies have shown similar results, with remission of disease seen in these studies in at least 63 per cent of patients followed for a minimum of three years.

Most studies also show that the risk of disease activity returning gradually increases over longer periods of follow-up.

Mr Ali said in some but not all, of the people with MS who respond to AHSCT, some reversal of disability has been noted in some studies.

Other patients may continue to experience disease activity and disability progression (worsening) despite treatment with AHSCT, he said.

In people with progressive forms of MS or relapsing remitting MS of longer duration, the benefits of the procedure have been much less clear and accumulation of disability usually continues.

Amanda said they chose Moscow for the treatment because despite other countries offering the experimental procedure, after thorough research they found Russia had the highest rate of treatment success.

They accept advanced progressive MS where most of the other clinics offering it only treat relapsing remitting MS, she said.

I was still on my feet (only just) but people went over in wheelchairs, walkers, walking sticks and many were older than me.

For Chloe, who is training to become a nurse and who spent every spare moment researching AHSCT treatment said while they mostly compared the options available in Mexico and Russia, Russia stood out to them because it was cheaper and they had more experience.

One of the major influencing factors was that in Mexico patients stayed in a complex with they carer and in Russia patients stayed in a hospital, so we felt more reassured knowing that mum would have 24 hour care provided to her at the touch of a buzzer, she said.

Great lengths of a loving daughter

Although Amanda has lived with MS for 34 years, she feels like she is one of the lucky ones.

None of this would have been possible without Chloe. Her drive and determination surprises me every day, she said.

Researching, booking, fundraising and organising the whole trip, proves to me that I am the luckiest mum on earth.

Chloe was the driving force behind the push for treatment and the GoFundMe campaign which raised over half the $80,000 goal was with her mum every step of the journey.

I have found spending a month in Russia very interesting, the first couple of weeks for easy, but after that I just wanted to come home to Australia, the 19-year-old said.

Every day I would go and visit Mum in the morning and stay there with her until dark and then head on back to the hotel, I basically just did that every day.

I made some great friends with some other patients carers and so often we would catch up at the end of the day to recuperate and support each other.

Although the month spent away from her loved ones began to take its toll, Chloe has high hopes for the future.

It was very draining being over there, I felt like I wasnt doing much but I was just always so tired, she said.

Its amazing to see how quickly mum is healing after the treatment, but it will take some time to see what the true outcome for her is going to be.

In the end, we dont know what the future holds for mum and her MS, we are just thinking positively and hope that we see improvements over the next 12 months.

We feel very lucky that we had the opportunity to go over and are now advocating for other people to have the treatment as well.

Chloe and Amanda Weyman-Jones sightseeing in Moscow before the treatment began.

During the treatment.

Amanda Weyman-Jones with Greta and Theresa who were also going through the treatment.

Read the original here:
Roma woman tells of her 'life-changing' MS treatment - Chronicle

The Leukapheresis market research report is required to show a gigantic development inside the upcoming years. The investigators likewise have dissected downsides with on-going Organic Semiconductor patterns and in this manner the open doors that are giving to the expanded development of the business. The report gives the viewpoint of this aggressive scene of worldwide markets. The report passes points of interest that started from the examination of the focused on market

leukapheresis market is expected to rise from its initial estimated value of USD 19.9 million in 2018 to an estimated value of USD 36.1 million by 2026 registering a CAGR of 7.7% in the forecast period of 2019-2026. Leukapheresis is a procedure used for separating white blood cells from a sample of blood. It can be performed to reduce the count of very high white blood cell, to attain cells for various research purposes and to obtain autologous blood cells for further transplant back into patient. It is a type of apheresis, used for separating out a particular constituent of blood and to return the remaining part back to the circulation.

Leukapheresis Market 2027 Top Players (Market Analysis, Opportunities, Demand, Forecasting)

Click HERE To get SAMPLE COPY OF THIS REPORT (Including Full TOC, Table & Figures) [emailprotected]https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-leukapheresis-market

The titled segments and sub-section of the market are illuminated below:

By Type (Leukapheresis Devices, Leukapheresis Disposables),

Application (Research Applications, Therapeutic Applications),

End User (Blood Component Providers and Blood Centers, Academic and Research Institutes, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies, Hospitals and Transfusion Centers),

Geographical Insights:

In-depth qualitative analyses include identification and investigation of the following aspects:

The trend and outlook of global market is forecast in optimistic, balanced, and conservative view. The balanced (most likely) projection is used to quantify global extended reality market in every aspect of the classification from perspectives of Technology, Component, Device Type, Industry Vertical, End-user, and Region.

Competitive Analysis: Leukapheresis Market

The global leukapheresis market is highly fragmented and the major players have used different strategies such as mergers, partnerships, expansions, innovative product launches, agreements, joint ventures, acquisitions and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of leukapheresis market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, South America and Middle East & Africa.

Leukapheresis Market competitive landscapes provides details by topmost Key Players like

Asahi Kasei Medical Co. Ltd, Haemonetics Corporation, Terumo BCT Inc., STEMCELL Technologies Inc., Macopharma, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, HemaCare, Caltag Medsystem Ltd, AllCells, StemExpress, PPA, Key Biologics LLC, ZenBio Inc., Precision for Medicine Inc., BioIVT, Digital Pharmacist Inc., Lmb Technologie GmbH, Grifols, S.A, Bioelettronica and Kaneka Pharma Europe NV.

Browse in-depth TOC on Global Leukapheresis Market60- Tables220- Figures350 Pages

The Study Objectives of the Global Leukapheresis Market Research Report are:

Table of Content:

Chapter One: Global Leukapheresis Industry Market Research Report

Chapter Two: Industry Chain Analysis

Chapter Three: Global Leukapheresis Market, by Type

Chapter Four: Leukapheresis Market, by Application

Chapter Five: Global Leukapheresis Production, Value ($) by Region (2015-2020)

Chapter Six: Global Leukapheresis Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2015-2020)

Chapter Seven: Global Leukapheresis Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions

Chapter Eight: Competitive Landscape

Chapter Nine: Global Leukapheresis Market Analysis and Forecast by Type and Application

Chapter Ten: Leukapheresis Market Analysis and Forecast by Region

Chapter Eleven: New Project Feasibility Analysis

Chapter Twelve: Research Finding and Conclusion

Chapter Thirteen: Appendix

Read More: https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-leukapheresis-market

For each of the aforementioned regions and countries, detailed analysis and data for annual revenue (demand and production) are available for 2020-2027. The breakdown of all regional markets by country and the key national markets by Technology, Component, and Industry Vertical over the forecast years are also included.

How will this Market Intelligence Report Benefit You?

Note: If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.

About Us:

Data Bridge set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.

Contact:

Data Bridge Market Research

US: +1 888 387 2818

UK: +44 208 089 1725

Hong Kong: +852 8192 7475

Email:[emailprotected]

Read the original:
Leukapheresis Market Is Booming Worldwide | Asahi Kasei Medical Co. Ltd, Haemonetics Corporation, Terumo BCT Inc., STEMCELL Technologies Inc. -...

How does our immune system react to the coronavirus?

The coronavirus is like any other virus not much more than a shell around genetic material and a few proteins. To replicate, it needs a host in the form of a living cell. Once infected, this cell does what the virus commands it to do: copy information, assemble it, release it.

But this does not go unnoticed. Within a few minutes, the body's immune defense system intervenes with its innate response: Granulocytes, scavenger cells and killer cells from the blood and lymphatic system stream in to fight the virus. They are supported by numerous plasma proteins that either act as messengers or help to destroy the virus.

For many viruses and bacteria, this initial activity of the immune system is already sufficient to fight an intruder. It often happens very quickly and efficiently. We often notice only small signs that the system is working: We have a cold, a fever.

Read more:Sepsis a common cause of death from coronavirus

Fever and feeling weak: This is how our immune system makes itself felt.

Interferons are a subgroup of signaling proteins that are normally secreted by infected cells. SARS-CoV-1, which was responsible for the SARS epidemic in 2003, appears to have suppressed the production of one of these interferons and thus at least delayed the attraction of immune cells. To what extent this is also the case with SARS-CoV-2, the name given to the coronavirus behind the current pandemic, is still unclear. However, interferons support the body's own virus defense and are now being tested as a therapy in clinical trials.

At a certain point, however, the host response is so strong that its effect can be counterproductive. For example, numerous immune cells can enter our lungs and cause the membrane through which oxygen normally passes from the air into the blood to thicken. The exchange of gases is restricted, and in the worst case, ventilation may be necessary.

Sometimes the reaction can overshoot and be directed against healthy cells as well. This could also be the case with the novel coronavirus. So drugs are also being tested that suppress an excessive immune reaction and that are already known from the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The balance between protective and overly aggressive immune processes in dealing with the coronavirus is currently a big mystery. This must now be investigated, says Achim Hrauf, Director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology at the University of Bonn.

Read more:World Health Day: What does the WHO do?

After a time delay, the acquired immune system finally sets itself in motion. It is different for every person and depends on what we have experienced and with which pathogens we have come into contact. While T cells help destroy infected cells, B cells form antibodies that can keep the virus in check. In the case of the coronavirus, these are neutralizing antibodies that bind to the spike protein of the virus. This is the site of attack of the virus, with which it enters the host, i.e. our human cell. Neutralizing antibodies specifically incapacitate the spike protein. Our immune system remembers the antibodies it has produced and is thus prepared for a new infection with the same intruder.

Is there an immunity? How long does it last?

The good news is that it is very likely there is an immunity. This is suggested by the proximity to other viruses, epidemiological data and animal experiments. Researchers infected four rhesus monkeys, a species close to humans, with SARS-CoV-2. The monkeys showed symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, developed neutralizing antibodies and recovered after a few days. When the recovered animals were reinfected with the virus, they no longer developed any symptoms: They were immune.

Read more:What you need to know about the coronavirus

Rhesus monkey and humans share about 90% of their DNA

The bad news: It is not (yet) known how long the immunity will last. It depends on whether a patient has successfully developed neutralizing antibodies. Achim Hrauf estimates that the immunity should last at least one year. Within this year, every new contact with the virus acts as a kind of booster vaccination, which in turn might prolong the immunity.

"The virus is so new that nobody has a reasonable immune response," says the immunologist. He believes that lifelong immunity is unlikely. This "privilege" is reserved for viruses that remain in the body for a long time and give our immune system a virtually permanent opportunity to get to know it. Since the coronavirus is an RNA (and not a DNA) virus, it cannot permanently settle in the body, says Hrauf.

The Heidelberg immunologist Stefan Meuer predicts that the novel coronavirus will also mutate like all viruses. He assumes that this could be the case in 10 to 15 years: "At some point, the acquired immunity will no longer be of any use to us because then another coronavirus will return, against which the protection that has now been formed will not help us because the virus has changed in such a way that the antibodies are no longer responsible. And then no vaccination will help either."

How can we take advantage of the antibody response of the immune system?

Researchers are already collecting plasma from people who have successfully survived an infection with SARS-CoV-2 and are using it to treat a limited number of patients suffering from COVID-19. The underlying principle: passive immunization. The studies carried out to date have shown positive results, but they have usually been carried out on only a few people.

Read more:Coronavirus: How do ventilators work?

Research on antibodies is in high gear

At best, passive immunization is used only when the patient's own immune system has already started to work against the virus, says Achim Hrauf: "The longer you can leave the patients alone with the infection before you protect them with passive immunization, the better." Only through active immunization can one be protected in the long term. At the same time, it is difficult to recognize the right point in time.

PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are currently used to find out whether a person is infected with the coronavirus. With the help of PCR, it is not possible to tell whether or not there is reproducible viral RNA; it is just a proof of whether the virus is still present, dead or alive. A PCR test cannot tell us whether our immune system has already intervened, i.e. whether we have had contact with the virus in the past, have formed antibodies and are now protected. Researchers are therefore working on tests that check our blood for the presence of antibodies. They are already in use in Singapore, for example, and are nearing completion in the USA. With the help of these tests, it would finally be possible to gain an overview of the unclear case numbers. In addition, people who have developed antibodies against the virus could be used at the forefront of health care, for example. An "immunity passport" is even under discussion.

A PCR (polymerase chain reaction) laboratory

Is it possible to become infected and/or ill several times with the coronavirus?

"According to all we know, it is not possible with the same pathogen," says Achim Hrauf. It is possible to become infected with other coronaviruses or viruses from the SARS or MERS group if their spike proteins look different. "As far as the current epidemic is concerned, it can be assumed that people who have been through COVID-19 will not become ill from it for the time being and will not transmit the virus any further," he says.

How long before you're no longer contagious?

A study carried out on the first coronavirus patients in Germany showed that no viruses that are capable of replication can be found from day eight after the onset of symptoms, even though PCR can still detect up to 100,000 gene copies per sample. This could change the current quarantine recommendations in the future.

Medical assistants need protection when testing suspected coronavirus patients

According to the Robert Koch Institute, patients can currently be discharged from hospital if they show two negative PCR samples from the throat within 24 hours. If they have had a severe case of the disease, they should remain in domestic isolation for another two weeks. For each discharge, whether from hospital or home isolation, they should have been symptom-free for at least 48 hours.

Why do people react differently to the virus?

While some people get off with a mild cold, others are put on ventilators or even die of SARS-Cov-2. Especially people with pre-existing conditions and older people seem to be worst-affected by the virus. Why? This is the hottest question at the moment.

It will still take a very, very long time to understand the mechanistic, biological basis for why some people are so much more severely affected than others, virologist Angela Rasmussen told The Scientist. "The virus is important, but the host response is at least as important, if not more important," her colleague Stanley Perlman told the magazine.

Stefan Meuer sees a fundamental survival principle of nature in the different equipment and activity of our immune systems: "If we were all the same, one and the same virus could wipe out the entire human species at once. Due to the genetic range, it is quite normal that some people die from a viral disease while others do not even notice it. "

Achim Hrauf also suspects immunological variants that could be genetically determined. Since interstitial pneumonia is observed with the coronavirus, the focus is probably on an overreaction of the immune system. However, it is also possible that each person affected may have been loaded with a different dose of the virus, which in turn leads to different outcomes. And finally, it makes a difference how robust the body and lungs are: Competitive athletes simply have more lung volume than long-time smokers.

The immune system needs many different types of fuel. Fruit and vegetables provide them. Your diet should be healthy and colorful: Oranges, red peppers, green leafy vegetables and red cabbage provide a potpourri of vitamins, and are especially rich in natural vitamin C.

In order to ensure your immune system is top-top, make sure you have all the necessary immunizations. Adults often forget to refresh vaccinations they had when they were young. Check if you need booster shots for tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, hepatitis, pneumococcus, meningitis, measles, mumps, rubella, the flu and others. Be sure to talk to your doctor!

Scientific studies suggest that regular muscle training (jogging, nordic or pole walking, taking a stroll), three times a week for 20 minutes can boost your defenses. But be careful: overdoing it can also drain your immune system.

Sufficient sleep doesn't just allow your body to recuperate. During the slow-wave sleep phase, neurotransmitters are released and the immune system springs into action.

Studies show that good spirits and a zest for life promote a strong immune system. Laughing and playing don't just provide for a better quality of life, they also boost the body's defenses.

Negative stress activates the release of adrenalin and cortisol. These hormones can paralyze the immune system. Sensible stress and time management allows the body to rest and replenish new energy. Selective relaxation exercises like meditation, autogenic training and yoga can significantly boost the immune system.

Taking walks in the fresh air gives you a change of temperature and exercise - both stimulate the body's defense systems. Mucous membranes also benefit from improved circulation and the increased humidity makes it easier to fight off attacks.

Studies have shown that burning up short chain sugars like fructose and glucose uses up many vitamins that are no longer available to the body.

Alternating hot and cold showers help regulate body heat and improve blood flow. An invigorating massage with a massage sponge or brush stimulates the immune system even more.

View original post here:
The immune system's fight against the coronavirus - DW (English)

Its become an all-too-common variety of news story: Dead whales whose digestive systems are clogged with plastic. Increasing numbers of seabirds eating plastic, often with dire consequences. Ditto with turtles and fish.

Plastic ingestion by aquatic life is well documented. Less well known is the damage plastic does to the immune systems of fish.

There's very little research done on that, Patty Zwollo said. A lot of studies have focused on the larger pieces of plastics. I think the field is still trying to figure out where the microplastics are in different animals, including fish.

Zwollo is an immunologist, a professor in William & Marys Department of Biology. Immunologists study the bodys mechanism that provides resistance to disease. Her lab has discovered that just as whales swallow plastic thinking its food, some cellular components of the immune system in fish swallow bits of microplastic that they mistake for invading pathogens.

Zwollo compares the immune system to an army: Its a complex organization that has evolved to protect the body from invaders.

First, an army needs to be trained to recognize the enemy, she explained. And then when it's trained to do that, it has all kinds of different ways of fighting the enemy.

Her research focuses on the immune systems in salmon and trout and she further specializes in a specific category of soldier in the immune system army. Its known as the B cell, a specialized white blood cell commando.

When B cells recognize a pathogen or a toxin or whatever, they will bind to the invader, Zwollo said. Theyll start to make antibodies and then remove the pathogen from your body.

Once bits of plastic get small enough the size of a bacterium they can be mistaken for bacteria or viruses and ingested by certain cells in the immune system army. An immune cells act of ingesting a foreign body is known as phagocytosis. Those cells are called phagocytes.

And once the plastic gets inside of the cell, they cant be digested because theyre not organic. Theyre plastic, so the plastic stays inside the cell, Zwollo explained.

She says that lab studies have shown that if an immune cell absorbs a great deal of microplastic, the cell will die pretty quickly. But thats probably not biologically relevant, she added, explaining that in the natural environment, the levels of microplastic are almost certainly much lower than what the cells were getting in the lab.

So now that my students are feeding cells very small amounts of those microplastics, really low levels, she said. And then we see that they do survive longer, but they still die. So probably that is more realistic in comparison with what happens in the oceans.

When it comes to B cells, things get a little more complicated. B cells in mammals differ in a number of ways from B cells in fish, Zwollo explained. Its one of the many complexities in the study of the immune system. For one thing, mammals produce B cells in their bone marrow.

Fish dont have bone marrow, she said. So all their immune cells are made in this weird organ, the anterior kidney. The kidney of fish is very different from our kidney.

More to the point, mammalian B cells are not phagocytic they do their antibody work without engulfing the invading pathogen (or errant microsliver of plastic). Our B cells bind to the invader, then start producing antibodies.

But in fish, B cells can also be phagocytic, she said. So that, to me, is the most interesting thing about it. It doesnt seem to just affect phagocytes.

Zwollo stressed that her labs results are preliminary. She recently received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue her studies on the effect microplastics are having on the immune systems of trout and salmon, commercially important fish.

After Zwollos lab completes its work, the second aspect will be conducted at William & Marys Virginia Institute of Marine Science, where researchers will expose whole fish to microplastics.

Ill be involved in that part too, she said. But most of my contribution will be in the first aspect.

She said she expects her investigations to take another year. Much of the work in the Zwollo lab is done by students. She has a graduate student, Fatima Quddos, working on the project. She also has an undergraduate, Lauren Abderhalden 22 involved.

Lauren is culturing cells, Zwollo said. Ive given her a lot of freedom, so she can learn the effect of little tiny plastic beads versus beads that are a little larger. What is the effect of concentration? And time, she is looking at how long you have to leave those cells with the microplastics.

Zwollo is teaching two sections of Immunology Laboratory this semester with eight students in each section. Shes launched her lab students loose on a journey of discovery.

I basically told them, all right, you get to decide what sizes of beads you want to work with, she said.

The lab students set their own course, deciding on all the conditions for their own experiments. Then, of course, they will analyze the data.

The students are really engaged, Zwollo said. Im interested in anything that comes out, pretty much. Because we really dont know much about this situation.

Read this article:
Immune-system cells of fish are ingesting plasticand then dying - William & Mary News

Fresh fruit and vegetables juices are a great way to boost your immunity(Photo: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Fresh juices are a great way to boost your immunesystem.

According to Scott Tashie, owner of City Silo Table + Pantry and I Love Juice Bars in Memphis, the best juices to build immunity are orange, carrot and apple.

The antioxidants in apples help to protect your cells from the free radicals floating around, while carrots provide beta-carotene, another great antioxidant. Oranges are an excellent source of Vitamin C, something very vital when fighting off an illness.

During times like this, Tashie focuses on keeping his Vitamin C in check as well as getting the appropriate greens into his diet. Add in some pineapple with kale, spinach, parsley, celery, mint, lemon and ginger and you are good to go, he said.

Tashie offered these tips for juicing at home:

Dont be afraid to experiment.Sometimes the best juices happen when you arent trying at all, and they come out fantastic.

Not all fruits will juice the same flavors every time. Be prepared to tweak your recipe from time to time.

Juice more than one juice at a time. That way you can have enough for the whole day and maybe the following day. Be careful to store properly because it is not pasteurized.

Dont get discourage by the cleanup. Its part of it.

Jennifer Chandler is theFood & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached atjennifer.chandler@commercialappeal.com, and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.

For the next few weeks, The Commercial Appeal Food & Dining reporter Jennifer Chandler will post shopping and recipe tips to help you put a delicious and healthy meal on the table. Chandler is the author of four cookbooks, including "The Southern Pantry Cookbook."

Read or Share this story: https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2020/04/07/coronavirus-cooking-fresh-juices-city-silo-i-love-juice-bar/5114858002/

Read more here:
Cooking in the age of coronavirus: Boost your immune system with fresh juices - Commercial Appeal

ASHEBORO During the current COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities have stressed that one group of people most vulnerable are those with compromised immune systems. With that in mind, are there ways we can boost our immunity to disease?

We asked Jeannie Leonard, Family and Consumer Science agent at Randolph County Cooperative Extenstion, and Jodi Meier, a registered dietitian and nutritionist in Randolph County Public Healths WIC office, for lists of foods that boost the immune system. They responded with a wealth of information.

Leonard provided a list of foods and details showing how they work. She even added three healthy recipes, all of which sound tasty.

IMMUNE-BOOSTING FOODS

Citrus Fruits Most people turn to vitamin C after theyve caught a cold. Thats because it helps build up your immune system. Vitamin C is thought to increase the production of white blood cells.

Red Bell Peppers Ounce for ounce, red bell peppers contain twice as much vitamin C as citrus fruits.

Ginger Ginger may help decrease inflammation, which will aid in reducing a sore throat and other inflammatory diseases.

Garlic Garlic may help lower blood sugar and slow down the hardening of your arteries. It was used as a home remedy for fighting infections in early civilizations.

Broccoli Broccoli is supercharged with vitamins and minerals, packed with vitamins A, C and E, and loads of antioxidants. Broccoli has the most effect when it is less cooked.

Spinach Like many of the other superfoods, spinach is packed with vitamin C, but also with numerous antioxidants and beta-carotene, which may increase the infection-fighting ability of our immune systems. Like broccoli, spinach has the most effect when it is less cooked.

Turmeric Turmeric is best known for use in curries, but has been used for years as an anti-inflammatory for treating arthritis.

Almonds Loaded with vitamin E, nuts such as almonds are packed also with healthy fats. A half-cup serving of almonds provides almost 100 percent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin E.

Yogurt Look for yogurts that have "live and active cultures" printed on the label, like Greek yogurt. These cultures may stimulate your immune system to help fight diseases.

Green Tea Both green tea and black tea are packed with flavonoids, a type of antioxidant.

Poultry Poultry, such as chicken and turkey, is high in vitamin B-6. About 3 ounces of light turkey or chicken meat contains 40-50 percent of your daily-recommended amount of B-6.

Sunflower Seeds Sunflower seeds are full of nutrients, including phosphorous, magnesium and vitamin B-6, and super filled with vitamin E.

Papaya Papaya is another fruit loaded with vitamin C. You can find 224 percent of the daily-recommended amount of vitamin C in a single papaya. Papayas also have a digestive enzyme called papain that has anti-inflammatory effects.

Kiwi Like papayas, kiwis are naturally full of a ton of essential nutrients, including folate, potassium, vitamin K, and vitamin C. Vitamin C boosts white blood cells to fight infection, while kiwis other nutrients keep the rest of your body functioning properly.

Shellfish Shellfish such as clams, crab, lobster and mussels are loaded with zinc, which our bodies need, so that our immune cells can function as intended.

TRY THESE RECIPES

Leonard, known for her cooking at Cooperative Extension, added a bonus with these three recipes:

SUPER IMMUNE-BOOSTING SOUP

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 celery stalks, sliced

1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon turmeric

12 cups water

4 heads baby bok choy, bottoms chopped off

1/2 head kale, chopped

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and saut for 5 minutes or until translucent. Add in garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add in celery and mushrooms and saut for about 10 minutes or until mushrooms have wilted. Add in spices (including ginger, if using) and water and bring to a boil. Then let simmer, covered for 1 hour or in a crock-pot for 3-4 hours on low. Add bok choy and kale in the last 10 minutes of cooking to wilt. Serve warm or store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator. Yields 6-8 bowls.

GREEN COLD FIGHTING SMOOTHIE

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

1 ripe apple, chopped

2 cups kale leaves, stems removed

1/2 cup orange juice, cold or frozen, no sugar added

1/2 cup cold water

12 ice cubes

1 tablespoon ground flaxseed or flax meal

1/2 tablespoon ground turmeric

Directions

Place bananas, apple, kale, orange juice, water, ice cubes, flaxseed and turmeric in a blender.

Pulse a few times, then puree until smooth, scraping down the sides as necessary.

THYME ROASTED ALMONDS

Ingredients

1 pound roasted, salted almonds

2 teaspoons good olive oil

2 tablespoon minced fresh thyme leaves

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon sea salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F. Place the almonds, olive oil, thyme, and kosher salt on a sheet pan and toss together. Roast the almonds for 10-15 minutes, turning them every 5 minutes with a metal spatula, until they are lightly browned. Watch them carefully, they burn very easily.

Sprinkle with sea salt, toss and set aside to cool, serve at room temperature.

KEEP YOUR SYSTEM HEALTHY

Meier referred to an article from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Eat Right, titled How to Keep Your Immune System Healthy.

The following nutrients play a role in the immune system and can be found in a variety of foods:

Beta Carotene is found in plant foods such as sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, mango, broccoli and tomatoes.

Vitamin C-rich foods include citrus fruits, berries, melons, tomatoes, bell peppers and broccoli.

Vitamin D is found in fatty fish and eggs. Milk and 100 percent juices that are fortified with vitamin D also are sources of this important nutrient.

Zinc tends to be better absorbed from animal sources such as beef and seafood, but also is in vegetarian sources such as wheat germ, beans, nuts and tofu.

Probiotics are "good" bacteria that promote health. They can be found in cultured dairy products such as yogurt and in fermented foods such as kimchi.

Protein comes from both animal and plant-based sources, such as milk, yogurt, eggs, beef, chicken, seafood, nuts, seeds, beans and lentils.

FOCUS ON BALANCE

To help keep your immune system healthy all year long, focus on a balanced eating plan, adequate sleep and stress management.

Eat well Aim for five to seven servings of vegetables and fruits daily to get vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that may support immune health.

Defeat germs Good hygiene and hand-washing help prevent the spread of germs. Remember to wash produce before eating or using in recipes. Clean glasses, forks, spoons and other utensils to reduce the spread and growth of bacteria.

Relieve stress Find healthy and appropriate ways to cope with stress, such as meditation, listening to music or writing. Physical activity also is a great way to help manage stress and may help reduce the risk of some chronic diseases that could weaken your immune system further.

Get some sleep Lack of sleep contributes to a variety of health concerns, such as a weakened immune system. Seven to nine hours is recommended each day for adults, and children need eight to 14 hours, depending on their age.

WHAT ABOUT HERBALS?

Many herbal remedies are marketed to help fight colds or shorten their duration, but check with your health care provider before taking any supplements or medications. No one food or supplement can prevent illness.

OTHER ADVICE

Meier also provided an article by Food & Nutritions Lori Zanini titled 6 Ways to (Naturally) Boost Your Immune System in which she suggests these strategies:

Get friendly with garlic When I saw a study that showed when healthy people took a garlic supplement for three months in cold and flu season, their immune cells became more active than those who took a placebo, I was in! Reap the benefits by taking a high-quality garlic supplement or, if you dont mind the garlic breath, use raw, crushed garlic in everything from salad dressings to homemade hummus which showed similar results to garlic pills in another study.

Go with your gut More and more studies are exploring the link between our immune system and our gut. The bacteria, or microbiota, that live and thrive in our gut play a major role in the strength of our immune system. To keep the healthy flora in tip-top shape, get probiotics from fermented foods such as kimchi, miso, yogurt and kombucha. Research indicates that probiotics improve the immune response and increase production of immune cells.

Focus on fiber Prebiotic fiber is the specific type of food that keeps the gut bacteria happy and healthy. When bacteria ferment this fiber in our gut, short chain fatty acids are released. Studies show that these short chain fatty acids play a role as immuno-modulators and increase the production of T-regulatory cells, which help to regulate other immune cells and the immune response. Translation? Eating plenty of prebiotic fiber from artichokes, onion, garlic, asparagus, bananas and jicama helps give your immune system that extra boost it needs during the cold and flu season.

Ditch the spoonful of sugar Evidence suggests that simple sugars in foods such as cookies, sweetened beverages and many highly processed foods can negatively impact white blood cells defense mechanisms to guard the body from foreign invaders. Yet another reason to reduce sugar intake and opt for whole fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth most of the time.

Get some sun Or vitamin D, that is. Studies show that vitamin D is a major immune system regulator that plays a role in the expression and activation of several types of immune cells, meaning those with low vitamin D levels are more likely to get sick. Be sure to get at least 15 minutes of daily SPF-free sun exposure and consume vitamin D-rich food sources such as cod liver oil and oily fish like salmon and herring. Or consider taking a vitamin D supplement.

Spice it up Spices and roots such as turmeric, clove, coriander and ginger have been shown to act as anti-inflammatory agents, improve immune system response, increase antibodies and act as antibacterial agents in the body. Spices couldnt be easier to incorporate into your diet use them whenever you are cooking to add a boost of flavor. You even can make your own immune-boosting spice mix so you always have it on hand.

Chances are not all these foods will trip your fancy, but most people will find something appetizing. Practicing these nutritional tips may not keep you from getting sick but, chances are, youll be better able to shake off illness. Plus, youll be healthier overall.

Originally posted here:
Foods that boost the immune system - Asheboro Courier Tribune

As cases of coronavirus continue to rise, taking daily precautions such as washing your hands, social distancing, exercising and getting enough sleep is key to lowering risk of infection.

But maintaining a healthy diet to help boost your immune system may also give you an edge. It's important to note that no research has been done on foods that help fight against COVID-19 specifically.

However, previous studies have found that eating certain foods can improve your health and strengthen your body's ability to fight other invasive viruses.

Here are nine expert-approved foods to stock up on during your next grocery store trip, along with creative ideas on how to add them to your diet:

Broccoli is also rich in vitamin C. Just half a cup contains 43% of your daily value of vitamin C, according to the NIH.

"Broccoli is packed with phytochemicals and antioxidants that support our immune system," says Sarin. It also contains vitamin E, an antioxidant that can help fight off bacteria and viruses.

According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, vitamin C is one nutrient Americans aren't getting enough of in their diet, so finding simple ways to add it in is crucial.

"To get the most out of this powerhouse vegetable, eat it raw or just slightly cooked," says Sarin. "I love sauteing broccoli with garlic and Parmesan, or stir-frying with bell peppers, ginger, garlic and mushrooms."

Chickpeas contain a lot of protein, an essential nutrient made of amino acids that help grow and repair the body's tissues. It's also involved in synthesizing and maintaining enzymes to keep our systems functioning properly,according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

"Chickpeas are also packed with zinc, which helps the immune system control and regulate immune responses,"Emily Wunder, a dietitian and founder of the nutritious recipes siteHealthier Taste, tells CNBC Make It.

Roasted chickpeas are great as a quick great snack or salad topper. Make sure they're completely dry before roasting. Then add a few tablespoons of oil (vegetable, canola or grapeseed oil all work well) and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring halfway through until they're crispy.

For a nice kick, Wunder suggests adding some salt and paprika.If you're using canned chickpeas, she says you'll want to rinse them thoroughly to cut down on sodium content.

Wunder enjoys half a cup of strawberries to get 50% of her vitamin C needs for the day.

"Vitamin C is great for strengthening your immune system," she says, because it can help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals that we're often exposed to in the environment.

Wunder recommends adding chopped strawberries to yogurt, oatmeal or on top of whole wheat toast with peanut butter. "Of course, they go well with smoothies, too," she says.

"Not only is garlic full of flavor, but it's packed with health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and reducing risk of heart disease," according to Sarin. "Garlic's immunity-boosting abilities come from its heavy concentration of sulfur-containing compounds, which can help fight off some infections."

Garlic has been shown in the past to help ward off the common cold. In a 2001 study published in Advances in Therapy, participants who took garlic supplements were less likely to catch a cold. And those who did get infected recovered faster than participants in the placebo group.

It's an easy vegetable to work into your diet, says Sarin. You can add to it anything from pasta sauce and salad dressings to soups and stir-fry dishes. She suggests aiming to consume two to three cloves per day.

"While sun exposure is the best source of vitamin D, it can also be provided by some foods, including mushrooms," says Wunder.

A 2018 review of mushrooms as a vitamin D source found that the "sunshine vitamin" can help enhance the absorption of calcium, which is good for bone health, and may also protect against some cancers and respiratory diseases.

Mushrooms are great as a side dish or appetizer. Wunder recommends roasting them at about 350 degrees Fahrenheit, using one to two tablespoons of oil, minced garlic and a dash of salt and pepper. For something more flavorful, bake button mushrooms stuffed with cheese, onion andartichokehearts.

"Spinach is rich in vitamin C and full of antioxidants that help shield our immune cells from environmental damage," says Sarin. "Plus, it has beta carotene, which is the main dietary source of vitamin A an essential component of proper immune function."

Like broccoli, it's best to consume spinach raw or slightly cooked. To incorporate more spinach into your diet, Sarin suggests blending it in a smoothie, cooking it with your morning eggs or, as an easy side dish, lightly sauteing with garlic.

"Yogurt is a great source of probiotics, which are good bacteria that can help promote a healthy gut and immune system," says Sarin.Recent studies have also found probiotics to be effective for fighting the common cold and influenza-like respiratory infections.

Sarin recommends choosing plain yogurt rather than anything too flavored or sweetened and topping it with fruit and honey. "Or, you can add it to your favorite post-workout smoothie," she says.

Those on a dairy-free diet can still benefit from almond-milk and coconut-milk yogurt options.

"Sunflower seeds are high in vitamin E, which works as an antioxidant and helps boosts the immune system," says Wunder.

Small but mighty, just one ounce of dry-roasted sunflower seeds can give you 49% of your daily value of vitamin E, according to the NIH.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper and roast unshelled sunflower seeds at 300 degrees Fahrenheit until they're lightly browned. Then add the seeds to your salad or toss them with roasted vegetables. You can also use raw seeds in place of pine nuts for some homemade pesto.

Brittany Anas is a health and nutrition reporter. She has written forHealthDay, Women's Health and The Denver Post. Follow her on Twitter @BrittanyAnas.

Don't miss:

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

Originally posted here:
Stock up on these 9 healthy foods to boost your immune system during coronavirus, says doctor and dietitian - CNBC

AUSTIN (KXAN) An Austin doctor said the toll of stress can have a significant impact on the immune system, which could be especially heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

KXAN spoke with one doctor who gave her insight on how people can manage that stress with her own approach.

The toll of the stress is tremendous and actually again affects our immune systems ability to fight off infections in general, said Dr. Ann Shippy, an Austin-based chemical engineer turned doctor. One of the things we can all be doing is managing our mindset that we do the things like exercise, meditate, get good sleep and focus on the things we can control.

Dr. Shippy describes her strategy to treatment as functional medicine, using science, testing and genetic information to try and treat the root cause of symptoms, instead of just managing them.

Dr. Shippy said another way to manage stress is to offer a helping hand to the community.

That could include making masks, amid the personal protective equipment shortage for healthcare workers, or providing food for those in need.

KXAN Simple Health is launching an initiative which focuses on maintaining mental wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Well highlight topics including parenting, finances and jobs, grief and anxiety, senior health and balancing isolation and socializing from a distance.

Look for our special coverage starting Sunday, April 5.

Read the original post:
Doctor weighs in on toll of stress on immune systems during COVID-19 pandemic - KXAN.com

This is not a news report. It is my opinion column, on the Opinion page of your community newspaper. Nevertheless, I dont write about things I havent researched.

Apply whatever value to that you wish.

Can we please tone down the hysteria and put this in perspective? Lets examine what COVID-19 is not.

COVID-19 is not a reason to buy outrageous amounts of toilet paper.

COVID-19 is not the 1918 H1N1 (Spanish) flu pandemic, before flu vaccine development. Estimates are 500 million were infected and about 50 million died as the disease raced around the world at the speed of trains and steamboats. In the U.S., 675,000 people died.

COVID-19 is not the 2009 version of the H1N1 (swine) flu pandemic, which infected nearly 61 million Americans, and killed 12,469.

COVID-19 is not the 1921 diphtheria epidemic, with 206,000 cases and 15,520 deaths across all age groups of the 106 million people then living in the U.S. That was a nearly 8 percent death rate of those infected.

COVID-19 is not even remotely like those three events, with only about a 1.4 percent death rate nationally.

Today, diseases (and information) travel by jet and internet. The world knew instantly that Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, on location in Australia, tested positive for COVID-19. They recovered without hospitalization.

COVID-19 is not this years influenza. Americans are apparently not afraid of the flu any more because about 43 percent of them fear the shot and dont get vaccinated. Nor do they rush out annually to stockpile toilet paper and hand sanitizer.

Perspective: Imagine that when the flu season happens each year, news media would breathlessly report (with bold capital headlines) every new case, every day. The news would seem truly catastrophic, reflecting the 38 million U.S influenza cases this season, with 400,000 hospitalized. The flu has killed 24,000 Americans. A half-million may die worldwide in a typical season.

Perspective: Suggested Lewiston Tribune poll question If you are one of those who avoid the flu vaccine, will you get the COVID-19 vaccine when one is developed?

COVID-19 is not a reason for the news media to flash the number of coronavirus cases and deaths on TV in real time, goosing your panic every four seconds to believe were literally going up in smoke.

The Lewiston-Clarkston Valley is not New York City. And no matter how badly Washington Gov. Jay Inslee wants to be the center of attention, one nursing home in Kirkland does not represent Washington. If not for that one facility, Washington statistics would not stand out.

As this is written, New York City, with about 2.5 percent of the nations population, has about 42 percent of the national coronavirus associated deaths. New York City has about 27,000 people per square mile. Imagine Lewiston with 522,912 people. Thats New York City. If one person sneezes, 13 people reach for a hanky.

New York City is a laboratory for COVID-19. It wont be surprising if most in that teeming ball of earthworms get the disease as if I needed any more reasons to not visit.

COVID-19 does not kill directly. Death comes from respiratory complications, i.e., pneumonia. This mutated cousin of the common cold virus wasnt around when immune systems were young and vital, and immune systems weaken with age. This may be why most young folks are not showing symptoms. Most of them could suffer a slight cough and wont notice a mild fever. Their most serious problem will be a restricted social life.

This is all logical and provable by cases to date. Nationally, nearly 99 percent with COVID-19 symptoms recover without hospitalization. Most deaths were older and/or already at risk, with compromised respiratory or immune systems.

Perspective about statistics: In any reasonable statistical analysis, New York City, despite the national news exposure its getting, would be thrown out of the national calculation as what is known as an outlier. The same is true of the Kirkland nursing home for Washingtons statistics. The presumption that every major city (or the nation) will follow New York Citys (or Italys) pattern in a few weeks is just hysterical statistical nonsense.

Perspective: Comparing American statistics to China, Italy or Iran is likewise wrong. With among the worlds highest populations of at-risk seniors and relatively high numbers of smokers, those countries are naturally more susceptible. In addition, thousands of Wuhan Chinese workers traveled to Italy and Iran for a massive infrastructure construction program. New York Citys first case reportedly came from an Iranian immigrant.

Perspective: Normally, of Chinas 1.4 billion people, about 28,000 people die every day. The Chinese coronavirus death toll is about three hours of an average Thursday. The Chinese deserve credit for even noticing this outbreak with only a few thousand extra deaths, mostly health-compromised elderly.

COVID-19 is not the 2003 SARS epidemic (another Chinese coronavirus), which infected 8,098 people worldwide and killed 774, nearly 10 percent of patients, compared, again, to COVID-19s roughly 1.4 percent.

Perspective: In America normally, between 3,000 and 7,000 people die every day from something. About 700 of those are Californians. Yet Californias COVID-19 death rate is about one person for every 250,000 citizens.

Gov. Inslee adds to the panic by reacting as if every positive COVID-19 tests results in intensive-care hospitalization. That is not what is happening. What is happening is that increased testing results in more positives, not a more serious disease. Over-reacting stupidly does not solve a problem.

America was poorly prepared for a truly lethal pandemic. Our outsize reaction may be good practice for if and when a truly lethal disease erupts, but the real danger now is the increased hysteria destroying the economy.

Im 72, a child of the Greatest Generation and a former soldier myself. Id rather catch this damned disease and trust my immune system to beat it than watch the media and political idiots distort events, trying to damage this president.

Whether you like the man or not, the president is demonstrating uncommon and laudable leadership; America is fortunate to have him.

Rogers of Clarkston is a retired manager at CCI-Speer (now Vista Outdoor). His email address is rrogerr76@gmail.com.

Read more from the original source:
Commentary: I'll trust my immune system over the media - Lewiston Morning Tribune

Lemon juice, mosquito bites and blood donations? There are plenty of coronavirus health myths circulating online, which ConfectioneryNews doesnt wish to perpetuate in any shape or form, but there is case for cocoa right now to help boost the human bodys immune system.

Lets be clear: cocoa is not a cure for coronavirus, The Covid-19 outbreak is a new illness and scientists are still assessing how it spreads from person to person, but similar viruses tend to spread via cough and sneeze droplets. Only a vaccine can prevent people from getting sick and the World Health Organization says approximately 35 companies and academic institutions are racing to create such a vaccine.

However, in a 2015 medical study*, it was revealed that cocoa contains biologically active ingredients that have broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity, which includes an inhibitory effect on influenza virus infection.

The reports conclusion: Drinking cocoa activates natural immunity and enhances vaccination-induced immune response, providing stronger protection against influenza virus infection and disease onset.

Dr Edward Ampofo of Ghanas Cocoa Clinic has also claimed that cocoa does not only help to boost the immune system but equally helps to protect the human body against infection.

In a video posted on ghanaweb.com, he explained that the immune functions of cocoa are mainly related to what he called its polyphenol content and methylxanthine-theobromine.

The immune system protects the body against germs and foreign materials," he explained, saying it is made up of two components - innate and adaptive. The innate immune response is inborn or natural.

He told ghanaweb.com oxidative stress has been identified as a major factor in inhibiting the immune system from performing its normal functions.

Oxidative stress is essentially an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.

There is oxidative stress in infections and the body usually mobilizes, for example white blood cells in such situations. Polyphenol-rich cocoa is a strong antioxidant and therefore able to mop up these free radicals produced via oxidative stress and in turn normalizes the functions of the immune system.

He said cocoa is recognized as the highest source of polyphenols of all foods on weight basis and polyphenol-rich cocoa, apart from its antioxidant properties is able to independently act on the immune system to perform its functions to the desired level.

* Study:Anti-influenza virus effects of cocoa.Kamei M1, Nishimura H2, Takahashi T1, Takahashi N1, Inokuchi K3, Mato T3, Takahashi K2.

News source: Consume more cocoa to fight coronavirus Ghanaians told

See the original post:
Cocoa and the coronavirus: can it boost the immune system? - ConfectioneryNews.com

Rejuvenate Helps Prevent Muscle Loss

Rejuvenate is an affordable nutritional supplement and the first of its kind to generate positive muscle response without exercise. However, when used with exercise, Rejuvenate doubles its ability to rebuild and repair muscle.

Rejuvenate Supports Optimal Immune System Function

Rejuvenate consists of the essential amino acids that are critical to immune function including leucine, valine and isoleucine and comes in individual powder pouches and can be easily mixed with water.

BURLINGTON, Ontario, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While people are stockpiling common immune-strengthening supplements like vitamins C, D and zinc, one group of overlooked nutrients that are critical during a prolonged period of inactivity is essential amino acids that play a major role in protein synthesis and the formation of white blood cell and antibodies. With limited exercise options during lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing, muscle loss can play a bigger role than most realize it can increase your susceptibility to sickness. A proprietary muscle health and repair supplement called Rejuvenate, by Element Nutrition, has 25 clinical peer reviewed published studies to demonstrate its efficacy including increasing the bodys ability to rebuild and repair muscle by 57% with noticeable muscle mass improvement within just 30 days. In one study published by The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, patients on bed rest gained muscle mass with Rejuvenate compared to those who experienced muscle loss who were not taking the supplement.

Amino acids are not simply building blocks of protein, they are important building blocks of antibodies, which are produced by the bodys immune system to help fight off foreign invaders, like bacteria and viruses. If your body lacks adequate essential amino acids, it can lead to a compromised immune system. According to The Journal of Nutrition, the immune system has a high dependence upon protein synthesis, since mounting an immune response requires generation of new cells and synthesis of antigen-presenting machinery (immunoglobulins, cytokines, cytokine receptors, acute phase proteins). Without these essential amino acids, as found in Rejuvenate, synthesis of these proteins do not occur optimally and therefore can result in a compromised immune system.

Protein provides energy for the body. It is a macronutrient and if you dont have enough protein or become deficient in essential amino acids you can start to experience weakness and fatigue, even lack of focus and brain fog and sometimes depression, said Dr. Christine Horner, a leading authority on integrative and preventative health who has consulted with hundreds of patients facing life-threatening cancerdiagnoses on how to strengthen the immune system when the body is under constant attack. Protein is also a component of hemoglobin, which is present in red blood cells and responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body. When oxygen levels drop it can cause weakness or even shortness of breath.

According to the British Journal of Nutrition, a deficiency of dietary protein or amino acids impairs immune function and increases the risk of infectious disease. Protein malnutrition reduces concentrations of most amino acids in plasma. Findings from recent studies indicate an important role for amino acids in immune responses by regulating the activation of T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, natural killer cells and macrophages; cellular redox state, gene expression and lymphocyte proliferation; and the production of antibodies, cytokines and other cytotoxic substances. Increasing evidence shows that dietary supplementation of specific amino acids in animals and humans with malnutrition and infectious disease enhances the immune status, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality.These are the same amino acids found in Rejuvenate.

If you become protein deficient for too long, the body will borrow protein from other areas including the storage in our skeletal muscle tissue in order to transfer it to more essential organs and the brain. Once this happens your bones will become more at risk to injuries like fractures and breaks, said Horner, who notes that in one clinical study published by the Journal of Aging Research & Clinical Practice, Rejuvenate increased the strength of knee and hip replacement patients, post-surgery, by 800%. Our bodies are not designed to store protein for long-term, future use so we need to consume enough protein every day to ensure the body gets what it needs to work efficiently. Plus, when it comes to protein and your immune system, it turns out that even marginally low protein intake may impair its function.

Rejuvenate is an affordable nutritional supplement developed by one of the worlds leading researchers in protein and amino acid nutrition. Its the first supplement of its kind to generate positive muscle response without exercise. However, when used with exercise, Rejuvenate doubles its ability to rebuild and repair muscle. Age-related muscle loss may begin as early as age 40. After age of 60, muscle mass declines at an annual rate of 1.5-3% per year and 50% of adults age 80 and above have sarcopenia, a distinct medical condition recognized by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rejuvenate consists of the essential amino acids that are critical to immune function including leucine, valine and isoleucine, and comes in individual powder pouches and can be easily mixed with water. Horner says daily intake of Rejuvenate can help prevent muscle loss and support optimal immune system function. Rejuvenate is available at major retailers, Amazon and http://www.rejuvenatemuscle.com.

Photosaccompanying this announcement are available athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d99b44ef-9815-4dc2-8ab4-3d19199a45bf

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17156ff8-22d4-4855-9ab6-29906b5848b8

View original post here:
Support Immune Function and Muscle Health With Rejuvenate During Prolonged Inactivity - GlobeNewswire

WHILE the world is on hold as Covid-19 accelerates its global rampage, an exit strategy seems many months away. Herd immunity is a distant prospect, as are vaccines or drug treatments. However, there is a measure with the potential to help in this crisis at the cost of about 1p/day per capita, that would promote our defences, vitamin D3. This steroid hormone promotes the innate immune system, our first line of defence against microbes, including coronaviruses, but the UK population is commonly D3-deficient, often severely, as is also common globally. We suggest, therefore, based on the accompanying scientific and medical evidence, that efforts be made to improve vitamin D repletion to help reduce both morbidity and mortality from, and perhaps also susceptibility to, Covid-19.

Vitamin D (D3) is the sunshine vitamin. Our skin makes it under summer sun but most British people dont make enough because we live and work indoors, live at high latitude and eat little wild oily fish (the only good food source of this vitamin), while deficiency is also a global problem.

Scientific evidence from peer-reviewed publications shows that vitamin D is needed both for healthy bones and for a healthy immune system which can defend us against most bacteria and viruses at adequate blood levels of the vitamin D metabolite 25(OH)D by gene modulation, and that also reduces inappropriate inflammation.

What is an adequate blood level of 25(OH)D?

25 nmol/l was thought enough until 20 years ago, now we know it should be more than 50 nmol/l, a target used throughout the NHS. Higher levels are advised by many experts at 100 150 nmol/l, for optimal health (1), as are achieved by natives of the tropics.

We have a high degree of deficiency, worst in Scotland

One third to a half of all people are deficient across the UK, with severe deficiency increasingly common in the north.

Benefits of supplementation In addition to the prevention of rickets and osteomalacia, and reduction of the risks of increasing numbers of chronic disorders, both survival with cancer and the risk of getting certain cancers are reduced by better vitamin D status (2-6).

Respiratory infection rate reduction

Evidence from animal, cell and molecular research shows that lack of vitamin D increases the risks of many chronic diseases; supplementation of deficient people can reduce many such risks, including upper respiratory tract infections as shown in a summary of 25 studies where deficient subjects amongst 11,000 participants supplemented with vitamin D showed over 70% reduction in infection rates with certain common viruses. (7).

A recent review concludes: To reduce risk of infection, it is recommended that people at risk of influenza and/or Covid-19 consider taking 10,000 IU/d of vitamin D3 for a few weeks to rapidly raise 25(OH)D concentrations, followed by 5000 IU/d. The goal should be to raise 25(OH)D concentrations above 4060 ng/ml (100150 nmol/l). (8) Those authors called for randomised trials of vitamin D in Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, the evidence justifies ensuring that Covid-19 patients are not deficient, measuring serum 25(OH)D where possible, but more importantly, ensuring adequate supplemental intakes for all such patients. (9).

Barbara Boucher, honorary professor, LondonPeter Cobbold, emeritus professor, cell biology, LiverpoolDavid Grimes, retired consultant physician, ManchesterHelga Rhein, retired general practitioner, Edinburgh

References:

(1) https://www.grassrootshealth.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/scientists_call-to-daction_121817.pdf

(2) https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

(3) https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

(4) https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

(5) https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30654108

(7) https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583

(8) https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0235/v2

(9) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jffdZOSuIA64L_Eur8qyCQ12T7NXrHSKPxtMe134C0Y/edit

Scotland is in lockdown. Shops are closing and newspaper sales are falling fast. Its no exaggeration to say that the future of The National is at stake. Please consider supporting us through this with a digital subscription from just 2 for 2 months by following this link:www.thenational.scot/subscribe. Thanks and stay safe.

Read more here:
Vitamin D3 boosts the immune system, our first line of defence - The National

When a virus invades a body, the development of the disease is often determined by how the immune system reacts to the infection.

Most of the time, the immune system mounts a protective response. But sometimes, that response can be harmful too, experts say.

If the immune system kicks into overdrive, for instance, it could stimulate the overproduction of proteins called cytokines, which can cause inflammation.

Cytokines are molecular messengers of the immune system. For Covid-19 patients, this cytokine storm can lead to symptoms such as breathlessness or respiratory distress.

Now, a team of Singapore scientists have found that patients with Covid-19 could have a dynamic and fluctuating immune response to the virus, particularly in the early stages of the disease.

For instance, when the immune system responds in a way that causes the body to produce more cytokines, it correlates with the period when the patients become more sick and experience respiratory distress.

The study was published on March 28 in scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe.

The finding is important as it could pave the way for research into existing or new drugs that could help prevent harmful immune reactions that may worsen the disease, said Dr Eugenia Ong, a member of the team. She is senior research fellow at the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre, a unit of the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre, and at the Duke-NUS' Emerging Infectious Diseases programme.

In studying three Covid-19 patients in Singapore, the scientists found that the patients' immune systems showed marked changes in the way they dealt with the invading pathogen.

As molecular messengers, cytokines help to flag the presence of a foreign pathogen in the body, so other elements of the immune system can kick in to get rid of the virus.

But when the body produces too much of it, this can result in inflammation. This production of cytokines is regulated by genes, explained one of the study's lead authors, Associate Professor Jenny Low, a senior consultant at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Singapore General Hospital and co-director of the Viral Research and Experimental Medicine Centre.

The study noted that the processes that stimulate the production of cytokines in a patient differed from day to day.

The scientists found that one particular cytokine called Interleukin-1 was produced even before the patient showed clinical deterioration.

"In this study, we found that the early immune response following the start of symptoms is highly dynamic, which means that research needs to take into account the day-to-day fluctuations in activation or deactivation of immune genes that collectively shape disease severity in Covid-19 patients," said Prof Low, who is also an associate professor at the Emerging Infectious Diseases programme at Duke-NUS.

As the sensing of the foreign pathogen triggers a cascade of molecular events, characterising the immune response in the early phase of illness is thus important to understand how the final immune reaction is derived, said Prof Low.

Professor Lisa Ng, who was not involved in the research project, said the study of early stages of infection is interesting, as it may lead to opportunities for early interventions.

"Potentially, some clinically approved drugs could be used to target certain inflammatory pathways to control virus-induced inflammation," said Prof Ng, a senior principal investigator at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Singapore Immunology Network. However, she said it would be important to see if larger cohort groups from various countries will show similar patterns.

LISTEN TO HEALTH CHECK PODCAST

Read more:
Early immune response in patients could be causing respiratory distress: Study - The Straits Times

COVID-19 can live on surfaces for hours or even days. In order to kill the virus and prevent people from becoming infected, you have to disinfect. 2nd Lt. Felicia Dreh

By Sgt. Liane Hatch

FORT CARSON, Colo. Considering the COVID-19 pandemic that has led to a statewide stay-at-home order, the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, preventative medicine team encouraged Soldiers, leaders and Family members to practice thorough cleaning and disinfecting measures at home and in the workplace.

A lot of people think when you just spray the counter with a cleaner and wipe it up with a cloth or paper towel, that youre good to go, said 2nd Lt. Felicia Dreh, an environmental science officer, preventative medicine team, 3rd ABCT.

Dreh explained that many people have questions such as: If I clean something, do I need to disinfect it? Whats the difference? Are they the same? They are not.

Cleaning with just your normal spray cleaners just removes surface dirt, while disinfecting actually kills the bacteria, Dreh continued. COVID-19 can live on surfaces for hours or even days. In order to kill the virus and prevent people from becoming infected, you have to disinfect.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a diluted bleach solution to properly disinfect high-traffic surfaces, such as countertops, doorknobs and handles.

Per CDC guidelines, you want to use five tablespoons or capfuls of bleach per gallon of water, or if youre using a spray bottle, you can use four teaspoons of bleach per quart of water, said Sgt. Wilbur Davis, NCO, preventative medicine team, 3rd ABCT. Use a clean sponge to wipe the area then and let that surface air dry.

Davis emphasized when using bleach solutions, its important to wear protective gloves, keep the area well-ventilated and avoid mixing with other cleaning products, especially those containing ammonia.

Both members of the preventative medicine team agreed that taking measures to clean and disinfect common areas should be part of a daily routine, both at work and in the Soldiers home.

You can spread COVID-19 from work to home or vice versa just by touching a doorknob after an infected person has touched it, Davis said. Soldiers should be disinfecting their spaces every day.

Dreh recommends taking the time to clean and disinfect a part of each units daily battle rhythm, preferably at the end of each day. While she acknowledged most leaders already have cleaning measures in place, they need to be sure Soldiers use bleach to disinfect those areas as well.

Commanders can help keep their Soldiers healthy by enforcing daily cleaning and disinfecting requirements, Dreh said. The more you do it, the less time it takes, and it will go a long way toward keeping everyone healthy.

In addition to using good disinfection measures, Soldiers and Family members can prevent the spread of disease and reduce the likelihood of illness by practicing good hand hygiene and avoiding touching their face, mouth, nose and eyes.

For more guidelines on COVID-19 prevention, visit https://www.cdc.gov/, and local procedures at https://www.carson.army.mil/ or follow @USArmyFortCarson on Facebook.

More:
Preventative medicine team works to beat COVID-19 - fortcarsonmountaineer.com