Child vaccine and cigarette smoking … the latest developments in Corona



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Since it was announced that the Corona virus appeared in China during December 2019 and a global pandemic was declared, dozens of studies and research related to the emerging virus, methods of transmission and ways to prevent it have appeared.

Among the most recent scientific studies on the emerging corona virus and the efforts made to find a treatment or vaccines for the Covid-19 disease that the virus causes:

* Childhood vaccination can help prevent acute Covid-19 infection.
New data suggests that people whose immune systems have responded strongly to the MMR vaccine may be less likely to be severely infected with the emerging coronavirus. The MMR2 vaccine, manufactured by Merck and licensed in 1979, stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies.

The researchers reported on “mBio” magazine, which has been found that among the 50 patients with Covid-19 under the age of 42 years who had been vaccinated with the vaccine “MMR2” while they were children, the higher the levels of so-called antibodies. The EGJ, produced by the vaccine and directed against the mumps virus in particular, had less severe symptoms.

And Covid-19 was asymptomatic in people who had the highest level of antibodies to mumps.

* Cigarette smoking increases cell exposure to Covid-19
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that exposure to cigarette smoke makes airway cells more susceptible to infections with the emerging coronavirus.

They obtained airway lining cells from five individuals without COVID-19 and exposed some cells to cigarette smoke in test tubes. Then they exposed all the cells to the Coronavirus.

The researchers said in the journal “Cell Steam Cell” on Tuesday that compared to cells that had not been exposed to smoke, cells exposed to smoke were two to three times more likely to be infected with the virus.

An analysis of each individual’s airway cells showed that cigarette smoking reduced the immune response to the virus.

* AstraZinka vaccine against Covid-19 looks promising for the elderly
Researchers from The Lancet magazine reported Thursday that Astra Zinka and Oxford University’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced strong immune responses in older adults during an intermediate trial phase. Studies are still underway at an advanced stage to ensure whether the vaccine protects against Covid-19 in a wide range of people, including those with underlying diseases.

The current study included 560 healthy volunteers, 240 of whom were 70 years of age or older. The volunteers were given a dose or two of the vaccine, made with a weak version of the common cold virus found in chimpanzees, or a placebo. No serious side effects have been reported. Participants over the age of 80, physically weak patients, and those with underlying chronic illnesses were excluded, according to an editorial published with the study.

The study authors said, “Weakness is increasingly known to affect older people’s response to vaccines … It is important to develop a plan that takes physical vulnerability into account when developing a Covid-19 vaccine.”

* Researchers study Coronavirus-infected cells
Cells infected with the emerging corona virus die within a day or two, and researchers have found a way to find out what the virus does with them.

By combining multiple imaging techniques, they saw the virus create “virus replication factories” in cells that resemble clusters of balloons.

The researchers said Tuesday in the journal “Cell Host and Microbe” that the virus disrupts cell systems responsible for secreting substances. Furthermore, the virus rearranges the “cytoskeleton” that gives cells their shape and “functions as a rail system to allow the transport of different charges within the cell,” said Ralph Bartenschlager, co-author of the study at the University of Heidelberg. in Germany.

Partenschlager said that when his team added drugs that affect the cytoskeleton, the virus found a problem copying itself, “indicating that the virus needs to rearrange the cytoskeleton to reproduce efficiently.”

He added: “We now have a much better idea of ​​how SARS-Coffee-2 alters the intracellular structure of an infected cell, and this will help us understand why cells die so quickly.”

He said the Zika virus causes similar changes in cells, so it may be possible to develop drugs for Covid-19 that also work against other viruses.

The Zika virus is transmitted by mosquito bites and causes so-called Zika fever in infants, which is related to microcephaly.

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