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High levels of oestrogen may protect against COVID-19 — King's College London
Research published recently, led by King’s College London, has found that high levels of oestrogen may have a protective effect against the novel coronavirus....
Antibody tests may be missing large numbers of mild infection — Oxford study
Antibody tests may be missing large numbers of people who contracted COVID-19 because they don't work for people who had a mild infection, The...
Experimental Moderna vaccine protects upper and lower airways in non-human primates
Two doses of an experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced robust immune responses and rapidly controlled the coronavirus in the upper...
J&J's candidate vaccine protects against coronavirus in non-human primates
The development of a safe and effective vaccine will likely be required to end the COVID-19 pandemic. A group of scientists, led by Beth...
Contrary to initial reports, hospitalised COVID-19 patients have low risk of stroke — Penn analysis
While initial reports suggested a significant risk of stroke in patients hospitalised with COVID-19, a Penn Medicine study shows a low risk of stroke...
Singapore researchers speed up gold-standard COVID-19 diagnostic test for results in 36-minutes
Clinician-scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore's (NTU Singapore) Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) have demonstrated a way to improve the speed, handling...
Neutralising antibodies from severely infected COVID-19 patients may protect — Columbia hamster trial
Researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre have isolated antibodies from several COVID-19 patients that, to date, are among the most potent in neutralizing...
Low plasma vitamin D level has increased risk of COVID-19 infection — Israel population study
Vitamin D is recognised as an important co-factor in several physiological processes linked with bone and calcium metabolism, and also in diverse non-skeletal outcomes,...
Seaweed extract substantially outperforms remdesivir in blocking COVID-19 virus — small Rensselaer study
In a test of antiviral effectiveness against the virus that causes COVID-19, an extract from edible seaweeds substantially outperformed remdesivir, the current standard antiviral...
Under-fives may spread COVID-19 as much as older children and adults — Northwestern analysis
A study from Ann & Robert H Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago discovered that children younger than 5 years with mild to moderate COVID-19...
Asian patients and palliative cancer patients at higher COVID-19 mortality risk — King's College
Cancer patients of Asian ethnicity or who were receiving palliative treatment for cancer were also at a higher risk of death from COVID-19. The...
Coronavirus antibodies decay dramatically after mild illness
A small study by University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers shows that in people with mild cases of COVID-19, antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 – the...
A new gold standard? Sputum testing provides higher rate of COVID-19 detection
Sputum testing detected the RNA of the virus that causes COVID-19 at significantly higher rates than oropharyngeal swab testing, the current gold standard, found...
Blood test may identify which COVID-19 patients are best candidates for steroid treatment
A study led by Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System confirms the findings of the large-scale British trial of steroid use...
Concerns about lasting heart damage in COVID-19 patients — 2 German studies
Two studies from Germany paint a sobering picture of the toll that COVID-19 takes on the heart, raising the spectre of long-term damage after...
Irish and Danish studies: 'Natural experiment' of lockdown sees fall in rate of premature birth
A drop in air pollution, reduced exposure to infections and lower levels of work-related stress have been suggested as the reasons for an “unprecedented”...
Africa: Benefits of childhood vaccination programmes far outweigh risks of COVID-19 transmission
The health benefits of maintaining routine childhood vaccination programmes in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic far outweigh the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission that might...
Screen of 12,000 FDA-approved drugs reveals 13 potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds
A screen of almost 12,000 clinical stage or US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved drugs identifies 13 compounds that inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2...
RNA vaccine has robust response in non-human primates — University of Washington
A replicating RNA vaccine, formulated with the Lipid InOrganic Nanoparticle (LION), produces antibodies against the COVID-19 coronavirus in mice and primates with a single...
Assessing antiviral activity of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine — 2 studies in Nature
Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine show no notable antiviral effect against infections with SARS-CoV-2 in macaques or human lung cells according to two studies. Hydroxychloroquine and...
Six distinct symptom clusters of COVID-19 identified — King's College London
Analysis of data from the COVID Symptom Study app, led by researchers from King’s College London, reveals that there are six distinct “types” of...
Three distinct immune responses for sicker COVID-19 patients — Penn Institute of Immunology
Researchers from the Penn Institute of Immunology have discovered three distinct immune responses to the SARS-CoV2 infection that could help predict the trajectory of...
Cautious optimism over Oxford-AstraZeneca candidate vaccine results
The candidate coronavirus vaccine AZD1222, being developed by University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, generated an immune response in a study of roughly 1,000 patients, according to interim results...
UK herd immunity threshold and seasonal exposure — Oxford epidemiological study
The UK population may already have developed sufficient levels of herd immunity required to prevent a feared second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in...
Drug that calms 'cytokine storm’ linked to 45% lower risk of COVID-19 ventilator deaths
Critically ill COVID-19 patients who received a single dose of a drug that calms an overreacting immune system were 45% less likely to die...
No increased COVID-19 mortality for people with HIV — large US cohort analysis
An analysis of the largest cohort of people living with HIV in the US found that they were not more likely to contract the...
COVID-19 pneumonia patients improve with immunosuppressant — Small US observational study
Most patients hospitalised with COVID-19 (coronavirus) pneumonia experienced improvement after receiving a US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug normally given for rheumatoid arthritis, according...
Mask wearing effectiveness, including among asymptomatic COVID-19 carriers
The two hair stylists in Springfield, Missouri, broke the cardinal rule of infection control: STAT News reports that despite having respiratory symptoms, one went...
Heparin 'potentially blocks' COVID-19 — US laboratory study
A common drug, already approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19, according to...
SARS-CoV-2 infection and seroconversion rates in London frontline health-care workers
Health-care workers (HCWs) are at high risk of developing COVID-19, and may themselves contribute to transmission. To evaluate these risks, we enrolled 200 patient-facing...
Small study shows treatment reducing odds of COVID-19 disease progression
Experts have cautiously welcomed the results of a small trial of a coronavirus treatment that has dramatically reduced the odds of hospitalised patients progressing...
Almost half of hospitalised COVID-19 patients show heart scan abnormalities — Global study
Almost half of COVID-19 patients who have been hospitalised show scan abnormalities that resemble the early stages of heart failure, a global research study...
Global review of BCG vaccine protection from severe COVID-19
A epidemiological evidence review suggests a negative association between national bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination policy and the prevalence and mortality of coronavirus disease. However,...
Comprehensive review of COVID-19's extrapulmonary effects
After only a few days caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients at the start of the outbreak in New York City, Dr Aakriti Gupta,...
Herd immunity assumptions challenged by latest research
There is a growing body of evidence that immunity to COVID-19 is short lived, writes MedicalBrief. The latest study, from the UK, found levels of...
COVID-19 linked strokes more severe and have worse outcomes — Acute Stroke Registry
Acute ischaemic strokes (AIS) associated with COVID-19 are more severe, lead to worse functional outcomes and are associated with higher mortality, according to researchers...
Neurological complications linked to COVID-19 occurring globally — University of Liverpool review
A review by University of Liverpool researchers has shown that strokes, delirium and other brain complications are reported from most countries where there have...
Blacks at doubled higher risk for COVID-19 — University of Chicago analysis
Results of an analysis has found that Black individuals were twice as likely as White individuals to test positive for COVID-19. The average age...
Pre-clinical study supports remdesivir as COVID-19 treatment
The news about remdesivir, the investigational anti-viral drug that has shown early promise in the fight against COVID-19, keeps getting better. Researchers at Vanderbilt...
Hyperglycaemia link to higher COVID-19 mortality in those not previously diagnosed as diabetic
Research from Wuhan, China shows that, in patients with COVID-19 but without a previous diagnosis of diabetes, abnormally high blood sugar is associated with...