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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,903

New antibody mix could form ‘very potent’ Covid-19 treatment, say scientists

Scientists at Columbia University in New York screened antibodies from 40 Covid-19 patients and identified 61 types from five individuals that effectively wiped out coronavirus. Among them were nine that displayed “exquisite potency” for neutralising the pathogen.

Tests on cells showed that the antibodies killed off the virus, while experiments with hamsters revealed that an infusion of one of the more potent antibodies protected the animals from disease. “It shut off infectious virus completely in the lung tissue of the hamsters we treated,” said David Ho, a professor of medicine at Columbia who led the research.

“We specifically isolated very potent antibodies that can be mass produced and then administered,” Ho said. “We would assume that these could be used to prevent or treat Sars-Cov-2. We’d be looking to treat early in the course of infection, particularly those at risk of developing severe disease such as the elderly and those with underlying illness.”

P2.180 TMR5 (ZedupexTM) as a Management Therapy For Herpes Infections: Results of Preclinical Evaluations

Did you know there was a natural treatment for herpes “that has no treatment”. People have been treating disease for centuries. Just because something is not approved does not mean it does not work, it only means it is not approved. Even corruption can stall the approval process.

TMR5 (ZedupexTM) is a product of a Kenyan medicinal plant, prepared as a lyophilized extract and a cream. The products have been evaluated for preclinical safety and efficacy in suitable in vitro and in vivo systems of herpes infections. Herpes is a viral infection affecting over 60% of the sub-Saharan Africa young adult population. It is caused by two similar viruses, HSV-1 and HSV-2 which share 50% gene sequence homology. The infection in a major cause of genital ulcer disease, associated with increased risks of HIV acquisition and transmission. The aim is to develop TMR5 as an alternative anti-herpes agent, this being necessitated by increased resistance to available drugs and the cost of the drug of choice, acyclovir, in the region. Using the trypan blue exclusion test, plaque inhibition and viral yield reduction assays for assessment of cytotoxicity (CC50) and efficacy (EC50), and Mice and guinea pig cutaneous and genital HSV infection models respectively following oral and topical treatments, TMR5 exhibited no cytotoxicity in mammalian cell lines with a wide therapeutic index (CC50 ≥ 58.5 ± 4.6µg/ml). An EC50 of ≤ 14.7 ± 3.7µg/ml for both wild type and resistant strains of HSV was realised in plaque and viral yield assays. Oral (250 mg/kg) and topical (10% cream) administrations exhibited significant delay in onset of infections, hindered progression of infection to lethal forms with increased mean survival times and low mortality in both mice and guinea pig models. No acute toxicity has been realised at the therapeutic concentrations. TMR5 has demonstrated a high potential as an anti-herpes agent and arrangements are presently underway to evaluate its efficacy and safety in human clinical trials. A pilot production scheme supported by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NCSTI) of Kenya has been undertaken as means of developing TMR5 as an alternative management therapy for herpes infections.

U.S. agrees to pay Pfizer and BioNTech $2 billion for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine

The U.S. will pay Pfizer and biotech firm BioNTech $1.95 billion to produce and deliver 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine if it proves safe and effective, the companies announced Wednesday.

It was the largest such deal between the government and companies racing to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

Under the agreement, the U.S. can acquire 500 million additional doses, the Department of Health and Human Services said. Germany-based BioNTech and Pfizer are jointly developing four potential vaccines.

Invention offers new option for monitoring heart health

An invention may turn one of the most widely used materials for biomedical applications into wearable devices to help monitor heart health.

A team from Purdue University developed self-powered wearable triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based contact layers for monitoring cardiovascular health. TENGs help conserve and turn it into power.

The Purdue team’s work is published in the journal Advanced Materials.

Kenya Researchers Explore Herbal COVID-19 Cure

Kenya has stepped up efforts to find a local treatment for COVID-19. The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), East Africa’s leading medical research facility, is testing the efficacy of an herbal medicine known as Zedupex.

The search for both a cure and a vaccine for the coronavirus has intensified around the globe, including in Kenya, as medical researchers race to find the elusive remedy.

Dr. Festus Tolo of Kenya’s Medical Research Institute is the lead scientist tasked with finding out whether an herbal-based drug will be effective against COVID-19. Zedupex, developed in 2015 by Kenyan researchers, has been used in the treatment of herpes.

Cuba’s Interferon alfa-2b works in treating COVID-19 in China

Among the drugs used for COVID-19 is a particularly promising Cuban compound called “Interferon alfa-2b,” which has been successfully administered to Chinese patients.

In Cuba, where precaution measures against COVID-19 have included the temporary closing of schools and the shutdown of the tourist sector, among others, authorities have called on people to stay at home while Cuban scientists are working hard to develop new biotech products to kill the lethal disease.

With a growing number of cases, the island’s healthcare infrastructure is ready to treat an expected surge of patients with a wide selection of promising drugs. “The package of drugs we are administering is based on the experience of countries hardest hit by the disease. We have considered this with our experts, while our scientists try to add new local drugs to this protocol,” said Cuban Health Minister Jose Angel Portal in a recent TV appearance.

New Blood Test Detects 5 Types of Cancer Years Before Standard Diagnosis

A blood test has been shown to detect five types of cancer years before the diseases could be spotted using conventional diagnostic methods, according to a study published Tuesday.

Developed by a Sino-US startup, the test found cancers in 91 percent of people who showed no symptoms when the blood sample was collected but were diagnosed one-to-four years later with stomach, esophageal, colon, lung or liver cancer, researchers reported in Nature Communications.

“The immediate focus is to test people at higher risk, based on family history, age or other known risk factors,” said co-author Kun Zhang, head of the bioengineering department at the University of California San Diego and an equity holder in Singlera Genomics, which developed the test.

Artificial Intelligence Is the Hope 2020 Needs

The core of GPT-3, which is a creation of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco, is a general language model designed to perform autofill. It is trained on uncategorized internet writings, and basically guesses what text ought to come next from any starting point. That may sound unglamorous, but a language model built for guessing with 175 billion parameters — 10 times more than previous competitors — is surprisingly powerful.

With attention focused on a pandemic and an election, AI has taken a major leap forward.

Scientists prove DNA can be reprogrammed by Words and Frequencies

Amazing.

The human DNA is a biological internet and superior in many aspects to the artificial one. Russian scientific research directly or indirectly explains phenomena such as clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more. In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies WITHOUT cutting out and replacing single genes.

Only 10% of our DNA is being used for building proteins. It is this subset of DNA that is of interest to western researchers and is being examined and categorized. The other 90% are considered “junk DNA.” The Russian researchers, however, convinced that nature was not dumb, joined linguists and geneticists in a venture to explore those 90% of “junk DNA.” Their results, findings and conclusions are simply revolutionary!

According to them, our DNA is not only responsible for the construction of our body but also serves as data storage and in communication. The Russian linguists found that the genetic code, especially in the apparently useless 90%, follows the same rules as all our human languages. To this end they compared the rules of syntax (the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences), semantics (the study of meaning in language forms) and the basic rules of grammar.