Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and Pathways Bioscience in the United States have found that activating a transcription factor involved in oxidative stress regulation, antiviral activity, and inflammation may serve as a new treatment approach to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The scientists propose that the antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects of activating nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) may reduce symptoms and stop the “cytokine storm syndrome” that can be fatal in cases of COVID-19.

A pre-print version of the study can be accessed on the bioRxiv* server, while the manuscript undergoes peer review.

Policymakers had ample warning that COVID-19 posed a high risk for diabetes patients. In 2003, during the coronavirus outbreak known as SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, more than 20% of people who died had diabetes.

(Reuters) — Devon Brumfield could hear her father gasping for breath on the phone.

Dogs with a few days of training are capable of identifying people infected with the coronavirus, according to a study by a German veterinary university.

Eight dogs from Germany’s armed forces were trained for only a week and were able to accurately identify the virus with a 94% success rate, according to a pilot project led by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Researchers challenged the dogs to sniff out Covid-19 in the saliva of more than 1,000 healthy and infected people.

(Reuters) — Shares of Moderna Inc fell nearly 10% after it lost a bid to invalidate a U.S. patent owned by Arbutus Biopharma that poses a potential obstacle to Moderna’s efforts to develop next-generation vaccines, including a coronavirus vaccine.