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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,011

Not just the lungs: Some COVID-19 patients show signs of neurological ailments

Strokes, seizures, loss of smell and taste and other neurological deficits are showing up in patients critically ill with the coronavirus.

Although the virus is classified as a respiratory disorder and primarily damages the lungs, clinicians are seeing patients with a wide array of symptoms, from seizures to hallucinations, brain inflammation, disorientation, delirium and loss of smell and taste.

“I had a patient, a young guy, 48, who attended a party in New Rochelle two weeks before and came in with hallucinations and confusion,” said Dr. Pooia Fattahi, regional chair of neurology for Trinity Health Of New England. The patient had no fever and only a slight cough. Still, aware some COVID-19 patients show up at hospitals with seizures, strokes and confusion, Fattahi suspected, correctly, that the patient had COVID-19. Three of those who attended the same New Rochelle party ultimately died of the virus.

You may have seen this chart in my last newsletter

Via Harvard David Sinclair “You may have seen this chart in my last newsletter, but it’s believed a bats’ ability to keep their inflammatory response down is one of the reasons they are able to harbor many types of viruses. Most coronavirus-related deaths in humans are due to the immune system response in the body going haywire in its response, not damage caused by the virus itself.

Part 2: https://buff.ly/2VuHGTx”

You may have seen this chart in my last newsletter, but it’s believed a bats’ ability to keep their inflammatory response down is one of the reasons they are able to harbor many types of viruses. Most coronavirus-related deaths in humans are due to the immune system response in the body going haywire in its response, not damage caused by the virus itself.

You can read the latest newsletter here:

Part 1: https://buff.ly/2VPQF0J

Antimalarials widely used against COVID-19 heighten risk of cardiac arrest. How can doctors minimize the danger?

Treating COVID-19 patents with hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine generally thought to have less severe side effects, has become standard at many hospitals. The drug is often combined with the antibiotic azithromycin, which some studies suggest also has antiviral effects. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized emergency use of both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 patients. But no large, randomized trial has proved these drugs—alone or in combination with azithromycin—are effective against the disease.

Cardiologists urge careful monitoring of patients on chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine.

New 90-minute coronavirus test implemented in Tel Aviv hospital

A faster way of testing for coronavirus was implemented at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, which allows for the test results to be retrieved in under 90 minutes, Channel 12reported. “It is an advanced and reliable technology that gives hospitals the opportunity to get the result back from a coronavirus test in fewer than 90 minutes,” Dr. Hanoh Goldschmidt, head of the Laboratory Department in Ichilov Hospital told Channel 12.

Coronavirus: Why Oxford university is so confident in an early vaccine win

The Oxford scientists are extraordinarily confident that their vaccine against the coronavirus will work.

The government’s chief medical officer insists a jab is still 12 to 18 months off and some form of social distancing will be needed until it’s in widespread use.

Their confidence is built on past success. The same vaccine technology has been used on other diseases, including the related coronavirus MERS, as well as Ebola.

ChAdOx1, pronounced “Chaddox-one”, is a version of a common cold virus that has been modified not only so that it doesn’t cause symptoms, but also so it carries some genetic material of the coronavirus.

Past success of the technology Oxford University is using for the COVID-19 vaccine is why they think it can be ready by September.

Whole genome sequencing reveals genetic structural secrets of schizophrenia

:ooooo.

Most research about the genetics of schizophrenia has sought to understand the role that genes play in the development and heritability of schizophrenia. Many discoveries have been made, but there have been many missing pieces. Now, UNC School of Medicine scientists have conducted the largest-ever whole genome sequencing study of schizophrenia to provide a more complete picture of the role the human genome plays in this disease.

Published in Nature Communications, the study co-led by senior author Jin Szatkiewicz, PhD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Genetics, suggests that rare structural genetic variants could play a role in schizophrenia.

“Our results suggest that ultra-rare structural variants that affect the boundaries of a specific genome structure increase risk for schizophrenia,” Szatkiewicz said. “Alterations in these boundaries may lead to dysregulation of gene expression, and we think future mechanistic studies could determine the precise functional effects these variants have on biology.”

Smartphone-powered device tests blood samples for genetic conditions

It is now possible to use a cheap, lightweight and smartphone-powered DNA detector to identify DNA in blood, urine and other samples, on the spot.

At the moment, testing to identify DNA is done in laboratories using expensive, specialised equipment. To make this process faster and cheaper, Ming Chen at the Army Medical University in China and his colleagues developed a portable DNA detector made of 3D-printed parts that attach to a standard smartphone.