Three SARS-CoV-2 recombinant lineages have been designated by Pangolin as of March 2022, two a combination of Delta and BA.1 (designated XD and XF), and the third a combination of Omicron BA.1 and Omicron BA.2… Read More
Single Domain Antibodies: Tools for the Future?
There are many ways single domain antibodies (sdAbs) — also known as Nanobodies™, VHH antibodies, and camelid antibodies are superior to conventional antibodies. Read on to find out how these unique antibodies can enhance your… Read More
SARS-CoV-2 protease Mpro (NSP5), a key to COVID-19 therapy?
Pfizer announced promising clinical trials for their drug Paxlovid (Owen et al., 2021), an inhibitor of the main SARS-CoV-2 protease, Mpro (3CLpro, NSP5). In addition to being the main SARS-CoV-2 protease, Liu et al., (2021)… Read More
SARS-CoV-2 Virus-like Particles (VLPs)
ProSci applauds the work described in two recent publications regarding the synthesis, production, and utility of SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particles (VLPs). Naskalska et al. (2021) (DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.732998) created recombinant His-tagged forms of SARS-CoV-2 structural proteins that… Read More
SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children
Pre-activated antiviral innate immunity in the upper airways controls early SARS-CoV-2 infection in children Loske et al. (2021) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-021-01037-9 The recent study by Loske et al (2021) investigated why children have reduced severe acute respiratory… Read More
Immune Evasion of Cancer
Mistakes happen. It’s a fact of life, and when mistakes occur during cell replication, the body has mechanisms to catch these errors and destroy the defective cells. However, when this system fails, it can lead… Read More
Immune Evasion of SARS-CoV-2
Viruses use a variety of processes to evade the immune system and buy time to replicate. Some of these processes include inhibition of the humoral response, interfering, inhibiting, and modulating interferons, cytokines, chemokines, and apoptosis,… Read More
SARS-CoV-2 Open Reading Frames (ORFs)
The SARS-CoV-2 genome is ~29 kb divided into 10 open reading frames (ORFs). Each of these ORFs (except seemingly ORF10) is translated in 29 different proteins. ORF1 is formed by two overlapping ORFs, ORF1a and… Read More
What is Cytokine Storm?
Cytokine Storm and COVID-19 Garnering mass attention due to the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the “cytokine storm” has been observed for decades. Cytokine storm refers to the overproduction of cytokines by the… Read More
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Mutations
As viruses create more of themselves within a host, they are prone to copying errors. These mutations or recombinations are single-point changes in the virus’ genetic code. Most of these changes do nothing, but others… Read More