Study Suggests Vitamin B12 As A SARS-CoV-2 Antiviral

▫️Researchers In The UK And Spain Have Used A Novel Drug Screening Approach To Identify Compounds That Could Serve As Effective Antivirals Against SARS-CoV-2.
▫️In Vitro Analyses Revealed That Different Types of Vitamin B12 Were Effective At Inhibiting The Replication of SARS-CoV-2 Variants.
▫️A Pre-Print Version of The Research Paper Is Available on The bioRxiv Server While The Article Undergoes Peer Review.
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New Discovery Shows Human Cells Can Write RNA Sequences Into DNA

▫️Cells Contain Machinery That Duplicates DNA Into A New Set That Goes Into A Newly Formed Cell. That Same Class of Machines, Called Polymerases, Also Build RNA Messages, Which Are Like Notes Copied from The Central DNA Repository of Recipes, So They Can Be Read More Efficiently Into Proteins.
▫️Now, Thomas Jefferson University Researchers Provide The First Evidence That RNA segments Can Be Written Back Into DNA, Which Potentially Challenges The Central dogma In Biology And Could Have Wide Implications Affecting Many Fields of Biology.
▫️In A Series of Elegant Experiments, The Researchers Tested Polymerase Theta Against The Reverse Transcriptase from HIV, Which Is One of The Best Studied of Its Kind.
▫️They Showed That Polymerase Theta Was Capable of Converting RNA Messages Into DNA, Which It Did As Well As HIV Reverse Transcriptase, And That It Actually Did A Better Job Than When Duplicating DNA To DNA.
▫️The Work Was Published June 11th In The Journal Science Advances.
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Scientists Identify New Drugs That Could Be Repurposed Against Covid-19

▫️In A Study Published In Science Advances, A Team Led by Researchers At The University of Cambridge's Milner Therapeutics Institute Used A Combination of Computational Biology And Machine Learning To Create A Comprehensive Map of Proteins That Are Involved In SARS-CoV-2 Infection - from Proteins That Help The Virus Break Into The Host Cell To Those Generated As A Consequence of Infection.
▫️By Examining This Network Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Approaches, They Were Able To Identify Key Proteins Involved In Infection As Well As Biological Pathways That Might Be Targeted by Drugs.
▫️The Team Used Computer Modeling To Carry Out A 'Virtual Screen' of Almost 2,000 Approved Drugs And Identified 200 Approved Drugs That Could be Effective Against Covid-19.
▫️When The Researchers Tested A Subset of Those Drugs Implicated In Viral Replication, They Found That Two In Particular, An Antimalarial Drug And A Type Of Medicine Used To Treat Rheumatoid Arthritis, Were Able To Inhibit The Virus, Providing Initial Validation of Their Data-Driven Approach.
▫️Sulfasalazine (used To Treat Conditions Such As Rheumatoid Arthritis And Crohn's disease) And Proguanil (And Antimalarial Drug), Which The Team Showed Reduced SARS-CoV-2 Viral Replication In Cells, Raising The Possibility of Their Potential Use To Prevent Infection Or To Treat Covid-19.
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VBI Vaccines’ Covid-19 Shot Induces Immune Responses In Phase I Trial

▫️VBI Vaccines Has Reported Preliminary Data from Phase I Part of Its Phase I/II Clinical Trial Where Its Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate, VBI-2902a, Induced Potent Immune Responses In Healthy Adult Subjects.
▫️A Monovalent And Enveloped Virus-Like Particle (eVLP) Covid-19-Specific Vaccine, VBI-2902 Expresses The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein. It Is Adjuvanted With Aluminium Phosphate To Form VBI-2902a.
▫️The Adaptive, Randomised, Observer-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Phase I/II Trial Is Currently Underway.
▫️The Phase I Part Analysed 5µg VBI-2902a In One-dose And Two-dose Vaccination Regimens, With The Second dose Being Administrated After 28 days.
▫️Phase I Enrolled 61 Healthy, Unvaccinated Adults Aged 18 to 54 Years.
▫️Data Showed That The 5µg dose Was Well-Tolerated And Induced Robust Immune Responses, Which Were Greater Than Those Observed In Human Convalescent Sera.

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CureVac Covid-19 Vaccine Records Only 48% Efficacy In Final Trial Readout

▫️CureVac Said Its Covid-19 Vaccine Was 48% Effective In The Final Analysis of Its Pivotal Mass Trial, Only Marginally Better Than The 47% Reported After An Initial Read-Out Two Weeks Ago.
▫️The German Biotech Firm Said That Efficacy, Measured by Preventing Symptomatic Disease, Was Slightly Better At 53% When Excluding Trial Participants Older Than 60 Years, An Age Group That Is By Far The Most Severely Affected.
▫️CureVac Said on June 16 Its Covid-19 Vaccine, Known As CVnCoV, Proved Only 47% Effective In An Initial Trial Read-Out And That New Variants Had Proved A Headwind, Denting Investor Confidence In Its Ability To Take On Rival Shots.
▫️The CureVac Study, Which Involved About 40,000 Adult Volunteers In Europe And Latin America, Showed That Efficacy Was 77% In The Age Group Below 60 Years of Age When Considering Only Moderate To Severe Symptoms And Excluding Mild Cases.

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AstraZeneca Begins Inoculation In Covid-19 Variant Vaccine Trial

▫️AstraZeneca Has Started The Inoculation of The First Subjects In A Phase II/III Clinical Trial of Its Covid-19 Variant Vaccine, AZD2816, To Prevent Infection from Variant SARS-CoV-2 Strains.
▫️AZD2816 Uses The Same Adenoviral Vector Platform As The Company’s Vaxzevria Covid-19 Vaccine, But With Slight Genetic Alterations To The Spike Protein Based on The Beta (B.1.351 Or South African) Variant.
▫️The New Variant Vaccine Has Ten Changes Across The Spike Protein, Including Those Found In Other "Variants of Concern".
▫️These Changes Decrease The Ability of Antibodies Stimulated Against The Original Virus To Inhibit Cell Entry, Increase Infectivity Than The Original Virus And Lower Neutralising Antibodies Sensitivity To The Original Virus, AstraZeneca Noted.
▫️The Partially Double-Blinded, Randomised, Multi-National, Active-Controlled Phase II/III Trial Will Assess The Safety And Immunogenicity of AZD2816 In Previously Vaccinated And Unvaccinated Adults Aged 18 Years And Above.
▫️It Will Enrol About 2,250 Subjects Across The UK, South Africa, Brazil And Poland. Subjects Will Be Given Intramuscular Vaxzevria Or AZD2816.

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Moderna's Covid-19 Vaccine Shows Promise Against Delta Variant in Lab Study

▫️Moderna Inc's Covid-19 Vaccine Showed Modest Reductions In Neutralizing Antibodies Against Emerging Variants, Including The Delta Variant First Identified In India, In A Lab Study, The Drugmaker Said on Tuesday.
▫️The Study Was Conducted on Blood Serum from Eight Participants Obtained One Week After They Received The Second dose of The Vaccine In An Early-Stage Trial, And Followed The Same Protocol As A Test Against Other Worrisome Variants That Was Published In The New England Journal of Medicine In April.
▫️In The New Test, Vaccination Produced Antibodies Capable of Neutralizing all Variants, Including Additional Versions of The Beta Variant First Identified In South Africa And Three Lineages of Variants First Identified In India, Including The Kappa (Also Known as B.1.617.1) And Delta (B.1.617.2) Variants.
▫️The Analysis Showed Some Reduction of Neutralization Against A Few of The Newer Variants, According To A Company Statement, Including Delta (2.1-fold), Kappa (3.3-3.4-fold), And Gamma - First Identified In Brazil - (3.2-fold).
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Covid-19 Vaccines Highly Effective Against Hospitalisation by Delta Variant

▫️New Data From Public Health England (PHE) Demonstrates That Pfizer-BioNTech’s And The Covid-19 Vaccine Oxford-AstraZeneca Are Both Effective At Preventing Hospitalisation From The Delta SARS-CoV-2 Variant.
▫️PHE Previously Established That The Delta Variant Is Up To 64 Percent More Transmissible Than The Alpha Variant (formerly The B.1.1.7- Variant), First Identified In The UK In September 2020.
▫️According To The New PHE Analysis, After Two doses:
- Pfizer/BioNTech’s Is 96 Percent Effective At Preventing Hospitalisation From The Delta SARS-CoV-2 Variant.
- And The Covid-19 Vaccine Oxford-AstraZeneca Is 92 Percent Effective Against Hospitalisation.
▫️Another Recently Published PHE Analysis Showed That One dose Is 17 Percent Less Effective At Preventing Symptomatic illness from The Delta Variant, Compared To Alpha, With Only A Small Difference After 2 doses.

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Adding Pembrolizumab to Chemo Provides Little or No Benefit In Urothelial Cancer

▫️In A Paper In The Lancet Oncology, Patients With Locally Advanced, Unresectable, Or Metastatic Urothelial Cancer May Not Derive Extra Benefit From The Addition of Pembrolizumab To Chemotherapy Or From Pembrolizumab Monotherapy, According To An Open-Label Phase-3 Trial.
▫️To Investigate, The Researchers Studied 1,010 Such Patients Who Were Randomized To Receive Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy, Pembrolizumab Monotherapy, Or Chemotherapy Alone.

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Magnesium Strongly Tied to Lower Risk for Intracranial Aneurysm

▫️Higher Serum Magnesium Levels Appear To Reduce The Risk for Intracranial Aneurysm And Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage. The Effects May Be Partially Mediated by Magnesium's Influence on Systolic Blood Pressure, New Research Suggests.
▫️The Study Was Published Online June 22 In Neurology.
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Novavax’ Covid-19 Vaccine Almost 90 Percent Effective In Phase III Trials

▫️The Final Analysis of A Phase III Trial Published In The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) Shows That Novavax’ NVX-CoV2373 Covid-19 Vaccine Has An Overall Efficacy of 89.7 Percent With Over 60 Percent of The Cases Caused by The Alpha (B.1.1.7) Variant. Additionally, The Vaccine Was Found To Have A 96.4 Percent Efficacy Against Non-Alpha Variants, Which Represents Strains Most Similar To The Original Virus.
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Extended dosing Intervals May Increase Efficacy of Oxford Covid-19 Vaccine

▫️According To A New Sub-Analysis, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 Vaccine, Induces Strong Immune Responses After Either A Prolonged Second dose Interval of Up To 45 Weeks Or Following A Third Boosting dose.
- The Analysis Found That Antibody Levels Remain Elevated from Baseline for At Least One Year Following A Single dose.
▫️The Sub-Analysis Involved Data from Two Trials - COV001 And COV002. COV001 Is A Single-Blinded, Randomised, Controlled Phase I/II Trial To Determine safety, Immunogenicity And Efficacy of The Covid-19 Vaccine Candidate In Up To 1,077 Healthy Adults (Aged 18 To 55 Years)
▫️With A 45-Week dosing Interval Between The First And Second dose, Antibody Titres Were Four Times Higher Than With A 12-Week Interval, Demonstrating That A Longer dosing Interval Is Not Detrimental But Can Derive Stronger Immunity.
▫️The Results Were Published by The University of Oxford on The Pre-Print Server of The Lancet.

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Sinovac’s Covid-19 Vaccine Elicits Robust Immune Responses In Children

▫️Sinovac Biotech Has Published In The Lancet, Results from The Phase I/II Clinical Trials of Its Inactivated Covid-19 Vaccine, CoronaVac, Which Triggered Robust Immune Responses Among Healthy Children And Adolescents Aged From Three To 17 Years In China.
▫️The Double-Blind, Randomised, Placebo-Controlled Trials Analysed The Safety, Tolerability And Immunogenicity of The Vaccine In 552 Participants.
▫️Study Data Showed That Two Intramuscular doses of CoronaVac Administered 28 Days Apart Were Safe And Well-Tolerated In This Pediatric Population.
▫️The Majority of Adverse Reactions Were Mild To Moderately Severe And Observed Under Seven Days Following Each dose.
▫️In Phase II, Seroconversion Was Noted In 96.8% of The Subjects In The Low-dose Arm And All Participants In The Medium-dose Arm 28 Days After Full vaccination.

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Public Health England: Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 Shot 94% Protective Against Death In Over 65s

▫️Two doses of The Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 Vaccine Gives An Estimated 94% Protection Against Death from The Disease In People Over 65, Public Health England Said on Thursday In A Weekly Surveillance Report of Real-World Data.
▫️Public Health England (PHE) Said The Majority of The Data Was Derived From A Period When The Alpha Variant, First Detected In England, Was Still Dominant And Did Not Provide A Specific Estimate of Protection from Death That The Vaccine Offered Against The Now More Widespread Delta Variant, First Detected In India.
▫️But Separate PHE Research Has Shown The Jab Is 92% Effective At Blocking Severe illness from The Variant, With Protection Against Death Likely To Be Higher.
▫️Under-65s Who Had Two doses of The Oxford-Made Jab Cut Their Risk of Death by 92%, Today's Report Added. With Just One dose, The Risk Was Slashed By 83% Among Over-65s, And 79% Among Under-65s.

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Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 Vaccine Shows Promise Against Delta Variant

▫️Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Said Late Thursday That Its Single-Shot Covid-19 Vaccine Showed Strong Promise Against The Delta Variant And Other Emerging Strains And Also Provided Durable Protection Against The Infection More Broadly.
▫️Data Showed That The Durability of Immune Response for Recipients of Its Vaccine Lasted At Least Eight Months, The Healthcare Company Said, Adding That Its Vaccine Was 85% Effective And Could Also Help Prevent Hospitalization And Death.
▫️Other Vaccine Makers Including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna Inc, And AstraZeneca Have Previously Said That Their Covid-19 Vaccines Are Effective Against The Fast-Spreading Delta.

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Resolve Therapeutics To Start Phase II Trial of RSLV-132 For Long Covid

▫️Resolve Therapeutics, A Company Developing Targeted Therapies For Underserved Autoimmune Diseases Has Announced That The US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) Has Approved A New Investigational Drug Application For Its Lead Candidate, RSLV-132, To Initiate A Phase II Clinical Trial In Patients With Long Covid.
▫️Resolve Therapeutics’ Lead Compound RSLV-132 Is A Novel Targeted Biologic Drug Designed To Remove Pro-Inflammatory Nucleic Acids from The Circulation of Patients. These Acids Are Thought To Be One of The Key Triggers of Multiple Pro-Inflammatory Cascades.
▫️The Compound Consists Of A Catalytically Active Human RNase Moiety Fused To A Human IgG1 Fc Domain That Digests RNA Circulating In The Blood, Thereby Decreasing Inflammation.
▫️Resolve Therapeutics Is Also Evaluating RSLV-132 In A Phase II Lupus Study, And Is Preparing To Initiate Registration Studies With RSLV-132 In Patients With Sjögren’s Syndrome.

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Vaccines Grown In Eggs Induce Antibody Response Against An Egg-Associated Glycan

▫️Researchers Have Found That Viral Vaccines Grown In Eggs, Such As The H1N1 Flu Vaccine, Produce An Antibody Response Against A Sugar Molecule Found In Eggs, Which Could Have Implications For The Effectiveness of These Vaccines.
▫️The Findings Were Published on June 15 In mBio.
▫️The Antibodies Target A Sugar Molecule, Known As A Glycan, Called N-Acetyllactosamine (LacNAc), With A Sulfur Modification.
▫️LacNAcs Are A Common Glycan In Humans, But The Specific Sulfur Modification of LacNAc Found In Eggs Is Not Known To Be Expressed In Humans. Because of This, Humans Can Produce Antibodies Against This Sulfur-Modified Glycan.
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Lancet: Mixing Oxford And Pfizer Covid-19 Shots Creates Strong Immune Response

▫️Mixing doses of Covid-19 Vaccines From Pfizer And AstraZeneca Creates A Strong Immune Response, According To Results from A University of Oxford Study, A Finding That Could Enable Greater Flexibility In The Use of Scarce Supplies.
▫️A Mixed Schedule of The Pfizer Shot Followed by The Oxford Vaccine, And Vice Versa, Resulted In High Concentrations of Antibodies Against Covid-19 When Given Four Weeks Apart, Researchers Reported Monday In The Lancet Medical Journal.
▫️The Trial Involved 830 Volunteers Age 50 And Over And Tested The Vaccines Only Against The Variant First Identified In Wuhan.
▫️Oxford Covid-19 Vaccine Followed by Pfizer Produced Higher Levels of Immune Antibodies And T-Cells Than Pfizer Followed by AstraZeneca.
▫️The Best T-Cell Response Came from Oxford-AstraZeneca Followed by Pfizer, And The Highest Antibody Response Was Seen From Two doses of Pfizer.

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Case Reports Identify Guillain-Barré Variants After Covid-19 Vaccination

▫️Guillain-Barré Syndrome, A Rare Peripheral Nerve Disorder That Can Occur After Certain Types of Viral And Bacterial Infections, Has Not To Date Been Definitively Linked To Infection by SARS-CoV-2 Or With Vaccination Against The Virus, Despite Surveillance Searching For Such Associations.
▫️Until Now Reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome Have Been Scant: Clinical Trials of A Viral Vector Vaccine Developed by Johnson & Johnson Saw One In The Placebo Arm And Another In The Intervention Arm, While Another Case Was Reported Following Administration of A Pfizer mRNA SARS-Cov-2 vaccine.
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Statins Linked To Lower Cancer Rate In Heart Failure Patients

▫️A New Study Provides More Evidence Supporting The Idea That Statins May Have A Role In The Prevention of Cancer.
▫️This Latest Study - Conducted In 87,000 Patients With Heart Failure - Showed That Those Patients Who Took Statins Had A Significantly Reduced Risk of Developing Cancer Or of Dying from Cancer.
▫️The Study Was Published Online In The European Heart Journal on June 23.
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Germany Recommends Combining Oxford, mRNA Shots

▫️German Health Authority Recommends Switching From Oxford-AstraZeneca To Pfizer Vaccine For Second dose.
▫️Germany's Vaccine Committee Has Recommended Anyone Who Received An Oxford-AstraZeneca First dose Have Pfizer or Moderna Shots As The Second For Better Protection Against The Coronavirus, Including The Delta Variant.
▫️The Commission Recommended The Mix "Regardless of Age" And With A Minimum Gap of Four Weeks Between The Two Shots.
▫️In A Statement, The Committee Said That “According To Current Study Results”, The Immune Response from A Mixture of AstraZeneca With An mRNA Vaccine Was “Significantly Superior” To That from Two doses of AstraZeneca.
▫️Researchers At The UK's University of Oxford This Week Said They Had Found A Combination of AstraZeneca Followed by Pfizer Creates A Strong Immune Response.
▫️Several Countries, Including Canada, Spain, And South Korea, Have Already Approved Vaccine dose-Mixing.

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