The Gene That May Have Made COVID-19 More Contagious

 

    With over a year since the rise of COVID-19, which has changed almost everyone's lives, there has been a constant effort by people all over the world to research and find a way to get ahead of this virus. In this article on The Scientist written by Abby Olena, there is a discussion about a specific mutation that has arisen within the virus and how it may be giving it higher transmissibility.

   The 614g variant is being researched and though it has not been definitively confirmed, there appears to be a relationship between the mutation and the virus's ability to spread more efficiently. While looking at many cases of the virus in the UK and also looking at animal testing, patterns were observed. When someone was infected with the virus that contained this mutation, they also typically had significantly more viral particles found in their respiratory tract. With more of the viral particles found in the respiratory tract, there would be a greater probability of spreading the virus to another person, giving it a new advantage. Though, reading articles like this one can be quite discouraging, the research that has been and that is still being done to understand the virus is crucial. Any and everything that we can learn about COVID-19 and how it functions gets us closer and closer to a solution.

Additional Links

 https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20201113/study-new-coronavirus-mutation-accelerates-spread

What is Dengue fever

Have you ever heard of dengue fever? It is a viral disease transmitted by a certain mosquitoes. It causes very high fevers and muscle pain. The dengue fever can be deadly in some cases, there was around 20,000 deaths last year. Researchers focused on the disease in Bangkok, mainly on the way the disease is spread. Researchers have come to conclusion that there is a pattern for the spreading of this virus. They found that nearly sixty percent of the fever cases within a 200 meter radius were closely related. Researchers will now use this information to map the location of the cases. They have found that if they know the person who is affected, they are a good indicator of where the new cases will occur. If they can map how the virus spreads this could further knowledge on how to kill the pathogen. Thailand is spraying to kill mosquitos to keep the infection rate low. Also researcher are looking for a vaccine for this virus. I have never heard of this virus so to learn about it is very cool. I did not know this was going on in Thailand, and to learn about it betters our knowledge incase this virus spreads here. 













Article: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/dengue-fever-spreads-neighborly-way

Related article: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673602099646

Ebola Stopped From Spreading in New Study

The Ebola virus is a deadly infection that replicates so fast, the immune system has a hard time working fast enough to suppress it. This makes the virus have such a high mortality rate. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania discovered a method to stop the virus from being able to exit the host cell, trapping it inside. The virus commandeers the host cell, reproduces, and then destroys the cell releasing many other replications of the virus into the body to begin the same process over again. The researchers used virus-like particles to mimic the protein coat of the virus without needing to use dangerous live viruses and found when these particles were budding out of the host cells, there was a spike in calcium levels. When host cells were modified with a mutated gene called ORAI1, which encodes a calcium channel, it was shown  that the Ebola reproduction rate dropped drastically. They also found that if they suppress a gene called STIM1, the same reduction in the virus occurred. They then tried this test with live Ebola viruses and a few other viruses that showed similar reductions in production from the ORAI1 and STIM1 mutated cells and similar results followed. The viruses were shown to spread much less with mutant cells as opposed to normal cells.
         This is a significant discovery in the medical field, especially since it was shown how serious infection can spread last year in Africa. With continued testing of this discovery and similar results, there may finally be a way to reduce the impact of Ebola on victims and may lead to a cure for it. It's also good to see that they were not one-sided with their research and also incorporated some other viruses to test at the same time. That would be amazing if tests show that many viruses need this calcium pathway to keep spreading and they were able to create one treatment that worked for hundreds of illnesses.
Original article here.