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Authors: Marcos Cervantes, Tobin Hess, Giorgio G. Morbioli, Anjali Sengara and Peter M. Kasson Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infects human cells via the ACE2 receptor. Structural evidence suggests that ACE2 may not just serve as an attachment factor but also conformationally activate the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein for membrane fusion. Here, we test that hypothesis directly, using DNA-lipid tethering as a synthetic attachment factor in place of ACE2. We find that SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus and virus-like particles are capable of membrane fusion without ACE2 if activated with an appropriate protease. Thus, ACE2 is not biochemically required for SARS-CoV-2 membrane fusion. However, addition...

A half-century-old diabetes drug appears to help treat bipolar disorder by reversing patients' insulin resistance. Bipolar patients who responded to the drug metformin experienced improvement in their mood disorder as their insulin resistance decreased, said Dr. Cynthia Calkin. "We saw this improvement as early as week six in the study," she said. "Week 14 was the study endpoint, and patients remained significantly improved or in remission." Calkin noted that some patients who started off in the trial are still in remission, six or seven years later. Metformin helps treat type 2 diabetes by reducing production of glucose by the liver...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have noted that certain patients are at especially high risk of developing severe illness or dying from coronavirus infection. Type 2 diabetes—a condition affecting more than 10 percent of the U.S. population— is one of the main risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness. New research from U-M uncovers why this might be and offers hope for a potential therapy. The culprit appears to be an enzyme called SETDB2. This same enzyme has been implicated in the non-healing, inflammatory wounds found in people with diabetes…. "We think we have a reason for why these patients are...

This is an anonymously posted document by someone who calls themselves Spartacus. Because it’s anonymous, I can’t contact them to ask for permission to publish. So I hesitated for a while, but it’s simply the best document I’ve seen on Covid, vaccines, etc. Whoever Spartacus is, they have a very elaborate knowledge in “the field”. If you want to know a lot more about the no. 1 issue in the world today, read it. And don’t worry if you don’t understand every single word, neither do I. But I learned a lot.

Study Shows Vaccine Will ENHANCE Delta InfectivitySTORY AT-A-GLANCEA group of Japanese researchers released research showing that the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant “is poised to acquire complete resistance” to existing COVID-19 jabs When four common mutations were introduced to the Delta variant, Pfizer’s mRNA injection enhanced its infectivity, causing it to become resistant A Delta variant with three mutations has already emerged, which suggests it’s only a matter of time before a fourth mutation develops, at which point complete resistance to Pfizer’s jab may be imminent A number of experts have raised concerns that COVID-19 jabs and the mass vaccination program could...

Antioxidants (Basel). 2020 Jul; 9(7): 624.Published online 2020 Jul 16. doi: 10.3390/antiox9070624PMCID: PMC7402141PMID: 32708578Francesca Silvagno,* Annamaria Vernone, and Gian Piero PescarmonaAuthor information Article notes Copyright and License information DisclaimerThis article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Go to:AbstractThe novel COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the world’s population differently: mostly in the presence of conditions such as aging, diabetes and hypertension the virus triggers a lethal cytokine storm and patients die from acute respiratory distress syndrome, whereas in many cases the disease has a mild or even asymptomatic progression. A common denominator in all conditions associated with COVID-19 appears...

In 2018 — nearly two years before the start of the global coronavirus pandemic — U.S. officials in China sent warnings to Washington expressing safety concerns over a Wuhan facility's research into coronaviruses in horseshoe bats, adding weight to the theory that the novel virus originated in a lab and not at a Wuhan wet market. The news broke in a report Wednesday by Josh Rogin of the Washington Post, who said that he obtained access to the first of two diplomatic cables sent from State Department officials who had visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in January and March...

Chemists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have chemically synthesized a new peptide (a short protein fragment) that can bind to part of SARS-CoV-2's spike protein, a key protein responsible for getting the virus into mammalian cells, potentially disarming it. "We have a lead compound that we really want to explore, because it does, in fact, interact with a viral protein in the way that we predicted it to interact, so it has a chance of inhibiting viral entry into a host cell," said senior author Dr. Brad Pentelute, a researcher in the Department of Chemistry at MIT. Coronaviruses,...

A year ago, a mystery virus began to kill people in China. Causing an illness dubbed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the virus quickly spread beyond Asia and for a few months stirred fears of a worldwide epidemic. With stunning speed, scientists identified the virus and decoded its genetic sequence (SN: 4/26/03, p. 262: http://www.sciencenews.org/20030426/fob8.asp). Now, a research team has claimed victory in the race to identify the cellular receptor—the protein to which the virus attaches when it infects cells—for the SARS virus. Since the protein turned out to be a well-known one that had previously been implicated in heart...