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An Italian pharmacology scholar has claimed that COVID-19 damages the hemoglobin, thus impairing the ability of red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body, affecting the lungs and leading to Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). In an explanation of her thesis to The Jerusalem Post, Annalisa Chiusolo said that her theory provides the answers to several questions about the novel coronavirus, including the higher vulnerability demonstrated by men, particularly diabetics, to becoming seriously ill from the virus, as well as the lower rate of COVID-19 infection among pregnant women and children. Chiusolo believes that understanding this mechanism can pave...

COVID-19 damages the hemoglobin, impairing the ability of red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout the body, compromising the lungs and resulting in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), Italian pharmacology scholar Annalisa Chiusolo explained to The Jerusalem Post. If her thesis is correct, it would resolve many outstanding questions about the novel coronavirus, such as the greater vulnerability of men – specifically male diabetics – to become seriously ill from the virus, as well as the lower rate at which pregnant women and children contract COVID-19. Moreover, understanding this mechanism could lead the way to a quicker discovery of the...

In the last 3–5 days, anecdotal evidence has come out of NYC, Italy, Spain, etc. about COVID-19 and characteristics of patients who get seriously ill. It’s not only piling up but now leading to a general field-level consensus backed up by a few previously little-known studies that we’ve had it all wrong the whole time. Well, a few had some things eerily correct (cough Trump cough), especially with Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromicin, but we’ll get to that in a minute. There is no ‘pneumonia’ nor ARDS. At least not the ARDS with established treatment protocols and procedures we’re familiar with. Ventilators...

In the last 3–5 days, a mountain of anecdotal evidence has come out of NYC, Italy, Spain, etc. about COVID-19 and characteristics of patients who get seriously ill. It’s not only piling up but now leading to a general field-level consensus backed up by a few previously little-known studies that we’ve had it all wrong the whole time. Well, a few had some things eerily correct (cough Trump cough), especially with Hydroxychloroquine with Azithromicin, but we’ll get to that in a minute. There is no ‘pneumonia’ nor ARDS. At least not the ARDS with established treatment protocols and procedures we’re...

A team of researchers from Wake Forest University, the National Institutes of Health and other institutions has discovered a previously undetected chemical process within the oxygen-carrying molecule haemoglobin that could have far-reaching implications for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In a paper published online 4 Nov. in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, senior authors Daniel Kim-Shapiro, professor of physics at Wake Forest, and Mark Gladwin, chief of the Vascular Medicine Branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the NIH, describe how haemoglobin, through a catalytic reaction that does not change its own chemical properties, converts nitrite salt...

Elevated blood sugar increases the risk of heart disease, not only in people with diabetes but also in those with high-normal readings not considered diabetic. Two new studies provide strong evidence that the increased risk is due to blood sugar itself, independent of other problems that often go along with it, like high blood pressure and cholesterol. Before the studies, diabetes was already known to be bad for the heart: it doubles the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and 70 to 80 percent of people with diabetes die from heart attacks, strokes and artery disease. But researchers were not...

Red-blooded genealogists take note: The discovery in microbes of two oxygen-packing proteins, the earliest known ancestors to hemoglobin, brings scientists closer to identifying the earliest life forms to use oxygen. According to the project’s lead investigator, University of Hawaii microbiologist Maqsudul Alam, the research may also aid in the search for blood substitutes as new molecular details shed light on how the structure of such proteins, called protoglobins, evolved to transport and release oxygen. Scientists from the Maui High Performance Computing Center and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center contributed to the research. The findings will appear in the...

Emergency Patients Unwittingly Get Artificial Blood Paramedics in five U.S. cities have started infusing experimental artificial blood into victims of car crashes, shootings and other life-threatening emergencies without first getting their consent, as most research projects require. Ambulances and medical helicopters racing to bring hemorrhaging patients to more than a dozen other hospitals around the country, including possibly two in Virginia, will eventually join the test of the synthetic oxygen-carrying liquid, called PolyHeme. Supporters say the study is the only means to prove that the pouches of red fluid offer one of the longest-sought tools in medicine -- a way...