Selenium and Covid-19 Recovery

Researchers have identified a link between the COVID-19 cure rate and regional selenium status in China.


University of Surrey -- April 29, 2020 -- An international team of researchers, led by Professor Margaret Rayman at the University of Surrey, has identified a link between the COVID-19 cure rate and regional selenium status in China.


Publishing their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers using data (up to 18 February), investigated possible links between selenium levels in the body and cure or death rates of those with the COVID-19 virus in China.


Selenium is an essential trace element obtained from the diet (i.e. fish, meat and cereals) which has been found to affect the severity of a number of viral diseases in animals and humans. For example selenium status in those with HIV has been shown to be an important factor in the progression of the virus to AIDs and death from the condition. China is known to have populations that have both the lowest and highest selenium status in the world, due to geographical differences in the soil which affects how much of the trace element gets into the food chain.


Margaret Rayman, Professor of Nutritional Medicine at the University of Surrey, said: "Given the history of viral infections associated with selenium deficiency, we wondered whether the appearance of COVID-19 in China could possibly be linked to the belt of selenium deficiency that runs from the north-east to the south-west of the country."


Examining data from provinces and municipalities with more than 200 cases and cities with more than 40 cases, researchers found that areas with high levels of selenium were more likely to recover from the virus. For example, in the city of Enshi in Hubei Province, which has the highest selenium intake in China, the cure rate (percentage of COVID-19 patients declared 'cured') was almost three-times higher than the average for all the other cities in Hubei Province. By contrast, in Heilongjiang Province, where selenium intake is among the lowest in the world, the death rate from COVID-19 was almost five-times as high as the average of all the other provinces outside of Hubei.


Most convincingly, the researchers found that the COVID-19 cure rate was significantly associated with selenium status, as measured by the amount of selenium in hair, in 17 cities outside of Hubei.

Kate Bennett, a medical statistician at the University of Surrey, said; "There is a significant link between selenium status and COVID-19 cure rate, however it is important not to overstate this finding; we have not been able to work with individual level data and have not been able to take account of other possible factors such as age and underlying disease."


Ramy Saad, a doctor at Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, currently taking an MSc degree in Nutritional Medicine at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Surrey, commented; "The correlation we have identified is compelling, particularly given previous research on selenium and infectious diseases. As such, a careful and thorough assessment of the role selenium may play in COVID-19 is certainly justified and may help to guide ongoing public-health decisions."


                   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200429105907.htm

Covid-19 Antibody Research

Researchers report discovery of antibody that blocks infection by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in cells


May 4, 2020 -- Researchers at Utrecht University, Erasmus Medical Center and Harbour BioMed (HBM) reported that they have identified a fully human monoclonal antibody that prevents the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus from infecting cultured cells. The discovery, published online in Nature Communications, is an initial step towards developing a fully human antibody to treat or prevent the respiratory disease COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

The COVID-19 pandemic has spread rapidly across the globe infecting more than 3.3 million people worldwide and killing more than 235,000 people so far.


“This research builds on the work our groups have done in the past on antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV that emerged in 2002/2003,” said Berend-Jan Bosch, Associate Professor, Research leader at Utrecht University, and co-lead author of the Nature Communications study. “Using this collection of SARS-CoV antibodies, we identified an antibody that also neutralizes infection of SARS-CoV-2 in cultured cells. Such a neutralizing antibody has potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus.”


Bosch noted that the antibody binds to a domain that is conserved in both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, explaining its ability to neutralize both viruses. “This cross-neutralizing feature of the antibody is very interesting and suggests it may have potential in mitigation of diseases caused by future-emerging related coronaviruses.”


Potential COVID-19 treatment


“This discovery provides a strong foundation for additional research to characterize this antibody and begin development as a potential COVID-19 treatment,” said Frank Grosveld, PhD. co-lead author on the study, Academy Professor of Cell Biology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and Founding Chief Scientific Officer at Harbour BioMed. “The antibody used in this work is ‘fully human,’ allowing development to proceed more rapidly and reducing the potential for immune-related side effects.” Conventional therapeutic antibodies are first developed in other species and then must undergo additional work to ‘humanize’ them. The antibody was generated using Harbour BioMed’s H2L2 transgenic mouse technology.


“This is groundbreaking research,” said Dr. Jingsong Wang, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of HBM. “Much more work is needed to assess whether this antibody can protect or reduce the severity of disease in humans. We expect to advance development of the antibody with partners. 
We believe our technology can contribute to addressing this most urgent public health need and we are pursuing several other research avenues.”


https://www.uu.nl/en/news/researchers-report-discovery-of-antibody-that-blocks-infection-by-the-novel-coronavirus-sars-cov-2

Stopping Transmission of Malaria

There is a fungus-like microbe that exists in the bodies of certain mosquitoes that prevents the insect from transmitting malaria.  See



https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52530828

Organic Molecules on Martian Surface

Four-Billion-Year-Old Nitrogen-Containing Organic Molecules Discovered in Martian Meteorites

From Tokyo Institute of Technology


Organic compounds necessary for forming life have been found in meteorites on the surface of Mars.  
Story at:


https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200429075851.htm

Federal Reserve as Financial Lender

Introduction by the Blog Author

This is an absolutely terrible idea.  It risks hyperinflation in the long run and an end to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  It underwrites the most crooked state and local politicians.


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A Backdoor Central Bank Bailout of State Governments

By Joel Griffith


"May 02, 2020 -- Government-ordered business shutdowns aren’t flattening just the curve. They’re causing a steep drop in tax revenue for state and local governments.


"To ensure the flow of credit to these cash-strapped governments, the Federal Reserve has embarked on a previously unthinkable act: creating up to $500 billion in new fiat currency and lending it directly to states, cities, and counties through its Municipal Liquidity Facility.


"For now, this staves off default by local governments on existing debt and allows government services to continue uninterrupted. However, this marks a dramatic departure from the Federal Reserve’s traditional role of equipping solvent financial institutions with the liquidity necessary to meet credit demands."

                      Much more at:


https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2020/05/02/a_backdoor_central_bank_bailout_of_state_governments_490609.html

The Race to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine

[Introduction: This is a superb example of thorough, scientific journalism.  I have been monitoring this story for months, and even I learned some important new things about biology by reading this.  It is the best article I have read from the Washington Post in years.  Here are some quotes:]


“With at least 115 vaccine projects in laboratories at companies and research labs, the science is hurtling forward so fast and bending so many rules about how the process usually works that even veteran vaccine developers do not know what to expect.


“Researchers are now trying to compress that timeline in ways they never have before, against a type of virus they have never successfully quelled.


“More than one vaccine will likely be needed, because the first one may not be as effective as the follow-ons.”


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/inside-the-extraordinary-race-to-invent-a-coronavirus-vaccine/ar-BB13vOIk?ocid=spartandhp


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Read more:


The dark side of ventilators: Those hooked up for long periods face difficult recoveries


Chaotic search for coronavirus treatments undermines efforts, experts say


‘Second-week crash’ is time of peril for some covid-19 patients

Certain Eye Neurons Fire Differently

Eyes send an unexpected signal to the brain

From Northwestern University


April 30, 2020 -- New research has found that a subset of retinal neurons sends inhibitory signals to the brain. Before, researchers believed the eye only sends excitatory signals.


For decades, biology textbooks have stated that eyes communicate with the brain exclusively through one type of signaling pathway. But a new discovery shows that some retinal neurons take a road less traveled.


New research, led by Northwestern University, has found that a subset of retinal neurons sends inhibitory signals to the brain. Before, researchers believed the eye only sends excitatory signals. (Simply put: Excitatory signaling makes neurons to fire more; inhibitory signaling makes neurons to fire less.)


The Northwestern researchers also found that this subset of retinal neurons is involved in subconscious behaviors, such as synchronization of circadian rhythms to light/dark cycles and pupil constriction to intense bright lights. By better understanding how these neurons function, researchers can explore new pathways by which light influences our behavior.


"These inhibitory signals prevent our circadian clock from resetting to dim light and prevent pupil constriction in low light, both of which are adaptive for proper vision and daily function," said Northwestern's Tiffany Schmidt, who led the research. "We think that our results provide a mechanism for understanding why our eye is so exquisitely sensitive to light, but our subconscious behaviors are comparatively insensitive to light."


The research will be published in the May 1 issue of the journal Science.


Schmidt is an assistant professor of neurobiology at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Takuma Sonoda, a former Ph.D. student in the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience program, is the paper's first author.


To conduct the study, Schmidt and her team blocked the retinal neurons responsible for inhibitory signaling in a mouse model. When this signal was blocked, dim light was more effective at shifting the mice's circadian rhythms.


"This suggests that there is a signal from the eye that actively inhibits circadian rhythms realignment when environmental light changes, which was unexpected," Schmidt said. "This makes some sense, however, because you do not want to adjust your body's entire clock for minor perturbations in the environmental light/dark cycle, you only want this massive adjustment to take place if the change in lighting is robust."


Schmidt's team also found that, when the inhibitory signals from the eye were blocked, mice's pupils were much more sensitive to light.


"Our working hypothesis is that this mechanism keeps pupils from constricting in very low light," Sonoda said. "This increases the amount of light hitting your retina, and makes it easier to see in low light conditions. This mechanism explains, in least part, why your pupils avoid constricting until bright light intensifies."


The research, "A non-canonical inhibitory circuit dampens behavioral sensitivity to light," was supported by a Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship in the Neurosciences, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (award numbers 1DP2EY022584, T32 EY025202 and F31 EY030360-01).


                             https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200430150201.htm