Persistent Olfactory Loss After COVID Predicts Cognitive Impairment
Persistent smell loss after SARS-CoV-2 infection predicted cognitive impairment in older adults, a longitudinal study in Argentina showed. One year after acute infection, anosmia was more strongly associated with cognitive impairment than severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, reported Gabriela Gonzalez-Aleman, MSc, PhD, of Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires, at the 2022 Alzheimer’s Association International […]
Patients with lupus benefit from COVID-19 vaccine booster
People with systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, who received a “booster” dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine after full vaccination are roughly half as likely to have a subsequent “breakthrough” COVID-19 infection, a new study shows. The finding, researchers say, should offer reassurance to the more than 200,000 Americans who have SLE, a condition in which the […]
Despite Extensive Evaluations, Long COVID Causes Remain Unclear
Clinical and immunologic evaluations of people with post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) — otherwise known as long COVID — showed a high burden of persistent symptoms but most cases pointed to no specific cause, NIH researchers reported. Fatigue, labored breathing, chest discomfort, parosmia, headache, insomnia, memory impairment, anxiety, and impaired concentration were the most […]
Can Trained Dogs Sniff Out COVID-Positive Travelers?
Four trained dogs detected people who were positive for SARS-CoV-2 with similar accuracy to PCR tests, according to a randomized trial and real-life study at a busy international airport earlier in the pandemic. In the validation trial, the dogs had 92% accuracy, with 92% sensitivity (95% CI 89-94) and 91% specificity (95% CI 89-93) compared […]
Opinion | Our Lab Testing Capacity Is Getting Dangerously Low
Continued mutations in SARS-CoV-2 mean new and emerging variants, a sign that COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, despite a relaxing of public health measures around the country. And due to the increased availability of at-home antigen-based testing, published case counts are likely being underreported by public health officials, making a COVID-19 resurgence more difficult […]
Why are people with allergic asthma less susceptible to severe COVID?
The vast majority of people infected with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 experience mild cold-like symptoms, moderate flu-like symptoms, or no symptoms at all, but the virus is so transmissible that it still spread deep into lung tissue to cause severe disease and death in thousands of people in the United States in 2022 alone. […]
T-cell responses may help predict protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in individuals with and without cancer: Results may inform future COVID-19 vaccine development
T-cell responses directed against the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were associated with protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection in vaccinated individuals with or without cancer, with lower T-cell responses observed in patients with blood cancers, according to results from a study published in Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. […]
Vaccinated patients less likely to need critical care during Omicron surge: New study compares hospitalizations during Omicron and Delta variant surges
The highly contagious omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 became the dominant strain in the United States in mid-December 2021, coinciding with a rise in hospitalizations of patients with COVID-19. Among those admitted during the omicron surge, vaccinated adults had less severe illness compared with unvaccinated adults and were less likely to land in intensive care, according […]
Discovery could enable broad coronavirus vaccine
The COVID-causing virus SARS-CoV-2 harbors a vulnerable site at the base of its spike protein that is found also on closely related coronaviruses, according to a new study from Scripps Research. The discovery, published Feb 8 in Science Translational Medicine, could inform the design of broad-acting vaccines and antibody therapies capable of stopping future coronavirus […]
Initial COVID-19 infection on the single-cell level, revealed
What is going on at the single-cell level in the first days of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lungs? Researchers at Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC), in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis, have clarified what immune cells are present in the lungs in the first days of SARS-CoV-2 […]