Research News

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a rare inflammatory bowel disease, primarily affects premature infants and is a leading cause of death in the smallest and sickest of these patients. The exact cause remains unclear, and there is no effective treatment. No test can definitively diagnose the devastating condition early, so infants with suspected NEC are carefully monitored and administered supportive care, such as IV fluids and nutrition, and antibiotics to fight infection caused by bacteria invading the gut wall. Surgery must be done to excise damaged intestinal tissue if the condition worsens.

Korean researchers have screened 48 FDA-approved drugs against SARS-CoV-2, and found that two, that are already FDA-approved for other illnesses, seem promising. The FDA approval for other uses would greatly reduce the time needed to gain FDA approval of use in COVID-19. The research is published in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Caption : Activating a receptor found on the surface of many normal and cancer tissues can not only stop pancreatic cancer from growing but may also make tumors more visible to the immune system and thus more susceptible to modern immunotherapy Credit : Penn Medicine

Activating the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER) - a receptor found on the surface of many normal and cancer tissues - has been shown to stop pancreatic cancer from growing, but may also make tumors more visible to the immune system and thus more susceptible to modern immunotherapy. Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn's Abramson Cancer Center observed the effects of GPER activation in human and mouse pancreatic cancer models and published their findings in Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology and Hepatology today.

Scientists from Jawaharlal Nehru Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India have modified the structure of Berberine, a natural and cheap product similar to curcumin, available commercially, into Ber-D to use as a Alzheimer’s inhibitor. Their research work has been published in the scientific journal iSceince. Alzheimer’s disease is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder and accounts for more than 70% of all dementia. The multifactorial nature of the disease attributed to multifaceted toxicity has made it difficult for researchers to develop effective medication.

Hospitalized patients with advanced COVID-19 and lung involvement who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a randomized, controlled trial involving 1063 patients, which began on February 21. The trial (known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, or ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first clinical trial launched in the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19.

Amgen reported better results for first quarter and said that they are investigating their psoriasis drug, Otezla as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

Shiv Nadar University, India’s leading multidisciplinary and research-based university, today announced a potential breakthrough solution in the global battle against COVID-19. A team of researchers led by Dr Subhabrata Sen from the Department of Chemistry, Shiv Nadar University, India along with his collaborator Professor Ralf Jockers, Institut Cochin (INSERM, CNRS, Université de Paris, France), has discovered a set of New Chemical Entities (NCEs) with the ability to cure Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) or Acute Lung Injury (ALI) induced by COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) or other Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which are also caused by coronaviruses.

PGIMER Chandigarh started clinical trial  of Sepsivac on asymptomatic Coronavirus patients after the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has approved for human trials.

African Americans with severe sleep apnea and other adverse sleep patterns are much more likely to have high blood glucose levels — a risk factor for diabetes — than those without these patterns, according to a new study funded in part by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Using machine learning, a team of computer scientists and biologists from Western University identified an underlying genomic signature for 29 different COVID-19 virus DNA sequences.