Monthly Archives: June 2022

According to foreign media reports, James Davis, associate professor of genetics at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford, UK, said that the possible source of susceptibility to the virus in the lungs of modern humans is a tens of thousands of years ago between Neanderthals and early humans. “Romantic Encounter”, assuming that such interspecies mating and genetic mutation inheritance does not occur, modern humans will be more resistant to the novel coronavirus, and the number of deaths will be greatly reduced.

Neanderthal-derived genes are said to appear in modern humans, and one of them, LZTFL1, is believed to have a unique effect on lung cells.

Lung cells with the LZTFL1 gene produce an important protein on the surface that the coronavirus can attach to and spread through the lungs, causing transmissible and deadly damage. This gene variant is more common in people of South Asian descent.

A new study published in Nature Medicine provides the first robust genomic analysis of the monkeypox virus that is currently spreading around the world. The study traced the virus to the 2017 monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria and showed that it rapidly produced an unusually large number of mutations that may be linked to increased human-to-human transmission.

In early May, a British resident who had recently returned from a trip to Nigeria was confirmed to have monkeypox. By the end of the month, dozens more cases had been detected around the world, from Spain, Germany and France to Australia, Mexico and the United States.

The breadth of this spread is unprecedented. Although monkeypox is endemic in parts of Central and West Africa, it has never before spread widely around the world, and scientists quickly began studying the virus’ genome to understand where it came from and how it might differ from what has been seen in the past .

Led by a team of scientists in Portugal, the new study looked at 15 different virus samples from infected people. The first genomic link found in the study was related to clusters of monkeypox cases identified in Israel, Singapore and the UK in 2018 and 2019.

These cases were all previously associated with returning travellers from Nigeria, and the genomic association was further traced to the 2017/2018 monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria.

Perhaps the most unexpected finding of the new study is the revelation that the current monkeypox strain appears to have undergone an unusually rapid period of mutation. The project’s lead researcher, João Paulo Gomes, said that one would normally only expect to see the virus accumulate a few new mutations a year, but the iterations currently circulating appear to contain around 50 new mutations.

“Considering that this 2022 monkeypox virus may be a descendant of the 2017 Nigerian monkeypox virus, we would expect no more than five to 10 additional mutations (compared to the imported virus in 2018-2019), while Not the 50 or so mutations observed,” Gomes said in an opinion piece for vaccine charity Gavi.

The prevailing assumption is that between 2019 and 2022, the virus has circulated undetected in an endemic country for several years. The current global outbreak is likely to originate from a single source and then be amplified by one or more superspreader events in early 2022, leading to widespread mass transmission that was subsequently detected in April and May.

In an interview with MedPage Today, Gomes said many of the mutations detected so far are related to human immune system proteins. This suggests that the virus may have rapidly adapted to human-to-human transmission.

Gomes told MedPage Today: “The multiple mutations we see in human-to-human transmission in 2022 affect proteins involved in the human immune system, so it could mean an adaptation process in humans. And, yes Yes, it appears to be occurring faster than expected, which is also consistent with the observation that 2022 (strain) is too mutated compared to its ancestor.”

Hugh Adler, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the new study highlights how little we know about the genetics of monkeypox, a virus that has been circulating for more than 50 years. Adler also stressed that it’s too early to know what the new mutations cited in the study mean for transmission or disease severity.

Adler explained: “The authors describe an unexpectedly high number of mutations in the virus, but their impact on disease severity or transmissibility is unclear. We did not find clinical disease severity in patients diagnosed in the current outbreak. any changes.”

As of June 24, 2022, more than 4,100 monkeypox cases have been reported in about 50 countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently convened an emergency advisory group to assess the global situation.

While the panel did acknowledge the “urgent nature of the event,” it declined to recommend that WHO declare the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). WHO declares a public health emergency of international concern when a new disease is identified that is spreading internationally and requires a coordinated global response to manage. There are currently two infectious diseases declared PHEIC: polio and COVID-19.

The WHO’s hesitation in declaring the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency has been criticized by some infectious disease experts. In an interview with Science Insider, global health policy expert Alexandra Phelan questioned the purpose of the WHO’s emergency declaration policy if it was triggered so slowly when there was an apparent spread of a new infectious disease.

“This is a global alert mechanism for public health, and I’m concerned about what it means for community transmission to wait a few weeks before fully grabbing political attention,” Phelan said in an email to Science. “I think it’s very clear that it’s time to reconsider what the goals of PHEICs are and whether the standards are fit for purpose to remind the global community and fair enough in an interconnected world.”

Raina MacIntyre, an infectious disease expert who has studied monkeypox in the past, said the transmission of the new virus was “absolutely unusual”. While calling on global health authorities to do what they can to stop the spread of the virus, she speculates that COVID-19 may have played a role in this sudden outbreak.

While weakened immunity from past smallpox vaccinations may have been a factor in the increased spread of the virus, MacIntyre wondered whether SARS-CoV-2 infection compromised people’s immune responses, making them more susceptible to monkeypox infection.

“As people recover from COVID, their immune systems are compromised,” MacIntyre wrote in an article for The Conversation. “As a result, people who have had COVID may be more susceptible to other infections. We’ve seen the same with measles infections. This weakens the immune system and increases the risk of other infections for the next two to three years.”

The new study was published in Nature Medicine.

1. The cause of HPV virus
2. Viruses are everywhere in our lives, they can be lurking in the air, on objects, or even in your body.
3. Are you thinking now, if there is a virus in the body, why am I not sick? That’s because there is a strong defense system hidden in our body – the immune system. The immune system can remove the viruses that are trying to harm us and prevent the virus from doing bad things in the body, but the immune system is not omnipotent. When the immune system is weakened or the autoimmune system is weakened for some reason, it is because the number of viruses is too much, and the immune system cannot eliminate the virus, which will cause us to get sick

How is the HPV virus spread?

Existing clinical studies have found that the HPV virus is mainly transmitted in five ways. (1) Sexual transmission; (2) Skin contact transmission; (3) Indirect contact transmission, such as clothing, daily necessities, etc.; (4) Iatrogenic transmission, infection caused by improper handling by medical staff; (5) Mother-to-child transmission, fetal transmission Infection through the birth canal during natural childbirth. The most important one is sexual transmission. Because most women are infected with HPV, it is sexually transmitted, so when you have sex in the usual room, you should know whether your sexual partner is infected with HPV virus.

The blood glucose meter also has a new function-quantitative monitoring of novel coronavirus antibodies. Maybe in the near future, we can use a blood glucose meter at home to complete the quantitative monitoring of novel coronavirus antibodies without going to the hospital. How is this achieved? Recently, scientists have developed a new fusion protein and successfully combined it with human immunoglobulin G to quantitatively read the level of novel coronavirus antibodies in the human body by measuring the amount of glucose produced.
Rapid diagnosis plays a vital role in mitigating the current global COVID-19 pandemic and preventing the large-scale spread of infectious diseases in the future. How to enable more people, especially vulnerable groups, to enjoy safe and universal medical services through rapid, accurate and low-cost diagnosis has become a global issue. Among them, the development of simple, cost-effective and widely applicable detection equipment is also a top priority. Taking the detection of novel coronavirus antigens as an example, the current standard detection method is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Commercial ELISA instruments include portable instruments (eg, manufactured by Samsung, Alere, etc.) and high-throughput, multiplexed clinical analyzers (eg, manufactured by Luminex). However, ELISA requires expensive high-quality optical equipment to achieve the accuracy of antibody measurement, which hinders the application of ELISA in some general hospitals and laboratories; even for ELISA that has been put into use at the point of care, The vast majority are also limited to qualitative measurements. Based on the application defects of the above-mentioned ELISA, it is imminent to develop a simple, cost-effective quantitative detection scheme.
Recently, researchers from Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins University) published a report entitled “Antibody–Invertase Fusion Protein Enables Quantitative” in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). The paper “Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies Using Widely Available Glucometers” shows the possibility of using blood glucose meters to quantitatively detect SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.2c02537
Research brief
01
More recently, invertase-mediated sucrose conversion has been used in molecular diagnostics; however, conjugating the invertase to a detection molecule (eg, a detection antibody) is by no means trivial. Previously, some studies avoided direct attachment of the detection antibody and invertase by coupling the detection antibody and invertase to the same nanoparticle; there were also studies using streptavidin as an intermediate between biotinylated antibody and biotinylated invertase to make the two form a complex. However, these approaches yield very low coupling efficiencies.
In this study, the researchers designed a genetic fusion protein consisting of two invertase molecules and an anti-human immunoglobulin G antibody (anti-hIgG) through genetic fusion. This novel fusion protein overcomes the problem of inefficient chemical coupling between invertase and detection molecules, and retains the binding affinity and catalytic activity of constitutive proteins, and can be used as an accurate reporter gene for immunoassays.
Research key point 1: Design and purification of “anti-human immunoglobulin G antibody (anti-hIgG)-convertase fusion protein”
Four kinds of “anti-human immunoglobulin G antibody (anti-hIgG)-invertase fusion proteins” (hereinafter referred to as Ab+Inv) were produced in the study. The positions and lengths of the peptide linkers to the two invertase molecules differ. These four classes of fusion proteins are all based on anti-hIgG HP6017, an antibody that binds the Fc domain of the human IgG isotype, and were produced by transient transfection of human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293F cells.
Research key point 2: Verify the binding of the new fusion protein (Ab+Inv) to human immunoglobulin G (human IgG)
To demonstrate that this novel fusion protein (Ab + Inv) retains binding to the target antigen (ie, human immunoglobulin G), biolayer interferometry was performed. It was found that compared with unfused antibody (human IgG), the four types of fusion proteins showed similar binding properties to human IgG. Among them, two types of binding proteins showed slightly higher affinity.
Research key point 3: Verify the catalytic activity of the new fusion protein (Ab+Inv)
To determine whether the fusion protein retained the catalytic activity of the component invertase enzyme, a commercial glucose meter was used to perform a glucose inversion assay—incubating the fusion protein with a specific concentration of sucrose to measure post-culturing glucose production Level. The assay showed that the enzymatic activities of the four fusion proteins were almost the same as that of the unfused invertase, and their enzymatic activities were not affected by their binding to human immunoglobulin G.
Research key point 4: Development and application of SARS-CoV-2 antibody detection kits
To demonstrate the diagnostic potential of the fusion protein, the researchers chose a strip-based assay because it is suitable for point-of-care use and meets the goal of cost-effective detection. We accessed confirmed negative and positive patient blood samples from institutional biorepositories and obtained two blinded training sample sets: TS1 contained six confirmed negative patients and six confirmed positive patients. TS2 consisted of 90 longitudinal samples (collected over time) from seven hospitalized patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR. The research team did not know the antibody titers of the two TSs until the researchers cross-checked commercial ELISA measurements.
The test strip of this strip detection method has the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and when the test strip is immersed in a sample of a COVID-19 patient, the patient’s SARS-CoV-2 antibody binds to the spike protein. This was followed by a washing step – the strip was exposed to the fusion protein solution for 30 minutes to allow the fusion protein to bind to the antibody captured on the strip, followed by washing. Subsequently, the strips were immersed in a 100 mM sucrose solution for 60 minutes to catalyze the conversion of invertase to glucose. Finally, the band was removed and the resulting glucose concentration was determined using a commercial blood glucose meter. Schematic: Quantitative determination of COVID-19-specific antibodies using a commercially available blood glucose meter
future applications
02
The new fusion protein developed in this research has the advantages of low technology and low cost, which enables the diagnosis method based on blood glucose meter to be extended to a wider population, especially those who do not have access to advanced medical testing. It will also enhance the ability of serial testing, combining the number and diversity of people tested, to provide the high-quality data needed and help provide a clear and detailed understanding of the lifespan of immune protection resulting from vaccination and natural infection. In addition, this technology may be applied to the prevention and detection of cancer and autoimmune diseases—that is, replacing SARS-CoV-2 RBD with cancer diagnostic antigens or self-antigens of autoimmune diseases, so as to quantitatively detect related antibodies , beneficial for immunity testing, disease control, and longitudinal monitoring of progression.

When asked by a reporter, the British Mail on Sunday, citing sources, reported that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently revealed to senior European officials privately that the most likely source of the novel coronavirus was the Wuhan laboratory leak. Comments?

Wang Wenbin said that the WHO Secretariat has made clarifications to the Chinese side on the relevant reports, emphasizing that Director-General Tedros has not made any such remarks in public or in private, and the content of the reports you mentioned is completely untrue. The clerk totally disagrees with the content of the report.

“With regard to the hypothesis of laboratory leakage, China has repeatedly stated its position. The laboratory leakage is a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes. There is no science at all.” Wang Wenbin said that China has invited the WHO international expert group. The joint research report also clearly reached the conclusion that laboratory leakage is extremely unlikely. Relevant media hyped up laboratory leaks in the form of “anonymous release”, ignoring the facts, with sinister intentions, and once again proving that “laboratory leaks” are completely political maneuvers by relevant parties to smear China, hinder scientific traceability, and undermine the overall situation of international anti-epidemic cooperation. alley.

Wang Wenbin pointed out that at present, there are more and more clues in the international scientific community, pointing to the global scope of the source of the virus. The U.S. government has so far failed to provide convincing answers to important questions such as when the covid pneumonia epidemic first broke out in the United States, and has not responded to the legitimate concerns of the international community regarding the highly suspicious activities of laboratories at Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina. If you must conduct research on laboratory problems, you must first check highly suspicious laboratories such as Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina in the United States.

Wang Wenbin said that if relevant parties are really concerned about the issue of tracing the origin of the novel coronavirus, they should pay attention to why the United States has not responded positively to the questions of the international community so far, and called on the United States to open relevant laboratories for the international community to investigate and support and cooperate with the research on the origin of the novel coronavirus with practical actions. .

According to media reports, four Navy special forces were confirmed to be infected with the virus at Kitzep-Bangor Base, one of the major nuclear submarine bases of the US Navy in the United States. For training purposes, these soldiers will use U.S. submarine special operations small submarines, so it is suspected that they may have had contact with nuclear submariners. to infect the virus.

According to reports, the USS Tennessee nuclear submarine infected with the virus has been at sea for 119 days and has just arrived at the US Kitzep-Bangor nuclear submarine base for rest. The virus infection was discovered on about April 10.

The U.S. Navy “Ohio” class ballistic missile submarine “Tennessee” (SSBN734) is a strategic nuclear missile submarine that the U.S. Navy mainly participates in on strategic duty. It can carry 24 submarine-launched Trident 1 nuclear intercontinental missiles, which is also the most powerful on earth. nuclear weapons. This kind of strategic nuclear submarine is at sea most of the year, even when it is close to the dock, it will have very strict protection.

Not only are the decks guarded by armed sentries in body armor, but there are specially trained dolphins and sea lions patrolling underwater, making the submarine inaccessible to any hostile divers.

U.S. sailors once said that nuclear submarines entering the port for rest are 100 times more tiring than patrolling the sea, because they have to make all preparations for going to sea again within 35 days. Generally speaking, U.S. nuclear submarines will perform missions at sea for 3 months, and then rotate. A nuclear submarine has two groups of blue and gold personnel, and it is rotated about once every 100 days.

Modern U.S. submarines provide three meals a day for their crews when they go to sea without supplies for weeks or even months. Sysco Food Delivery feeds the submarines of the Pacific Fleet, while another company feeds the submarines on the East Coast of the United States.

Well, if the submarine has been out at sea for 119 days, as said on social media, then he was out at sea on December 14, 2019. In other words, in fact, the sailors on this nuclear submarine were infected in December last year. Later, after returning to the base on April 10 this year, it was infected with the members of the Naval Special Forces who participated in the training of the nuclear submarine.

Because the physical fitness of the nuclear submarine sailors was relatively good, and the virus toxicity was relatively weak at that time, it lasted for more than 3 months. Of course, it is also possible that the personnel who supplied supplies for the nuclear submarine infected the members of the nuclear submarine. But no matter what, the virus has been contagious in the U.S. Navy for a long time.

You know, the USS Theodore Roosevelt departed from the west coast of the United States, and now infected people have also been found at the San Diego Naval Base on the west coast. And according to the minimum standard, the U.S. nuclear submarine is rotated every 70-80 days, and this nuclear submarine has already gone to sea in January.

We can see that the truth is slowly emerging. U.S. intelligence agencies had already issued reports in November 2019 warning of a “virus catastrophe”. A November 2019 intelligence report from the U.S. Military Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) detailed concerns about the novel coronavirus pandemic.

On the 20th local time, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper tested positive for the covid virus. Cooper is currently suffering from mild symptoms and is taking antiviral medication, the governor’s office said.

It is understood that Cooper has been vaccinated against the covid vaccine and booster.

The World Health Organization’s International Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of Novel Pathogens has issued a preliminary report on the traceability of the novel coronavirus. More information and research are needed to investigate whether the virus that sparked the global coronavirus outbreak originated in the Wuhan lab, the report said.

Obviously, this report was misled by the “Wuhan laboratory leak theory” and other lies concocted by anti-China forces. People should be extra vigilant about this phenomenon, and research on the origin of the novel coronavirus should not be led by lies.

China has set an example in cooperating and supporting research on the origin of the novel coronavirus. So far, China is the only country that has repeatedly invited WHO’s international expert groups to carry out cooperation on the origin of the novel coronavirus in its own country, and it is also the only country that has organized its own experts to share the progress of origin tracing with the WHO advisory group on many occasions. On the issue of tracing the origin of the novel coronavirus, China has shared the most data and research results. China has always been generous and open-minded, fully embodying a scientific, transparent and responsible attitude. The China-WHO joint research report on the traceability of the novel coronavirus released in 2021 has reached the scientific and authoritative conclusion after field research by experts from many countries – the “laboratory leakage theory” is extremely unlikely.

The scientific conclusion is already so clear, who would continue to use the guise of “keeping an open mind” and use the “presumption of guilt” against China in the research on the origin of the novel coronavirus , revealing its sinister intentions of political manipulation and political traceability.

For the sake of human health, the next stage of research on the origin of the novel coronavirus should adhere to scientific principles, eliminate the interference of lies as soon as possible, and focus on other countries where the epidemic may have originated on the basis of the scientific conclusions of the China-WHO joint research report on the origin of the novel coronavirus Carry out multi-point traceability. In particular, conduct in-depth research studies on the United States to obtain scientific evidence.

Why do you say that? First, it needs to be done. Since the outbreak of the covid epidemic, the United States is the country with the largest number of deaths due to the epidemic, and it is also the country with the most serious spread of the virus. The United States is both the largest “hardest hit area” and the largest “spread source”. To further promote the research on the traceability of the novel coronavirus, it is necessary to investigate the outbreak and spread of the epidemic in the United States.

Second, it’s worth it. The outbreak and early spread of the epidemic in the United States is still a “confused account”, and the US government is doing everything possible to obstruct relevant investigations. There are many doubts worthy of in-depth investigation by the international community. Last year, with the deepening of research, the timeline of the outbreak in the United States moved forward frequently. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier confirmed that the first domestic death from the covid died on February 29, 2020, in Washington state. California’s health department later reported that there had been deaths from COVID-19 in the state on February 6, 2020. Later, American media reported that the epidemic may have appeared in many places in the United States in December or even November 2019. The U.S. government has yet to give convincing answers to important questions such as when the covid epidemic first broke out in the United States. In June last year, the US “Vanity Fair” magazine disclosed that someone inside the US State Department warned against investigating the origin of the novel coronavirus, otherwise it may open a “jar full of maggots”. According to media reports, the U.S. government has also stopped the traceability project of the National Institutes of Health and sealed the relevant blood samples on the grounds that it is “unfavorable to U.S. national security”.

Third, it should be done. The United States has a lot of bad records on the issue of bio-military activities. In order to promote research on the traceability of the novel coronavirus and maintain the health and safety of people around the world, the international community should conduct a thorough investigation.

According to the data, the U.S. military base at Fort Detrick and multiple biological laboratories at the University of North Carolina have been engaged in coronavirus research and synthetic transformation for a long time. The international community and the people of the country have made a serious statement. The information released by the US itself also shows that it funds and manages more than 300 biological laboratories in 30 countries, and there are widespread problems of non-disclosure and opacity. Rare epidemics often break out at the location of the U.S. military’s overseas biological laboratories, but the U.S. side has always avoided international investigations, posing serious risks to the health and safety of people around the world. The irresponsible and vicious actions of the United States have long aroused protests from people in many countries, and it is time for an in-depth investigation.

It is hoped that the U.S. can demonstrate transparency and responsibility like China, respond to the reasonable concerns of the international community about the source of the virus in the U.S. in a timely manner, and support and cooperate with the research on the origin of the novel coronavirus with practical actions. Any irresponsible political manipulation will only expose the guilty conscience of the US.