By the 3rd April 2021, SARS-CoV-2 had infected 131 million people and caused 2,8 million deaths worldwide. In Israel, it had been responsible for 82 1748 infections and 6 236 deaths. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, based on mRNA technology was authorised in Israel from December 2020. The health ministry launched an unprecedented vaccination campaign, with the […]

The SARS-CoV-2 genome encodes large polyproteins. They are cut by a viral protease into several proteins essential for the structure of the virus, the replication of its genome or the translation of the genome into proteins for the assembly of new virions. Currently, there is no drug that can successfully treat COVID-19. Since the role […]

 Vaccines and other treatments against COVID-19 are already available, while others are still being developed. The principal target of these vaccines and of treatments that use therapeutic antibodies is the spike (S) viral protein. This protein, situated on the surface of the virus, is trimeric (an assemblage of 3 proteins) and enables the virus to […]

Infection by SARS-CoV-2 leads in 15% of cases to severe illness associated with respiratory distress syndrome and increased morbidity and mortality. The difficulties of taking samples from patients, often limited to broncho-alveolar fluids, hinders understanding of the consequences of infection at lung tissue level. Researchers at the University of Columbia instigated a programme of rapid […]

The clinical indications of COVID-19 can range from asymptomatic infection to death, the latter often caused by acute respiratory distress syndrome, hyper-inflammation or multiple organ failure. However, numerous questions remain on the physiopathology of this illness, particularly since genetic studies are compromised by the deterioration of post-mortem material. American researchers at Harvard University and the […]

At the beginning of February 2021, the number of cases of COVID-19 in India fell below 10 000 per day. Politicians reacted by removing public health restrictions and allowing mass gatherings, while people in general began wearing masks less and less. Some Indian scientists believed that herd immunity had been attained and that the worst […]

Hopes have been raised for the treatment serious cases of COVID-19 by monoclonal antibodies. These drugs are now on the market, though certain obstacles have prevented their widespread use: their high cost, their short therapeutic window (they must be given between the 4th and the 7th day of the illness), the huge numbers of patients […]

SARS-CoV-2 has a genome made up of a single-strand RNA molecule. When it is replicated by the polymerase enzyme to make new virions, copying errors can arise in the sequence. These errors, if they are selectively advantageous, can become dominant. Early in the pandemic, the D614G mutation appeared from the Wuhan strain and quickly became […]

The scale of the COVID-19 epidemic has shown clearly the extent to which we were ill-prepared for it. Making diagnostic tests quickly available to large numbers of people and developing new treatments against a new virus are not easy given our current methods. Without the means of detecting emerging or re- emerging viruses at an […]

The first stages of infection by SARS-CoV-2 involve the interaction of the spike with the ACE2 cellular receptor followed by the fusion of the viral membrane with the plasma membrane of the cell. The S1 domain of the spike governs the interaction with the ACE2 through its RBD (Receptor Binding Domain) and undergoes several structural […]