The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has serious implications for many chronic illnesses, notably obesity and type 2 diabetes. These conditions involve a higher risk of developing severe illness after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Type 2 diabetes involves the deregulation of glucose levels in the blood (hyperglycemia). High blood sugar levels cause numerous damaging effects over the […]

The process of cell infection by a virus is complex and involves several stages usually specific to the virus. A virus attaches itself to the host-cell and penetrates the cytoplasm using a cellular receptor, ACE2 in the case of SARS-CoV-2. Once its genetic material is inside the cell (RNA for SARS-CoV-2), it hijacks and mobilizes […]

COVID-19 has already caused the deaths of more than 2,6 million people across the world. Ending the pandemic means developing effective vaccines and drugs. Therapeutic antibodies are currently used to treat patients and there is a worldwide race to vaccinate people after the rapid development of different vaccines. The therapeutic antibodies and the vaccines approved […]

The appearance and rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants may have adverse effects on the effectiveness of current vaccines. It is therefore crucial to identify new variants quickly, and to sequence them, that is, to read the succession of letters that make up their genome. Today 610 000 SARS-CoV-2  genomes have been sequenced across the world. Amongst […]

The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in Wuhan in China at the end of 2020 and rapidly spread worldwide. The entry of the viral particle into the cell depends upon the interaction of the spike (S) surface viral protein, or more specifically the RBD (“Receptor Binding Domain”), with the ACE2 cellular receptor. During the pandemic a variant […]

Antibodies are important weapons in the organism’s protective armoury against pathogens. They are made up of 2 domains: the Fc portion, recognised by the immune effector cells (lymphocytes for example) and the Fab portion, which recognizes the antigen. It is important to note the presence of a glycan (sugar), at position 297 in the Fc […]

SARS-CoV-2 principally causes respiratory problems of different levels of seriousness, but other symptoms involving cardiac or renal problems have already been observed. In order for successful infection to take place, the virus uses certain cell components that are still little known due to the lack of suitable models. Up to the current time, research has […]

SARS-CoV-2 has infected 106 million people and killed 2.3 million. Several candidate vaccines have been developed by different companies (Novavax, Janssen, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca), based on various technologies (RNA, adenovirus vectors…). All these vaccines have been developed using sequences of the surface spike (S) viral protein from the strain in Wuhan that was at the […]

The 501Y.V2 variant of SARS-CoV-2, known as the South African variant, is now the dominant strain in South Africa and is spreading rapidly within other countries. This variant principally contains 8 mutations in the spike surface protein: L18F, D80A, D215G, K417N, E484K, N501Y and A701V, and 1 deletion of 3 amino acids, Del242-244. Researchers in […]

Researchers have recently identified the areas on the spike protein that antibodies can fix themselves to. A judicious choice of antibodies should allow them to be used in prevention or treatment. It must be remembered that the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is of central interest for the development of vaccines and antibody therapies. In order for […]