scholarly journals CoV-AbDab: the Coronavirus Antibody Database

Author(s):  
Matthew I. J. Raybould ◽  
Aleksandr Kovaltsuk ◽  
Claire Marks ◽  
Charlotte M. Deane

The emergence of a novel strain of betacoronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has led to a pandemic that has been associated with hundreds of thousands of deaths. Research is ongoing around the world to create vaccines and therapies to minimise rates of disease spread and mortality. Crucial to these efforts are molecular characterisations of neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Such antibodies would be valuable for measuring vaccine efficacy, diagnosing exposure, and developing effective biotherapeutics. Here, we describe our new database, CoV-AbDab, which already contains data on over 380 published/patented antibodies and nanobodies known to bind to at least one betacoronavirus. This database is the first consolidation of antibodies known to bind SARS-CoV-2 and other betacoronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. We supply relevant metadata such as evidence of cross-neutralisation, antibody/nanobody origin, full variable domain sequence (where available) and germline assignments, epitope region, links to relevant PDB entries, homology models, and source literature. Our preliminary analysis exemplifies a spectrum of potential applications for the database, including identifying characteristic germline usage biases in receptor-binding domain antibodies and contextualising the diagnostic value of the SARS-CoV binding CDRH3s through comparison to over 500 million antibody sequences from SARS-CoV serologically naive individuals. Community submissions are invited to ensure CoV-AbDab is efficiently updated with the growing body of data analysing SARS-CoV-2. CoV-AbDab is freely available and downloadable on our website at http://opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/webapps/coronavirus.

Author(s):  
Matthew I J Raybould ◽  
Aleksandr Kovaltsuk ◽  
Claire Marks ◽  
Charlotte M Deane

Abstract Motivation The emergence of a novel strain of betacoronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, has led to a pandemic that has been associated with over 700 000 deaths as of August 5, 2020. Research is ongoing around the world to create vaccines and therapies to minimize rates of disease spread and mortality. Crucial to these efforts are molecular characterizations of neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Such antibodies would be valuable for measuring vaccine efficacy, diagnosing exposure and developing effective biotherapeutics. Here, we describe our new database, CoV-AbDab, which already contains data on over 1400 published/patented antibodies and nanobodies known to bind to at least one betacoronavirus. This database is the first consolidation of antibodies known to bind SARS-CoV-2 as well as other betacoronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. It contains relevant metadata including evidence of cross-neutralization, antibody/nanobody origin, full variable domain sequence (where available) and germline assignments, epitope region, links to relevant PDB entries, homology models and source literature. Results On August 5, 2020, CoV-AbDab referenced sequence information on 1402 anti-coronavirus antibodies and nanobodies, spanning 66 papers and 21 patents. Of these, 1131 bind to SARS-CoV-2. Availabilityand implementation CoV-AbDab is free to access and download without registration at http://opig.stats.ox.ac.uk/webapps/coronavirus. Community submissions are encouraged. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-160
Author(s):  
Akram Belmehdi ◽  
Saliha Chbicheb

The pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is considered as the biggest global health crisis for the world since the Spanish flu, also known as the 1918 flu pandemic. Driven by the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus infection, the rapid spread of this disease and the related pneumonia COVID-19 are a challenge for healthcare systems in over the world, and it is a constantly evolving situation with new symptoms and prognostic factors. SARS-CoV-2 has lately been detected in infected patient’s oral cavity; the COVID-19 outbreak is an alert that all dental and other health professionals must be vigilant in defending against the infectious disease spread. This review summarizes an update from current medical literature about the relationship between oral cavity and coronavirus disease by presenting some oral aspects which was detected in infected patients such as the oral lesions related to this virus and its therapeutic protocol, taste disorders and also the diagnostic value of saliva for SARS-CoV-2.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 410-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning-Ning Liu ◽  
Jing-Cong Tan ◽  
Jingquan Li ◽  
Shenghui Li ◽  
Yong Cai ◽  
...  

The outbreak of COVID-19 due to SARS-CoV-2 originally emerged in Wuhan in December 2019. As of March 22, 2020, the disease spread to 186 countries, with at least 305,275 confirmed cases. Although there has been a decline in the spread of the disease in China, the prevalence of COVID-19 around the world remains serious despite containment efforts undertaken by national authorities and the international community. In this article, we systematically review the brief history of COVID-19 and its epidemic and clinical characteristics, highlighting the strategies used to control and prevent the disease in China, which may help other countries respond to the outbreak. This pandemic emphasizes the need to be constantly alert to shifts in both the global dynamics and the contexts of individual countries, making sure that all are aware of which approaches are successful for the prevention, containment and treatment of new diseases, and being flexible enough to adapt the responses accordingly.


Author(s):  
Jean-Paul Hettelingh ◽  
Wim de Vries ◽  
Maximilian Posch ◽  
Gert Jan Reinds ◽  
Jaap Slootweg ◽  
...  

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anupriya Aggarwal ◽  
Alberto Stella ◽  
Anouschka Akerman ◽  
Gregory Walker ◽  
Vanessa Milogiannakis ◽  
...  

Abstract From late 2020 the world observed the rapid emergence of many distinct SARS-CoV-2 variants. At the same time, pandemic responses coalesced into significant global vaccine roll-out that have now significantly lowered Covid-19 hospital and mortality rates in the developed world. Over this period, we developed a rapid platform (R-20) for viral isolation and characterisation using primary remnant diagnostic swabs. This combined with quarantine testing and genomics surveillance, enabled the rapid isolation and characterisation of all major SARS-CoV-2 variants (all variants of concern and 6 variants of interest) globally with a 4-month period. This platform facilitated viral variant isolation and enabled rapid resolution of variant phenotype by allowing determining end point viral titers from primary nasopharyngeal swabs and through ranking of evasion of neutralising antibodies. In late 2021, when the Delta variant was dominating, Omicron rapidly emerged. Using this platform, we isolated and tested the first cases of this variant within Australia. In this setting we observed Omicron to diverge from other variants at two levels: Firstly, it ranks at the mots evasive to neutralisation antibodies compared to all VOCs and major VUIs. Secondly, it no longer engages TMPRSS2 during the late stages of fusion.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Ferreira ◽  
Rawlings Datir ◽  
Guido Papa ◽  
Steven Kemp ◽  
Bo Meng ◽  
...  

The B.1.617 variant emerged in the Indian state of Maharashtra in late 2020 and has spread throughout India and to at least 40 countries. There have been fears that two key mutations seen in the receptor binding domain L452R and E484Q would have additive effects on evasion of neutralising antibodies. Here we delineate the phylogenetics of B.1.617 and spike mutation frequencies, in the context of others bearing L452R. The defining mutations in B.1.617.1 spike are L452R and E484Q in the RBD that interacts with ACE2 and is the target of neutralising antibodies. All B.1.617 viruses have the P681R mutation in the polybasic cleavage site region in spike. We report that B.1.617.1 spike bearing L452R, E484Q and P681R mediates entry into cells with slightly reduced efficiency compared to Wuhan-1. This spike confers modestly reduced sensitivity to BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine-elicited antibodies that is similar in magnitude to the loss of sensitivity conferred by L452R or E484Q alone. Furthermore we show that the P681R mutation significantly augments syncytium formation upon the B.1.617.1 spike protein, potentially contributing to increased pathogenesis observed in hamsters and infection growth rates observed in humans.


Author(s):  
Antonio Cassiano Julio Filho ◽  
Auro Tikami ◽  
Elaine de Souza Ferreira de Paula ◽  
Jhonathan Murcia Piñeros ◽  
George Favale Fernandes ◽  
...  

Annually, severe weather phenomena are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and tens of billions of dollars of damage around the world. In Brazil, unlike other hydrometeorological events, severe atmospheric events are random and, therefore, do not have a sociospatial pattern. Because of that, there is a significant motivation to improve the prediction techniques for this kind of events, using high resolution numerical models. A large amount of high-quality observational data is required, including lightning data in a very short-range. In addition, the detection of lightning flashes produced by storms is important for a wide variety of applications and in some areas of scientific research, which include the understanding of the human action on the climate and how the climate change can affect the behavior of storms in long range. One method to monitor the lightning flashes is the implementation of sensors in satellites to obtain data. In this sense, the objective of the RaioSat project is to develop national technology for detecting lightning flashes from the space, in order to complement the existing data from the ground detection network, BrasilDAT. The main objective of this article is to present a methodology for the development of the RaioSat mission including some parts of the preliminary design and operational modes. Additionally, the article describes the expected results and the continuity of the project and a preliminary analysis of a constellation for future projects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Min Kim ◽  
Myeongchan Oh ◽  
Hyeong-Dong Park

Photovoltaic (PV) energy is one of the most promising renewable energies in the world due to its ubiquity and sustainability. However, installation of solar panels on the ground can cause some problems, especially in countries where there is not enough space for installation. As an alternative, floating PV, with advantages in terms of efficiency and environment, has attracted attention, particularly with regard to installing large-scale floating PV for dam lakes and reservoirs in Korea. In this study, the potentiality of floating PV is evaluated, and the power production is estimated for 3401 reservoirs. To select a suitable reservoir for floating PV installation, we constructed and analyzed the water depth database using OpenAPI. We also used the typical meteorological year (TMY) data and topographical information to predict the irradiance distribution. As a result, the annual power production by all possible reservoirs was estimated to be 2932 GWh, and the annual GHG reduction amount was approximately 1,294,450 tons. In particular, Jeollanam-do has many reservoirs and was evaluated as suitable for floating PV installation because of its high solar irradiance. The results can be used to estimate priorities and potentiality as a preliminary analysis for floating PV installation.


Author(s):  
Erasmos Charamba

The year 2019 saw the emergence of COVID-19, an infectious disease spread through human-to-human transmission. This resulted in the immediate worldwide suspension of contact classes as countries tried to contain the wide spread of the pandemic. Consequently, educational institutions were thus left with only one option: e-learning. E-learning is the delivery of learning experiences through the use of electronic mail, the internet, the world wide web, and it can either be synchronous or asynchronous. Through the translanguaging lens, this chapter reports on a qualitative study that sought to explore the crucial role language plays in the e-learning of multilingual science students at a secondary school in South Africa. The e-learning lessons were in the form of videos, multilingual glossaries, and narrated slides in English and isiZulu languages. Data was collected through lesson observations and interviews held via Microsoft Teams. This chapter suggests numerous cognitive and socio-cultural benefits of multilingual e-learning pedagogy and recommends its use in education.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly G. Vest

AbstractZika virus has captivated the world with its quick spread throughout the Western Hemisphere. Increased emphasis has been placed on the infection of pregnant women and subsequent adverse and severe effects in the developing fetus and newborn. This article supplements a previous article and provides updated information on new and evolving evidence that strengthens the association between Zika virus and unique congenital and neurologic diseases, updates what is known about the epidemiology of the disease, and provides new and updated material for primary care providers as they counsel patients who may be exposed or infected. With the extent of disease spread, it is expected that Zika virus will become endemic to the Western Hemisphere and will change the public health parameters and approach in this area of the world. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:163–167)


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