Tag Archives: COVID-19

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COVID-19: Could the common cold help protect you?

Image: Mojca J / Pixabay

The common cold is never any fun to deal with, however it might also provide you with some protection from COVID-19, a recent study suggests.

Research from infectious disease experts at the University of Rochester Medical Center have also suggested that people who have had COVID-19 may be immune to it for a long time, possibly even for the rest of their lives.

What’s the foundation?

Even though the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is relatively new, it falls under a category of beta coronaviruses that cause about 15-20% of common colds.

Image: Daniel Roberts / Pixabay

When you catch a cold, your body fights against the virus through your immune system. However, as your body does this, the immune system “remembers” the virus for the future. This is so the next time that virus enters your system, your immune system will be able to fight back even faster.

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Video:  How immunity defenders work against COVID-19

The evidence

The study focused on memory B cells — immune cells that can last for decades. Since memory B cells can survive for decades, they could protect COVID-19 survivors from future infections for a long time, but further research is needed to confirm this.

Image: Ahmad Ardity / Pixabay

The researchers compared blood samples from 26 people who were recovering from mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms and 21 healthy people who had their samples collected 6-10 years ago — long before they could be exposed to COVID-19.

The study found that B cells from the immune system that attacked previous cold-causing coronaviruses seemed to also recognize the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 as a result of memory B cells being activated.

“When we looked at blood samples from people who were recovering from COVID-19, it looked like many of them had a pre-existing pool of memory B cells that could recognize SARS-CoV-2 and rapidly produce antibodies that could attack it,” said study authour Mark Sangster.

The study authors believe this could mean that anyone who has ever been infected by a common coronavirus — which is almost everyone, may have some amount of immunity to COVID-19.

What’s for the future?

The researchers will “now we need to see if having this pool of pre-existing memory B cells correlates with milder symptoms and shorter disease course — or if it helps boost the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” said study co-authour David Topham.

More information

The Government of Canada has more information and resources regarding COVID-19 .

 

– Amrit Jagpal

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Posted on October 5, 2020 by in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

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Toward enzymatic blood conversion: A promising solution for blood shortage and transfusion incompatibility

Posted on October 5, 2020 by | Leave a comment

What do you do when a patient requires blood transfusion, but the specific blood type is inadequate in the blood bank? Blood shortage has become a concern worldwide. According to American Red Cross, approximate 36,000 units of red blood cells (RBCs) are needed daily in the U.S, yet 13 million units are collected in a year, resulting in an average daily shortage of 400 units. And, this crisis usually expands during extraordinary situations. A recent example is the critical blood shortage during COVID-19 pandemic.

To solve the challenge, chemists have taken a step forward to examine the structure of RBCs and consider what if we convert all blood types to the universally accepted O blood. The importance of such research is that the barrier of blood transfusion between different types no longer exists. Hence, blood supply increases to ease the shortage.

What are blood types and transfusional barrier?

Image credit: InvictaHOG

There are four major blood types: A, B, AB, and O. Although blood might look the same and do the same job, such as carrying oxygen for respiration, transfusing incompatible blood type will trigger fatal immune responses. That is because of the additional sugar molecule, called antigen, attaching to the core sugar structure on a RBC. Type A blood has A antigens. Similarly, type B blood has B antigens. Moreover, type AB blood contains both A and B antigens. Importantly, type O has none of them.

Image credit: Marius Lixandru

Due to the presence of either A or B antigen, A-blood people cannot transfuse with type B; B-blood people cannot transfuse with type A. Consequently, AB-blood people cannot take either A or B but only with AB blood. Only O blood is the universally accepted type because it shares without being recognized as an outsider by our immune system.

Origin of enzymatic blood conversion

The first idea of blood-type conversion can be traced back to 1980s, Goldstein and his colleagues used an enzyme found in coffee beans and have shown success in the complete enzymatic removal of B antigen, generating non-antigen blood (O blood). However, the conversion requires large quantity of enzymes and output a trace amount of type O. As a result, the work done by Goldstein is not suitable for practical use. Similarly, other research uses an enzyme found in fungi to remove A antigen but its efficiency is still inadequate.

Improving enzyme activity using enzyme engineering

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Description: How enzymes found in gut bacteria change blood types for transfusion

Great improvement in enzyme activity is recently done by Kwan’s team who modify sugar hydrolase (GH98) with 170-times higher enzyme activity than that of the original hydrolase from human gut bacteria using enzyme engineering. It is inspiring because GH98 enzyme can remove both A and B antigens, whereas other enzymes used in past research only remove either A or B antigens. Their research broadens the specificity of the enzyme and makes the blood conversion more promising and practical for resolving blood shortage.

– Calvin Pan

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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COVID-19: Environmental Impacts of the Masks

Posted on October 5, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Have you ever thought that the masks we are wearing everyday might be polluting the environment? With the rise of COVID-19 pandemic, usage of masks have become such a natural and crucial part of people’s lives. However, as production and disposal of masks increase, environmental consequences of used masks are starting to be observed.

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“Corona Mask Waste“, by Roksans96, licensed under Pixabay

Why are the masks being environmental threat?

Among many different types of masks currently produced, the most commonly used one are the surgical masks. High usage of surgical masks is due to safety provided by anti-droplet polypropylene filter layer of the masks. Since COVID-19 is known to be a droplet-borne disease, polypropylene filter layer became favorable feature to many individuals, especially to those working in hospitals and medical field. Given the fact the medical field workers are needed more than ever before with increasing number of infected individuals, production and disposal of surgical masks and polypropylene filter layer became inevitable.

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“Face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic“, by Paladin Zhang, licensed under CC BY 2.0

The concern lies in that surgical masks are mostly disposed after a single use because of possible bacterial cross-contamination upon multiple usage. Polypropylene is not readily biodegradable, which means as its usage escalates rapidly, its disposal might end up being long-lasting environmental concern.

Impact on marine ecology

Some of the environmental issues regarding mask wastes are already observable in some parts of the world. One of the first countries to face the environmental consequences of mask litter was Hong Kong, which was one of the first countries to face COVID-19 outbreak.

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Description: Soko Island in Hong Kong polluted with COVID-19 mask waste.

Video Credit: South China Morning Post

Many of masks litters ended up in the coastal areas, where the wastes appeared to be serious threat to the marine ecology. Many marine predators might swallow mask wastes confusing the masks with their preys, and birds that live near coastal area are often entangled by disposed mask wastes.

pollution drina plastic waste free photo

“Pollution Drina Plastic Waste Free Photo“, by geraldsimon00, licensed under Pixabay

How is this issue being addressed?

After direct environmental impacts of mask wastes were observed, the need for more eco-friendly masks was highlighted. Therefore, scientists started working on development of mask materials that can replace polypropylene while keeping the strong anti-droplet effect of the filter layer.

One of the approaches were made by BioProducts Institute at the University of British Columbia. The research team attempted using wood fibers from local trees to make filter layer. Wood fibers are easily biodegradable, so even if mask litters end up in the environment, it would not be an environmental threat.

Another approach was made by Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The research team in the university used laser to induce properties of graphene on the mask. Graphene is hydrophobic, which means that it is effective in repelling droplets. Also, graphene has photothermal property, meaning it heats up under extensive exposure to sunlight. In this process, mask can be sterilized, and this antibacterial activity allows multiple reuse of masks. In this way, the amount of mask disposed will decrease significantly.

“The ideal crystalline structure of graphene is a hexagonal grid.”, by AlexanderAlUS, licesned licensed under CC BY 2.0

However, all of the scientific technologies are still in developing stages. There are still some concerns in applying them to commercial masks yet. Still, with many scientist putting efforts to overcome this issue, I believe the solution will be found soon.

– Tae Hyung Kim

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science Communicators, Science in the News

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Mental Health: The Undiscussed Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on September 28, 2020 by | Leave a comment

The mental health consequences of COVID-19 receive less attention than the epidemiology, transmission patterns, and management of the virus. Policy makers have implemented several important measures to help mitigate the spread of the virus, but have provided less consideration to the mental health effects on individuals. 

Image: Engin Akyurt  CC0 

Do you find yourself stressed and anxious as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

If so, you are not alone: 

Researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the research technology company Delvinia conducted a national survey with over 4000 respondents ages 18 and older, that revealed that 19% of Canadians experienced moderate to severe anxiety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With 18.7% reporting that they felt depressed, and 27.2% reporting that they engaged in binge-drinking. 

The results were fairly consistent between men and women, with women experiencing slightly higher percentages overall. 

Anxiety levels are shown to decrease with age as the majority of respondents experiencing moderate-severe anxiety were in the 18-39 age group. The percentage of respondents that reported feeling depressed and lonely follow the same trend, with individuals in the 18-39 age group having the highest percentage, followed by the 40-59, and 60+ age groups.

38.8% of individuals who felt depressed reported feeling very worried about finances and 34% lost their jobs or are no longer working due to the pandemic.

It is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic affects not only physical health, but mental health as well. The rapid direct contact transmission of COVID-19 resulted in the enforcement of lockdowns to stop the spread of the disease. Social distancing, isolation, and the closure of educational institutes, workplaces, and entertainment venues urged people to stay in their homes to stop the transmission of the virus. These restrictive measures have undoubtedly affected the mental health of individuals in Canada.

In addition, the closing of businesses due to COVID-19 has led to financial stress for business owners and employees. The worry associated with having decreased or no income leads to and may aggravate symptoms of depression.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has had and will continue to have an impact on society. It is important to understand that mitigation measures are necessary to combat the virus, all while recognizing the mental health effects. However, there are ways to better your mental health during these difficult times.

MENTAL HEALTH TIPS:

  • Self-care is very important at this time. Reach out to your social supports, try to get enough sleep, eat healthy, & exercise. Do the things you would normally do to support your health but use caution and follow health and safety guidelines.
  • Seek information from reliable news sources only. Limit checking in on the latest news to short, defined periods. 
  • Take the recommended precautions as outlined by Health Canada and other credible health agencies: continue washing your hands, covering your mouth during coughs & sneezes, etc.
  • Consider reaching out to mental health resources. Or, call 8-1-1 any time of the day for help navigating the mental health system

Image: by kike vega CC0

 

– Sarah Ghoul

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News

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