Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Sars-Cov-2 Early Infection Signature Identified Potential Key Infection Mechanisms And Drug Targets, Yue Li, Ashley Duche, Michael R. Sayer, Don Roosan, Farid G. Khalafalla, Rennolds S. Ostrom, Jennifer Totonchy, Moom Roosan

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Background

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has caused devastating mortality and posed a significant threat to public health worldwide. Despite the severity of this illness and 2.3 million worldwide deaths, the disease mechanism is mostly unknown. Previous studies that characterized differential gene expression due to SARS-CoV-2 infection lacked robust validation. Although vaccines are now available, effective treatment options are still out of reach.

Results

To characterize the transcriptional activity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, a gene signature consisting of 25 genes was generated using a publicly available RNA-Sequencing (RNA-Seq) dataset of cultured cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. The signature estimated infection level accurately in …

We Are Not Alone In Trying To Be Alone, Patricia C. Lopes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Certain diseases, like colds, tend not to stop us. A paracetamol here, an ibuprofen there, and we are on the go. That is, until we, as a species, are faced with a virus that not only spreads through social contact, but has an estimated reproductive number of 2 to 2.5 and potentially kills 3–4% of those infected (WHO, 2020). To reduce transmission probability of COVID-19, governmental agencies around the world have recommended or enforced measures to decrease social contact; early evidence suggests these measures produce the intended effect (Kucharski et al., 2020).