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<p>FWIW -</p>
<p>This just in from my daughter, molecularBio/Virologist at OHSU on
the topic of antivirals and vaccines and human samples for immune
profiling:<br>
</p>
<blockquote>Also, this concept of targeting the host rather than the
virus for antiviral development is not a new one, has lots of
complications, and is something that people have been trying to do
for years with limited success. However, there are lots of good
virologists on here (many flavivirologists!), and I do have some
hope that something good might come from it. The press coverage
of this work makes me feel a little uncomfortable--not that he's
being opportunistic or dishonest necessarily but when the
University PR office gets involved, there's almost always some
spin/exaggeration. I will say (I don't know if you've seen the
interviews with Nevan) that I am enjoying his increased fondness
for eccentric suit jackets.
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> </div>
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I spent 4 hours yesterday on
conference calls partly because no one has anything else to do,
but also because everyone's doing their very best to get
involved with Covid research, I think mostly with good
intentions. We will be setting up some vaccine development,
which is extremely unlikely to have any benefit for the current
epidemic (although who knows? the current estimate of how long
we will be fighting this keeps lengthening), and I will also be
filling in in a colleague's lab who is collecting and banking
Covid19+ human samples for immune profiling--gotta go get fit
tested for an N95 mask today. I'm not particularly worried about
it but I have lots of people worrying for me, so then I wonder
if I should be worried...</div>
<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br>
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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">One interesting thing I heard
in the endless conference calls yesterday was that they have
tried an anti-CCR5 antibody in some compassionate use cases with
enough success that they are going to try in more people. The
hypothesized activity is that it prevents 'cytokine storm'
(basically very high levels of inflammation that are responsible
for most of the damage that happens at the end stages). The good
thing about this approach is that there are many antibody
treatments that would presumably do the same thing, so there are
lots of avenues to explore if this turns out to really work.</div>
</blockquote>
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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I've been relying mostly on TWIV
for keeping up with the current research because there's a ton out
there, and it's good to have someone smart sift through it for me.</div>
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