This pandemic caused by Covid-19 Coronavirus has been dragging for a long time now. I honestly thought by 2022 it would have become history. It is kinda embarrassing for humanity that we haven't beaten this virus and gone back to normal life yet. With all the collective knowledge and advancements in technology and medicine, tackling this challenge while not easy but could have been achieved in a reasonable amount of time, I thought.
This global challenge did show some of the flaws we all collectively have. Lack of transparency in its origins, possible cover-ups, not being ready with supply and hospital beds, politicizing the matter beyond comprehension, companies protecting their patents and profits, and all around confusion displayed that we are haven't advanced enough to efficiently address major issues like this. And we talk about possible alien attacks. lol.
Politicians demonstrated how useless they are, companies have demonstrated their greed, media as always demonstrated they care about drama rather than providing a genuine journalistic work. I find it stressful to even think about this matter and how crazy it has been. But life goes on, people adapt. This is the new normal, I keep hearing. I prefer the old normal. When is it going to happen? It is almost like asking when will bitcoin hit 1 million dollar price. It will happen eventually, but probably not anytime soon.
Scientists at the Washington State University may have discovered the possible Achilles' heel for respiratory viruses, like Covid-19. Is this real? There is a light at the end of the tunnel, after all. Feel free to read the full article At SciTechDaily here. It is an interesting read and provides some interesting information how Covid-19 like viruses can be stopped.
They have identified viral protein NS2 found in respiratory viruses as the main culprit. According to their studies if a virus doesn't have this protein, human immune system can destroy the virus as a champion before any complications may happen. So it seems like NS2 is the main weapon of the respiratory viruses like covid.
The key problem is that virus multiplications cause exaggerated inflammation, which leads to clogging the airways and make breathing difficult. The viruses achieve this by breaking the immune system defense mechanisms and using them to multiply. According to their study NS2 protein is removing the defensive armor of Beclin1 and this allowing the replication of the virus within the cell and spreading to other cells causing damage. Immune system responds to this damage and this leads to exaggerated inflammation.
It looks like cellular protein, Beclin1 is the first line of defense against the virus. But it shows weakness against NS2 protein. By disabling NS2 and its ability to modulate the cell's immune defense mechanism, we might be able to stop this virus attack. If a proper therapeutic is developed that targets NS2, we may have a solution to stop covid-19 and also use the same methodology against other respiratory viruses.
I am not a doctor, nor am I a medical expert. I am just happy there are doctors, medical experts, scientists still working on finding a solution to this pandemic. If this study is correct, we may defeat this pandemic for good and go back to old normal sooner than we thought. Maybe?
Be safe and healthy.
When I find some interesting news on popular science websites, I usually have te habit to download the original publication (even if I am not capable to grasp everything from it). It is this one in the present case. As a side note, this is precisely (somewhat) the raison d'etre of STEMsocial. Anyways...
What puzzles me is that there is not a single mention to COVID in the mBio paper. I am thus afraid that SciTechDaily is over optimistic. Or maybe it is just me who is too pessimistic… I felt the same dose of pessimism when I read on the first sentences of this blog:
You are indeed much more optimistic than me. When the pandemic started, I immediately thought about 3 or 4 years of embarrassments.
Anyways, thanks for sharing this and I truly hope this research (or similar ones) will be useful in the future to move away from the present era…
Cheers!
Thanks for sharing the original publication. It is strange that it wouldn't mention covid at all. I tried to search, didn't see any mention of it either.
It seems the latest variant is not too bad. I haven't previously interacted closely with those who I knew contracted the virus. But this month, all of the sudden I ended up finding out 5 people who I talked to tested positive. I learned about it after the fact, but in all cases they either had no symptoms or very mild symptoms and recovered within a week. I got lucky not catching it. Or maybe I did and didn't know.
Thank you @lemouth.
I have read an interview of an French epidemiologist saying that while Omicron is not too bad, we can never be sure about the next variant. With viruses, we should always keep in mind that the situation can evolve in a worse or a better way in no time. The important point is that science does actually not know, which is a narrative the media and politics do not like.
Here, the little one just brought it back from school last Thursday. Fully asymptomatic, we only discovered it because he is tested every other day (that's necessary to be allowed to enter school). He was the only one of the family infected, and today we are all four negative (note that we spent a bad week-end with social distancing inside the house).
This being said, we are probably very lucky compared with other families that we know where symptoms were there and everyone got infected.
My friends look at me with strange face whenever I tell them that there is a "missing link" in the official origin narrative. Seriously, together with the rise of violent sports, I first read of that alien attack in 2009 from Edward Griffin as a way to divert the attention of the people from the real issue.
Thanks for sharing that SciTechDaily article. I am now sharing it to my friends.
Very interesting. Sadly, I find myself wondering whether this research will ever become something if it doesn't fit the officially endorsed "fear narrative."
The whole thing is such a circus. We cover things up because we have created a system in which the liability attached to admitting you were wrong is so enormous (thanks to our litigious tendencies) that everybody covers up instead of doing "the right thing." Meanwhile, greed rules on all levels.
This new normal is definitely not a "normal" I like or want to be part of...
I think you hit the nails on the head regarding all of the frustrating aspects of this whole thing. I definitely thought we would be back to normal by this point.
That research sounds pretty interesting. Hopefully some good comes from it and they get this whole thing under control soon.
Interesting stuff. Kudos to the team!
However, we might have to concentrate a bit more on mutation with regards to the the cell nuclues and RNA, rather than the products from the cell nucleus - proteins.
This discovery does well to help us to combat the virus, but does it help to prevent mutation and development of more resistant strains?
One of our biggest challenges with the virus is mutation. If we can develop mechanisms that deal with the cell nucleus and RNA, we automatically have control over its behaviour.
Having a hold of RNA/DNA in certain viruses remains a challenge. If we can get to understand these dynamics, we could as well be ready to deal with most superbugs.
Until then, we keep finding ways to combat the disease process of viruses and microorganisms in general.
would be great if this works out, seems like omicron is getting more contagious but weaker, which is also a good development.
Uhh. Sounds interesting and a well needed solution!
I think I prefer the old normal too. Day in day out scientists and medical practitioners all over the world are working tirelessly to eradicate this menace called covid! As you said I hope sound and adequate measures will be put in place to target and disable the NS2 protein ultimately putting a stop to this deadly virus.
I hope this works, will be so great to put all this under control. The virus as caused enough damage to the world already.
Its a huge step to understand the lethal nature of the virus, I m sure more discoveries will still be made as this effort will be a breakthrough to other finding.
And you don't have to be a Dr to be scientifically aware..lol.
I like how you are geeky all round @geekgirl
A much-needed solution depending on the situation, hope this works at its best.
Yay! :) some good news (for a change) :P I agree with all you said in the beginning of the post about all the bad behavior goin on. It's awesome if they are finally learning how to stop this thing. Cool!
Greetings, very true what you share with us in this post, politicians are disgusting, and companies took advantage of the moment to become more powerful, no doubt this pandemic showed the most inhuman side of man. in regard to the possible way to beat the virus as I will read the article you share and to know the information well.
There is a hope that the pandemic will come to end or will at least be an endemic in 2022. However, I don't think that this is a natural virus, and it will end whenever they want.
This virus has been created to change the course of everything in the world. Nothing is pure.
I really hope that at some point a way will be found to end this, good post!
This virus has caused a lot of damage to the world already. If this discovery can lead to better treatments or ways of ending this global nightmare then kudos to the scientists who worked so hard to make this discovery.
We will still continue to hope that this new normal comes to an end as soon as possible.
However, it has helped us to also realize our loopholes despite the advance of technology. Its high time this virus came to an end already!
Interesting post!
I pray and hope they find a solution to this issue
If it works out, it would be great. However I have a feeling the politicians might just want to keep us locked down because it gives them more power. Even if it destroys the economy and makes us all feel like crap. At this point, I am sick of the pandemic and I would definitely enjoy seeing our normal life back. However I feel that we will be back to a new normal and not a old normal.
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And here we go again
the endless story between Covid and the future... 🥱