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A research team from Brazil has identified a potential target for a novel therapeutic to combat infections caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungal species that, alongside other Aspergillus fungi, can cause potentially fatal complications in patients with weakened immune systems and is listed by the World Health Organization as a priority fungal pathogen. The researchers are now working to find a molecule that can inactivate the target identified by the research and potentially serve as the basis for a novel drug to target the fungus. This discovery comes in the face of rising resistance to existing antifungals, an absence of newly approved ones in recent years, and often unpleasant side effects that can accompany those that are currently available.
A recently published study found that Moderna’s mRNA vaccine candidate was better than the currently available Jynneos vaccine at preventing severe mpox and reducing virus levels in monkeys. Moderna started advancing preclinical development for an mpox vaccine candidate during the last declared public health emergency of international concern for the virus in 2022. The candidate, mRNA-1769, contains mRNA molecules that code for four proteins on the surface of the mpox virus that are vital for viral replication and that are shared by other orthodox viruses. The candidate was able to neutralize other orthopox viruses, including camelpox, rabbitpox, and multiple mpox strains, in lab tests, suggesting that the vaccine could provide broad protection against a range of orthopox viruses, as well as offer a potentially safer, more effective, and easier- and quicker-to-manufacture alternative for mpox.
A multi-institution research team discovered and isolated a broadly neutralizing antibody that could form the basis of a future treatment for current and future variants of the rapidly mutating virus that causes COVID-19. The researchers isolated a plasma antibody from a single patient that was broadly neutralizing—or able to neutralize all known variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, as well as distantly related SARS-like coronaviruses that infect other animals—and then obtained the exact molecular sequences of the antibody in the hopes of being able to manufacture it as a future treatment, as well as enable research toward a universal vaccine. This discovery provides some hope as cases of COVID-19 spike once again.