The third wave of coronavirus in Ukraine is declining. The number of regions in the "red" quarantine zone has decreased, and the government has promulgated a mass coronavirus vaccination plan.
At the same time, scientists from all over the world are trying to invent new drugs against the coronavirus and improve existing treatments. The Page has compiled the most interesting news about the fight against coronavirus in the world.
Artificial intelligence for the fight against coronavirus
Scientists created a tool that can help drug researchers quickly identify molecules that can neutralize the coronavirus before it eventually enters human cells.
A research team led by Tudor Oprea at the University of New Mexico has released an online, open source "computational" model package called REDIAL-2020 that could help scientists quickly test the potential properties of molecules in the fight against COVID-19.
Oprea, the Head of the Translational Informatics Division at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, said that scientists made the tool available online for everyone to use it.
According to the scientists, REDIAL-2020 provides a fast and reliable way to identify new compounds that can fight the coronavirus. REDIAL-2020 is also available on GitHub and DockerHub, and the command line version supports large-scale virtual screening targets.
Greece has begun clinical trials of Israeli drugs
Greece has begun trials of Israeli drugs against coronavirus at Sotiria and Attikon hospitals in Athens.
Studies conducted in Israel have shown great promise for the drug, but before it becomes available for everyone, more clinical trials are needed to test its safety and efficacy.
EXO-CD24, developed at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Medical Center, fights an overreaction of the body's immune system to COVID-19, that, according to experts, is a potential cause of many deaths.
The medicine is inhaled once a day for several minutes, for five days.
A drug with antibodies against new coronavirus strains
Experimental monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19, developed by Eli Lilly and Co and AbCellera Biologics Inc., can neutralize numerous coronavirus strains, in particular those first found in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, California, and New York.
The antibody, known as LY-CoV1404 or LY3853113, works by attaching itself to a place on the virus that has shown few signs of mutating. This allows the drug to retain its efficacy over time.
Some people with COVID-19 who were infected at the start of the pandemic still have antibodies against the virus a year later, according to a new study.
"New variant-resistant treatments such as LY-CoV1404 are desperately needed, given that some of the existing therapeutic antibodies are less effective or ineffective against certain variants and the impact of variants on vaccine efficacy is still poorly understood," the research team wrote.