Healthy Aging News and ResearchVirus infection and aging

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AlbertY
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Location: Boston, MA

Re: Virus infection and aging

Post by AlbertY »

smokinjoe wrote: Mon Apr 06, 2020 11:06 am I wonder what causes Covid-19 to be significantly more fatal for males than females.

There have been enough cases to see it is more than one standard deviation of difference between genders.

My general understanding of viruses like flue or cold is that they trick the immune system into attacking one's own tissues, often in the lung.
The ACE2 receptor is highly expressed in lung and testis... this is one simple explanation, but I believe there are more complicated mechanisms behind this that we don't understand yet.


Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School, doing research on aging
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AlbertY
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Re: Virus infection and aging

Post by AlbertY »

Fred wrote: Tue Apr 07, 2020 11:46 pm Nice find David. But I´m a bit confused, wasn´t hypertension described as one of the risk factors when they looked at deaths from COVID-19? You would think that many of these diagnosed hypertensive patients were taking angiotensin receptor 1 (AT1R) blockers, like losartan, already? A post mortem analysis will tell I guess.
It is complicated.. if you forget about the virus, just look at ACE2 alone. ACE2 is actually a good thing, it is protective against hypertension and CVD, and positively associated with lifespan. So I don't really think blocking ACE2 is a good idea. There is also paper shows that the viruses may, in part, cause acute respiratory distress syndrome through decreasing ACE2 protein expression which are mediated by S protein binding
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16007097/
Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School, doing research on aging
Drdavid
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Re: Virus infection and aging

Post by Drdavid »

Fred,
I agree and I think this is one of the problems we see in a crisis. Data gets overlooked and new streams of information takes over. Hopefully as this worldwide crisis slows down the data will be reviewed and published. I did see a new large scale human trial starting soon on Hydroxychloroquine.
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jocko6889
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Re: Virus infection and aging

Post by jocko6889 »

I'm sure most of you have probably seen this but just in case anyone missed it. A "universal" influenza vaccine just passed phase II clinical trials. It's the basis for the Netflix documentary series, "Pandemic".

"There may be hope yet for a universal flu vaccine - one powerful dose of immunization that can provide long-lasting protection for multiple influenza strains, all in a single shot. A discovery like that would be a holy grail for public health, and after more than a decade of careful research, a specific version called FLU-v is now moving into the last rounds of clinical testing.

So far, researchers say the results have been "very encouraging", and the vaccine has successfully passed phase I and phase II clinical trials. Although trials in these phases are limited to assessing the safety of the vaccine, there's also evidence it might be effective.

In the latest round of randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, the jab was found to promote antibody responses and immune system changes among 175 healthy adult participants. While this doesn't mean the vaccine can defend against the flu virus itself, these are certainly powerful attributes.

"So far we have carried out four clinical trials with FLU-v," Olga Pleguezuelos, who works at the pharmaceutical development firm SEEK, told ScienceAlert, "and the take home message is that the vaccine induces cellular and antibody responses that can still be detected six months post-immunisation."

Such lasting resistance is invaluable given how quickly the influenza virus can change. The group of viruses collectively responsible for giving us 'the flu' are such shapeshifters, they easily slip out of our grasp each season."

For more, click the link below:

https://www.sciencealert.com/a-potentia ... ical-trial
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