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posted by janrinok on Saturday April 11 2020, @04:44PM   Printer-friendly

This story is a merge of 28 story submissions. Given that it was well over 18,000 words of original source material (excluding HTML markup!), a great deal of pruning was performed to get it to a manageable size. We strongly encourage folks to read the linked articles for more information.

For latest statistics, and finer granularity, see https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ or https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html.

Coronavirus Cases: 1,700,741
Deaths:              102,774
Recovered:           376,572

Active Cases:
  1,221,395 Currently Infected Patients
  1,171,568 (96%) in Mild Condition
     49,872 (4%) Serious or Critical

Closed Cases:
 479,346 Cases which had an outcome:
 376,572 (79%) Recovered / Discharged
 102,774 (21%) Deaths

Data as at 11 Apr 2020, at 08:01 UTC.

DIGITAL LIBERTY

Europe's Privacy Officials are Working on Geolocation Guidelines for Tracking COVID-19

Europe's privacy officials are working on geolocation guidelines for tracking COVID-19:

The European Data Protection Board said Tuesday that it would be creating guidelines for collecting data for surveillance tied to the coronavirus pandemic, including geolocation, contact tracing and health information.

Governments around the world are relying on phone location data to help track the coronavirus outbreak, without any formal restrictions or mandates on how that data can be used. Countries including Singapore, the United Kingdom and Israel have developed their own apps for tracking people's movements and examining how COVID-19 spreads, and the only privacy protections are based on trusting the government's promises.

[...] "The EDPB will move swiftly to issue guidance on these topics within the shortest possible notice to help make sure that technology is used in a responsible way to support and hopefully win the battle against the corona pandemic," EDPB Chairwoman Andrea Jelinek said in a statement. "I strongly believe data protection and public health go hand in hand."

Europe's General Data Protection Regulation doesn't have geolocation data guidelines for a pandemic like COVID-19, and many data protection commissioners, including in Ireland, Germany and Italy, have said that they're prioritizing saving lives over privacy during the outbreak.

The GDPR does address what privacy restrictions there are during a health crisis, including allowing for public health officials to gather personal data without consent during a pandemic. But it doesn't have specific rules regarding geolocation data tracking during a pandemic, which the EDPB is looking to quickly establish. On March 16, Jelinek issued a statement that location data should be used only when it's anonymized or with people's consent.

Google Releases Location Data For Tracking COVID-19 Cases

Google has released location data in 131 countries to help governments track citizens with COVID-19.

Alphabet's Google division has on Thursday published data for 131 countries that shows whether people are obeying self-isolating and quarantine rules.

The 'Community Mobility Reports' from the search engine giant showed whether visits to shops, parks and workplaces dropped in March, Reuters reported.

March is when many countries around the world brought in their lock-down rules, and readers can click here to see the Google reports on their particular country.

BUSINESS

Red Light Camera Company Says It's Dying Of Coronavirus

Red Light Camera Company Says It's Dying Of Coronavirus:

We are again being asked to shed a tear for a law enforcement-adjacent industry. Social distancing and sheltering-in-place in response to the coronavirus has led to a downturn in driving. And if there's fewer drivers on the road, proxy cops are seeing their revenue streams dry up.

Redflex, an Australian company that operates "traffic safety programs" in roughly 100 US and Canadian cities, warned that less traffic and suspended construction amid the pandemic will be a stress on its balance sheet.

"Approximately 15% of group revenue is dependent on volume-based contracts," the company said in a regulatory filing Monday first spotted by The Wall Street Journal, hinting at its business line that includes enforcement cameras. "We anticipate our revenue from these contracts will be impacted broadly in line with the reduction in traffic volumes as well as the duration of the disruption."

[...] Hope springs eternal at Redflex, even with COVID-19's wet blanket dampening the company's enthusiasm.

On a call with investors Monday, Redflex CEO Mark Talbot warned that further travel restrictions could delay new installations and therefore impact revenues.

ENVIRONMENT

Himalayas Visible Due to COVID-19 Fueled Pollution Drop

Have you ever wondered what would happen around the planet if humans disappeared, or just went into hiding, one day? Well, now we know. One side effect of the COVID-19 lockdown is that the himalayas are now visible due to the lack of pollution that is normally generated by factories.

Lockdown measures to fight the spread of COVID-19 have rolled out across the world and while it is having a devastating impact on the world's economy, the environment is clearly reaping the rewards,

Some residents in northern India say the lockdown measures across the country have given locals a view many have not seen in at least 30 years.

While for others in the Jalandhar district of Punjab in India, it's a sight they've never seen before.

Mother Earth thanks you, Coronavirus 19.

NEWS

BP Gas Stations Give Health Care Workers 50 Cent Discount on Fuel - Roadshow

BP gas stations give health care workers 50 cent discount on fuel - Roadshow:

Let's enjoy some positive news amid the coronavirus outbreak on this World Health Day, shall we? We have just the thing, as BP announced Monday it will give back to health care workers and first responders.

Doctors, nurses and hospital workers are eligible for 50 cents off per gallon of fuel as a way for the company to say thank you to those on the front lines. The discount will be valid at BP and Amoco stations across the US and only requires those eligible to register at a link to use a discount code at the fuel pump.

BP said this little act of giving back will be valid for the entire month of April for health care workers.

[...] Aside from any discounts, fuel prices have reached record lows in the past weeks, partially due to the coronavirus pandemic, which is what causes COVID-19. With fewer drivers on the roads amid stay-at-home orders, demand continues to fall. Meanwhile, a Saudi-Russian oil price war dumped tons of cheap oil on the market to drive crude oil prices down. Just last week, the national average for a gallon of gas dropped below $2, and experts believe it could fall to as low as $1.50 per gallon.

Spitting gets worse in Australia to the point of fines and jail time

With COVID-19 on the brain the population is going nuts. Members of the public are spitting on and swearing at staff in pharmacies as paranoia and fear grip the nation. With purchases of common products such as Ventolin, Salbutamol and paracetamol now being limited to prevent hoarding, emotions are running high. Tougher penalties including jail time for offenders who attack with bodily fluids was introduced in 2019, but they have not had significant impact. In Britain a 55 year old man was jailed for coughing on police as was a woman who spat at police.

Medium.com banned a user for suggesting a possible category of treatments for COVID-19

Andrew Gaiziunas posted this article speculating that the Wuhan Coronavirus removes iron from red blood cells which leads to both oxygen deprivation in tissues and the lung damage that is seen in patients. If confirmed, this knowledge could lead to the development of better treatments in both early and late stages of the disease. Gaiziunas is not a doctor, but he claims that his father is one and helped work on the article. Medium deleted the article and his account has been suspended.

15 men arrested for alleged quarantine violation at New Jersey funeral

Fifteen men have been arrested during a funeral in New Jersey for allegedly defying the state's ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, officials said. The incident in Ocean County late Wednesday was the fourth time in as many days that Lakewood police had to respond to a prohibited public event — this time a funeral where between 60 and 70 people gathered, according to a joint statement by Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer and Lakewood Police Chief Gregory Meyer.

"This gathering was in violation of (Gov. Phil Murphy's executive order), which bans gatherings of individuals, whether they be at weddings, parties, celebrations, or other social events including funerals," they said in the statement.

Source: https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/100-year-old-nj-man-arrested-for-alleged-quarantine-violation/

Yuval Noah Harari: The World After Coronavirus

Yuval Noah Harari: the world after coronavirus

Humankind is now facing a global crisis. Perhaps the biggest crisis of our generation. The decisions people and governments take in the next few weeks will probably shape the world for years to come. They will shape not just our healthcare systems but also our economy, politics and culture. We must act quickly and decisively. We should also take into account the long-term consequences of our actions. When choosing between alternatives, we should ask ourselves not only how to overcome the immediate threat, but also what kind of world we will inhabit once the storm passes. Yes, the storm will pass, humankind will survive, most of us will still be alive — but we will inhabit a different world.

Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life. That is the nature of emergencies. They fast-forward historical processes. Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger. Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments. What happens when everybody works from home and communicates only at a distance? What happens when entire schools and universities go online? In normal times, governments, businesses and educational boards would never agree to conduct such experiments. But these aren't normal times.

In this time of crisis, we face two particularly important choices. The first is between totalitarian surveillance and citizen empowerment. The second is between nationalist isolation and global solidarity.

More of Us are Now Supposed to Wear a Mask

More of us are now supposed to wear a mask:

The BioAid mask looks different than most health masks you've seen, because it's based on the idea that the best mask is the one that can be readily made. Its shell is like a retail blister pack and its filter is a swatch of the same HEPA material used in many home furnace filters and has been shown by NASA to be an efficient particulate filter. The BioAid isn't N95-certified yet, but co-inventor Marcus Hays is confident it soon will be -- and that the mask has value in the meantime as CDC mask guidelines broaden as the coronavirus emergency develops.

Hays' startup Orbis, based in Mill Valley, California, is developing in-wheel electric drive systems for automakers but temporarily pivoted to masks after an assessment of available materials. They determined that polyethylene plastic sheets are plentiful and familiar to many plastic thermoforming companies. The millions of blister packs, pill packs and water bottles they make are all close industrial cousins of the BioAid mask. "Normally it's not the most environmentally friendly way to go," Hays admitted, "but in this crisis, it's the smart thing to do."

The front of the BioAid mask shell is perforated with breathing holes that are backed by a two inch square of common HEPA air filter material. "Most important is the very small area of filter compared to a conventional N95," Hays said, "because (the availability of) filter material is at crisis stage." HEPA material is regarded as a relatively effective medium for capturing viruses, especially if the virus is attached to larger carrier particle like aerosolized mucous or saliva.

Largest Hospital System In The US Threatens To Fire Doctors & Nurses For Telling The Truth About COV

Largest Hospital System In The US Threatens To Fire Doctors & Nurses For Telling The Truth About COVID-19 Disaster:

Last week we talked about just how insane it was that hospital administrators were threatening and/or firing doctors and nurses for speaking out publicly on social media about just how unprepared America's healthcare system has been for the COVID-19 pandemic -- and now we find out it gets even worse. Business Insider has seen a memo sent around by the country's largest hospital provider, HCA Healthcare, noting that they changed their social media guidelines just as the pandemic got really cooking, to tell those healthcare professionals on the frontline that telling the truth in public might cost them their jobs:

HCA Healthcare, which has 185 hospitals in 20 states, sent an email to employees on March 24 that added new guidelines for social media and media inquiries during the pandemic. The email said HCA employees could get disciplined or even fired for posting information on social media about its policies about treating patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by this coronavirus. The health system also barred employees from speaking to journalists about the virus without explicit permission from HCA's communications director.

One nurse, Jhonna Porter, told Business Insider that HCA Healthcare had already suspended her for violating these new guidelines and did so retroactively, for her activity before March 24. Porter, a charge nurse at West Hills Hospital in California, said HCA Healthcare suspended her without pay on March 25, a day after sending the email updating its social-media policy.

SCIENCE

Coronavirus Lockdowns Have Caused the Earth to Effectively Stop Shaking

Coronavirus lockdowns have caused the Earth to effectively stop shaking:

With travel effectively ground to a halt, seismologists around the globe have reported a drop in seismic noise, according to an article in the scientific journal Nature.

Researchers say the drop in activity, usually only seen to this magnitude around Christmas, could help experts find smaller earthquakes and monitor volcanic activity more effectively.

[...] "You'll get a signal with less noise on top, allowing you to squeeze a little more information out of those events," Andy Frassetto, a seismologist at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology in Washington, D.C., told Nature

"There's a big chance indeed it could lead to better measurements," Thomas Lecocq, a seismologist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, added.

Lecocq told CNN that Brussels was seeing a 30 to 50 per cent reduction in ambient noise since it went on lockdown in the middle of March.

The Royal Observatory made sure to note the Earth was "still shaking," just at a significantly smaller measure.

POLITICS

China should be sued for $6.5 trillion for coronavirus damages says top UK think tank

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/china-should-be-sued-for-6-5-trillion-for-coronavirus-damages-says-top-uk-think-tank-20200405-p54h5b.html

According to the report, Coronavirus Compensation? by conservative London think tank The Henry Jackson Society[*], China could be sued under 10 possible legal avenues, including the International Health Regulations, which were beefed up after the SARS outbreak, which China also tried to cover up.

The report said had China provided accurate information at an early juncture, "the infection would not have left China."

China only reported the disease to the WHO on December 31 and said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.

[*] Henry Jackson Society.

Trump tells health officials to ask "quack" Fox News guest Dr. Oz for advice on coronavirus: report

President Donald Trump has allegedly urged top health officials to call the controversial TV pundit Dr. Mehmet Oz after watching the frequent Fox News guest discuss the coronavirus pandemic on the right-leaning network.

Oz, who has been repeatedly called out by other doctors as a "quack" for pushing discredited "miracle" health products, has frequently espoused the virtues of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment on Fox's airwaves.

Trump has also promoted the unproven drug treatment for the new coronavirus at his news briefings despite top health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissing claims that the drug is effective in coronavirus cases as "anecdotal." Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro got into a heated altercation with Fauci at a recent White House coronavirus task force meeting over that description, according to Axios.

Trump's Aggressive Advocacy of Malaria Drug for Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community

Trump's Aggressive Advocacy of Malaria Drug for Treating Coronavirus Divides Medical Community:

Day after day, the salesman turned president has encouraged coronavirus patients to try hydroxychloroquine with all of the enthusiasm of a real estate developer. The passing reference he makes to the possible dangers is usually overwhelmed by the full-throated endorsement. "What do you have to lose?" he asked five times on Sunday.

Bolstered by his trade adviser, a television doctor, Larry Ellison of Oracle and Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York mayor, Mr. Trump has seized on the drug as a miracle cure for the virus that has killed thousands and paralyzed American life. Along the way, he has prompted an international debate about a drug that many doctors in New York and elsewhere have been trying in desperation even without conclusive scientific studies.

Mr. Trump may ultimately be right, and physicians report anecdotal evidence that has provided hope. But it remains far from certain, and the president's assertiveness in pressing the case over the advice of advisers like Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, has driven a wedge inside his coronavirus task force and has raised questions about his motives.

If hydroxychloroquine becomes an accepted treatment, several pharmaceutical companies stand to profit, including shareholders and senior executives with connections to the president. Mr. Trump himself has a small personal financial interest in Sanofi, the French drugmaker that makes Plaquenil, the brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine.

[...] The professional organization that published a positive French study cited by Mr. Trump's allies changed its mind in recent days. The International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy said, "The article does not meet the society's expected standard." Some hospitals in Sweden stopped providing hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus after reports of adverse side effects, according to Swedish news media.

Big Pharma-Funded Group Founded by Billionaire Trump Backer Tied to President's Promotion of Malaria Drug for COVID-19

From New Civil Rights Movement,

The investigative news site Sludge reports a top Trump backer's advocacy group, fueled with funds from Big Pharma, "has been pushing Trump to approve the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19."

Home Depot founder and billionaire right wing activist Bernie Marcus founded the non-profit group Job Creators Network, which works for right wing causes including lower taxes, less regulations, and so-called "free-market solutions."

Marcus donated millions to groups which worked to get Trump elected. He has said he will again donate millions to help get Trump re-elected.

Sludge reports the pharmaceutical industry has funded Marcus' Job Creators Network, which "has been pushing" Trump "to make the drug available."


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  • (Score: 1, Troll) by SomeGuy on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (12 children)

    by SomeGuy (5632) on Saturday April 11 2020, @05:39PM (#981211)

    So is there any REAL progress being made against this thing?

    A while back there had been some talk about a vaccine, although with how slow the medical industry moves, I have no doubt that will take years and cost individuals bazillians.

    There is some testing now. At least that lets doctors know for sure, but seems to do more to just count numbers that still don't tell the entire story. Heck, I had what I assume was the regular flu late last year (guess I'll never know) and a doctor did absolute squat.

    The hot-air blowing politicians seem to like yapping about ventilators. It almost seems like the only thing anyone is concerned about are "beds" and "ventilators". That's not how you fight a virus, that is how you clean up the mess.

    Having everyone stay at home is just a stop-gap measure that has a technological level worthy of cavemen. Until a vaccine or some magic cure pops up, that basically means eveyone that would have gotten sick without lockdown/shelter-in-place will still get it eventually, just later.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:39PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @06:39PM (#981234)

    Vaccines are being tested but young people who have recovered have low NAb titiers [medrxiv.org] meaning a vaccine may not produce enough antibodies [nature.com] unless the low count is because of this virus' immunological suppression and also that antibody tests may not be of any use at all...

    Alarmingly, after discharge from hospital, some patients remain/return viral positive and others even relapse. This indicates that a virus-eliminating immune response to SARS-CoV-2 may be difficult to induce at least in some patients and vaccines may not work in these individuals.

    Prophylaxis tests underway... [medscape.com]

    Zinc, he says, helps the hydroxychloroquine get inside the infected cells to destroy the virus

    No, chloroquine acts as an ionophore to transport zinc into the cells where it impedes infection. Chloroquine also has this effect by increasing cell PH. Not even medical journal editors can get basic information correct.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:06PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 11 2020, @10:06PM (#981309)

      Thanks for the links and info. Those links are better than any in the rollup submission.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:35AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:35AM (#981363)

      young people who have recovered have low SAG titties

      FTFY, conspiracy theory scum!

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @12:37AM (#981366)

      Not even medical journal editors can get basic information correct.

      Which is why we have an Anonymous Coward on SoylentNews to instruct us all on Medicine, The Electric Universe, Telluric meridians and the Power of Pyramids.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:22AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:22AM (#981382)

        Ha - it was clearly somehow transcribed in reverse by the reporter but the editor missed it. We hold medical journals to a higher standard than SN but perhaps they were just testing us like the fucking dinosaurs test the creationists?

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:05AM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:05AM (#981392)

    Having everyone stay at home is just a stop-gap measure that has a technological level worthy of cavemen. Until a vaccine or some magic cure pops up, that basically means eveyone that would have gotten sick without lockdown/shelter-in-place will still get it eventually, just later.

    Yes. That's *exactly* the point. It's not about *fewer* people getting sick, it's about fewer people getting sick *at the same time*. If everyone gets sick all at once, our healthcare system would collapse under the strain and many, many more will die because there aren't enough resources to treat them.

    Staying at home and limiting contact with others allows us to *slow* the infection rates, hopefully enough so that our healthcare system can handle the number of cases requiring significant intervention. That will allow us to *reduce* the number of dead people.

    Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:56AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @03:56AM (#981417)

      Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

      Given the minimal virulence of this disease, not to the point of putting us all under arrest and killing our future.

      • (Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:30AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @04:30AM (#981424)

        Given the minimal virulence of this disease, not to the point of putting us all under arrest and killing our future.

        So get onto Craigslist and order up all the hookers you want. I'm sure they're not very busy at the moment. Maybe lick a few doorknobs for good measure too.

        Then go visit your parents, grandparents, other elderly relatives and make sure you spew sputum on all of them.

        That'll teach those freedom-hating, authoritarian epidemiologists!

        I'm sure you'll be fine, and your dead relatives will just reduce the burden they place on society by dying. It's a win-win!

        Because those old folks (you know, your parents, grandparents, etc.) are just using oxygen, food and other resources that could be used by someone more deserving, right?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:05AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @06:05AM (#981438)

        Officers,

        putting us all this coward under arrest and killing our his future.

        Thank you, officers.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:57AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @11:57AM (#981482)

      Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

      Yes, but there SHOULD have been a better way to do that.

      • (Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:37PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @01:37PM (#981499)

        Personally, I think that reducing fatalities is a worthy goal. Don't you?

        Yes, but there SHOULD have been a better way to do that.

        Do tell. Please tell us all about better way. Because you know exactly what should have been done, because you're a stable genius and polymath who knows all, sees all, and reads a lot. Amirite?

        I'm sure the CDC, WHO and other organizations have just been waiting for you to tell them what they should do and what they should have done. Because you know better than anyone else and, as such, if only you'd been in charge, this would never have been a pandemic. In fact, if you were calling the shots, your plan would have turned this into a boon for all mankind!

        Damn, we're stupid! Because we didn't make you dictator of the Earth for life. What were we thinking? Sigh.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 12 2020, @02:53AM (#981403)

    Here's one (of many) approaches to the new virus, using a combination of molecular simulation and rapid-assembly tools that were available in a lab.
        http://news.mit.edu/2020/peptide-drug-block-covid-19-cells-0327 [mit.edu]
    Full text follows:

    An experimental peptide could block Covid-19
    MIT chemists are testing a protein fragment that may inhibit coronaviruses’ ability to enter human lung cells.

    The research described in this article has been published on a preprint server but has not yet been peer-reviewed by scientific or medical experts.

    In hopes of developing a possible treatment for Covid-19, a team of MIT chemists has designed a drug candidate that they believe may block coronaviruses’ ability to enter human cells. The potential drug is a short protein fragment, or peptide, that mimics a protein found on the surface of human cells.

    The researchers have shown that their new peptide can bind to the viral protein that coronaviruses use to enter human cells, potentially disarming it.

    “We have a lead compound that we really want to explore, because it does, in fact, interact with a viral protein in the way that we predicted it to interact, so it has a chance of inhibiting viral entry into a host cell,” says Brad Pentelute, an MIT associate professor of chemistry, who is leading the research team.

    The MIT team reported its initial findings in a preprint posted on bioRxiv, an online preprint server, on March 20. They have sent samples of the peptide to collaborators who plan to carry out tests in human cells.

    Molecular targeting

    Pentelute’s lab began working on this project in early March, after the Cryo-EM structure of the coronavirus spike protein, along with the human cell receptor that it binds to, was published by a research group in China. Coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which is causing the current Covid-19 outbreak, have many protein spikes protruding from their viral envelope.

    Studies of SARS-CoV-2 have also shown that a specific region of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain, binds to a receptor called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). This receptor is found on the surface of many human cells, including those in the lungs. The ACE2 receptor is also the entry point used by the coronavirus that caused the 2002-03 SARS outbreak.

    In hopes of developing drugs that could block viral entry, Genwei Zhang, a postdoc in Pentelute’s lab, performed computational simulations of the interactions between the ACE2 receptor and the receptor binding domain of the coronavirus spike protein. These simulations revealed the location where the receptor binding domain attaches to the ACE2 receptor — a stretch of the ACE2 protein that forms a structure called an alpha helix.

    “This kind of simulation can give us views of how atoms and biomolecules interact with each other, and which parts are essential for this interaction,” Zhang says. “Molecular dynamics helps us narrow down particular regions that we want to focus on to develop therapeutics.”

    The MIT team then used peptide synthesis technology that Pentelute’s lab has previously developed, to rapidly generate a 23-amino acid peptide with the same sequence as the alpha helix of the ACE2 receptor. Their benchtop flow-based peptide synthesis machine can form linkages between amino acids, the buildings blocks of proteins, in about 37 seconds, and it takes less than an hour to generate complete peptide molecules containing up to 50 amino acids.

    “We’ve built these platforms for really rapid turnaround, so I think that’s why we’re at this point right now,” Pentelute says. “It’s because we have these tools we’ve built up at MIT over the years.”

    They also synthesized a shorter sequence of only 12 amino acids found in the alpha helix, and then tested both of the peptides using equipment at MIT’s Biophysical Instrumentation Facility that can measure how strongly two molecules bind together. They found that the longer peptide showed strong binding to the receptor binding domain of the Covid-19 spike protein, while the shorter one showed negligible binding.

    Many variants

    Although MIT has been scaling back on-campus research since mid-March, Pentelute’s lab was granted special permission allowing a small group of researchers to continue to work on this project. They are now developing about 100 different variants of the peptide in hopes of increasing its binding strength and making it more stable in the body.

    “We have confidence that we know exactly where this molecule is interacting, and we can use that information to further guide refinement, so that we can hopefully get a higher affinity and more potency to block viral entry in cells,” Pentelute says.

    In the meantime, the researchers have already sent their original 23-amino acid peptide to a research lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai for testing in human cells and potentially in animal models of Covid-19 infection.

    While dozens of research groups around the world are using a variety of approaches to seek new treatments for Covid-19, Pentelute believes his lab is one of a few currently working on peptide drugs for this purpose. One advantage of such drugs is that they are relatively easy to manufacture in large quantities. They also have a larger surface area than small-molecule drugs.

    “Peptides are larger molecules, so they can really grip onto the coronavirus and inhibit entry into cells, whereas if you used a small molecule, it’s difficult to block that entire area that the virus is using,” Pentelute says. “Antibodies also have a large surface area, so those might also prove useful. Those just take longer to manufacture and discover.”

    One drawback of peptide drugs is that they typically can’t be taken orally, so they would have to be either administered intravenously or injected under the skin. They would also need to be modified so that they can stay in the bloodstream long enough to be effective, which Pentelute’s lab is also working on.

    “It’s hard to project how long it will take to have something we can test in patients, but my aim is to have something within a matter of weeks. If it turns out to be more challenging, it may take months,” he says.

    In addition to Pentelute and Zhang, other researchers listed as authors on the preprint are postdoc Sebastian Pomplun, grad student Alexander Loftis, and research scientist Andrei Loas.