Author: Radifah Kabir | Updated: September 14, 2021 at 03:02 PM (IST)
Representative image of Covid vaccine | Photo: Getty
New Delhi: As of September 13, Covid-19 has infected more than 226 million people worldwide and claimed more than 4.6 million lives since its emergence.
Although the Covid-19 vaccine is developing rapidly, many people are still skeptical about vaccination. The effectiveness of masks is also being studied. We bring you the latest developments in vaccines, their effectiveness against different SARS-CoV-2 variants, and the use of artificial intelligence technology to detect viruses.
Can you imagine a vaccine that is thermally stable and does not require refrigeration at all? A group of researchers from the University of California, San Diego, USA have developed candidate vaccines whose key components are viruses derived from plants or bacteria. The research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
These candidate vaccines were tested on mice and found that a large number of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were produced. Research indicates that people living in resource-poor rural areas and communities will benefit greatly from such vaccines.
According to Nicole Steinmetz, director of the Nano-Immunology Engineering Center at the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, these vaccines are thermally stable and can be transported to places where ultra-low-temperature refrigerators or trucks cannot be installed. According to a statement from the University of California, San Diego, freezers are used.
The study pointed out that the plant virus used to prepare the candidate vaccine is called cowpea mosaic virus, while the bacterial virus used to prepare another vaccine is a bacteriophage called Q beta.
In previous studies, the researchers found that this vaccine-making technology is effective against HPV and cholesterol, and the team will now test whether this vaccine can also provide protection against other deadly coronaviruses.
A study conducted by researchers from the Regenstrief Institute in the United States showed that Moderna's vaccine is significantly better than Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson's vaccines against Delta virus, including the analysis of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's VISION network.
Vision Network analyzed more than 32,000 medical encounters from 9 states during the period when the Delta variant was dominant, and found that people who were not vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine were 5-7 times more likely to be hospitalized or require emergency treatment instead of vaccinations Individuals with vaccines.
The study found that the Moderna vaccine's effectiveness in preventing hospitalization for people 18 years of age or older increased by 95%, while the effectiveness of Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson were 80% and 60%, respectively.
In terms of preventing emergency and emergency visits, Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson have an effective rate of 92%, 77%, and 65%, respectively. The researchers also pointed out that further monitoring and evaluation are important.
Researchers from the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology in Illinois, USA, in collaboration with scientists from other universities, recently conducted a study and developed a fast, accurate, and cost-effective Covid by combining microscopes with artificial intelligence -19 test. The research was published in "Light: Science and Application-Nature".
The scientists used a technique called Space Light Image Microscopy (SLIM), which facilitates chemical-free or label-free imaging to visualize the tiny structures of SARS-CoV-2. Researchers use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify viruses based on SLIM data and introduce artificial intelligence programs to a pair of images. One of the images is a fluorescent SARS-CoV-2 stained particle, and the other is captured with a fluorescent SLIM multimodal microscope. The researchers did this to train the AI to recognize the images as exactly the same so that they could use the SLIM data to directly detect the virus.
The next step is differentiation, training artificial intelligence to learn how to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 from H1N1, influenza A, adenovirus, Zika virus and other pathogens. According to a statement from the Beckman Institute, one of the researchers, Gabriel Popescu, stated that their goal is to demonstrate the technology clinically and deploy it to all parts of the world. The study pointed out that this technology can be used as a low-cost method and can help solve future epidemics, not just COVID-19.
Innovative masks developed using nanofiber technology bring higher filtration efficiency, more comfort and easier breathing. However, we don't know much about how the integrity of nanofibers is affected by water droplets. A new study published in the journal Fluid Physics by researchers from the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, investigates these effects by visualizing the interaction of nanofibers with water aerosols.
The researchers used high-speed microscopy videos to visualize how nanofibers with different angles, diameters and mesh sizes evolved into underwater aerosol exposure.
The study showed that the researchers found from the images that the irreversible coalescence of nanofibers occurred during the droplet capture stage and the subsequent liquid evaporation stage.
According to a statement from the American Physical Society, Deng Weiwei, one of the authors of the study, said they confirmed three things. The first confirmation is that the nanofibers show an excellent way to capture aerosol droplets. The second confirmation is that the nanofibers are bound together after capturing the droplets. The third confirmation is that the binding is tight and irreversible, even during evaporation. The same is true afterwards.
The researchers pointed out that this study is very useful because it provides direct visual evidence for the need to change masks frequently, especially in cold environments, because the droplets are firmly gathered in these nanofibers, and the nanofibers The web collapses faster.
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