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One Universal Antiviral to Rule Them All?

Taking inspiration from a rare mutation that makes people impervious to viral diseases, a Columbia researcher is developing a therapy that could bestow this superpower on the rest of us.
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AI Summary (English):
Columbia immunologist Dusan Bogunovic is developing a universal antiviral therapy inspired by a rare genetic mutation (ISG15 deficiency) that grants a few individuals natural resistance to all viruses. These people show persistent antiviral inflammation but do not get sick from viruses like flu or chickenpox, despite evidence of exposure.

Bogunovic’s new experimental therapy mimics this immune effect temporarily, delivering 10 specific mRNAs (instead of disabling ISG15) via lipid nanoparticles, similar to COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. In tests on mice and hamsters, it prevented viral replication of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and reduced disease severity.

The approach could offer broad protection in future pandemics, even against unknown viruses, and may be used to protect high-risk groups like healthcare workers and nursing home residents. However, challenges remain, including optimizing delivery and dosage for human use and extending the protection, currently estimated to last 3–4 days.

“We were not looking for an antiviral,” Bogunovic says, “but the studies have inspired the potential development of a universal antiviral for everyone.”
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Crain's Chicago Business: 'Rush scopes out long COVID's financial toll on workers, employers'

"The impact on these patients is massive...the missing amount of work, the delay in getting back to the office, the impaired function and the loss of opportunities for advancement all build on each other" - Dr. Michael Gottlieb, an emergency medicine physician and vice chair of research at Rush University Medical Center

"It's largely a hidden population whose suffering goes unseen," Gottlieb said. "The financial hardships are harder to recognize in a virtual workforce."
 
CDC officials escorted from headquarters as chaos engulfs public health agency
AP News said:
The nation’s top public health agency was left reeling and leaderless as the White House works to expel its handpicked director from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and three senior officials were escorted from its headquarters on Thursday.

The turmoil triggered rare bipartisan alarm as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., tries to advance anti-vaccine policies that are contradicted by decades of scientific research.
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AP News said:
Kennedy has not explained the decision to oust Susan Monarez as CDC director less than a month after she was sworn in, but warned that more turnover could be coming. ...

The White House has only said that Monarez was “not aligned with” Trump’s agenda. There is no word on when a replacement could be named.

Monarez’s lawyers said that she refused “to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts.” She is fighting her dismissal, saying the decision must come directly from Trump, who nominated her in March.
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Several top CDC officials (Dr. Deb Houry, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, and Dr. Daniel Jernigan) have resigned. You can read their resignation letters here:

Breaking News: Read three top CDC officials' resignation emails

Here's one section from the formal resignation letter written by Dr. Daskalakis (some line breaks added)
Eugenics plays prominently in the rhetoric being generated and is derivative of a legacy that good medicine and science should continue to shun.

The recent shooting at CDC is not why I am resigning. My grandfather, who I am named after, stood up to fascist forces in Greece and lost his life doing so. I am resigning to make him and his legacy proud.

I am resigning because of the cowardice of a leader that cannot admit that HIS and his minions’ words over decades created an environment where violence like this can occur.

I reject his and his colleagues’ thoughts and prayers, and advise they direct those to people that they have not actively harmed.
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UC-Davis: 'Total-Body PET Imaging Takes a Look at Long COVID'

'Using total-body PET imaging to get a better understanding of long COVID disease is the goal of a new project at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with UC San Francisco. The project is funded by a grant of $3.2 million over four years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.'

'Omidvari will collaborate with CellSight Technologies Inc. of San Francisco to use a tracer called 18F-AraG, which specifically tags activated T cells. Using dynamic total-body PET imaging and sophisticated modeling, she aims to see how activated T cells collect in different organs at different times, where blood vessel damage is occurring, and whether these processes are related to each other.'

'The study will work with patients from UCSF’s long COVID program (LIINC - Long-term Impact of Infection with Novel Coronavirus) who will be scanned at baseline, four and eight months.'
 
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