Routine vaccine program disruptions and under-resourced health systems are driving a global decline in childhood measles vaccination rates post COVID-19, a study has found.

Researchers examining whether COVID-19 vaccination affects persistent smell or taste problems after contracting the virus have found that, in most cases, it does not.

Socioeconomic Challenges Amidst a Global Triple Threat of Conflicts, COVID-19 and Climate Change: General Issues (Part 7) concludes the series by examining broader socioeconomic challenges arising from the convergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, conflicts, international sanctions, climate-related disasters and geopolitical tensions.

By applying mRNA technology and structural engineering, researchers have fashioned an advanced antibody therapy that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2 while constraining the virus’ ability to escape recognition. The therapy protected mice against infections with an immune-evasive Omicron variant, and provides a structural template for antiviral antibodies that can keep up with their constantly evolving viral targets. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is over, SARS-CoV-2 remains a threat to public health, and is especially dangerous for people with compromised immune systems who can’t fully benefit from vaccines. Antibody therapies are critical for these high-risk groups, as they can bind to and neutralize the virus without the need for vaccine-induced immunity. However, like other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 is constantly evolving – and variants quickly appeared that could evade the first generation of antibody therapies. This escape has also undermined the deployment of next-generation antibodies, so new approaches are needed. Here, Anna Wec and colleagues used high-throughput screening and isolated several antibodies from llamas that could neutralize the XBB.1.5 and JN.1 variants of SARS-CoV-2. The researchers engineered these lead candidates into more potent bispecific antibodies, which can target multiple sites on the same protein. Furthermore, they introduced structural modifications that allow multiple antibodies to be delivered in tandem via mRNA. This mRNA strategy maximizes the antibodies’ ability to target SARS-CoV-2 as it evolves, and could potentially lower the high costs and manufacturing complexity that have held back previous bispecific antibody therapies. The platform neutralized a broad range of historical and current SARS-CoV-2 variants in serum and protected mice against infections with XBB1.5. “This platform may have applications in other therapeutic areas in which broad antigen coverage, resistance to escape, or simultaneous engagement of multiple disease-associated targets is desirable,” Wec et al. write.

Researchers in India have used an AI-based molecule generation platform to design a novel compound that computationally blocks one of the most conserved and functionally essential enzymes of SARS-CoV-2 — the main protease — with drug-like properties, no predicted toxicity, and a binding profile that compares favourably with clinically studied inhibitors, making it a candidate worth pursuing for further laboratory validation.