Bu researchers discover protein necessary for SARS-CoV-2 to evade the body’s defenses
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Jul-2025 00:10 ET (2-Jul-2025 04:10 GMT/UTC)
In a new study from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, researchers have identified a protein called non-structural protein 15 (nsp15) that plays a key role in helping SARS-CoV-2 hide from the body’s defenses by suppressing the production of viral double-stranded (dsRNA), leading to increased viral replication while limiting the body’s immune response.
“China virus”, the Chinese virus — at the start of the 2020 pandemic, you likely often encountered this epithet in the media. The use of geographically-based labels to define the disease (COVID-19) and the virus causing it (SARS-CoV-2) had significant consequences on public opinion, fueling and amplifying — sometimes with very serious outcomes — prejudices against specific people and countries, accused of having a causal role in spreading the contagion. The neutral designation COVID-19, proposed for the disease by the WHO in mid-February 2020, was quickly adopted globally. However, geographic names arose again with subsequent variants of the virus: in the media and in everyday language, people referred to the “Indian,” “British,” or “South African” variants, among others.
To counter this trend, in May 2021 the WHO introduced a nomenclature based on Greek letters — Alpha, Beta, Delta, etc. — completely neutral and free of geographic references. A study published in the Journal of Science Communication (JCOM) analyzed the impact of this change in the Australian media, showing that although the shift toward neutral names happened relatively quickly after the announcement, the positive effects in reducing potential stigma remained only partial.
This finding highlights the importance of expanding research on this topic, in order to establish effective communication guidelines within national and global pandemic response plans.
The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has remained fairly steady across Europe over the past decade. However, significant disparities exist between countries.
Contrary to expectations, the Covid pandemic did not cause a spike in the overall use of CAM in Europe: the growth was modest, from 27% in 2014 to 28% in 2023. These University of Helsinki findings are reported in an article published in the Journal of Public Health.
The Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine, geopolitical tensions, climate change and other events highlight our growing exposure to complex, interconnected, and intertwining risks. In view of this development, the focus of risk research has shifted towards the comprehensive analysis of interconnected and mutually interactive risk sources and crises. In a review article published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Science Huan Liu (Kyoto University) and Ortwin Renn (Research Institute for Sustainability, RIFS) offer an overview of the current state of research on polycrises and systemic risks.
New research indicates that children infected with COVID-19 may face increased cardiovascular disease risks indicated by blood plasma metabolic changes.
A new AI tool to predict the spread of infectious disease outperforms existing state-of-the-art forecasting methods.
The tool, created with federal support by researchers at Johns Hopkins and Duke universities, could revolutionize how public health officials predict, track and manage outbreaks of infectious diseases including flu and COVID-19.