CoVaRR-Net Funded Research Results

An international team of researchers led by CoVaRR-Net Pillar 10 Lead Dr. François Jean (Professor of Virology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia) investigated a catalogue of more than 350 compounds derived from natural sources including plants, fungi, and marine sponges in a bid to identify new antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19 variants such as omicron.

Defective interfering particles (DIPs) arise during virus propagation. They are particles containing degenerate forms of the virus genome, which interfere with the replication of the parental virus but do not replicate themselves.

Throughout the pandemic, it is clear that poor and racialized populations, including Indigenous Peoples, have been more likely to experience severe illness and die from COVID-19 than the general Canadian population.

Mutations to the spike protein of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 have evolved to an extent not observed in previous variants of concern (VOCs). This raises concerns regarding its potential for increased antibody evasion, with the subsequent ability to cause infections and disease in people presumed to have adequate immunity.

Booster doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine are widely recommended to maintain immunity against SARS-CoV-2, but longer-term studies of vaccine-induced responses remain limited, particularly among older adults and individuals who have experienced an Omicron breakthrough infection following vaccination.

Booster doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine are widely recommended to maintain immunity against SARS-CoV-2, but longer-term studies of vaccine-induced responses remain limited, particularly among older adults and individuals who have experienced an Omicron breakthrough infection following vaccination.

Serial sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in immunosuppressed patients receiving antiviral treatments and/or antibodies suggests that high viral load in these hosts allows for a rapid emergence of new treatment-resistant variants. For instance, all available data suggests that the Omicron variant developed in an immunocompromised patient.

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is the clinical manifestation of severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

The presentation of a vaccine antigen to the immune cells is critical to obtain an efficient immune response. It is known that nanostructures that are made of protein subunits assembled into a highly repetitive and crystalline arrangement are excellent inducers of the antibody response.