New USC research has found that COVID-19 therapies cause few serious side effects, based on an evaluation of the full spectrum of evidence available from U.S. biomedical science. The review, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, incorporated 54 studies spanning inpatient and outpatient treatment, clinical trials and observational research. Only investigations comparing COVID-19 therapy with standard care, placebo or no treatment were examined, so that effects of the disease itself could reasonably be excluded. No significant association with serious adverse events was found for oral antivirals such as Paxlovid. Evusheld and other monoclonal antibodies that bind to the coronavirus’s spike protein, previously administered intravenously in hospital but no longer authorized by the FDA due to their lack of effectiveness against COVID-19 variants, were not associated with serious adverse events. Actemra, an IV monoclonal antibody that works somewhat differently and is also known by the generic name tocilizumab, was associated with infection and low white blood cell counts in some studies. Transfusions of convalescent plasma — a blood product taken from recovered COVID-19 patients — were linked with higher risk of internal bleeding, infection and blood clots. The serious adverse events identified align with current product labeling.

The persistent higher rate of alcohol deaths in England since the pandemic in 2020 is an “acute crisis” requiring urgent action from government, according to a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Sheffield.

Cleveland Clinic virology researchers have found that a specific protein modification to the immune protein MDA5 is key to how our bodies detect and respond to viruses and viral replication. 

The PNAS publication explains how two protein modifications activate MDA5, an essential immune protein, to sense invaders, limit viral replication and fight infections. This process is key to preventing outcomes like virus-induced heart inflammation. 

This most recent publication builds on a body of work from the lab of Michaela Gack, PhD, scientific director of Cleveland Clinic’s Florida Research & Innovation Center, that seeks to improve our understanding of how our bodies detect viruses.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis (TB) mortality surged for the first time in two decades. While these increases were widely attributed to disruptions to TB services, such as diagnostic delays and treatment interruptions, a new study suggests that we may have overlooked the impact of food insecurity during pandemic lockdowns.

Using individual interviews and focus group discussions, researchers from Boston University, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, found that 78% of households had no income, 67% resorted to distress financing to afford food, and 44% changed their diets—often by eating less or substituting less nutritious foods during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Southern India. Given the well-established link between undernutrition and TB progression, these findings raise important concerns about how food insecurity during crises may fuel TB-related deaths.