Microbiology

SARS‐CoV‐2 Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants display enhanced Spike‐mediated syncytia formation

1. Maaran Michael Rajah
2. Mathieu Hubert
3. Elodie Bishop
4. Nell Saunders
5. Remy Robinot
6. Ludivine Grzelak
7. Delphine Planas
8. Jérémy Dufloo
9. Stacy Gellenoncourt
10. Alice Bongers
11. Marija Zivaljic
12. Cyril Planchais
13. Florence Guivel‐Benhassine
14. Françoise Porrot
15. Hugo Mouquet
16. Lisa A Chakrabarti
17. Julian Buchrieser
18. Olivier Schwartz

Reviewed by ScreenIT

A Targeted Vaccine against COVID-19: S1-Fc Vaccine Targeting the Antigen-Presenting Cell Compartment Elicits Protection against SARS-CoV-2 Infection

1. Andreas Herrmann
2. Junki Maruyama
3. Chanyu Yue
4. Christoph Lahtz
5. Heyue Zhou
6. Lisa Kerwin
7. Whenzong Guo
8. Yanliang Zhang
9. William Soo Hoo
10. Soonpin Yei
11. Sunkuk Kwon
12. Yanwen Fu
13. Sachi Johnson
14. Arthur Ledesma
15. Yiran Zhou
16. Yingcong Zhuang
17. Elena Yei
18. Tomasz Adamus
19. Slobodan Praessler
20. Henry Ji

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

FXa cleaves the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and blocks cell entry to protect against infection with inferior effects in B.1.1.7 variant

1. Wenjuan Dong
2. Jing Wang
3. Lei Tian
4. Jianying Zhang
5. Heather Mead
6. Sierra A. Jaramillo
7. Aimin Li
8. Ross E. Zumwalt
9. Sean P.J. Whelan
10. Erik W. Settles
11. Paul S. Keim
12. Bridget Marie Barker
13. Michael A. Caligiuri
14. Jianhua Yu

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Hot water extract of Arthrospira maxima (AHWE) has broad-spectrum antiviral activity against RNA virus including coronavirus SARS-CoV2, and the antivirus spray application

1. Yi-Hsiang Chen
2. Ya-Chun Liao
3. Jyun-Yuan Huang
4. Yu-An Kung
5. Chuang-Chun Chiueh

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Neutralization against B.1.351 and B.1.617.2 with sera of COVID-19 recovered cases and vaccinees of BBV152

1. Pragya D. Yadav
2. Gajanan N. Sapkal
3. Raches Ella
4. Rima R. Sahay
5. Dimpal A Nyayanit
6. Deepak Y. Patil
7. Gururaj Deshpande
8. Anita M. Shete
9. Nivedita Gupta
10. V. Krishna Mohan
11. Priya Abraham
12. Samiran Panda
13. Balram Bhargava

Reviewed by Rapid Reviews Infectious Diseases, ScreenIT

Dual roles of a novel oncolytic viral vector-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine: preventing COVID-19 and treating tumor progression

1. Yaping Sun
2. Wenjuan Dong
3. Lei Tian
4. Youliang Rao
5. Chao Qin
6. Sierra A. Jaramillo
7. Erik W. Settles
8. Shoubao Ma
9. Jianying Zhang
10. Kang Yu
11. Bo Xu
12. Jiazhuo Yan
13. Rui Ma
14. Zhuo Li
15. Sanjeet S. Dadwal
16. Bridget M. Barker
17. Paul S. Keim
18. Pinghui Feng
19. Michael A. Caligiuri
20. Jianhua Yu

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Targeting Conserved Sequences Circumvents the Evolution of Resistance in a Viral Gene Drive against Human Cytomegalovirus

1. Marius Walter
2. Rosalba Perrone
3. Eric Verdin

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  This paper will be of interest to experimental virologists and others following the development of "gene drive" technology to promote the rapid spread of specific mutations through a population. The authors first nicely confirm their prior finding that a gene drive virus can be used to transfer mutations into a normal virus when both are infecting the same cell. They then evaluate a strategy with potential to ameliorate the undesirable but expected emergence of viruses that acquire resistance to the gene transfer. Although the experiments are well done, the data are mostly convincing and accurately interpreted, and the presentation is clear, the studies provide a relatively minor advance in fundamental understanding of this potentially innovative therapy.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife

The local anaesthetic procaine prodrugs ProcCluster ^® and Procaine-hydrochloride impair SARS-CoV-2 replication in vitro

1. Clio Häring
2. Josefine Schroeder
3. Bettina Löffler
4. Beatrice Engert
5. Christina Ehrhardt

Reviewed by ScreenIT

FXR inhibition reduces ACE2 expression, SARS-CoV-2 infection and may improve COVID-19 outcome

1. Teresa Brevini
2. Mailis Maes
3. Gwilym J. Webb
4. William T. H. Gelson
5. Sally Forrest
6. Petra Mlcochova
7. Scott Dillon
8. Sagar Varankar
9. Mahnaz Darvish-Damavandi
10. Victoria L. Mulcahy
11. Rhoda E. Kuc
12. Thomas L. Williams
13. Vasileios Galanakis
14. Marta Vila-Gonzalez
15. Olivia C. Tysoe
16. Daniele Muraro
17. Thomas W. M. Crozier
18. Johannes Bargehr
19. Sanjay Sinha
20. Sara S. Upponi
21. Lisa Swift
22. Kourosh Saeb-Parsy
23. Susan E. Davies
24. Thomas Marjot
25. Eleanor Barnes
26. Ansgar W. Lohse
27. Andrew M. Moon
28. A. Sidney Barritt
29. Ravindra K. Gupta
30. Stephen Baker
31. Anthony P. Davenport
32. Gareth Corbett
33. Simon J. A. Buczacki
34. Joo-Hyeon Lee
35. Paul Gibbs
36. Andrew J. Butler
37. Christopher J. E. Watson
38. George F. Mells
39. Gordon Dougan
40. Ludovic Vallier
41. Fotios Sampaziotis

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Niche partitioning facilitates coexistence of closely related honey bee gut bacteria

1. Silvia Brochet
2. Andrew Quinn
3. Ruben AT Mars
4. Nicolas Neuschwander
5. Uwe Sauer
6. Philipp Engel

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  Brochet et al. address an outstanding ecological question related to how closely related microbial symbionts co-exist in the gut as stable communities. To tackle this question, the authors use an elegant model relying on honeybees colonized with a defined bacterial community. They provide compelling empirical evidence that a nutritionally complex diet together with microbial metabolic diversity play a key role in enabling co-existence of closely-related honeybee gut microbiota.

  (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife