Microbiology

Synergistic Block of SARS-CoV-2 Infection by Combined Drug Inhibition of the Host Entry Factors PIKfyve Kinase and TMPRSS2 Protease

1. Alex J. B. Kreutzberger
2. Anwesha Sanyal
3. Ravi Ojha
4. Jesse D. Pyle
5. Olli Vapalahti
6. Giuseppe Balistreri
7. Tom Kirchhausen

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Virucidal activity of a proprietary blend of plant-based oils (Viruxal) against SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses – an in vitro study

1. Jón Magnús Kristjánsson
2. Óttar Rolfsson

Reviewed by ScreenIT

SARS-CoV-2 cell-to-cell spread occurs rapidly and is insensitive to antibody neutralization

1. Laurelle Jackson
2. Hylton Rodel
3. Shi-Hsia Hwa
4. Sandile Cele
5. Yashica Ganga
6. Houriiyah Tegally
7. Mallory Bernstein
8. Jennifer Giandhari
9. COMMIT-KZN Team
10. Bernadett I. Gosnell
11. Khadija Khan
12. Willem Hanekom
13. Farina Karim
14. Tulio de Oliveira
15. Mahomed-Yunus S. Moosa
16. Alex Sigal

Reviewed by ScreenIT

TMPRSS2 and TMPRSS4 mediate SARS-CoV-2 infection of human small intestinal enterocytes

1. Ruochen Zang
2. Maria F.G. Castro
3. Broc T. McCune
4. Qiru Zeng
5. Paul W. Rothlauf
6. Naomi M. Sonnek
7. Zhuoming Liu
8. Kevin F. Brulois
9. Xin Wang
10. Harry B. Greenberg
11. Michael S. Diamond
12. Matthew A. Ciorba
13. Sean P.J. Whelan
14. Siyuan Ding

Reviewed by ScreenIT, preLights

STING mediates immune responses in the closest living relatives of animals

1. Arielle Woznica
2. Ashwani Kumar
3. Carolyn R Sturge
4. Chao Xing
5. Nicole King
6. Julie K Pfeiffer

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  The authors addressed the role of a STING ortholog in antimicrobial defense of choanoflagellates. The analysis of the response of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis to a variety of bacterial species revealed that exposure of M. brevicollis to Pseudomonas aeruginosa conditioned medium results in choanoflagellate death and the authors found that this is dependent on the newly discovered ortholog of STING. Characterization reveals that the STING response can be induced by 2'3' cGAMP, which parallels the activation of STING in diverse species. In addition, the finding that cyclic dinucleotide treatment induces autophagy also has parallels with the effector pathways observed in other organisms. There are a number of strengths as outlined by the Reviewers. First, the development of a Choanaoflagellate model system to study innate immunity, second with the development of genetics for M. brevicollis, third, the demonstration of a functional STING system in one of the closest relatives to animals and fourth, that cell death occurs in response to cyclic dinucleotides.

  (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 #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

Reviewed by eLife, preLights

Immunometabolic hijacking of immune cells by a Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum-sensing signal

1. Arunava Bandyopadhaya
2. Vijay K Singh
3. Arijit Chakraborty
4. A. Aria Tzika
5. Laurence G Rahme

• Curated by eLife

  Evaluation Summary:

  In a previous study the authors showed that the quorum sensing signal molecule 2-aminoacetophenone (2-AA) produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa enables persistence in host tissue of this pathogen. They propose that this effect depends on a Warburg-like metabolic reprogramming effect in macrophages.

  (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, preLights

Complete protection by a single-dose skin patch–delivered SARS-CoV-2 spike vaccine

1. Christopher L. D. McMillan
2. Jovin J. Y. Choo
3. Adi Idris
4. Aroon Supramaniam
5. Naphak Modhiran
6. Alberto A. Amarilla
7. Ariel Isaacs
8. Stacey T. M. Cheung
9. Benjamin Liang
10. Helle Bielefeldt-Ohmann
11. Armira Azuar
12. Dhruba Acharya
13. Gabrielle Kelly
14. Germain J. P. Fernando
15. Michael J. Landsberg
16. Alexander A. Khromykh
17. Daniel Watterson
18. Paul R. Young
19. Nigel A. J. McMillan
20. David A. Muller

Reviewed by ScreenIT

The SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with infections in India, B.1.617, show enhanced spike cleavage by furin

1. Thomas P. Peacock
2. Carol M. Sheppard
3. Jonathan C. Brown
4. Niluka Goonawardane
5. Jie Zhou
6. Max Whiteley
7. PHE Virology Consortium
8. Thushan I. de Silva
9. Wendy S. Barclay

Reviewed by ScreenIT

Spike mutation T403R allows bat coronavirus RaTG13 to use human ACE2

1. Fabian Zech
2. Daniel Schniertshauer
3. Christoph Jung
4. Alexandra Herrmann
5. Qinya Xie
6. Rayhane Nchioua
7. Caterina Prelli Bozzo
8. Meta Volcic
9. Lennart Koepke
10. Jana Krüger
11. Sandra Heller
12. Alexander Kleger
13. Timo Jacob
14. Karl-Klaus Conzelmann
15. Armin Ensser
16. Konstantin M.J. Sparrer
17. Frank Kirchhoff

Reviewed by ScreenIT

SARS-CoV-2 spreads through cell-to-cell transmission

1. Cong Zeng
2. John P. Evans
3. Tiffany King
4. Yi-Min Zheng
5. Eugene M. Oltz
6. Sean P. J. Whelan
7. Linda J. Saif
8. Mark E. Peeples
9. Shan-Lu Liu

Reviewed by ScreenIT