COVID-19: vaccine and drug development updates

Providing the latest updates in the understanding of coronavirus, drug development and clinical trials for a vaccine for COVID-19. A study seeking to determine which of the lung and bronchi cells are targets for SARS-CoV-2 has been recently published in The EMBO Journal, suggesting the target is progenitor cells that usually develop into respiratory tract cells lined with cilia. This follows previous research that had demonstrated that the virus spike protein attaches to the ACE2 receptor on cells, yet also requires the presence of the cofactor TMPRSS2 for penetration. The team sequenced nearly 60,000 single cells for the study, and also demonstrated that ACE2 receptor density is higher with age, and in men compared with women. While only a trend and needing validation in a larger sample size, these results could help explain why the virus has infected more men than women, as well as helping therapeutic development.