Where does Georgia stand?

A state-by-state vaccine tracker ranks Georgia #48 out of 54 U.S. states and territories for percentage of people vaccinated against Covid-19. About 37.7% of people in Georgia have had at least one shot, compared to about 47.9% in the country overall.

The New England states (CT, MA, ME, NH, VT) lead the pack (along with Hawai’i) at more than 60% coverage, while Mississippi, Louisiana, the Virgin Islands, and Alabama are at the bottom, in the 33-34% range.

Viral birth control

More over mRNA, here comes siRNA. Aussie researchers think they’ve gone a step beyond today’s antivirals with a new kind of drug: small-interfering RNA. Rather than just reduce the symptoms of a coronavirus, siRNA can be tuned to a specific virus and attack its genome directly, stopping it from replicating, period. “Treatment with virus-specific siRNA,” they said, “reduces viral load by 99.9%.”

“This treatment is designed to work on all betacoronaviruses such as the original SARS virus (SARS-CoV-1) as well as SARS-CoV-2 and any new variants that may arise in the future because it targets ultra-conserved regions in the virus’ genome.”

Even better, the nanoparticles* they use are cheap and easy to make.

* There are always nanoparticles.

Vaccine interference

We know that people with immunosuppressing conditions are (obviously) more vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2. But a new study out of the University of Michigan found that about three percent of American adults under 65 take meds that compromise their immune systems — notably steroids — and might prevent the Covid vaccine from working.

“We’re starting to realize that people taking immunosuppressive drugs may have a slower, weaker response to COVID vaccination, and, in some cases, might not respond at all.”

3 > 2

There are two-drug inhalers for asthma because, well, two is better than one. Start with a corticosteroid, add a bronchodilator, and patients breathe easier.

But then, despite being hobbled by the metric system, Canadian researchers figured out that if two is better than one, three might be better than two. And they were right. Adding a third drug — one to reduce mucus buildup — “reduced severe asthma exacerbations and slightly improved asthma control without an increase in adverse events.”

The third drug is a “long-acting muscarinic antagonist” making the triple-combo “LAMA add-on therapy.”

“If we can reach optimal control of patients’ asthma and reduce asthma exacerbation rates through the LAMA add-on therapy, patients may be able to avoid other treatments that carry a higher risk of adverse events, such as oral corticosteroids, or therapies that are substantially more expensive, such as biologics.”

One-upmanship

Engineers from the University of Illinois have created a Covid-19 test that can give a result in fewer than 30 minutes.

But a team from the University of Florida and Taiwan’s National Chiao Tung University have one they say can detect the virus within one second.

Making cancer kill itself

Swiss researchers have a new kind of Trojan horse to fight cancer. In this case, though it’s as if the horse was filled with pamphlets convincing the Trojan people to kill each other*.

Essentially, they’ve built an adenovirus that delivers some specific genes, but only to tumor cells. Those genes get the cancer itself to start producing antibodies (and more) that “act to eliminate tumors from the inside out.” Oh so satisfying.

Oh, and not only does the therapy only work on tumors — so healthy cells aren’t damaged — it produces more antibodies than when a drug was injected directly. The technique might also be used to deliver other drugs the same way, getting infections or viruses to do themselves in.

* My gosh, that metaphor is a stretch.

A kindler, gentler soap

Surfactants — the main ingredient in soaps and detergents — are usually made from petroleum. They can also be made from bacteria, and biosurfactants are better for a lot of reasons.

Problem: The bacteria than can make biosurfactant molecules (Pseudomonas aeruginosa) is a nasty, disease-causing little bugger.

But now researchers in Quebec have found a friendly bacteria (Pantoea ananatis) that makes a similar molecule while not being toxic to us humans. If they can synthesize it on a large scale, it could make the whole process of cleaning and disinfecting a lot less toxic.