Covid-19

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are how a wasp uses its genitals to defend itself, a compound commonly found in mushrooms that could delay cognitive decline, and sunshine as a cure for myopia.

Researchers from Osaka University found that the “belief in just deserts”, which is the idea that infected individual deserves to be infected, was associated with attitudes about government restrictions during public health emergencies in the context of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This information could lead to new strategies for combating discrimination, prejudice, and stigma against COVID-19 patients.

Understanding how bats tolerate viral infections, Material separates water from...water, The virtual sense of touch polished to next level and COVID-19 negatively impacted early-careers and female researchers. Read all in the December's Editor's Choice.

A study by Osaka University has shown that the prevalence of non-communicable diseases, which included hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and mental disorders, increased after the Fukushima disaster and the COVID-19 outbreak. These findings emphasize the importance of improving post-disaster health promotion strategies and recommendations.

What if you could tell if your surroundings contained COVID-19 particles or droplets the moment they or you entered the vicinity? This is now closer to reality. A research group has engineered a battery-less, self-powering device that can wirelessly transmit the detection of coronavirus in the air.

Kavli IPMU's Jia Liu is part of team which found the number of astronomy research papers being produced increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the number of new or junior researchers entering the field has dropped, and no single country's female astronomers were able to be more productive than their male colleagues on average.

The research team investigated the role of D-amino acids in severe viral infection. Mouse models of influenza A and COVID-19 infection and patients with severe COVID-19 demonstrated reduced D-amino acid levels in the blood. Supplementation with D-alanine mitigated body weight reduction in IAV model mice and improved survival in COVID-19 model mice. D-amino acids may represent potential biomarkers and therapeutic agents for the treatment of severe viral infection.

Researchers led by Osaka University identified plasma proteins associated with critical pathogenesis in COVID-19. Using a novel blood proteomics method, the researchers evaluated two discovery cohorts and one validation cohort of patients with COVID-19 and healthy volunteers. Cell adhesion proteins WFDC2, GDF15, CHI3L1, and KRT19 were shown to be associated with disease severity in patients with COVID-19, and may serve as potential targets for therapies to treat COVID-19 infection.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are jellyfish-like fossils, mythic diseases, and a transistor that can detect cancer cells.

While both protect from severe disease, inactivated SARS-CoV-2 and spike mRNA vaccines trigger different T-cell responses.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers conducted a study of human mobility to find effective lifestyle changes that enable people to exist with the novel coronavirus COVID-19, while maintaining social and economic activities. They found that restricting the human mobility in specific areas according to the state of the pandemic, rather than uniformly controlling human mobility, could be effective in reducing the number of new COVID-19 infections.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are shrinking mangroves, a wind harvester that can generate electricity using a breeze, and a new supercontinent 300 million years from now.

—For acceleration of social implementation of wastewater-based epidemiology—

A study in Japan finds antibody response to the Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccine does not vary depending on the time of day when the dose was received.

A study led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has revealed the association between rapidly fading antibody levels in some recovered COVID-19 patients and a high plasma concentration of a metabolite called glycylproline (gly-pro) and its producing enzyme.

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant escapes the immune response better than its coronavirus ancestors, but has also facilitated our transition to a society that can live with COVID-19.

Low concentrations of cetylpyridinium chloride, an antimicrobial agent present in mouthwashes, inhibit the infectivity of four variants of SARS-CoV-2.

A simple and economical method of detecting SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in wastewater with high sensitivity has been developed, expanding the use of wastewater-based epidemiology for tracking the virus in populations.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are the effects of extreme weather becoming more likely due to climate change and leading to sinking cities, putting googly eyes on cars that help pedestrian safety, and how many ants there are on Earth.

A special issue of Horizon Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences Research (JHSSR Vol.4 (S) Oct. 20212) is now published. This issue includes papers on the Covid-19 pandemic, developments in business and digital practices, changes in social media behavior in South Asia.

An estimated 1208 excess suicide deaths for men and 1825 for women were recorded during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan through December 2021, with the impact being greatest in women and younger age groups.

Researchers have made perovskite solar cells more efficient and stable, A new cause of Parkinson's related cell death, Hibernating superpower is in the blood, Common mechanism for cancer and atherosclerosis, COVID-19 antibody skin-based test. Read all in the August's Editor's Choice plus an Interview with Prof Sutee Yoksan on The story behind the new dengue vaccine & this month's Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - The evolutionary history of puddle frogs.

Researchers led by Osaka University performed RNA-sequencing analysis of whole blood samples from patients with severe COVID-19 and healthy controls to evaluate differences in messenger RNA and microRNA expression. The interferon signaling pathway was found to be activated in patients with severe COVID-19, and measurement of interferon proteins in the plasma revealed that interferon-β and interferon-λ1 play an important role in the severity of COVID-19.

Scientists show that there is a close association between clinical cases of COVID-19 and viral loads in wastewater, with the viral loads picking up to two days before the cases were detected.

A recent study “Hong Kong residents’ view on reopening land borders with Mainland” conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) at Lingnan University (LU) shows that Hong Kong citizens are greatly affected by the current quarantine measures implemented by the Mainland government for inbound travellers. Nearly 65 per cent of respondents said their income has been reduced, 70 per cent found their jobs were affected, and 30 per cent have lost their jobs. 70 per cent of respondents hope that the government will provide medical subsidies and telemedicine services for citizens stranded on the Mainland, and 65 percent said they would be happier with the government if there were quarantine-free travel to the Mainland.

Intergenerational support between aging parents and adult children is important for the well-being of both groups, especially during public health emergencies. However, few previous studies have examined the effects of daily support between parents and children on their well-being during public health emergencies. To bridge this gap, a study by Dr Jiang Da, Assistant Professor at the Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, examined the association between daily support and well-being in mothers and their adult children during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are 100-million-year old dino footprints found in China, horizontal gene transfer between insects, plants and microbes, and when penguins stopped flying.

The quest for the ideal COVID-19 policies to contain outbreaks without border closures that harm the travel industry led researchers to one protocol.

Saliva and oral cells are important routes for transmission and infection by the novel coronavirus COVID-19. A research group led by Associate Professor Misako Matsubara and Specially Appointed Professor Katsutoshi Yoshizato of Osaka Metropolitan University hypothesized that the body's innate immune system may protect against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The onset and severity of COVID-19 are age-dependent, as are parts of the innate immune system like saliva production and quality, which are significantly reduced in the elderly. They found that saliva from healthy individuals prevented the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 on the viral envelope to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor present on the plasma membrane of human cells in a concentration-dependent manner.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are a robotic fish that can eat up microplastics, a bioinformatic platform that can test the efficacy of vaccines against COVID, and a new method of removing phosphorus from water using bacteria.