Transmission

A small study of 18 breastfeeding women with COVID-19 found that SARS-CoV-2 RNA was found in only one sample, and a viral culture from that sample was negative. This suggests that breast milk is an unlikely source of infection for infants.

Within a prospective observational cohort study of COVID-19, a major deletion in the SARS-CoV-2 genome (a 382-nucleotide deletion) created a variant of SARS-CoV-2 that is associated with a milder infection, which could have implications for the development of treatments and vaccines.

Treatment

In an observational cohort study, patients in the ICU receiving tocilizumab (a monoclonal antibody directed again IL-6 receptor) had reduced mortality compared to those who did not. Results from randomized controlled studies are needed.

Within an in-vitro study, antimalarial artemisnin-based combination therapy (such as mefloquine-artesunate) at blood levels consistent with clinical use in malaria was shown to inhibition in vitro replication of SARS-CoV-2 replication. A possible drug to be studied for clinical trials.

Vaccines

In this pre-clinical research study, a single vaccination with an adenovirus-vectored vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein protect mice completely against mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 infection in the upper and lower respiratory tracts. Furthermore, a single vaccination also protected ferrets from wild-type SARS-CoV-2 infection in the upper respiratory tract. This study suggests that the mucosal vaccination has the possibility of proving protective efficacy in humans, and this delivery mode is worth further investigation in human clinical trials.