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Beijing, A chemotherapy medication originally developed to treat <keyword id="63672" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Lymphoma">lymphoma</keyword> has outperformed the popular remdesivir drug against SARS-CoV-2 in lab settings, and could potentially be repurposed to treat <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">Covid-19</keyword>, say researchers. A novel computational drug screening strategy combined with <keyword id="10531201" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="lab-experiments">lab experiments</keyword> suggest that pralatrexate drug is a promising candidate for Covid-19 patients. The novel screening approach identified four promising <keyword id="14721" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Drugs">drugs</keyword>, which were then tested against SARS-CoV-2 in lab experiments. Two of the drugs, pralatrexate and azithromycin, successfully inhibited replication of the virus. Further lab experiments showed that pralatrexate more strongly inhibited viral replication than did remdesivir, a drug that is currently used to treat some Covid-19 patients, said Haiping Zhang of the <keyword id="10531200" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="shenzhen-institutes">Shenzhen Institutes</keyword> of Advanced Technology in <keyword id="95282" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Shenzhen">Shenzhen</keyword>, China. Zhanh and team screened 1,906 existing drugs for their potential ability to inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2 by targeting a viral protein called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP). The findings, published in open-access journal <keyword id="1318021" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="PLoS-Computational-Biology">PLOS Computational Biology</keyword>, suggest that pralatrexate could potentially be repurposed to treat Covid-19. "However, this chemotherapy drug can prompt significant side effects and is used for people with terminal lymphoma, so immediate use for Covid-19 patients is not guaranteed. Still, the findings support the use of the new screening strategy to identify drugs that could be repurposed," the researchers noted. With the Covid-19 pandemic causing illness and death worldwide, better treatments are urgently needed. One shortcut could be to repurpose existing drugs that were originally developed to treat other conditions. "We have demonstrated the value of our novel hybrid approach that combines deep-learning technologies with more traditional simulations of molecular dynamics," Zhang said. He and his colleagues are now developing additional computational methods for generating novel molecular structures that could be developed into new drugs to treat Covid-19. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/kia-motors-11-electric-vehicles-in-2021-but-india-may-have-to-wait-longer-to-buy/articleshow/80056447.cms">INTERVIEW: Kia Motors’ 2021 plan includes 11 electric vehicle launches ⁠— but India may have to wait longer</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/india-edtech-in-charts-how-the-shi[%E2%80%A6]es-of-byjus-unacademy-and-others/articleshow/80040270.cms">India’s edtech in charts – How the shift to online learning meant money, valuation and users for the likes of BYJU’S, Unacademy, and others</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/telecom/news/jio-announces-free-domestic-voice-calls-from-january-1/articleshow/80044256.cms">Jio announces free domestic voice calls from January 1</a>

Lymphoma drug outperforms Remdesivir against COVID-19 virus

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Scientists are studying a new threat emerging from melting permafrost: ancient viruses.</li><li>A new study says these pathogens could pose significant risks to modern-day humans.</li></ul>As permafrost thaws across the world due to a warming climate, scientists are researching a potential new threat: The emergence of ancient viruses trapped in the frost for tens of thousands of years. The authors of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011268">the study</a> — published in PLOS Computational Biology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal — used computer simulations to model how ancient viruses could survive, evolve, and persist in our modern-day communities. This research marks the first "extensive exploration of the ecological risk" these viruses pose, according to the authors.Melting permafrost is already revealing organisms that have been trapped beneath the ice for millennia. In a study published last month, scientists said they discovered a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forty-six-thousand-year-old-worm-found-siberian-permafrost-brought-back-to-life-2023-7">46,000-year-old microscopic worm</a> trapped in Siberian permafrost that was still capable of producing offspring. And earlier this year, a French scientist identified a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-revived-zombie-animals-bugs-viruses-ancient-ice-before-2023-7">48,000-year-old virus</a> in Siberian permafrost that could still infect single-celled organisms. In many of the simulations conducted in the study of the ancient viruses, researchers found that they could thrive in modern communities without making a catastrophic impact, but still caused "non-negligible ecological change."The simulations found that just 1% of cases resulted in major ecological damage. But within this small percentage, the simulations found that the pathogens would either increase species diversity by 12% or decrease species diversity by 32%, according to the authors.That 1% is important, the authors warn, and these low-probability yet catastrophic re-emergence scenarios require further attention. "Risk does not emerge solely from the chance of the event occurring, but from the combination of probability and the magnitude of the event's potential effects," the authors wrote. "From that perspective, our results are worrisome, as they point to an actual risk deriving from the rare events where time-traveling invasions produce severe ecological impacts."Plus, the pathogens that were most successful in the past are the most likely to successfully re-establish themselves today, according to the researchers. This means the viruses most likely to re-emerge successfully could also be the most likely to pose an ecological risk. Experts have been sounding the alarm on melting permafrost for years, identifying it as just one of countless reasons to slow carbon emissions. Not only is the thawing permafrost a sign that <a href="https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-permafrost#:~:text=A%20thawing%20permafrost%20layer%20can,be%20damaged%20as%20permafrost%20thaws.">global climate change</a> is worsening, vast swaths of melting ice also pose a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/01/11/permafrost-melting-arctic/">significant threat to human infrastructure</a>.

Ancient viruses could re-emerge as permafrost melts, posing 'unpredictable threats' to our communities, new study says

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/ngm-west-virginia-coal?source=relatedvideo">Nat Geo</a>This guy doesn't think his stripes are all that good at camouflaging him. </div></div></div>Zebra stripes are striking and beautiful, but what purpose do they serve?
A new study suggests the stripes help the animals fight off biting flies, which can transmit disease. 
This contradicts a popular theory in recent years that the stripes serve as camouflage against large predators. As recently as last year, lab studies supported this theory. 
Looking at the bold black-and-white patterns, most people would think a zebra's stripes would be a problem for the equids (horse-like animals) - literally making them a bull's-eye for predators on the dusty open African plains.
How could the stripes possibly be used as camouflage?
<h3>Bold Stripes as 'Razzle Dazzle'</h3>
A recent theory posited that the dazzling stripes serve as a motion camouflage. Papers published in the journal <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0020233#pone-0020233-g003" target="_blank">PLoS ONE in 2011</a> and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0061173">2013</a> suggested that the stripes help conceal moving objects, such as the zebra, and confuse predators about how fast the animal is moving, making it harder to discern the animal's outline, especially in a herd.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_West_Mahomet_(ID-3681)_cropped.jpg">Public Domain</a>USS Mahomet (ID-3681) in port, circa November 1918. The ship has a "dazzle" camouflage scheme that distorts the appearance of her bow.</div></div>
This dazzle camouflage was used on warships in World War I. The bold pattern on the boat shown in the picture on the right disguised the bow.
These razzle-dazzle-camouflage studies suggest that the strategy works, but they were carried out in a lab using computers and moving squares and human eyes, not animals. We can't tell whether animal eyes react to the stripes the same way.
Even if the stripes do camouflage the animals, we can't say that they developed for this purpose. Indeed, another question is why other animals don't have black and white stripes? Perhaps they serve a different purpose altogether. 
<h3>Fighting Flies With Stripes</h3>
Another set of new studies provides evidence for a completely different reason behind the striped coats: fending off flies. 
The idea was first put forth by researchers in the <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/215/5/736.abstract">Journal Of Experimental Biology last year</a>.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"><a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/ngm-west-virginia-coal?source=relatedvideo">Nat Geo</a>This guy doesn't look too camouflaged to me. </div></div>The researchers found that a zebra statue with a striped coat attracted fewer horseflies than a zebra statue with a brown, white, grey, or black coat. The narrower the stripes, the fewer flies. 
The flies are attracted to light reflecting off water, which is twisted in a certain way known as "linear polarized." The researchers proposed that the black and white stripes of the zebra created an opposite polarizing effect in the flies' eyes by confusing them. 
There are seven species of equids that the researchers analyzed. Three have prominent black and white stripes, like the zebra, one has stripes only on its lower legs, and the other three have gray or brown coats with no stripes. Within these species, some subspecies have more or less striping. 
<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left"><div class="image"><a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/magazine/ngm-west-virginia-coal?source=relatedvideo">Nat Geo</a></div></div>The new study, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4535">published in the journal Nature Communications</a> on Apr. 1, analyzed the striping and geographic ranges of these species and subspecies, comparing them to the geographic ranges of biting flies known as tabanids, which can carry disease. They found that black and white stripes were more prevalent in zebras and related species that live in areas that were home to biting flies for more than seven months a year. 
You can see in the graphic below how the striped pattern of the animals' coats (shown by the white to black dots on the inside circle) coincide with the biting-fly activity in their range (the outer circle of dots going from blue to red/orange).<div class="KonaFilter image-container full"><div class="image">Nat. Comm, 2014 // Jennifer Welsh</div></div>They also compared the geographic ranges of these animals to ranges of predators who might be influenced by a "razzle dazzle"-camouflage technique. They didn't find any evidence that the coat serves as camouflage.

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Lymphoma drug outperforms Remdesivir against COVID-19 virus

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Ancient viruses could re-emerge as permafrost melts, posing 'unpredictable threats' to our communities, new study says

Katie Hawkinson

Zebra Stripes May Serve A Totally Different Purpose Than Once Thought

Jennifer Welsh

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