CORONAVIRUS RESOURCE CENTER

Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Resource Center

Johns Hopkins experts in global public health, infectious disease, and emergency preparedness have been at the forefront of the international response to COVID-19.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/

A novel COVabulary is emerging during the COVID-19 Pandemic...

Keep your wits about you - there's a whole new COVabulary out there!

COVID-19: Coronavirus disease

SARS-CoV-2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; the causative agent of COVID-19. A novel virus strain - an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA betacoronavirus of the family Coronaviridae

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Updated daily, a new blog every day...

COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2/coronavirus epidemic has a natural origin

Genomic Study Points to Natural Origin of COVID-19

The novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, last year and has since caused a large scale COVID-19 epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries is the product of natural evolution, according to findings published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

Andersen, K.G., Rambaut, A., Lipkin, W.I. et al. The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nat Med (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0820-9

The analysis of public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses found no evidence that the virus was made in a laboratory or otherwise engineered. This study leaves little room to refute a natural origin for COVID-19. This is a relief, because it will hopefully keep us all focused on what really matters: observing hand washing, practicing social distancing, and supporting the efforts of all the health-care professionals and researchers who are working so hard to address this pandemic.

Possible origins of the virus
Based on their genomic sequencing analysis, the study concluded that the most likely origins for SARS-CoV-2 followed one of two possible scenarios.

In one scenario, the virus evolved to its current pathogenic state through natural selection in a non-human host and then jumped to humans.

In the other proposed scenario, a non-pathogenic version of the virus jumped from an animal host into humans and then evolved to its current pathogenic state within the human population.

Which brings me to this...

If this turns out to be the source, then perhaps it's natures way of punishing humans for their dreadful and barbaric treatment of these truly beautiful animals #comeuppance - Pangolins found to carry viruses related to #Covid-19 https://t.co/yiIXU5meDx

— Adam Pawson (@pawsonadam) March 26, 2020

And this...

My cartoon Thursday on #Trump’s leadership during #coronavirus crisis in the US. pic.twitter.com/rn8dFwmvJw

— Peter Brookes (@BrookesTimes) March 26, 2020

A BLAST FROM THE PAST - A novel mammalian receptor for the evolutionarily conserved type II GnRH

Research Article

A novel mammalian receptor for the evolutionarily conserved type II GnRH

Robert Millar, Steven Lowe, Darrell Conklin, Adam Pawson, Stuart Maudsley, Brigitte Troskie, Thomas Ott, Michael Millar, Gerald Lincoln, Robin Sellar, Bjarne Faurholm, Graeme Scobie, Rolf Kuestner, Ei Terasawa, and Arieh Katz

PNAS August 14, 2001 98 (17) 9636-9641; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.141048498

Abstract

Mammalian gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH I: pGlu-His-Trp-Ser-Tyr-Gly-Leu-Arg-Pro-Gly-NH₂) stimulates pituitary gonadotropin secretion, which in turn stimulates the gonads. Whereas a hypothalamic form of GnRH of variable structure (designated type I) had been shown to regulate reproduction through a cognate type I receptor, it has recently become evident that most vertebrates have one or two other forms of GnRH. One of these, designated type II GnRH (GnRH II: pGlu-His-Ser-His-Gly-Trp-Tyr-Pro-Gly-NH₂), is conserved from fish to man and is widely distributed in the brain, suggesting important neuromodulatory functions such as regulating K⁺ channels and stimulating sexual arousal. We now report the cloning of a type II GnRH receptor from marmoset cDNA. The receptor has only 41% identity with the type I receptor and, unlike the type I receptor, has a carboxyl-terminal tail. The receptor is highly selective for GnRH II. As with the type I receptor, it couples to G_αq/11 and also activates extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) but differs in activating p38 mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase. The type II receptor is more widely distributed than the type I receptor and is expressed throughout the brain, including areas associated with sexual arousal, and in diverse non-neural and reproductive tissues, suggesting a variety of functions. Surprisingly, the type II receptor is expressed in the majority of gonadotropes. The presence of two GnRH receptors in gonadotropes, together with the differences in their signaling, suggests different roles in gonadotrope functioning.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - new NIH information page

Get the latest Coronavirus (COVID-19) research updates from NIH: https://www.nih.gov/coronavirus.

You can also, as I have:

Subscribe to COVID-19 Updates from NIH

From the site: "This is a curated collection of information and resources provided and maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This collection...is delivered through CDC's content syndication system, also known as CDC's Public Health Media Library."

Apart from above and the IUPHAR/BPS Gudie to PHARMACOLOGY database information page (https://www.guidetopharmacology.org/coronavirus.jsp), for me, one of the most informative and 'interesting' sites is also the Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) at: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Learn how to access expert‐curated pharmacological data in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database

The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY (GtoPdb) is an expert‐curated, open‐access database of information on drug targets and the substances that act on them. This publication describes the procedures for searching and downloading ligand‐target binding data and for finding detailed annotations and the most relevant literature. The database includes concise overviews of the properties of 1,700 data‐supported human drug targets and related proteins, divided into families, and 9,000 small molecule and peptide experimental ligands and approved drugs that bind to those targets. More detailed descriptions of pharmacology, function, and pathophysiology are provided for a subset of important targets.

The information is reviewed regularly by expert subcommittees of the Nomenclature and Standards Committee of the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (NC-IUPHAR). A new immunopharmacology portal has recently been added, drawing together data on immunological targets, ligands, cell types, processes and diseases (read more here). The data are available for download and can be accessed computationally via Web services.

The IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY is developed within the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, led by Prof. Jamie Davies who took over the role from Prof. Tony Harmar upon his retirement from the University in 2014. The team comprises the developer, Dr. Simon Harding, and the curators, Dr. Adam Pawson, Dr. Elena Faccenda, Dr. Christopher Southan and Dr. Jane Armstrong.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) - view the NEW information page

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The team have added a new coronavirus page to the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database website which aims to consolidate key pharmacological information and resources related to coronavirus. They have gathered information from various sources, with an aim to cover as many of the pharmacological strategies being considered as we could find. Links are provided to the key ligands and target pages in GtoPdb (where data is available). The page also provides other useful links and resource. We will aim to keep this page updated in this fast changing situation.

NOTE: The information included here should not be construed as endorsement by the University of Edinburgh, IUPHAR or the individuals connected with the Guide to PHARAMCOLOGY database and website.

This is a rapidly moving situation, so they make no claim that these are exhaustive lists, but we have tried to provide as accurate information as is available. Their pages for the ligands (therapeutics) and molecular targets in these tables which are in the IUPHAR/BPS Guide to PHARMACOLOGY database have been updated to include literature references and/or links to additional materials.