As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, scientists are making significant headway in understanding the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and the immune response it triggers at the time of infection. Researchers have provided new data on the very early stages of immune response.
The Discovery trial was originally launched in March 2020 by Inserm to evaluate possible treatments for Covid-19. On January 13th, 2021, the Discovery Europe trial Data Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMB) evaluated an interim report based on 776 patients of whom 389 received remdesivir and 387 received standard of care. The efficacy of the treatment was evaluated after 15 days and measured on the WHO-7-point ordinal scale. As a result...
Pour faire face à la pandémie de Covid-19, mieux comprendre le virus et accompagner la prise en charge des maladies, les scientifiques de l'Inserm sont plus que jamais mobilisés.
Endocrine disruptors can potentially become more harmful if mixed. Following on from research published in 2015, scientists continue to decipher the molecular mechanisms behind this phenomenon known as the "cocktail effect".
So-called "persistent" bacterial infections constitute a major public health problem and are linked to significant failures of antibiotic treatments. Researchers from Inserm and Université de Rennes 1, in collaboration with a team based in Switzerland, have identified a new mechanism to explain the persistence of Staphylococcus aureus.
A study by Inserm and Dijon University Hospital based on French nationwide data on around 130,000 patients hospitalized for either COVID-19 or seasonal influenza shows that the mortality rate among those admitted for COVID is three times higher than that of seasonal influenza.
A commonly used treatment in some forms of breast cancer, tamoxifen acts on the cancer cells by blocking the estrogen receptor (ER)a and thereby inhibiting their proliferation. However, the action of this drug appears to be more complex than that, with the addition of protective effects on the arteries that could reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.
Teams from the Pitié-Salpêtrière AP-HP hospital, Sorbonne University, Inserm and the Pasteur Institute have carried out work to study the role that IgA-type antibodies play in the protection of body against Covid-19 in the mucous membranes, in particular respiratory.
Back at the start of the pandemic, Inserm, through its REACTing consortium, set up Discovery: a European clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of four antiviral drugs repurposed for the treatment of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 (remdesivir, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir and interferon beta-1a). In parallel, the World Health Organization (WHO) set up Solidarity, a major consortium of clinical trials also aimed at testing the efficacy of these four treatments. Discovery...
An imbalanced diet has been linked to a disruption of the gut microbiota, which promotes metabolic diseases such as diabetes. Researchers have shown, in a large European cohort, that changes in the composition of the gut microbiota lead to increased blood levels of the molecule imidazole propionate. A molecule known to render the body's cells resistant to insulin, thereby increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.