Market Data 
Markets
Replies to post #233504 on Biotech Values
The scientists who ran the first, promising laboratory experiments on the drug had used the wrong kind of cells: Instead of testing its effects on human lung cells, they relied on a supply of mass-produced, standardized cells made from a monkey’s kidney.
It started with a set of kidney cells that traces back to an African green monkey dissected in the spring of 1962.
Whereas hydroxychloroquine does appear to stop SARS-CoV-2 from infecting Vero cells, it fails to do the same for human lung cells in a dish. According to research from Stefan Pöhlmann, head of the infection biology unit at the German Primate Center in Göttingen and his collaborators, the devil was in the details of how the cells interact with the SARS-CoV-2’s dreaded ‘spike’ protein. Human lung cells contain at least two different enzymes that can help the virus sneak through their membranes. With Vero cells, however, only one of those modes of entry is available—and it turns out to be the one that hydroxychloroquine will block. Pöhlmann and his team published the results in the journal Nature on July 22. For him, it’s a clear example of why using human lung cells is really important in studying this pandemic virus. Vero cells should be “handled with caution,” Pöhlmann says. “It’s true that the Vero cells are very popular. But unfortunately for this particular aspect of Covid-19 research they are absolutely not useful. I think this is now clear to the field.”
AI
