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O riginally published by NYU Langone Health on April 25, 2025 Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domai n A rare cell type in the lungs is essential to survival from the COVID-19 virus , a new study shows. Experiments in mice infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus revealed that the immune cell class in question, called nerve and airway-associated interstitial macrophages , or NAMs , may keep the human immune system's initial counterattack on the virus ( lung inflammation ) from spiraling out of control to endanger patients. Macrophages are known to be the first responders to infection , as large immune cells capable of devouring invading viruses and the cells they infect . Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health , the study shifts the focus for treating the disease away from strengthening the immune system attack on the virus and toward better restraint of the immune response , what researchers call " disease tolerance ." Read more  

Scientists identify a signaling pathway that triggers muscle fatigue in response to nervous system inflammation or infections like SARS-CoV-2. Originally published by Sneha Khedkar at The Scientist, on Jan 21, 2025 ABOVE: Nervous system infection or inflammation trigger brain-muscle signaling pathways that cause muscle fatigue. ©iStock,  Chinnapong In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, many universities shut down or reduced the capacities of research laboratorie s in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. At Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis , developmental biologist Aaron Johnson was permitted one person in his lab to keep things running. Shuo Yang , then a postdoctoral researcher working on muscle developmental biology, stepped up. An immunologist by training, Yang, now at Fudan University, was curious to learn more about the virus that was wreaking havoc in the world. Since h is model organism—the fruit fly—was not naturally susce...