here is increasing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 not only affects the respiratory tract but also impacts the CNS, resulting in neurological symptoms such as loss of smell and taste, headache , fatigue, nausea and vomiting in more than one-third of individuals with COVID-19 (refs. 1,2). Moreover, acute cerebrovascular disease and impaired consciousness have been reported 3. While Olfactory transmucosal SARS-CoV-2 invasion as a port of central nervous system entry in individuals with COVID-19

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SARS coronavirus continues to cause sporadic cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China. No active or passive immunoprophylaxis for disease induced by SARS coronavirus is available. We investigated prophylaxis of SARS coronavirus infection with a neutralising human monoclonal antibody in ferrets, which can be readily infected with the virus. Prophylactic administration of the monoclonal antibody at 10 mg/kg reduced replication of SARS coronavirus in the lungs of infected ferrets by 3.3 logs (95% CI 2.6-4.0 logs; p<0.001), completely prevented the development of SARS coronavirus-induced macroscopic lung pathology (p=0.013), and abolished shedding of virus in pharyngeal secretions. The data generated in this animal model show that administration of a human monoclonal antibody might offer a feasible and effective prophylaxis for the control of human SARS coronavirus infection.

Matrix (MA), a major structural protein of retroviruses, is thought to play a critical role in several steps of the HIV-1 replication cycle, including the plasma membrane targeting of Gag, the incorporation of envelope (Env) glycoproteins into nascent particles, and the nuclear import of the viral genome in nondividing cells. We now show that the entire MA protein is dispensable for the incorporation of HIV-1 Env glycoproteins with a shortened cytoplasmic domain. Furthermore, efficient HIV-1 replication in the absence of up to 90% of MA was observed in a cell line in which the cytoplasmic domain of Env is not required. Additional compensatory changes in Gag permitted efficient virus replication even if all of MA was replaced by a heterologous membrane targeting signal. Viruses which lacked the globular domain of MA but retained its N-terminal myristyl anchor exhibited an increased ability to form both extracellular and intracellular virus particles, consistent with a myristyl switch model of Gag membrane targeting. Pseudotyped HIV-1 particles that lacked the structurally conserved globular head of MA efficiently infected macrophages, indicating that MA is dispensable for nuclear import in terminally differentiated cells.