Up-regulation of caspase has been found in COVID-19 patients, and also occurs in patients suffering from diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and other conditions. Such up-regulation can be responsible for poor clinical outcomes in patients having such diseases or disorders, as such up-regulation leads to a process called pyroptosis: death and malfunction of immune system cells, particularly of certain types of lymphocytes. An inhibitor of caspase such as a caspase 1 inhibitor, or “pan-caspase” inhibitor (i.e., an inhibitor of multiple caspase types including caspase-1), can be used to treat COVID-19 patients or individuals at risk of infection, by limiting the malfunction of the immune system. A caspase-1 or pan-caspase inhibitor is advantageously administered before or very early in the course of infection by a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus such as SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, or SARS-Cov-2.

Methods and compounds for preventing and/or treating Zika virus (ZIKA) infection. And methods to screen for compound to prevent or treat Zika virus infection.

The present invention relates to a method for detecting a pathogen in cellular lysate by measuring pathogen-specific enzyme activity. The method comprises contacting the cellular lysate with a substrate the pathogen of interest recognizes and modifies, and obtaining a measurable, recordable, signal. The method may comprise detection of SARS-CoV viruses using the activity of SARS PLpro enzyme in tongue scrape lysate as a readout.

A method for initiating a telemedicine conference on a mobile device is provided. The method comprises receiving diagnostic test results in response to a diagnostic test, determining if the diagnostic test results include a positive result, storing the diagnostic test results on a server disposed on a network, presenting, if the diagnostic test results are positive, a telemedicine initiation option on a screen of the mobile device, determining whether the telemedicine initiation option is selected, sending the diagnostic test results from the server to the telemedicine provider, sending additional medical history information to the telemedicine provider, and initiating a telemedicine conference with the telemedicine provider. Some of these aspects also provide healthcare providers the ability to electronically send prescriptions and provide users the ability to use a mobile application to send prescriptions to pharmacies to be filled.

A method for detection of active form of analytes in a sample and/or for determination of ability of tested substances to bind to the active site of these analytes has the following steps: a) analyte or group of analytes from the sample is immobilized on the surface of a solid carrier; b) analyte or group of analytes is incubated with a detection probe; c) then the solid carrier is washed to remove unbound detection probe; and subsequently, the amount of bound detection probe is determined.

A biosensor comprises first and second molecular components and is capable of displaying protease activity in response to a binding event mediated by first and second binding partners of the biosensor. The first and second binding partners may bind each other directly or may both bind a target molecule. At least the first molecular component comprises an autoinhibited protease, whereby the binding event switches the protease frora an autoinhibited inactive state to a protease active state. The second molecular component may activate the protease of the first molecular component by binding a cross-binder which releases the autoinhibitor or by cleaving a linker which releases the autoinhibitor. The first and second molecular components may both have autoinhibited proteases which reciprocally activate each other.

A system and method are provided for collection and testing of a biologic sample. The system and method comprise collecting by a user of a testing device a biologic sample for use with the testing device, assigning correlative values as test results, and receiving the test results at a server disposed on a network. Some aspects further include presenting advertisements and other messages to users through a mobile application operating on a mobile device. These aspects take into account the results of the self-diagnostic test and present different advertisements to the user based on the results of the test.

The present invention relates to a method for detecting a pathogen in cellular lysate by measuring pathogen-specific enzyme activity. The method comprises contacting the cellular lysate with a substrate the pathogen of interest recognizes and modifies, and obtaining a measurable, recordable, signal. The method may comprise detection of SARS-CoV viruses using the activity of SARS PLpro enzyme in tongue scrape lysate as a readout.

The present invention relates to a method for detecting a pathogen in cellular lysate by measuring pathogen-specific enzyme activity. The method comprises contacting the cellular lysate with a substrate the pathogen of interest recognizes and modifies, and obtaining a measurable, recordable, signal. The method may comprise detection of SARS-CoV viruses using the activity of SARS PLpro enzyme in tongue scrape lysate as a readout.

A system and method are provided for collection and testing of a biologic sample. The system and method comprise collecting by a user of a testing device a biologic sample for use with the testing device, assigning correlative values as test results, and receiving the test results at a server disposed on a network. Some aspects further include presenting advertisements and other messages to users through a mobile application operating on a mobile device. These aspects take into account the results of the self-diagnostic test and present different advertisements to the user based on the results of the test.