Covid-19 Sentry

Contents

• From Preprints
• From Clinical Trials
• From PubMed
• From Patent Search

From Preprints

• BUILDING RESILIENCE AGAINST HOAX: IMPROVING INTERNET MEDIA LITERACY IN THE ERA OF THE PANDEMIC COVID-19 -
  In facing the Covid-19 pandemic, the importance of enhancing internet media literacy has become crucial in building resilience against misinformation. The dissemination of false information is increasingly worrisome, despite intensive social campaigns addressing hoaxes. This research aims to enhance internet media literacy in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. This study adopts a literature research or library research methodology. The data collection method involves two sources: primary data and secondary data. Primary data is obtained from reliable journals, articles, and readings that support this research. Meanwhile, secondary data is obtained from relevant books that pertain to the main issues addressed in the research. The findings of this study include the high prevalence of misinformation, the increase in internet media literacy, and the model for combating hoaxes.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: BUILDING RESILIENCE AGAINST HOAX: IMPROVING INTERNET MEDIA LITERACY IN THE ERA OF THE PANDEMIC COVID-19
• Identification and Attribution of Weekly Periodic Biases in Epidemiological Time Series Data -

  COVID-19 data exhibit various biases, not least a significant weekly periodic oscillation observed globally in case and death data. There has been significant debate over whether this may be attributed to weekly socialising and working patterns, or is due to underlying biases in the reporting process. We characterise the weekly biases globally and demonstrate that equivalent biases also occur in the current cholera outbreak in Haiti. By comparing published COVID-19 time series to retrospective datasets from the United Kingdom (UK) that are not subject to the same reporting biases, we demonstrate that this dataset does not contain any weekly periodicity, and hence the weekly trends observed both in the UK and globally may be fully explained by biases in the testing and reporting processes. These conclusions play an important role in forecasting healthcare demand and determining suitable interventions for future infectious disease outbreaks.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Identification and Attribution of Weekly Periodic Biases in Epidemiological Time Series Data
• Timing and Predictors of Loss of Infectivity among Healthcare Workers with Primary and Recurrent COVID-19: a Prospective Observational Cohort Study -

  Background: There is a need to understand the duration of infectivity of primary and recurrent COVID-19 and identify predictors of loss of infectivity. Methods: Prospective observational cohort study with serial viral culture, rapid antigen detection test (RADT) and RT-PCR on nasopharyngeal specimens of healthcare workers with COVID-19. The primary outcome was viral culture positivity as indicative of infectivity. Predictors of loss of infectivity were determined using multivariate regression model. The performance of the US CDC criteria (fever resolution, symptom improvement and negative RADT) to predict loss of infectivity was also investigated. Results: 121 participants (91 female [79.3%]; average age, 40 years) were enrolled. Most (n=107, 88.4%) had received ≥3 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine doses, and 20 (16.5%) had COVID-19 previously. Viral culture positivity decreased from 71.9% (87/121) on day 5 of infection to 18.2% (22/121) on day 10. Participants with recurrent COVID-19 had a lower likelihood of infectivity than those with primary COVID-19 at each follow-up (day 5 OR, 0.14; p<0.001]; day 7 OR, 0.04; p=0.003]) and were all non-infective by day 10 (p=0.02). Independent predictors of infectivity included prior COVID-19 (adjusted OR [aOR] on day 5, 0.005; p=0.003), a RT-PCR Ct value <23 (aOR on day 5, 22.75; p<0.001), but not symptom improvement or RADT result. The CDC criteria would identify 36% (24/67) of all non-infectious individuals on Day 7. However, 17% (5/29) of those meeting all the criteria had a positive viral culture. Conclusions: Infectivity of recurrent COVID-19 is shorter than primary infections. Loss of infectivity algorithms could be optimized.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Timing and Predictors of Loss of Infectivity among Healthcare Workers with Primary and Recurrent COVID-19: a Prospective Observational Cohort Study
• Evolving Trends in Neuropsychological Profiles of Post COVID-19 Condition: A 1-Year Follow-up in Individuals with Cognitive Complaints -
  Background: Cognitive difficulties are reported as lasting sequelae within post COVID-19 condition. However, the chronicity of these difficulties and related factors of fatigue, mood, and perceived health have yet to be fully determined. More longitudinal studies are needed to clarify the trends of cognitive test performance and cognitive domain impairment following COVID-19 onset, and whether hospitalization influences outcomes. Methods: 57 participants who reported subjective cognitive difficulties after confirmed COVID-19 infection were assessed at baseline (~6 months post COVID-19) and follow-up (~15 months later) visits. Assessments included measures across multiple cognitive domains and self-report questionnaires of fatigue, mood, and overall health. Analyses were conducted in three stages: at the test score level (raw and adjusted scores), at the cognitive domain level, and stratified by hospitalization status during infection. Results: Impacts on cognitive test scores remain stable across assessments. Cognitive domain analyses indicate significant reductions in attention and executive functioning impairment, while memory impairment is slower resolve. On self-report measures, there was a significant improvement in overall health ratings at follow-up. Finally, those hospitalized during infection performed worse on timed cognitive measures across visits and accounted for a larger proportion of cases with short-term and working memory impairment at follow-up. Conclusions: Cognitive difficulties persist both at test score and cognitive domain levels in many cases of post COVID-19 condition, but evidence suggests some improvement in global measures of attention, executive functioning and overall self-rated health. An effect of hospitalization on cognitive symptoms post COVID-19 may be more discernible over time.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Evolving Trends in Neuropsychological Profiles of Post COVID-19 Condition: A 1-Year Follow-up in Individuals with Cognitive Complaints
• Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure -
  SARS-CoV-2, the etiologic agent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has had an enduring impact on global public health. However, SARS-CoV-2 is only one of multiple pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) to have emerged since the turn of the century. CoVs encode for several nonstructural proteins (NSPS) that are essential for viral replication and pathogenesis. Among them is nsp15, a uridine-specific viral endonuclease that is important in evading the host immune response and promoting viral replication. Despite the established function of nsp15 as a uridine-specific endonuclease, little is known about other determinants of its cleavage specificity. In this study we investigate the role of RNA secondary structure in SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 endonuclease activity. Using a series of in vitro endonuclease assays, we observed that thermodynamically stable RNA structures were protected from nsp15 cleavage relative to RNAs lacking stable structure. We leveraged the s2m RNA from the SARS 3UTR as a model for our structural studies as it adopts a well-defined structure with several uridines, two of which are unpaired and thus high probably targets for nsp15 cleavage. We found that SARS-CoV-2 nsp15 specifically cleaves s2m at the unpaired uridine within the GNRNA pentaloop of the RNA. Further investigation revealed that the position of uridine within the pentaloop also impacted nsp15 cleavage efficiency, suggesting that positioning within the pentaloop is necessary for optimal presentation of the scissile uridine and alignment within the nsp15 catalytic pocket. Our findings indicate that RNA secondary structure is an important determinant of nsp15 cleavage and provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of recognition of RNA by nsp15.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Regulation of coronavirus nsp15 cleavage specificity by RNA structure
• Personality Psychology in Times of Crisis: Profile-specific Recommendations on how to deal with COVID-19 -
  The early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic posed a twofold global health threat: Besides the evident danger to human life, the corona crisis is also a psychological crisis. Psychologists worldwide have contributed to cushion the distress that is laid on many societies and enforce adaptive coping strategies. However, psychological support in the past has often been broadly applied, has not been particularly parsimonious and has often been focused on severe psychological stressors. In this brief report we describe the development and application of a low-threshold tool that generates personality-specific recommendations on how to functionally cope with the psychological challenges of the corona crisis. The tool gained widespread attention in Germany and many other countries and was well received by users. It demonstrates how psychological knowledge from personality and health psychology can be combined to be of very concrete use for many people in a threatening situation.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Personality Psychology in Times of Crisis: Profile-specific Recommendations on how to deal with COVID-19
• SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Remains Viable in Environmental Biofilms found in Meat Packaging Plants -
  To determine why SARS-CoV-2 appears to thrive specifically well in meat packaging plants, we used SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant and meat packaging plant drain samples to develop mixed-species biofilms on materials commonly found within meat packaging plants (stainless steel (SS), PVC, and ceramic tile). Our data provides evidence that SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant remained viable on all the surfaces tested with and without an environmental biofilm. We observed that SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant was able to remain infectious with each of the environmental biofilms, however, we detected a significant reduction in viability post-exposure to Plant B biofilm on SS, PVC, and on ceramic tile chips, and to Plant C biofilm on SS and PVC chips. The numbers of viable SARS-CoV-2 Delta viral particles was 1.81 - 4.57-fold high than the viral inoculum incubated with the Plant B and Plant C environmental biofilm on SS, and PVC chips. We did not detect a significant difference in viability when SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant was incubated with the biofilm obtained from Plant A on any of the materials tested and SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant had higher plaque numbers when inoculated with Plant C biofilm on tile chips, with a 2.75-fold difference compared to SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant on tile chips by itself. These results indicate a complex virus-environmental biofilm interaction which correlates to the different bacteria found in each biofilm. Our results also indicate that there is the potential for biofilms to protect SARS-CoV-2 from disinfecting agents and remaining prevalent in meat packaging plants.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Remains Viable in Environmental Biofilms found in Meat Packaging Plants
• High-confidence placement of difficult-to-fit fragments into electron density by using anomalous signals - a case study using hits targeting SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 1 -
  The identification of multiple simultaneous orientations of small molecule inhibitors binding to a protein target is a common challenge. It has recently been reported that the conformational heterogeneity of ligands is widely underreported in the Protein Data Bank, which is likely to impede optimal exploitation to improve affinity of these ligands. Significantly less is even known about multiple binding orientations for fragments (< 300 Da) although this information would be essential for subsequent fragment optimisation using growing, linking or merging and rational structure-based design. Here we use recently reported fragment hits for the SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 1 (nsp1) N-terminal domain to propose a general procedure for unambiguously identifying binding orientations of 2-dimensional fragments containing either sulphur or chloro substituents within the wavelength range of most tunable beamlines. By measuring datasets at two energies, using a tuneable beamline operating in vacuum and optimised for data collection at very low X-ray energies, we show that the anomalous signal can be used to identify multiple orientations in small fragments containing sulphur and/or chloro substituents or to verify recently reported conformations. Although in this specific case we identified the positions of sulphur and chlorine in fragments bound to their protein target, we are confident that this work can be further expanded to additional atoms or ions which often occur in fragments. Finally, our improvements in the understanding of binding orientations will also serve to improve the rational optimisation of SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 targeting fragment hits.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: High-confidence placement of difficult-to-fit fragments into electron density by using anomalous signals - a case study using hits targeting SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 1
• Evaluation of 3-D printed swabs for respiratory sampling and testing for SARS-CoV-2 during the early pandemic period -

  Appropriate collection of respiratory samples is essential for accurate diagnostic testing of respiratory pathogens such as, SARS-CoV-2. Early in the pandemic, there was a shortage of nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs and difficulty in sampling suspected cases. Therefore, we developed a 3D printed nasal swab for anterior nares, paired with in-house viral transport medium (VTM). The utility of this 3D swab kit was investigated in comparison with the standard NP commercial swab and VTM, in 200 individuals between August and September 2021. Subjects were those presenting for diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 using the RT- PCR (cobas Roche assay) assay. NP samples were taken from each subject using the standard NP and 3D swabs followed by RT-PCR on paired specimens. CT values for amplification of gene targets were evaluated to determine assay parameters based on viral load cut offs of ≤ CT 35 or, ≤ CT 37. For high to medium viral loads, 3D swab based PCR testing had a sensitivity of 93%, specificity of 99%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 98.5% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 96.2% respectively. For low viral loads, 3D swab testing had a sensitivity of 88%, specificity of 99%, with a PPV of 98.5% and NPV of 93.2%.%. 3D swab sampling of anterior nares was comparable with NP sampling using standard swabs for SARS-CoV-2 specimens with a medium to high viral load. Therefore, 3D swab based sampling is a reliable and convenient local solution for collecting respiratory samples for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Evaluation of 3-D printed swabs for respiratory sampling and testing for SARS-CoV-2 during the early pandemic period
• Determinants of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome among hospitalized severe COVID-19 patients: a 2-year follow-up study -

  Abstract Background: Coronavirus disease–19 (COVID–19), emerged as a public health threat in December 2019. The number of COVID–19 cases worldwide is now more than 765 million with more than 6.9 million dead. During follow–up visits following discharge, a large percentage of patients were discovered to still be suffering from health issues that lower their quality of life and ability to return to work. This study assessed the prevalence and associated risk factors of post-acute COVID–19 syndrome (PACS) among severe COVID–19 patients who were discharged from Millennium COVID–19 care center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: A cross–sectional study using data collected from patient charts and a follow–up telephone interview after two years of discharge. Systematic random sampling was used to select a total of 400 patients. A structured questionnaire developed from the case report form for PACS of WHO was used. Frequency and cross–tabulation were used for descriptive statistics. Predictor variables with a p–value <0.25 in bivariate analyses were included in the logistic regression. Result: Out of the 400 patients, 20 patients were dead, 14 patients refused to give consent, and 26 patients could not be reached because their phone was not working. Finally, 340 were included in the study. The majority (68.5%) were males and the mean age was 53.9 (±13.3 SD) years. Most of the patients (60%) has one or more comorbidity. The most common symptom at presentation was cough (93.5%), followed by shortness of breath (82.1%) and fatigue (69.7%). The mean duration of hospital admission was 12.3 (±6.5 SD) days. More than a third (38.1%) of the patients reported the persistence of at least one symptom after hospital discharge. The most common symptoms were fatigue (27.5%) and Cough (15.3%). older age (AOR 1.04, 95% CI 1.02 – 1.07), female sex (AOR 1.82, 95% CI 1.00 – 3.29), presence of comorbidity (AOR 2.38, 95% CI 1.35 – 4.19), alcohol use (AOR 3.05, 95% CI 1.49 – 6.26), fatigue at presentation (AOR 2.18, 95% CI 1.21 – 3.95), and longer hospital stay (AOR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02 – 1.10) were foundto increase the odds of developing post–acute COVID-19 syndrome. Higher hemoglobin level was found to decrease the risk of subsequent post–acute COVID–19 syndrome (AOR 0.84, 95% CI 0.71 – 0.99). Conclusion: establishing a dedicated PACS followup clinic, especially for those with a higher risk can help to provide comprehensive care for the patients and improve their quality of life. Keywords: Post –acute COVID –19 syndrome, Long COVID, Chronic COVID –19

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Determinants of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome among hospitalized severe COVID-19 patients: a 2-year follow-up study
• Omicron vs. the Rest: Assessing the Competitive Dynamics and Coinfection Scenarios of COVID-19 Strains on a Social Network -

  The rapid spread and evolving nature of COVID-19 variants have raised concerns regarding their competitive dynamics and coinfection scenarios. In this study, we assess the competitive interactions between the Omicron variant and other prominent variants (Alpha, Beta, and Delta) on a social network, considering both single infection and coinfection states. Using the SIRS model, we simulate the progression of these variants and analyze their impact on infection rates, mortality, and overall disease burden. Our findings demonstrate that the Alpha and Beta strains exhibit comparable contagion levels, with the Alpha strain displaying higher infection and mortality rates. Moreover, the Delta strain emerges as the most prevalent and virulent strain, surpassing the other variants. When introduced alongside the less virulent Omicron strain, the Delta strain results in higher infection and mortality rates. However, the Omicron strain9s dominance leads to an overall increase in disease statistics. Remarkably, our study highlights the efficacy of the Omicron variant in supplanting more virulent strains and its potential role in mitigating the spread of infectious diseases. The Omicron strain demonstrates a competitive advantage over the other variants, suggesting its potential to reduce the severity of the disease and alleviate the burden on healthcare systems. These findings underscore the importance of monitoring and understanding the dynamics of COVID-19 variants, as they can inform effective prevention and mitigation strategies, particularly with the emergence of variants that possess a relative advantage in controlling disease transmission.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Omicron vs. the Rest: Assessing the Competitive Dynamics and Coinfection Scenarios of COVID-19 Strains on a Social Network
• The relative effectiveness of a high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine vs standard-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccines in older adults in France: a retrospective cohort study during the 2021-22 influenza season -

  Background: High-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine (HD-QIV) was introduced during the 2021/22 influenza season in France for adults aged ≥65 years as an alternative to standard-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccines (SD-QIV). This is the first study to estimate the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) of HD-QIV versus SD-QIV against influenza-related hospitalizations in France. Methods: Community-dwelling individuals aged ≥65 years with reimbursed influenza vaccine claims during the 2021/22 influenza season were included from the French national health insurance database. Individuals were followed up from vaccination day to 30 June 2022, nursing home admission or death date. Baseline socio-demographic and health characteristics were identified from medical records over the 5 previous years. Hospitalizations due to influenza and other causes were recorded from 14 days after vaccination to end of follow-up. HD-QIV and SD-QIV vaccinees were matched using 1:4 propensity score matching with an exact constraint on age group, sex, week of vaccination and region. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were estimated using zero-inflated Poisson or zero-inflated negative binomial regression models. Results: We matched 405,385 (99.9%) HD-QIV to 1,621,540 SD-QIV vaccinees. HD-QIV was associated with a 23.3% (95%CI: 8.4–35.8) lower rate of influenza hospitalizations compared to SD-QIV. Post-matching, we observed higher rates in the HD-QIV group for hospitalizations non-specific to influenza and for negative control outcomes, suggesting residual confounding by indication. Conclusions: HD-QIV was associated with lower influenza-related hospitalization rates versus SD-QIV, consistent with existing evidence, in the context of high SARS-CoV-2 circulation in France and likely prioritization of HD-QIV for older/more comorbid individuals.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: The relative effectiveness of a high-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccine vs standard-dose quadrivalent influenza vaccines in older adults in France: a retrospective cohort study during the 2021-22 influenza season
• Tracking SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in rural communities using blood-fed mosquitoes -

  The spread of SARS-CoV-2 cannot be well monitored and understood in areas without capacity for effective disease surveillance. Countries with a young population will have disproportionately large numbers of asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic infections, further hindering detection of infection in the population. Sero-surveillance on a country-wide scale by trained medical professionals may be limited in scope in resource limited setting such as Mali. Novel ways of broadly sampling the human population in a non-invasive method would allow for large-scale surveillance at a reduced cost. Here we evaluate the collection of naturally bloodfed mosquitoes to test for human anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the laboratory and at five field locations in Mali. Immunoglobulin-G antibodies were found to be readily detectable within the mosquito bloodmeals by a bead-based immunoassay at least through 10 hours post-feeding with high sensitivity (0.900 STD=0.059) and specificity (0.924 STD=0.080), respectively, indicating that most blood-fed mosquitoes collected indoors during early morning hours (and thus, have likely fed the previous night) are viable samples for analysis. We find that reactivity to four SARS-CoV-2 antigens rose during the pandemic from pre-pandemic levels. Consistent with other sero-surveillance studies in Mali, crude seropositivity of blood sampled via mosquitoes was 6.3% in October/November 2020 over all sites, and increased to 25.1% overall, with the town closest to Bamako reaching 46.7% in February of 2021. Mosquito bloodmeals a viable target for conventional immunoassays, and therefore country-wide sero-surveillance of human diseases (both vector-borne and non-vector-borne) is attainable in areas where human-biting mosquitoes are common, and is an informative, cost-effective, non-invasive sampling option.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Tracking SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity in rural communities using blood-fed mosquitoes
• (PREPRINT PAPER) A Moderated Mediation Model of Self-Construal, Social Trust, and Compliance on Covid-19 Public Health Regulation: A Cross-country Analysis -
  To address the global Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world require on the collective cooperation of their citizens to comply with public health regulation. Earlier studies examined the extent to which self-construal has an impact on individual compliance to law. However, existing literature has paid little significant attention to behavioural outcome of self-construal in the pandemic context across countries and cultures. The aim of this study was; 1) to determine whether interdependent self-construal predicts compliance of Covid-19 public health regulation, 2) to examine if the association was mediated by individual social trust, and 3) to test whether these associations were moderated by respondent’s country of residence (US x Indonesia). General adult respondents from US (N=231) and Indonesia (N=440) were voluntary participated in a survey measuring their trust to the government, interdependent self-construal orientation and compliance toward Covid-19 public health regulation. While our moderated mediation model involving respondent’s country residence did not support the hypothesis, the mediation analysis demonstrated significant association between interdependent self-construal and compliance via social trust. Our additional simple moderation analysis on direct effect of interdependent self-construal and compliance showed significant findings. Further, theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed in the following paper.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: (PREPRINT PAPER) A Moderated Mediation Model of Self-Construal, Social Trust, and Compliance on Covid-19 Public Health Regulation: A Cross-country Analysis
• M3NetFlow: a novel multi-scale multi-hop modular graph AI model for multi-omics data integration and signaling network inference -
  The integration and interpretation of multi-omics data play a crucial role in systems biology for prioritizing key molecular targets and deciphering core signaling pathways of complex diseases, such as cancer, covid-19 and Alzheimer's disease. However, it remains a challenge that has not been adequately addressed. Graph neural networks (GNN) have been emerged as powerful artificial intelligence models for analyzing data with a graphical structure. Nevertheless, GNN models have not been sufficiently designed for integrative and interpretable analysis of multi-omics data. In this study, we propose a novel multi-scale multi-hop modular GNN model, M3NetFlow, to integrate and interpret multi-omics data to rank key targets and infer core signaling pathways. Specifically, we applied the M3NetFlow model to infer cell-line specific core signaling networks explaining drug combination response. The evaluation and comparison results on drug combination prediction showed that the M3NetFlow model achieved significantly higher prediction accuracy than existing GNN models. Furthermore, M3NetFlow can predict key targets and infer essential signaling networks regulating drug combination response. It is critical for investigating mechanisms of synergy, and guiding the development of personalized precision medicine for patients with drug resistance. This model can be applied to general multi-omics data-driven research.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: M3NetFlow: a novel multi-scale multi-hop modular graph AI model for multi-omics data integration and signaling network inference

From Clinical Trials

• Community-engaged Optimization of COVID-19 Rapid Evaluation And TEsting Experiences - Conditions:   COVID-19;   COVID-19 Pandemic
  Interventions:   Behavioral: COVID-19 walk-up, on-site testing strategy;   Behavioral: Community Health Worker (CHW) leading testing navigation and general preventive care reminders;   Behavioral: No-cost self-testing kit vending machines
  Sponsors:   University of California, San Diego;   San Ysidro Health Center
  Not yet recruiting

• Influence of Manual Diaphragm Release on Pulmonary Functions in Women With COVID-19 - Condition:   COVID-19 Pneumonia
  Interventions:   Other: manual therapy;   Other: breathing exercise and prone position alone
  Sponsor:   Cairo University
  Completed

• Safety Study of COVID19 Vaccine on the Market - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Biological: Recombinant new coronavirus vaccine (CHO cell)
  Sponsors:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.;   Hunan Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention;   Guizhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention;   Hainan Center for Disease Control & Prevention
  Recruiting

• ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm F (Montelukast) - Condition:   Covid19
  Interventions:   Other: Placebo;   Drug: Montelukast
  Sponsors:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  Recruiting

• ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm B (Fluvoxamine) - Condition:   Covid19
  Interventions:   Drug: Fluvoxamine;   Other: Placebo
  Sponsors:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  Completed

• ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm D (Ivermectin 600) - Condition:   Covid19
  Interventions:   Drug: Ivermectin;   Other: Placebo
  Sponsors:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  Completed

• ACTIV-6: COVID-19 Study of Repurposed Medications - Arm E (Fluvoxamine 100) - Condition:   Covid19
  Interventions:   Drug: Fluvoxamine;   Other: Placebo
  Sponsors:   Susanna Naggie, MD;   National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS);   Vanderbilt University Medical Center
  Completed

• Study Evaluating SHEN26 Capsule in Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: SHEN26 capsule;   Drug: SHEN26 placebo
  Sponsor:   Shenzhen Kexing Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
  Recruiting

• Pycnogenol® in Post-COVID-19 Condition - Conditions:   Post COVID-19 Condition;   Long COVID
  Interventions:   Drug: Pycnogenol®;   Drug: Placebo
  Sponsor:   University of Zurich
  Recruiting

• Efficacy of Bailing Capsule on Pulmonary Fibrosis After COVID-19 - Conditions:   Pulmonary Fibrosis;   COVID-19 Pneumonia
  Intervention:   Drug: Bailing capsule
  Sponsor:   Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University
  Not yet recruiting

• Evaluating Emetine for Viral Outbreaks (EVOLVE) - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: Emetine Hydrochloride;   Drug: Placebo
  Sponsors:   Johns Hopkins University;   Nepal Health Research Council;   Bharatpur Hospital Chitwan;   Stony Brook University;   Rutgers University
  Not yet recruiting

• A Study to Investigate the Safety, Immunogenicity of a Bivalent mRNA Vaccine RQ3025 as a Booster Dose in Healthy Adults - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Biological: RQ3013;   Biological: RQ3025
  Sponsors:   Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University;   Yunnan University;   Kunming Medical University
  Recruiting

• A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma (CCP) Transfusion to Prevent COVID-19 in Adult Recipients Following Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
  Intervention:   Biological: COVID Convalescent Plasma
  Sponsor:   Institute of Hematology & Blood Diseases Hospital
  Recruiting

• Cupping Therapy on Immune System in Post Covid -19 - Condition:   Covid-19 Patients
  Interventions:   Combination Product: Cupping therapy with convential medical treatment;   Drug: Convential medical treatment
  Sponsor:   Cairo University
  Completed

• To Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of Sequential Booster Immunization of Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Vaccine (CHO Cells) for SARS-CoV-2 - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Biological: Recombinant Novel Coronavirus vaccine (CHO Cells)
  Sponsor:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.
  Completed

From PubMed

• 2’,3’ cyclic-nucleotide 3’-phosphodiesterase (CNP) inhibits SARS-CoV-2 virion assembly by blocking infection-induced mitochondria depolarization - The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over 6.5 million lives worldwide and continues to have lasting impacts on the world’s healthcare and economic systems. Several approved and emergency authorized therapeutics that inhibit early stages of the virus replication cycle have been developed however, effective late-stage therapeutical targets have yet to be identified. To that end, our lab identified 2’,3’ cyclic-nucleotide 3’-phosphodiesterase (CNP) as a late-stage inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 replication….

• An evolutionarily conserved strategy for ribosome binding and inhibition by β-coronavirus non-structural protein 1 - An important pathogenicity factor of SARS-CoV-2 and related coronaviruses is Nsp1, which suppresses host gene expression and stunts antiviral signaling. SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1 binds the ribosome to inhibit translation through mRNA displacement and induces degradation of host mRNAs through an unknown mechanism. Here we show that Nsp1-dependent host shutoff is conserved in diverse coronaviruses, but only Nsp1 from β-CoV inhibits translation through ribosome binding. The C-terminal domain of all β-CoV…

• Green and rapid and instrumental one-pot method for the synthesis of imidazolines having potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 main protease activity - The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for ongoing epidemics in humans and some other mammals and has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. In this project, several small non-peptide molecules were synthesized to inhibit the major proteinase (M^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 using rational strategies of drug design and medicinal chemistry. M^(pro) is a key enzyme of coronaviruses and plays an essential role in mediating viral replication…

• Pharmacokinetic analysis of vilobelimab, anaphylatoxin C5a and antidrug antibodies in PANAMO: a phase 3 study in critically ill,  invasively mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients - CONCLUSIONS: This analysis shows that vilobelimab efficiently inhibits C5a in critically ill COVID-19 patients. There was no evidence of immunogenicity associated with vilobelimab treatment. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04333420. Registered 3 April 2020, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04333420.

• Covalent-reversible peptide-based protease inhibitors. Design, synthesis, and clinical success stories - Dysregulated human peptidases are implicated in a large variety of diseases such as cancer, hypertension, and neurodegeneration. Viral proteases for their part are crucial for the pathogens’ maturation and assembly. Several decades of research were devoted to exploring these precious therapeutic targets, often addressing them with synthetic substrate-based inhibitors to elucidate their biological roles and develop medications. The rational design of peptide-based inhibitors offered a rapid…

• Hybrid immunity in older adults is associated with reduced SARS-CoV-2 infections following BNT162b2 COVID-19 immunisation - CONCLUSIONS: Hybrid immunity in older adults was associated with considerably higher antibody titres, neutralisation and inhibition capacity. Instances of high anti-RBD titre with lower inhibition suggests antibody quantity and quality as independent potential correlates of protection, highlighting added value of measuring inhibition over antibody titre alone to inform vaccine strategy.

• Multivalent bicyclic peptides are an effective antiviral modality that can potently inhibit SARS-CoV-2 - COVID-19 has stimulated the rapid development of new antibody and small molecule therapeutics to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here we describe a third antiviral modality that combines the drug-like advantages of both. Bicycles are entropically constrained peptides stabilized by a central chemical scaffold into a bi-cyclic structure. Rapid screening of diverse bacteriophage libraries against SARS-CoV-2 Spike yielded unique Bicycle binders across the entire protein. Exploiting Bicycles’ inherent…

• Tocilizumab for the treatment of COVID-19 - INTRODUCTION: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the repurposing of medicines has been pursued to find interventions effective in preventing fatal outcome of the disease. One of these drugs was tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 inhibiting monoclonal antibody, previously used to treat several immune-related disorders.

• Preventative and therapeutic potential of animal milk components against COVID-19: A comprehensive review - The global pandemic of COVID-19 is considered one of the most catastrophic events on earth. During the pandemic, food ingredients may play crucial roles in preventing infectious diseases and sustaining people’s general health and well-being. Animal milk acts as a super food since it has the capacity to minimize the occurrence of viral infections due to inherent antiviral properties of its ingredients. SARS-CoV-2 virus infection can be prevented by immune-enhancing and antiviral properties of…

• COVID-19 PCR: frequency of internal control inhibition in clinical practice - CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a low percentage of inhibition using RNase P as an internal control in COVID-19 PCRs using the CDC protocol, thus proving the effectiveness of this protocol for identification of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples. Re-extraction was efficacious for samples that showed little or no fluorescence for the RNase P gene.

• A suitable drug structure for interaction with SARS-CoV-2 main protease between boceprevir, masitinib and rupintrivir; a molecular dynamics study - In recent years, more than 200 countries of the world have faced a health crisis due to the epidemiological disease of COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It had a huge impact on the world economy and the global health sector. Researchers are studying the design and discovery of drugs that can inhibit SARS-CoV-2. The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 is an attractive target for the study of antiviral drugs against coronavirus diseases. According to the docking results, binding energy for…

• Combining virtual screening with cis-/trans-cleavage enzymatic assays effectively reveals broad-spectrum inhibitors that target the main proteases of SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV - The main protease (M^(pro)) of SARS-CoV-2 is essential for viral replication, which suggests that the M^(pro) is a critical target in the development of small molecules to treat COVID-19. This study used an in-silico prediction approach to investigate the complex structure of SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) in compounds from the United States National Cancer Institute (NCI) database, then validate potential inhibitory compounds against the SARS-CoV-2 M^(pro) in cis- and trans-cleavage proteolytic assays….

• Structure-Based Drug Design of RdRp Inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused a worldwide pandemic since 2019, spreading rapidly and posing a significant threat to human health and life. With over 6 billion confirmed cases of the virus, the need for effective therapeutic drugs has become more urgent than ever before. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) is crucial in viral replication and transcription, catalysing viral RNA synthesis and serving as a promising therapeutic target for developing…

• An allosteric inhibitor of sirtuin 2 deacetylase activity exhibits broad-spectrum antiviral activity - Most drugs used to treat viral disease target a virus-coded product. They inhibit a single virus or virus family, and the pathogen can readily evolve resistance. Host-targeted antivirals can overcome these limitations. The broad-spectrum activity achieved by host targeting can be especially useful in combating emerging viruses and for treatment of diseases caused by multiple viral pathogens, such as opportunistic agents in immunosuppressed patients. We have developed a family of compounds that…

• Recent advances in RNA sample preparation techniques for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva and gargle - Molecular detection of SARS-CoV-2 in gargle and saliva complements the standard analysis of nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) specimens. Although gargle and saliva specimens can be readily obtained non-invasively, appropriate collection and processing of gargle and saliva specimens are critical to the accuracy and sensitivity of the overall analytical method. This review highlights challenges and recent advances in the treatment of gargle and saliva samples for subsequent analysis using reverse…

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