- Compliance Without Fear: Individual-Level Predictors of Protective Behavior During the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic -
Objectives: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic required rapid public compliance with advice from health authorities. Here, we ask who was most likely to do so during the first wave of the pandemic. Design: Quota-sampled cross-sectional and panel data from eight Western democracies (Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, UK and USA). Methods: We fielded online public opinion surveys to 26,508 citizens between March 19 and May 16. The surveys included questions about protective behavior, perceptions of the pandemic (threat and self-efficacy), as well as broader attitudes towards society (institutional and interpersonal trust). We employ multilevel and fixed-effects regression models to analyse the relationship between these variables. Results: Consistent with prior research on epidemics, perceptions of threat culturally uniform determinants of both avoidant and preventive forms of protective behavior. On this basis, authorities could foster compliance by appealing to fear of COVID-19, but there may be normative and practical limits to such a strategy. Instead, we find that another major source of compliance is a sense of self-efficacy. Using individual-level panel data, we find evidence that self-efficacy is amendable to change and exerts an effect on protective behavior. Furthermore, the effects of fear are small among those who feel efficacious, creating a path to compliance without fear. In contrast, two other major candidates for facilitating compliance from the social sciences, interpersonal trust and institutional trust, have surprisingly little motivational power during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: To address future waves of the pandemic, health authorities should thus focus on facilitating self-efficacy in the public.
- The novel Artificial Neural Network assisted models: A review -
Neural networks are one of the methods of artificial intelligence. It is founded on an existing knowledge and capacity to learn by illustration of the biological nervous system. Neural networks are used to solve problems that could not be modeled with conventional techniques. A neural structure can be learned, adapted, predicted, and graded. The potential of neural network parameters is very strong prediction. The findings are more reliable than standard mathematical estimation models. Therefore, it has been used in different fields. This research reviews the most recent advancement in utilizing the Artificial neural networks. The reviewed studies have been extracted from Web of Science maintained by Clarivate Analytics in 2021. We find that among the other applications of ANN, the applications on Covid-19 are on the rise.
- Imagining Personally-Relevant Outcomes Influences Perceived Risk of Viral Transmission for Older Adults -
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a serious and prolonged public-health emergency. Older adults have been at significantly greater risk of hospitalization, ICU admission, and death due to COVID-19; as of February 2021, over 81% of COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. occurred for people over the age of 65. Converging evidence from around the world suggests that age is the most significant risk factor for severe COVID-19 illness and for the experience of adverse health outcomes. Therefore, effectively communicating health-related risk information requires tailoring interventions to older adults’ needs. Using a novel informational intervention with a nationally-representative sample of 546 U.S. residents, we found that older adults reported increased perceived risk of COVID-19 transmission after imagining a personalized scenario with social consequences. Although older adults tended to forget numerical information over time, the personalized simulations elicited increases in perceived risk that persisted over a 1-3 week delay. Overall, our results bear broad implications for communicating information about health risks to older adults, and suggest new strategies to combat annual influenza outbreaks.
- COVID-19 Pandemic, Personality and Geriatric Population: Proposed Pragmatism -
Elderly people are the most sensitive and delicate part of society who must bear the major burn of disruptive social behavior of human being amidst the 2019 coronavirus infectious disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Our aim was (1) to find out the root of disruption of societal integrity and self-centeredness by analyzing spokes of HEXACO; 2) to delineate its possible relationship with the formation of Neuroticism and eventually Psychopathy, and 3) to search for the potential ways to get rid of this darkness. Human civilization is experiencing unique psychosocial problems through emerging COVID 19. Depression, panic buying, herd behavior, yellow journalism, “infodemic” spreading through social media, immense sufferings of marginalized people, children and elderly, a surge of addictive behavior, racism, domestic violence, rape, divorce, financial constraints, and stigmatization, all possibly stem from a constellation of different negative human behaviors which probably originate from negative deflection of components of HEXACO model of personality towards the genesis of the dark triad. COVID-19 and surge of the dark triad in form of Neuroticism, Narcissism and Machiavellianism are causing major mental health threat. Cultivations and practice of positive emotions and triumph of honesty, humility and humanity are utmost desirable to save Earth and its habitants from the cruel claws of this pandemic.
- Family Still Matters: Human Social Motivation during a Global Pandemic -
How have people’s fundamental social motives changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? In data collected from 32 countries before the onset of the pandemic, we saw that a) people prioritized family-related motives (romantic relationship maintenance and kin care) over mate-acquisition motives (mate-seeking and breakup concern), and b) family-related motives were positively associated with subjective well-being, whereas mate-acquisition motives were negatively associated with subjective well-being (Ko et al., 2020). Have the pandemic-related changes in people’s social lives affected the relative priority of family-related motives and their relationship with well-being? In data collected from 28 countries during the pandemic, we see that although, as expected, people’s disease avoidance motivation has increased, a) the relative prioritization of family-related motives over mate-acquisition motives remains unchanged, and b) family-related motives remain positively associated with well-being and mate-acquisition motives remain negatively associated.
- No Utilitarians in a Pandemic? Shifts in Moral Reasoning during the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis -
The COVID-19 pandemic poses many real-world moral dilemmas, which can pit the needs and rights of the many against the needs and rights of the few. We investigated the influence of this contemporary global crisis on moral judgments in older adults, who are at greatest personal risk from the pandemic. We hypothesized that during this pandemic, individuals would give fewer utilitarian responses to hypothetical dilemmas, accompanied by higher levels of confidence and emotion elicitation. Our pre-registered analysis (https://osf.io/g2wtp) involved two waves of data collection, before (2014) and during (2020) the COVID-19 pandemic, regarding three categories of moral dilemmas (personal rights, agent-centered permissions, and special obligations). While utilitarian responses considered across all categories of dilemma did not differ, participants during the 2020 wave gave fewer utilitarian responses to dilemmas involving personal rights; that is, they were less willing to violate the personal rights of others to produce the best overall outcomes.
- Genome-Wide Covariation in SARS-CoV-2 -
The SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the global pandemic is a coronavirus with a genome of about 30Kbase length (Song et al., 2019). The design of vaccines and choice of therapies depends on the structure and mutational stability of encoded proteins in the open reading frames (ORFs) of this genome. In this study, we computed, us-ing Expectation Reflection, the genome-wide covariation of the SARS-CoV-2 genome based on an alignment of {approx}130000SARS-CoV-2 complete genome sequences obtained from GISAID (Shu & McCauley, 2017). We used this covariation to compute the Direct Information between pairs of positions across the whole genome, investigating potentially important relationships within the genome, both within each encoded protein and between encoded proteins. We then computed the covariation within each clade of the virus. The covariation detected recapitulates all clade determinants and each clade exhibits distinct covarying pairs.
- AI-driven prediction of SARS-CoV-2 variant binding trends from atomistic simulations -
We present a novel technique to predict binding affinity trends between two molecules from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. The technique uses a neural network algorithm applied to a series of images encoding the distance between two molecules in time. We demonstrate that our algorithm is capable of separating with high accuracy mutations with low binding affinity from mutations with high binding affinity. Moreover, we show high accuracy in prediction using a small subset of the simulation, therefore requiring a much shorter simulation time. We apply our algorithm to the binding between several variants of the the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the human receptor ACE2.
- Identification of novel bat coronaviruses sheds light on the evolutionary origins of SARS-CoV-2 and related viruses -
Although a variety of SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses have been identified, the evolutionary origins of this virus remain elusive. We describe a meta-transcriptomic study of 411 samples collected from 23 bat species in a small (~1100 hectare) region in Yunnan province, China, from May 2019 to November 2020. We identified coronavirus contigs in 40 of 100 sequencing libraries, including seven representing SARS-CoV-2-like contigs. From these data we obtained 24 full-length coronavirus genomes, including four novel SARS-CoV-2 related and three SARS-CoV related genomes. Of these viruses, RpYN06 exhibited 94.5% sequence identity to SARS-CoV-2 across the whole genome and was the closest relative of SARS-CoV-2 in the ORF1ab, ORF7a, ORF8, N, and ORF10 genes. The other three SARS-CoV-2 related coronaviruses were nearly identical in sequence and clustered closely with a virus previously identified in pangolins from Guangxi, China, although with a genetically distinct spike gene sequence. We also identified 17 alphacoronavirus genomes, including those closely related to swine acute diarrhea syndrome virus and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus. Ecological modeling predicted the co-existence of up to 23 Rhinolophus bat species in Southeast Asia and southern China, with the largest contiguous hotspots extending from South Lao and Vietnam to southern China. Our study highlights both the remarkable diversity of bat viruses at the local scale and that relatives of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV circulate in wildlife species in a broad geographic region of Southeast Asia and southern China. These data will help guide surveillance efforts to determine the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogenic coronaviruses.
- SARS-CoV-2 evolution in animals suggests mechanisms for rapid variant selection -
SARS-CoV-2 spillback from humans into domestic and wild animals has been well-documented. We compared variants of cell culture-expanded SARS-CoV-2 inoculum and virus recovered from four species following experimental exposure. Five nonsynonymous changes in nsp12, S, N and M genes were near fixation in the inoculum, but reverted to wild-type sequences in RNA recovered from dogs, cats and hamsters within 1-3 days post-exposure. Fourteen emergent variants were detected in viruses recovered from animals, including substitutions at spike positions H69, N501, and D614, which also vary in human lineages of concern. The rapidity of in vitro and in vivo SARS-CoV-2 selection reveals residues with functional significance during host-switching, illustrating the potential for spillback reservoir hosts to accelerate evolution, and demonstrating plasticity of viral adaptation in animal models.
- Structural Analysis of Spike Protein Mutations in an Emergent SARS-CoV-2 Variant from the Philippines -
A SARS-CoV-2 emergent lineage with multiple signature mutations in the Spike protein region was recently reported with cases centered in Cebu Island, Philippines. Whole genome sequencing revealed that the 33 samples with the Ph-B.1.1.28 emergent variant merit further investigation as they all contain the E484K, N501Y, and P681H Spike mutations previously found in other variants of concern such as the South African B.1.351, the Brazil P.1 and the UK B.1.1.7 variants. This is the first known report of these mutations co-occurring in the same virus. The possible implications of the mutations found in the Spike protein were analyzed for their potential effects on structure, stability, and molecular surface character. The analysis suggests that these mutations could significantly impact the possible interactions of the Spike protein monomer with the ACE2 receptor and neutralizing antibodies and warrants further clinical investigation. Some of the mutations affecting the N and C terminal domains may have effects on Spike monomer and trimer stability. This report provides insights on relevant targets for the design of future diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines against the evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants in the Philippines.
- Comparative studies of the seven human coronavirus envelope proteins using topology prediction and molecular modelling to understand their pathogenicity -
Human (h) coronaviruses (CoVs) 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1 are less virulent and cause mild, self-limiting respiratory tract infections, while SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, are more virulent and have caused severe outbreaks. The CoV envelope (E) protein, an important contributor to the pathogenesis of severe hCoVs infections, may provide insight into this disparate severity of the disease. Topology prediction programs and 3D modelling software was used to predict and visualize structural aspects of the hCoV E protein related to its functions. All seven hCoV E proteins largely adopted different topologies, with some distinction between the more virulent and less virulent ones. The 3D models refined this distinction, showing the PDZ-binding motif (PBM) of SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2 to be more flexible than the PBM of hCoVs 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1. We speculate that the increased flexibility of the PBM may provide the more virulent hCoVs with a greater degree of freedom, which can allow them to bind to different host proteins and can contribute to a more severe form of the disease. This is the first paper to predict the topologies and model 3D structures of all seven hCoVs E proteins, providing novel insights for possible drug and/or vaccine development.
- Sialic acid-Dependent Binding and Viral Entry of SARS-CoV-2 -
Emerging evidence suggests that host glycans influence infection by SARS-CoV-2. Here, we reveal that the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike (S)-protein on SARS-CoV-2 recognizes oligosaccharides containing sialic acid (SA), with preference for the oligosaccharide of monosialylated gangliosides. Gangliosides embedded within an artificial membrane also bind the RBD. The monomeric affinities (Kd = 100-200 M) of gangliosides for the RBD are similar to heparan sulfate, another negatively charged glycan ligand of the RBD proposed as a viral co-receptor. RBD binding and infection of SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentivirus to ACE2-expressing cells is decreased upon depleting cell surface SA level using three approaches: sialyltransferase inhibition, genetic knock-out of SA biosynthesis, or neuraminidase treatment. These effects on RBD binding and pseudotyped viral entry are recapitulated with pharmacological or genetic disruption of glycolipid biosynthesis. Together, these results suggest that sialylated glycans, specifically glycolipids, facilitate viral entry of SARS-CoV-2.
- Comparative host interactomes of the SARS-CoV-2 nonstructural protein 3 and human coronavirus homologs -
Human coronaviruses have become an increasing threat to global health; three highly pathogenic strains have emerged since the early 2000s, including most recently SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of coronavirus pathogenesis is needed, including how these highly virulent strains differ from those that cause milder, common-cold like disease. While significant progress has been made in understanding how SARS-CoV-2 proteins interact with the host cell, non-structural protein 3 (nsp3) has largely been omitted from the analyses. Nsp3 is a viral protease with important roles in viral protein biogenesis, replication complex formation, and modulation of host ubiquitinylation and ISGylation. Herein, we use affinity purification-mass spectrometry to study the host-viral protein-protein interactome of nsp3 from five coronavirus strains: pathogenic strains SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV; and endemic common-cold strains hCoV-229E and hCoV-OC43. We divide each nsp3 into three fragments and use tandem mass tag technology to directly compare the interactors across the five strains for each fragment. We find that few interactors are common across all variants for a particular fragment, but we identify shared patterns between select variants, such as ribosomal proteins enriched in the N-terminal fragment (nsp3.1) dataset for SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. We also identify unique biological processes enriched for individual homologs, for instance nuclear protein important for the middle fragment of hCoV-229E, as well as ribosome biogenesis of the MERS nsp3.2 homolog. Lastly, we further investigate the interaction of the SARS-CoV-2 nsp3 N-terminal fragment with ATF6, a regulator of the unfolded protein response. We show that SARS-CoV-2 nsp3.1 directly binds to ATF6 and can suppress the ATF6 stress response. Characterizing the host interactions of nsp3 widens our understanding of how coronaviruses co-opt cellular pathways and presents new avenues for host-targeted antiviral therapeutics.
- Human nasal and lung tissues infected ex vivo with SARS-CoV-2 provide insights into differential tissue-specific and virus-specific innate immune responses in the upper and lower respiratory tract -
The nasal-mucosa constitutes the primary entry site for respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2. While the imbalanced innate immune response of end-stage COVID-19 has been extensively studied, the earliest stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection at the mucosal entry site have remained unexplored. Here we employed SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus infection in native multi-cell-type human nasal turbinate and lung tissues ex vivo, coupled with genome-wide transcriptional analysis, to investigate viral susceptibility and early patterns of local-mucosal innate immune response in the authentic milieu of the human respiratory tract. SARS-CoV-2 productively infected the nasal turbinate tissues, predominantly targeting respiratory epithelial cells, with rapid increase in tissue-associated viral sub-genomic mRNA, and secretion of infectious viral progeny. Importantly, SARS-CoV-2 infection triggered robust antiviral and inflammatory innate immune responses in the nasal mucosa. The upregulation of interferon stimulated genes, cytokines and chemokines, related to interferon signaling and immune-cell activation pathways, was broader than that triggered by influenza virus infection. Conversely, lung tissues exhibited a restricted innate immune response to SARS-CoV-2, with a conspicuous lack of type I and III interferon upregulation, contrasting with their vigorous innate immune response to influenza virus. Our findings reveal differential tissue-specific innate immune responses in the upper and lower respiratory tract, that are distinct to SARS-CoV-2. The studies shed light on the role of the nasal-mucosa in active viral transmission and immune defense, implying a window of opportunity for early interventions, whereas the restricted innate immune response in early-SARS-CoV-2-infected lung tissues could underlie the unique uncontrolled late-phase lung damage of advanced COVID-19.
Study to Evaluate a Single Dose of STI-2020 (COVI-AMG™) in Hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Biological: COVI-AMG; Drug: Placebo
Sponsor: Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc.
Not yet recruiting
Safety & Efficacy of Low Dose Aspirin / Ivermectin Combination Therapy for Treatment of Covid-19 Patients - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Drug: 3-dayIVM 200 mcg/kg/day/14-day 75mgASA/day + standard of care (intervention 1)
Sponsors: Makerere University; Ministry of Health, Uganda; Mbarara University of Science and Technology; Joint Clinical Research Center
Not yet recruiting
Clinical Study in the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Drug: Molixan; Drug: Placebo
Sponsor: Pharma VAM
Not yet recruiting
The Safety and Efficacy of FB2001 in Healthy Subjects and Patients With COVID-19 Infection - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Drug: FB2001; Drug: FB2001 Placebo
Sponsor: Frontier Biotechnologies Inc.
Not yet recruiting
Diagnostic Performance of the ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test Versus Simplexa™ COVID-19 Direct Assay - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Diagnostic Test: ID Now™ COVID-19 Screening Test
Sponsor: Groupe Hospitalier Paris Saint Joseph
Active, not recruiting
A Safety and Efficacy Study of Human Monoclonal Antibodies, BRII-196 and BRII-198 for the Treatment of Patients With COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Drug: BRII-196 and BRII-198; Drug: Placebo
Sponsor: Brii Biosciences, Inc.
Not yet recruiting
Dose-Ranging Study to Assess the Safety and Efficacy of Melatonin in Outpatients Infected With COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Drug: Melatonin; Drug: Placebo
Sponsors: State University of New York at Buffalo; National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS)
Not yet recruiting
A Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Brilacidin in Hospitalized Participants With COVID-19 - Condition: COVID-19
Interventions: Drug: Brilacidin; Drug: Placebo; Drug: Standard of Care (SoC)
Sponsor: Innovation Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Recruiting
DCI COVID-19 Surveillance Project - Condition: Covid19
Intervention: Diagnostic Test: SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Assay for Detection of COVID-19 Infection
Sponsors: Temple University; Dialysis Clinic, Inc.
Recruiting
Safety, Tolerability and Pharmacokinetics of Second Generation VIR-7831 Material in Non-hospitalized Participants With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Biological: VIR-7831 (Gen1); Biological: VIR-7831 (Gen2)
Sponsors: Vir Biotechnology, Inc.; GlaxoSmithKline
Recruiting
Honey and Nigella Sativa in COVID-19 Prophylaxis - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Drug: Honey; Drug: Nigella sativa seed; Other: Placebo
Sponsor: Sohaib Ashraf
Recruiting
Safety and Efficacy of Thymic Peptides in the Treatment of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients in Honduras - Condition: COVID-19
Intervention: Biological: Thymic peptides
Sponsors: Universidad Católica de Honduras; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
Recruiting
Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of the COVID-19 Vaccine Candidate (VBI-2902a) - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Biological: VBI-2902a; Biological: Placebo
Sponsor: VBI Vaccines Inc.
Not yet recruiting
Breathing Exercise After COVID-19 Pneumonia - Condition: Covid19
Interventions: Other: Breathing exercise with the phone application; Other: Breathing exercise
Sponsor: Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University
Not yet recruiting
Comparison of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab Versus Hydroxychloroquine and Tocilizumab Combination in COVID-19 Patients - Conditions: Covid19; Pneumonia
Interventions: Drug: Remdesivir; Drug: Hydroxychloroquine; Drug: Tocilizumab
Sponsors: October 6 University; Beni-Suef University
Recruiting
The in-vitro effect of famotidine on sars-cov-2 proteases and virus replication - The lack of coronavirus-specific antiviral drugs has instigated multiple drug repurposing studies to redirect previously approved medicines for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A recent, large-scale, retrospective clinical study showed that famotidine, when administered at a high dose to hospitalized COVID-19 patients, reduced the rates of intubation and mortality. A separate, patient-reported study associated famotidine use with improvements in…
Lost in deletion: The enigmatic ORF8 protein of SARS-CoV-2 - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome contains nine open reading frames (ORFs) that encode for accessory proteins which, although dispensable for viral replication, are important for the modulation of the host infected cell metabolism and innate immunity evasion. Among those, the ORF8 gene encodes for the homonymous multifunctional, highly immunogenic, immunoglobulin-like protein that was recently found to inhibit presentation of viral antigens by class I major…
An in-silico approach to identify the potential hot spots in SARS-CoV-2 spike RBD to block the interaction with ACE2 receptor - A novel acute viral pneumonia induced by SARS-CoV-2 exploded at the end of 2019, causing a severe medical and economic crisis. For developing specific pharmacotherapy against SARS-CoV-2, an in silico virtual screening was developed for the available in-house molecules. The conserved domain analysis was performed to identify the highly conserved and exposed amino acid regions in the SARS-CoV-2-S RBD sites. The Protein-Protein interaction analyses demonstrated the higher affinity between the…
Intestinal SGLT1 as a therapeutic target in COVID-19-related diabetes: A “two-edged sword” hypothesis - Emerging data are linking coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with an increased risk of developing new-onset diabetes. The gut has been so far out of the frame of the discussion on the pathophysiology of COVID-19-induced diabetes, with the pancreas, liver, and adipose tissue being under the spotlight of medical research. Sodium-glucose co-transporters (SGLT) 1 represent important regulators of glucose absorption, expressed in the small intestine where they mediate almost all sodium-dependent…
Ensemble-based screening of natural products and FDA-approved drugs identified potent inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 that work with two distinct mechanisms - The recent outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for high morbidity and mortality rate across the globe. This requires an urgent identification of drugs and other interventions to overcome this pandemic. Computational drug repurposing represents an alternative approach to provide a more effective approach in search for COVID-19 drugs. Selected natural product known to have antiviral activities were screened, and based on their hits; a similarity search with FDA approved drugs was performed using…
A SARS-CoV-2 spike binding DNA aptamer that inhibits pseudovirus infection by an RBD independent mechanism - The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike glycoprotein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (CoV2-S) binds to the human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) representing the initial contact point for leveraging the infection cascade. We used an automated selection process and identified an aptamer that specifically interacts with CoV2-S. The aptamer does not bind to the RBD of CoV2-S and does not block the interaction of CoV2-S with ACE2. Notwithstanding, infection studies revealed potent and…
Tandem high-dose influenza vaccination is associated with more durable serologic immunity in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias - Patients with plasma cell dyscrasias (PCDs) experience an increased burden of influenza, and current practice of single-dose annual influenza vaccination yields suboptimal protective immunity in these patients. Strategies to improve immunity to influenza in these patients are clearly needed. We performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial comparing tandem Fluzone High-Dose influenza vaccination with standard-of-care influenza vaccination. Standard-of-care vaccination…
Oral Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors for the Treatment of Delayed Inflammatory Reaction of Dermal Hyaluronic Acid Fillers Following COVID-19 Vaccination - A Model for Inhibition of Angiotensin II-Induced Cutaneous Inflammation - No abstract
Robust correlations across six SARS-CoV-2 serology assays detecting distinct antibody features - CONCLUSION: Our comprehensive analyses provide important insights into SARS-CoV-2 humoral immunity across distinct serology assays and their applicability for specific research and/or diagnostic questions to assess SARS-CoV-2-specific humoral responses.
Routine use of immunosuppressants is associated with mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19 - CONCLUSION: Despite possible indication bias, until further evidence emerges we recommend adhering to public health measures, a low threshold to seek medical advice and close monitoring of symptoms in those who take immunosuppressants routinely regardless of their indication. However, it should be noted that the inability to control for the underlying condition requiring immunosuppressants is a major limitation, and hence caution should be exercised in interpretation of the results.
The Hydroalcoholic Extract of Uncaria tomentosa (Cat’s Claw) Inhibits the Infection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) In Vitro - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a serious problem for public health since it was identified in the province of Wuhan (China) and spread around the world producing high mortality rates and economic losses. Nowadays, the WHO recognizes traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine for treating COVID-19 symptoms. Therefore, we investigated the antiviral potential of the hydroalcoholic extract of Uncaria tomentosa stem bark from Peru against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. The…
Inhibitory efficacy of RNA virus drugs against SARS-CoV-2 proteins: An extensive study - Herein we have made a comprehensive analysis of inhibitory efficacy of 16 RNA virus drugs against RdRp, Mpro and PLpro proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Analysis of docked conformation revealed that Baloxavir marboxil (BMX) corresponds to the highest binding energy. Analysis of residue confirmed that BMX strongly interact with these three proteins involving H-bonding, ionic as well as hydrophobic interactions. Molecular dynamics simulation and analysis of parameters like RMSD, RMSF, binding energy…
Screening potential FDA-approved inhibitors of the SARS-CoV-2 major protease 3CL(pro) through high-throughput virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulation - It has been confirmed that the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Studies have found that 3-chymotrypsin-like protease (3CL^(pro)) is an essential enzyme for virus replication, and could be used as a potential target to inhibit SARS-CoV-2. In this work, 3CL^(pro) was used as the target to complete the high-throughput virtual screening of the FDA-approved drugs, and Indinavir and other 10 drugs with high docking scores for 3CL^(pro) were…
Docking-based virtual screening studies aiming at the covalent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 M(Pro) by targeting the cysteine 145 - The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the COVID-19 which has infected millions of people worldwide. The main protease of SARS-CoV-2 (M^(Pro)) has been recognized as a key target for the development of antiviral compounds. Taking advantage of the X-ray crystal complex with reversible covalent inhibitors interacting with the catalytic cysteine 145 (Cys145), we explored flexible docking studies to select alternative compounds able to target this residue…
Camostat mesylate inhibits SARS-CoV-2 activation by TMPRSS2-related proteases and its metabolite GBPA exerts antiviral activity - BACKGROUND: Antivirals are needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2. The clinically-proven protease inhibitor Camostat mesylate inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection by blocking the virus-activating host cell protease TMPRSS2. However, antiviral activity of Camostat mesylate metabolites and potential viral resistance have not been analyzed. Moreover, antiviral activity of Camostat mesylate in human lung tissue remains to be demonstrated.