Covid-19 Sentry

Contents

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

From Preprints

• How skeptics could be convinced (not persuaded) to get vaccinated against COVID-19 -
  Central to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic strategy, COVID-19 vaccination depends on the population’s uptake decisions. Because at least 60% of the population needs to be vaccinated, but fewer, for example, in Germany are expected to do so, it is important to know how to convince those who are undecided or skeptical. According to the health care standard of enabling citizens to make informed decisions based on balanced information (boosting) – instead of persuasion or seduction (nudging) – a comparison of benefits and harms of having or not having the vaccination would be required to inform these groups. With the help of a representative survey, we investigated the contribution of fact boxes, an established intervention format for informed intentions. Study 1 shows the development of knowledge and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccinations by German citizens between Nov 2020 and Feb 2021. Study 2 reveals objective information needs and subjective information requirements of those laypeople at the end of Nov. Study 3 shows that the fact box format is effective for risk communication about COVID-19. Based on these insights, a fact box on the efficacy and safety of mRNA-vaccines was implemented with the help of a national health authority. Study 4 shows that fact boxes increase vaccination knowledge and positive evaluations of the benefit-harm ratio of vaccination in skeptics and undecideds. Our results demonstrate that simple fact boxes can be an effective boost of informed decision making among undecided and skeptical people, and that informed decisions can lead to more positive vaccination evaluations of the public.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: How skeptics could be convinced (not persuaded) to get vaccinated against COVID-19
• Unpacking the black box: Empirical evidence to understand the human factor for effective rapid testing against SARS-CoV2 -
  SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen point-of-care (PoC) and home tests are available to laypeople. This raises questions regarding the drivers and barriers of people’s willingness to use tests, their understanding of test results and the psychological and behavioural consequences of positive and negative test results. Four cross-sectional data collections, including survey items, open text answers and three experiments, were therefore conducted between December 2020 and March 2021, involving 4,026 German participants. The majority was willing to use PoC or home tests. People will be more likely to use tests when they are inexpensive and easy to use or when they are a necessary (given low infection rates) for obtaining access to public and social life. However, people urgently need information about what a test result means and how they should behave. Recommendations based on the present findings could make rapid testing a successful pillar of pandemic management.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Unpacking the black box: Empirical evidence to understand the human factor for effective rapid testing against SARS-CoV2
• Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020 -
  Research on the relationship between investment growth and economic growth aims to determine the effect of Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia on economic growth in 2009-2020. This research method uses quantitative methods with secondary data collected from various digital sources. The growth of foreign investment in Indonesia in 2009-2020 tends to be volatile and unstable. On the other hand, economic growth experienced stable growth throughout 2009-2020, although there was a decline in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the results of this study, it shows that the growth of Foreign Direct Investment in 2009-2020 does not significantly affect economic growth in Indonesia.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020
• The Emotional Anatomy of Lockdown -
  Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, policy makers have tried to balance the effectiveness of lockdowns (or stay-at-home orders) with their potential mental health costs. Yet, two years into the pandemic, we are still lacking solid evidence about the emotional toll of lockdowns. Across two intensive longitudinal datasets with 14,511 observations collected in Australia in 2021 (total N = 441), we compare the degree, persistence, and regulation of people’s emotions on days in and out of lockdown. We find that lockdowns take an emotional toll, but that this toll is relatively mild. In lockdown, people experienced slightly more negative and slightly less positive emotion; returned to a mildly negative emotional state more quickly; and used low-effort emotion regulation strategies. We conclude that people are resilient to the challenges lockdowns pose to personal and social well-being.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: The Emotional Anatomy of Lockdown
• Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020 -
  Research on the relationship between investment growth and economic growth aims to determine the effect of Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia on economic growth in 2009-2020. This research method uses quantitative methods with secondary data collected from various digital sources. The growth of foreign investment in Indonesia in 2009-2020 tends to be volatile and unstable. On the other hand, economic growth experienced stable growth throughout 2009-2020, although there was a decline in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the results of this study, it shows that the growth of Foreign Direct Investment in 2009-2020 does not significantly affect economic growth in Indonesia.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020
• RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT GROWTH AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN 2009-2020 -
  Research on the relationship between investment growth and economic growth aims to determine the effect of Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia on economic growth in 2009-2020. This research method uses quantitative methods with secondary data collected from various digital sources. The growth of foreign investment in Indonesia in 2009-2020 tends to be volatile and unstable. On the other hand, economic growth experienced stable growth throughout 2009-2020, although there was a decline in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the results of this study, it shows that the growth of Foreign Direct Investment in 2009-2020 does not significantly affect economic growth in Indonesia.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT GROWTH AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN 2009-2020
• Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020 -
  Research on the relationship between investment growth and economic growth aims to determine the effect of Foreign Direct Investment in Indonesia on economic growth in 2009-2020. This research method uses quantitative methods with secondary data collected from various digital sources. The growth of foreign investment in Indonesia in 2009-2020 tends to be volatile and unstable. On the other hand, economic growth experienced stable growth throughout 2009-2020, although there was a decline in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on the results of this study, it shows that the growth of Foreign Direct Investment in 2009-2020 does not significantly affect economic growth in Indonesia.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Relationship Between Foreign Direct Investment Growth and Economic Growth in 2009-2020
• Efficient direct and limited environmental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.22 in domestic cats -
  Susceptibility of domestic cats for infection with SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated by several experimental studies and field observations. We performed an extensive study to further characterize transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between cats, both by direct contact as well as by indirect contact. To that end, we estimated the transmission rate parameter and the decay parameter for infectivity in the environment. Using four groups of pair-transmission experiment, all donor (inoculated) cats became infected, shed virus and seroconverted, while three out of four direct contact cats got infected, shed virus and two of those seroconverted. One out of eight cats exposed to a SARS-CoV-2-contaminated environment became infected but did not seroconvert. Statistical analysis of the transmission data gives a reproduction number R0 of 2.18 (95% CI: (0.92-4.08), a transmission rate parameter {beta} of 0.23 day-1 (95% CI: 0.06-0.54), and a virus decay rate parameter of 2.73 day-1 (95% CI: 0.77-15.82). These data indicate that transmission between cats can be sustained (R0>1), however, infectiousness of a contaminated environment decays rapidly (mean duration of infectiousness 1/2.73 days). Infections of cats via exposure to a SARS-CoV-2-contaminated environment cannot be excluded if cats are exposed shortly after contamination.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Efficient direct and limited environmental transmission of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.22 in domestic cats
• Compensatory epistasis maintains ACE2 affinity in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1 -
  The Omicron BA.1 variant emerged in late 2021 and quickly spread across the world. Compared to the ancestral Wuhan Hu-1 strain and other pre-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants, BA.1 has many mutations, a number of which are known to enable antibody escape. Many of these antibody-escape mutations individually decrease the spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) affinity for ACE2 in the background of early SARS-CoV-2 variants, but BA.1 still binds ACE2 with high affinity. The fitness and evolution of the BA.1 lineage is therefore driven by the combined effects of numerous mutations. Here, we systematically map the epistatic interactions between the 15 mutations in the RBD of BA.1 relative to the Wuhan Hu-1 strain. Specifically, we measure the ACE2 affinity of all possible combinations of these 15 mutations (215 = 32,768 genotypes), spanning all possible evolutionary intermediates from the ancestral Wuhan Hu-1 strain to BA.1. We find that immune escape mutations in BA.1 individually reduce ACE2 affinity but are compensated by epistatic interactions with other affinity-enhancing mutations, including Q498R and N501Y. Thus, the ability of BA.1 to evade immunity while maintaining ACE2 affinity is contingent on acquiring multiple interacting mutations. Our results implicate compensatory epistasis as a key factor driving substantial evolutionary change for SARS-CoV-2 and are consistent with Omicron BA.1 arising from a chronic infection.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Compensatory epistasis maintains ACE2 affinity in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.1
• A patient-centric characterization of systemic recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection -

  The biology driving individual patient responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection remains ill understood. Here, we developed a patient-centric framework leveraging detailed longitudinal phenotyping data, covering a year post disease onset, from 215 SARS-CoV-2 infected subjects with differing disease severities. Our analyses revealed distinct “systemic recovery” profiles with specific progression and resolution of the inflammatory, immune, metabolic and clinical responses, over weeks to several months after infection. In particular, we found a strong intra-patient temporal covariation of innate immune cell numbers, kynurenine- and host lipid-metabolites, which suggested candidate immunometabolic pathways putatively influencing restoration of homeostasis, the risk of death and of long COVID. Based on these data, we identified a composite signature predictive of systemic recovery on the patient level, using a joint model on cellular and molecular parameters measured soon after disease onset. New predictions can be generated using the online tool http://shiny.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/apps/covid-systemic-recovery-prediction-app, designed to test our findings prospectively.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: A patient-centric characterization of systemic recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection
• An update on oral clinical courses among patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection: A clinical follow-up (a prospective prevalent cohort) study -

  Abstract Introduction Contemporary literature has revealed that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes acute sialadenitis and related symptoms, such as discomfort, pain, swelling, and secretory dysfunction in salivary glands. The secretory dysfunction is due to SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced xerostomia and other associated clinical courses such as sore tongue, mucosal ulcer, and gingivitis in the oral cavity. Furthermore, it has been reported that COVID-19 causes the development of other oral manifestations. Materials and Methods A prospective clinical follow-up (a prevalent cohort) study was conducted to identify the possible oral manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 infection among patients admitted at the Eka General Hospital COVID-19 treatment center. Furthermore, the study aimed to calculate the prevalence rate of oral clinical courses in the cohorts. The study had two follow-up phases: Hospital and patient-home-based.   Results A total of 55 patients (36 males and 19 females) met the inclusion criteria and were followed for 7.5 weeks. The 3.5 weeks’ hospital-based prospective follow-up study documented an 18% (n=10) prevalence rate of oral clinical courses among the cohorts. Twelve oral symptoms appeared in these ten patients. The manifested oral symptoms were oral mucosal lesions (n=6), xerostomia (n=5), and thickening of saliva (n=1). The oral mucosal lesions per se consisted of aphthous lesions (n=3), candidiasis (n=1), geographic tongue (n=1), and localized gingivitis (n=1). On the other hand, the four weeks’ home-based follow-up study disclosed four newly manifested oral symptoms: hemorrhagic crust, bulla, buccal mucositis, and petechiae. These manifestations appeared among six patients (four males and two females) who had not manifested any oral symptoms during the hospital-based follow-up. Accordingly, the overall prevalence of oral clinical courses among patients presented with SARS-CoV-2 is raised from 18% (n=10) to 29% (n=16). Similarly, the number of clinical courses increased from 12 to 16 after four additional weeks of follow-up. Discussion The study9s findings suggest the importance of initiating oral health care for patients with COVID-19. Therefore, multidisciplinary healthcare approaches should be delivered to assure optimal health outcomes. Accordingly, oral health professionals must be a substantial part of the interdisciplinary approach in caring for patients with COVID-19.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: An update on oral clinical courses among patients with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection: A clinical follow-up (a prospective prevalent cohort) study
• Is COVID-19 seasonal? A time series modeling approach -

  Background Determining whether SARS-CoV-2 is or will be seasonal like other respiratory viruses is critical for public health planning, including informing vaccine policy regarding the optimal timing for deploying booster doses. To help answer this urgent public health question, we evaluated whether COVID-19 case rates in the United States and Europe followed a seasonal pattern using time series models. Methods We analyzed COVID-19 data from Our World in Data from Mar 2020 through Apr 2022 for the United States (and Census Region) and five European countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom). For each, anomalies were identified using Twitter9s decomposition method and Generalized Extreme Studentized Deviate tests. We performed sensitivity analyses to determine the impact of data source (i.e., using US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] data instead of OWID) and whether findings were similar after adjusting for multiple covariates. Finally, we determined whether our time series models accurately predicted seasonal influenza trends using US CDC FluView data. Results Anomaly plots detected COVID-19 rates that were higher than expected between November and March each year in the United States and Europe. In the US Southern Census Region, in addition to seasonal peaks in the fall/winter, a second peak in Aug/Sep 2021 was identified as anomalous. Results were robust to sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Our results support employing annual protective measures against SARS-CoV-2 such as administration of seasonal booster vaccines or other non-pharmaceutical interventions in a similar timeframe as those already in place for influenza prevention.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Is COVID-19 seasonal? A time series modeling approach
• The Role of Organizational Commitment as a Mediator of Burnout Syndrome and Turnover Intention -
  Turnover intention is the tendency or intention of employees to stop working from their jobs voluntarily or move from one workplace to another according to their own choice. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of burnout on turnover intentions, the organizational commitment to turnover intentions, and the indirect relationship between burnout and turnover intentions through organizational commitment. This type of research is a quantitative study. The sampling in this study used probabilistic sampling using cluster sampling and simple random sampling. The study population consisted of healthcare professionals from five hospitals in Surabaya as referrals for Covid19 patients. The sample contains 100 respondents. Route analysis by the Smart PLS 2.0 program is used as a data analysis method. The results show that burnout affects turnover intentions. Burnout adversely affects an organization’s commitment, which in turn adversely affects the intent of leaving a job. In addition, the results of indirect impact tests show that organizational commitment can mediate the relationship between burnout and willingness to leave.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: The Role of Organizational Commitment as a Mediator of Burnout Syndrome and Turnover Intention
• Corruption and Demography during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia -
  COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the face of the world, including Indonesia. With more economic relief packages injected into public spending, corruption opportunities have risen, especially under the weakening corruption monitoring system. This article presents significant findings from the survey on the practice of corruption during the pandemic that can paint an understanding of corruption in Indonesia. Two survey rounds were conducted with respondents around Indonesia starting mid-to-end 2020, gathering 2,093 responses. The ordinary least-square (OLS) regression unveils that people who live in rural areas or spend less than the common people tend to commit or be involved in the practice of corruption. People who live in the rural areas or receive less income tend to perform corruption to close the income gap. It is also found that people with higher education levels tend to perform corruption. Higher corruption rents and broad opportunities for power abuse promote corruption in a well-educated society.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Corruption and Demography during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia
• Deciphering inhibitory mechanism of coronavirus replication through host miRNAs-RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) interactome -
  Despite what we know so far, Covid-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, remains a pandemic that still require urgent healthcare intervention. The frequent mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has rendered disease control with vaccines and antiviral drugs quite difficult and challenging, with newer variants surfacing constantly. There is therefore the need for newer, effective and efficacious drugs against coronaviruses. Considering the role of RNA dependent, RNA polymerase (RdRp) as an important enzyme necessary for the virus life cycle and its conservation among coronaviruses, we investigated potential host miRNAs that can be employed as broad-range antiviral drugs averse to coronaviruses, with particular emphasis on BCoV, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. miRNAs are small molecules capable of binding mRNA and regulate expression at transcriptional or translational levels. Our hypothesis is that host miRNAs have the potential of blocking coronavirus replication through miRNA-RdRp mRNA interaction. To investigate this, we downloaded the open reading frame (ORF 1ab) nucleotide sequences and used them to interrogate miRNA databases for miRNAs that can bind them. We employed various bioinformatics tools to predict and identify the most effective host miRNAs. In all, we found 27 miRNAs that target RdRp mRNA of multiple coronaviruses, of which three - hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-579-3p, and hsa-miR-664b-3p target BCoV, SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Additionally, hsa-miR-374a-5p has three bovine miRNAs homologs viz bta-miR-374a, bta-miR-374b, and bta-miR-374c. Inhibiting the expression of RdRp enzyme via non-coding RNA is novel and of great therapeutic importance in the control of coronavirus replication, and could serve as a broad-spectrum antiviral, with hsa-miR-1283, hsa-miR-579-3p, and hsa-miR-664b-3p highly promising.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Deciphering inhibitory mechanism of coronavirus replication through host miRNAs-RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) interactome

From Clinical Trials

• Phase I Clinical Trial of GEN2-Recombinant COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cells) in Healthy People Aged 18 and Above - Condition:   COVID-19 Pneumonia
  Interventions:   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 1;   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 2;   Biological: Experimental Vaccine 3;   Biological: placebo
  Sponsors:   National Vaccine and Serum Institute, China;   Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd;   Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.
  Not yet recruiting

• COVID-19 Algorithm Treatment at Home - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: Recommended treatment schedule;   Drug: Usual care
  Sponsor:   Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
  Not yet recruiting

• Immunosuppression and COVID-19 Boosters - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Biological: diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (adsorbed) vaccine;   Biological: COVID-19 vaccine
  Sponsors:   Kirby Institute;   Seqirus Pty Ltd, Australia;   Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
  Not yet recruiting

• Epidemiological Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients Hospitalized on Reunion Island - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Other: telephone interview 24 months after hospitalization for Covid-19
  Sponsor:   Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de la Réunion
  Not yet recruiting

• Randomized, Single-blinded, Multicenter Trial Comparing the Immune Response to a 2nd Booster Dose of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) or Sanofi /GSK B.1.351 Adjuvanted Vaccine in Adults - Condition:   COVID-19 Vaccines
  Interventions:   Biological: 2nd booster with Comirnaty® (Pfizer-BioNTech);   Biological: CoV2 preS dTM adjuvanted vaccine (B.1.351), Sanofi/GSK
  Sponsors:   Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris;   IREIVAC/COVIREIVAC Network
  Recruiting

• Immunogenicity and Safety Study of Booster Vaccine With the COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated, Omicron Strain - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Biological: COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated, Omicron Strain
  Sponsor:   Sinovac Biotech (Hong Kong) Limited
  Not yet recruiting

• Plerixafor in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Related to COVID-19 (Phase IIb) - Conditions:   COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome;   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: Plerixafor 20 MG/ML [Mozobil];   Other: Placebo
  Sponsor:   4Living Biotech
  Not yet recruiting

• Effect of COVID-19 on Platelet Mitochondrial Bioenergetic, Antioxidants and Oxidative Stress in Infertile Men. - Condition:   Men Infertility, Post-COVID-19
  Intervention:   Other: diagnostic test and sperm analysis
  Sponsors:   Comenius University;   GYN-FIV
  Active, not recruiting

• Calcitriol Supplementation in COVID-19 Patients - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Vitamin D Deficiency
  Intervention:   Drug: Calcitriol
  Sponsor:   RenJi Hospital
  Not yet recruiting

• Olfactory Training in COVID-19 Associated Loss of Smell - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Hyposmia
  Intervention:   Device: Sniffin’ sticks Duftquartett
  Sponsor:   Medical University Innsbruck
  Not yet recruiting

• Psychological Impact of Medical Evacuations on Families of Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Unit for Severe COVID-19 - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
  Interventions:   Other: Revised Impact of Event Scale;   Other: Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale;   Other: 36-Item Short Form Survey;   Other: satisfaction survey;   Other: semi-directed interview with trusted person on the general experience of the patient’s medical evacuation;   Other: semi-directed interview with trusted person on the general experience of hospitalization in intensive care
  Sponsor:   Centre Hospitalier Metropole Savoie
  Completed

• Effects of Telerehabilitative Aerobic and Relaxation Exercises Patients With Type 2 Diabetes With and Without COVID-19 - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
  Intervention:   Other: Aerobic and Relaxation Exercises
  Sponsor:   Bozyaka Training and Research Hospital
  Active, not recruiting

• COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Trial - Conditions:   Vaccination Refusal;   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Other: Short Message Service (SMS) + Website Link Strategy;   Other: Phone Call with Peer Strategy
  Sponsor:   Washington University School of Medicine
  Not yet recruiting

• Cardiovascular Autonomic and Immune Mechanism of Post COVID-19 Tachycardia Syndrome - Conditions:   Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome;   Postural Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS);   Long COVID;   SARS CoV 2 Infection
  Interventions:   Diagnostic Test: Determine the inflammatory and immune profile of post-COVID-19 POTS patients;   Diagnostic Test: Measurement of PNS activity by HRV (Heart rate Variation);   Diagnostic Test: Autonomic Symptoms assessment
  Sponsors:   Vanderbilt University Medical Center;   American Heart Association
  Recruiting

• Inhibition of Bradykinin in COVID-19 Infection With Icatibant - Condition:   SARS CoV 2 Infection
  Interventions:   Drug: Icatibant;   Drug: 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection
  Sponsors:   Belfast Health and Social Care Trust;   Queen’s University, Belfast
  Recruiting

From PubMed

• Humoral and Cellular Responses to BNT162b2 as a Booster Following Two Doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 Determined Using Three SARS-CoV-2 Antibody Assays and an Interferon-Gamma Release Assay: A Prospective Longitudinal Study in Healthcare Workers - Data on humoral and cellular responses to BNT162b2 as a booster dose, following two doses of ChAdOx1 nCov-19 vaccine, have seldom been reported. The aim of this study was to assess the positivity rates of three representative antibody assays targeting total, IgG, and neutralizing antibodies, and an interferon-γ release assay (IGRA), and to determine the longitudinal changes in quantitative antibody titers after each vaccination. A total of 1027 samples were collected from healthcare workers. The…

• Mechanism of CK2 Inhibition by a Ruthenium-Based Polyoxometalate - CK2 is a Ser/Thr protein kinase involved in many cellular processes such as gene expression, cell cycle progression, cell growth and differentiation, embryogenesis, and apoptosis. Aberrantly high CK2 activity is widely documented in cancer, but the enzyme is also involved in several other pathologies, such as diabetes, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and viral infections, including COVID-19. Over the last years, a large number of small-molecules able to inhibit the CK2 activity have been…

• Calcium bicarbonate as an antimicrobial, antiviral, and prion-inhibiting agent (Review) - Calcium bicarbonate does not act as a disinfectant at neutral pH; however, it exerts strong antimicrobial activity after it is placed in a high-voltage electric field, whereby it assumes an alkaline pH (12.4). Moreover, the microbicidal activity of the resulting solution (named CAC-717) is not influenced by the presence of organic material or resistance of the agent to inactivation. When sprayed on the skin surface, the pH of CAC-717 decreases rapidly to 8.84. CAC-717 comprises fine particles of…

• Streptomyces BAC Cloning of a Large-Sized Biosynthetic Gene Cluster of NPP B1, a Potential SARS-CoV-2 RdRp Inhibitor - As valuable antibiotics, microbial natural products have been in use for decades in various fields. Among them are polyene compounds including nystatin, amphotericin, and nystatin-like Pseudonocardia polyenes (NPPs). Polyene macrolides are known to possess various biological effects, such as antifungal and antiviral activities. NPP A1, which is produced by Pseudonocardia autotrophica, contains a unique disaccharide moiety in the tetraene macrolide backbone. NPP B1, with a heptane structure and…

• In vitro study on efficacy of PHELA, an African traditional drug against SARS-CoV-2 - In 2019, coronavirus has made the third apparition in the form of SARS-CoV-2, a novel strain of coronavirus that is extremely pathogenic and it uses the same receptor as SARS-CoV, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). However, more than 182 vaccine candidates have been announced; and 12 vaccines have been approved for use, although, even vaccinated individuals are still vulnerable to infection. In this study, we investigated PHELA, recognized as an herbal combination of four exotic African…

• Identification of potent inhibitors of arenavirus and SARS-CoV-2 exoribonucleases by fluorescence polarization assay - Viral exoribonucleases are uncommon in the world of RNA viruses. To date, they have only been identified in the Arenaviridae and the Coronaviridae families. The exoribonucleases of these viruses play a crucial role in the pathogenicity and interplay with host innate immune response. Moreover, coronaviruses exoribonuclease is also involved in a proofreading mechanism ensuring the genetic stability of the viral genome. Because of their key roles in virus life cycle, they constitute attractive…

• Microneedle-based Two-step Transdermal Delivery of Langerhans cell-targeting Immunoliposomes Induces a Th1-biased Immune response - Novel Coronavirus is affecting human’s life globally and vaccines are one of the most effective ways to combat the epidemic. Transcutaneous immunization based on microneedle (MN) has attracted much attention because of its painlessness, rapidity, high efficiency and good compliance. In this study, CD11c monoclonal antibody-immunoliposomes (OVA@CD11c-ILP) actively targeting to Langerhans cells (LCs) were successfully prepared and were delivered by the microchannels of skin produced by MN to…

• Synergistic interactions of repurposed drugs that inhibit Nsp1, a major virulence factor for COVID-19 - Nsp1 is one of the first proteins expressed from the SARS-CoV-2 genome and is a major virulence factor for COVID-19. A rapid multiplexed assay for detecting the action of Nsp1 was developed in cultured lung cells. The assay is based on the acute cytopathic effects induced by Nsp1. Virtual screening was used to stratify compounds that interact with two functional Nsp1 sites: the RNA-binding groove and C-terminal helix-loop-helix region. Experimental screening focused on compounds that could be…

• A global lipid map reveals host dependency factors conserved across SARS-CoV-2 variants - A comprehensive understanding of host dependency factors for SARS-CoV-2 remains elusive. Here, we map alterations in host lipids following SARS-CoV-2 infection using nontargeted lipidomics. We find that SARS-CoV-2 rewires host lipid metabolism, significantly altering hundreds of lipid species to effectively establish infection. We correlate these changes with viral protein activity by transfecting human cells with each viral protein and performing lipidomics. We find that lipid droplet…

• Preadmission Statin Treatment and Outcome in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19 - Preadmission statin therapy is associated with improved outcome in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Whether inhibition of inflammation and myocardial injury are in part responsible for this observation has not been studied. The aim of the present study was to relate preadmission statin usage to markers of inflammation, myocardial injury, and clinical outcome among patients with established atherosclerosis who were admitted with COVID-19. Adult patients with a diagnosis of coronary artery…

• Quinic and digallic acids from Pistacia atlantica Desf. leaves extracts as potent dual effect inhibitors against main protease and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of SARS-CoV-2 - CONCLUSION: This is the first time that a group of identified compounds from Pistacia atlantica Desf. leaves is studied for their potential activity against the novel virus by inhibiting two key enzymes in its life cycle, and no further studies have been published in this context.

• Multi-Targeted Molecular Docking and Drug-Likeness Evaluation of some Nitrogen Heterocyclic Compounds Targeting Proteins Involved in Development of COVID-19 - CONCLUSION: The outcome reveals that the designed nitrogen heterocyclics could contribute to developing potent inhibitory drug SARS-CoV-2 with strong multi-targeted inhibition ability and reactivity.

• Mechanism of Multi-Organ Injury in Experimental COVID-19 and Its Inhibition by a Small Molecule Peptide - Severe disease from SARS-CoV-2 infection often progresses to multi-organ failure and results in an increased mortality rate amongst these patients. However, underlying mechanisms of SARS- CoV-2-induced multi-organ failure and subsequent death are still largely unknown. Cytokine storm, increased levels of inflammatory mediators, endothelial dysfunction, coagulation abnormalities, and infiltration of inflammatory cells into the organs contribute to the pathogenesis of COVID-19. One potential…

• Overview of Breastfeeding Under COVID-19 Pandemic - During the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), pregnant and lactating women are at higher risk of infection. The potential of viral intrauterine transmission and vertical transmission by breastfeeding has raised wide concerns. Breastmilk is rich in nutrients that contribute to infant growth and development, and reduce the incidence rate of infant illness and death, as well as inhibit pathogens…

• Priming With Rhinovirus Protects Mice Against a Lethal Pulmonary Coronavirus Infection - Rhinoviruses (RV) have been shown to inhibit subsequent infection by heterologous respiratory viruses, including influenza viruses and severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). To better understand the mechanisms whereby RV protects against pulmonary coronavirus infection, we used a native murine virus, mouse hepatitis virus strain 1 (MHV-1), that causes severe disease in the lungs of infected mice. We found that priming of the respiratory tract with RV completely prevented…

From Patent Search