Covid-19 Sentry

Contents

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

From Preprints

• Public Procurement and Corruption in South Africa -
  Like many other countries, South Africa depends heavily on its public procurement system and faces persistent issues of corruption within that system. Its regulatory regimes for public procurement and for anti-corruption are nonetheless distinct. Despite knowledge of significant corruption in the final decades of apartheid, anti-corruption was treated as a secondary rather than a primary objective in the initial phase of post-apartheid reform and design of public procurement. Rules against corruption in public procurement have largely taken the form of criminal offences in the anti-corruption regime, and the form of administrative rules internal to government within the public procurement system, neither of which has been effective. The lack of attention to the overlap of these two regimes has created the potential for continued growth of corruption in public procurement. As a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to the grand corruption termed ‘state capture’, the South African government has recently introduced several measures and strengthened institutions to address corruption linked to public procurement; these are more investigative and ad-hoc than systemic and preventative. Finally, we briefly describe and then examine the place of information technology in South African public procurement, particularly in advancing the anti-corruption goal.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Public Procurement and Corruption in South Africa
• Online Credibility of National Health Institutions: Infodemiological Analysis of Facebook Users’ Reactions in Eight Countries Worldwide -
  Public trust in physicians, health-related websites, and medical institutions is one of the main determinants of health behaviour. This paper aims to examine the online credibility of the leading national health authorities in various countries worldwide in order to estimate the extent of the reputation damage during the COVID-19 crisis and evaluate the countermeasures to be undertaken. Specifically, users’ reactions to Facebook posts related to vaccine development and administration were studied. From 2021 to 2022, a sharp deterioration in the online credibility of the leading national health institutions worldwide has been observed. Infodemic reactions such as derision and anger, which already represented a health issue in 2021, have reached alarming percentages (i.e., between 30 and 50%) in England, France, Italy, Spain, and the USA during 2022. Such reactions reached a disproportionate 90% in Germany, where the online infodemiological situation appears incredibly serious. Conversely, the situation seemed more moderate in Argentina and Brazil (below 20%). Regardless of the sample size and its suitability for representing the global situation, these findings reveal a rising global security threat. Future research should focus on verifying how much of this online infodemic directly translates into dangerous health behaviours (e.g., vaccine hesitancy) and what were the main causes for these communication crises.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Online Credibility of National Health Institutions: Infodemiological Analysis of Facebook Users’ Reactions in Eight Countries Worldwide
• Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation -
  The pandemic spread of the novel coronavirus and associated COVID-19 disease in 2020 prompted governments around the world to pursue strict containment protocols to minimize contagion risk. Although restrictions were interpreted more strictly in some countries than in others, widespread social isolation resulted on an unseen scale, leading to severe negative mental health consequences such as loss of hope, increased anxiety, stress, depressive symptoms, and sleep disturbance. During this time, while governments were battling the health crisis, musical engagement provided key, individualized coping strategies for laypeople. This was first demonstrated anecdotally in captivating balcony music videos from Italy and Spain and later substantiated in large scale, multi-country survey studies. This chapter reviews the emerging research literature on music listening and making during pandemic lockdown to establish how music became a compensatory source of hedonic pleasure and how it satisfied the need for eudaimonic meaning in life during socially and psychologically impoverished times.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Music for hedonia and eudaimonia during pandemic social isolation
• Mapping OHDSI OMOP Common Data Model and GA4GH Phenopackets for COVID-19 disease epidemics and analytics -
  The COVID-19 crisis demonstrates a critical requirement for rapid and efficient sharing of data to facilitate the global response to this and future pandemics. Our project aims are to enhance interoperability between health and research data by mapping Phenopackets and OMOP schemas, and representing COVID-19 metadata using the FAIR principles to enable discovery, integration and analysis of genotypic and phenotypic data. Here, we present our outcomes after one week of BioHacking together 17 participants (10 new to the project), from different countries (CH, US and in EU), and continents.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Mapping OHDSI OMOP Common Data Model and GA4GH Phenopackets for COVID-19 disease epidemics and analytics
• Viral Tunes: Changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown -
  Beyond immediate health risks, the COVID-19 pandemic poses a variety of stressors, which may require expensive or unavailable strategies during a pandemic (e.g., therapy, socialising). Here we asked whether musical engagement is an effective strategy for socio-emotional coping. During the first lockdown period (April-May 2020), we surveyed changes in music listening and making behaviours of over 5000 people, with representative samples from 3 continents. More than half of respondents reported using music to cope. People experiencing increased negative emotions used music for solitary emotional regulation, whereas people experiencing increased positive emotions used music as a proxy for social interaction. Light gradient-boosted regressor models were used to identify the most important predictors of an individual’s use of music to cope, the foremost of which was, intriguingly, their interest in the novel genre of “coronamusic.” Overall, our results emphasise the importance of real-time musical responses to societal crises, as well as individually tailored adaptations in musical behaviours to meet socio-emotional needs.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Viral Tunes: Changes in musical behaviours and interest in coronamusic predict socio-emotional coping during COVID-19 lockdown
• CovidTube: Mapping information segregation on YouTube -
  The COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for a range of new conspiracy theories and extreme beliefs. Social media in general, and YouTube in particular, play a decisive role in the spreading of fringe content by not suppressing or even boosting the spread of such information. Users are predisposed to consume extreme content, creators prey on the emotions of users and game the algorithm to increase their popularity, and recommendation algorithms create feedback loops of progressively extreme content or ‘radicalization pipelines’. All three forces together may create information ‘bubbles’ that bias individual beliefs. We know, however, very little about the degree of information segregation and the structure of recommendation flows on YouTube, despite the platform’s position as the second most visited website in the world. This study maps the structure of COVID-19 information as a network of videos connected by inter-video recommendations. We collected nearly 10,000 videos and up to 20 recommendation links per video using COVID-related search terms on the YouTube API. To understand the structure of the graph we employed a mixed methods approach, using, a combination of quantitative graph analysis techniques and qualitative descriptions. We manually labeled the content of over a third of all videos and enriched the data further by merging with ideological labels from the Recfluence dataset. We then mapped these labels to pockets of videos that are well-connected to each other, as revealed by a community detection algorithm. Descriptive analyses of topical homogeneity within clusters of videos are supplemented with qualitative characterizations of the communities and the most important ‘bridging’ and ‘switching’ nodes within them. Contrary to popular beliefs about YouTube’s tendency to create informational ‘rabbit holes’ or ‘radicalization pipelines’, we find no evidence for algorithmic bias that would push users towards the consumption of fringe content.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: CovidTube: Mapping information segregation on YouTube
• Substance use, psychiatric symptoms, personal mastery, and social support among COVID-19 long haulers: A compensatory model -

  Background: Substance use has become a critical health concern during the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging attention has been paid to people with the persistent symptoms of COVID-19 (COVID-19 long haulers) due to their high vulnerability. However, scant research has investigated their substance use and relevant psychosocial factors. The current study was to (1) examine substance use behaviors (i.e., legal drug use, illicit drug use, and non-medical use of prescription drugs); and (2) assessed their associations with psychiatric symptoms (i.e., depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder) and psychosocial factors (i.e., personal mastery and social support) among COVID-19 long haulers. Methods: In January to March 2022, 460 COVID-19 long haulers (50% female), with an average age of 32, completed online surveys regarding their demographics, substance use, psychiatric symptoms, and psychosocial factors. Results: In the past three months, the most commonly used or non-medically used substances were tobacco (82%) for legal drugs, cocaine (53%) for illicit drugs, and prescription opioids (67%) for prescription drugs. Structural equation modeling suggested that psychiatric symptoms were positively associated with substance use behaviors (bs = .38 to .68, ps < .001), while psychosocial factors were negatively associated with substance use behaviors (bs = -.61 to -.43, ps < .001). Conclusion: Substance use is common in COVID-19 long haulers and psychiatric symptoms are the risk factors. Personal mastery and social support appear to offer protection offsetting the psychiatric influences. Substance use prevention and mental health services for COVID-19 long haulers should attend to personal mastery and social support.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Substance use, psychiatric symptoms, personal mastery, and social support among COVID-19 long haulers: A compensatory model
• PARA-DIPLOMACY IN TIME OF COVID-19: JAKARTA REGIONAL GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES IN HOSTING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP -
  The Novel Corona Virus Disease or COVID-19 has caused unprecedented huge impacts and affected all aspects of governance including the relations among countries. Amid the crisis, sub-national governments have demonstrated their international engagements and innovations in order to respond to the pandemic. Jakarta as the largest city and the capital city of the Republic of Indonesia became the national attention in early of the pandemic due to its functional position as the main gate of international mobility. However, the region held an international event called the International Youth Championship while the pandemic still existed. This research aimed to describe the region’s objectives to carry out the event as a para-diplomacy practice. This research applied the qualitative research method with a descriptive analysis. In addition, the research utilized para-diplomacy concept as a theoretical tool to help describe such objectives. This research found that the regional government had a number of objectives in hosting the event; promoting the success of handing the COVID-19, promoting sports tourism in the post-pandemic, and introducing a new ‘green’ icon of the region. Those objectives belong to the economic and cultural dimension of para-diplomacy. This paper argues that Indonesian para-diplomacy is an asset inasmuch as the national government can harvest benefits from sub-national governments’ para-diplomatic activities.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: PARA-DIPLOMACY IN TIME OF COVID-19: JAKARTA REGIONAL GOVERNMENT’S OBJECTIVES IN HOSTING INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIP
• The dynamic relationship between COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations across time and space: considerations for model training data sets -

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, wastewater-based surveillance has been used alongside diagnostic testing to monitor infection rates. With the decline in cases reported to public health departments due to at-home testing, wastewater data may serve as the primary input for epidemiological models, but training these models is not straightforward. We explored factors affecting noise and bias in the ratio between wastewater and case data collected in 26 sewersheds in California from October 2020 to March 2022. The strength of the relationship between wastewater and case data appeared dependent on sampling frequency and population size, but was not increased by wastewater normalization to flow rate or case count normalization to testing rates. Additionally, the lead and lag times between wastewater and case data varied over time and space, and the ratio of log-transformed individual cases to wastewater concentrations changed over time. This ratio increased sequentially in the Epsilon/Alpha, Delta, and Omicron BA.1 variant surges of COVID-19 and was also related to the diagnostic testing rate. Based on this analysis, we present a framework of scenarios describing the dynamics of the case to wastewater ratio to aid in data handling decisions for ongoing modeling efforts.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: The dynamic relationship between COVID-19 cases and SARS-CoV-2 wastewater concentrations across time and space: considerations for model training data sets
• An Early SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Outbreak in a Dormitory in Saint-Petersburg, Russia -

  The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has rapidly spread globally in late 2021 - early 2022, displacing the previously prevalent Delta variant. Before December 16, 2021, community transmission had already been observed in tens of countries globally. However, in Russia, the majority of reported cases at that time had been sporadic and associated with travel. Here, we report an Omicron outbreak at a student dormitory in Saint Petersburg between December 16 - 29, 2021, which was the earliest known instance of large-scale community transmission in Russia. Out of the 465 sampled residents of the dormitory, 180 (38.7%) tested PCR positive. Among the 118 residents for whom the variant has been tested by whole-genome sequencing, 111 (94.1%) carried the Omicron variant. Among these 111 residents, 60 (54.1%) were vaccinated or had reported previous COVID-19. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the outbreak was caused by a single introduction of the BA.1.1 sublineage of Omicron. The dormitory-derived clade constituted a significant proportion of BA.1.1 samples in Saint-Petersburg and has spread to other regions of Russia and other countries. The rapid spread of Omicron in a population with preexisting immunity to previous variants underlines its propensity for immune evasion.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: An Early SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Outbreak in a Dormitory in Saint-Petersburg, Russia
• Assessment of Attitude and Hesitancy Towards Covid-19 Vaccine among Hepatitis B and C Patients in Pakistan -

  OBJECTIVE: The research aimed to evaluate the attitude and perceptions towards the covid-19 vaccine among Hepatitis B and C patients in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Muzaffarabad, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. METHODS: A survey-based study was adopted to evaluate the attitude of Hepatitis B and C patients towards immunization against covid-19 in Peshawar (KPK) and Muzaffarabad (AJK) cities of Pakistan. The study continued from January 2020 to February 2021. Participants were also assessed for their perception towards covid-19 vaccination. RESULTS: A total of 839 (33.6%) individuals participated in the study. About 52 % of Hepatitis B patients were immunized against Covid-19, whereas the number of Hepatitis C patients was recorded at around 48%. About 53.7 % of participants refused to get the vaccine without any reason. About 63.2% of patients showed concern about the insufficient data available on the vaccine safety and efficacy published by the Public Health Department. Individuals with higher education were observed to be more open towards vaccination then those without a formal education. More than half of the participants (61.5 %) were concerned about the interference of the vaccine with their hepatitis treatment whereas 54.7 % patients refused vaccine because of a poor liver condition. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicated that limited data availability regarding the vaccine efficacy in viral hepatitis patients and negative attitudes of people toward covid-19 vaccination is the main cause of Covid-19 vaccination refusal among hepatitis B and C patients. DESCRIPTORS: Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, covid-19, immunization, vaccine refusal, Pakistan.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: Assessment of Attitude and Hesitancy Towards Covid-19 Vaccine among Hepatitis B and C Patients in Pakistan
• An FcRn-targeted mucosal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission -
  SARS-CoV-2 and its variants cause COVID-19, which is primarily transmitted through droplets and airborne aerosols. To prevent viral infection and reduce viral spread, vaccine strategies must elicit protective immunity in the airways. FcRn transfers IgG across epithelial barriers; we explore FcRn-mediated respiratory delivery of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S). A monomeric IgG Fc was fused to a stabilized S protein; the resulting S-Fc bound to S-specific antibodies (Ab) and FcRn. A significant increase in Ab responses was observed following the intranasal immunization of mice with S-Fc formulated in CpG as compared to the immunization with S alone or PBS. Furthermore, we intranasally immunize adult or aged mice and hamsters with S-Fc. A significant reduction of virus replication in nasal turbinate, lung, and brain was observed following nasal challenges with SARS-CoV-2, including Delta and Omicron variants. Intranasal immunization also significantly reduced viral transmission between immunized and naive hamsters. Protection was mediated by nasal IgA, serum-neutralizing Abs, tissue-resident memory T cells, and bone marrow S-specific plasma cells. Hence FcRn delivers an S-Fc antigen effectively into the airway and induces protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission. Based on these findings, FcRn-targeted non-invasive respiratory immunizations are superior strategies for preventing highly contagious respiratory viruses from spreading.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: An FcRn-targeted mucosal vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission
• Mapping the content of comments on bioRxiv and medRxiv preprints -
  Introduction: Preprints have been increasingly used in biomedical sciences, providing the opportunity for research to be publicly assessed before journal publication. With the increase in attention over preprints during the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to assess the content of comments left on preprint platforms. Methods: Preprints posted on bioRxiv and medRxiv in 2020 were accessed through each platform’s API, and a random sample of preprints that had received between 1 and 20 comments was analyzed. Comments were evaluated in triplicate by independent evaluators using an instrument that assessed their features and general content. Results: 7.3% of preprints received at least 1 comment during a mean follow-up of 7.5 months. Analyzed comments had a median size of 43 words. Criticisms, corrections or suggestions were the most prevalent type of content, followed by compliments or positive appraisals and questions. Most critical comments regarded interpretation, data collection and methodological design, while compliments were usually about relevance and implications. Conclusions: Only a small percentage of preprints posted in 2020 in bioRxiv and medRxiv received comments in these platforms. When present, however, these comments address content that is similar to that analyzed by traditional peer review. A more precise taxonomy of peer review functions would be desirable to describe whether post-publication peer review fulfills these roles.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Mapping the content of comments on bioRxiv and medRxiv preprints
• SARS-CoV-2 evolves increased infection elicited cell death and fusion in an immunosuppressed individual -

  The milder clinical manifestations of Omicron infection relative to pre-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 raises the possibility that extensive evolution results in reduced pathogenicity. To test this hypothesis, we quantified induction of cell fusion and cell death in SARS-CoV-2 evolved from ancestral virus during long-term infection. Both cell fusion and death were reduced in Omicron BA.1 infection relative to ancestral virus. Evolved virus was isolated at different times during a 6-month infection in an immunosuppressed individual with advanced HIV disease. The virus isolated 16 days post-reported symptom onset induced fusogenicity and cell death at levels similar to BA.1. However, fusogenicity was increased in virus isolated at 6 months post-symptoms to levels intermediate between BA.1 and ancestral SARS-CoV-2. Similarly, infected cell death showed a graded increase from earlier to later isolates. These results may indicate that, at least by the cellular measures used here, evolution in long-term infection does not necessarily attenuate the virus.

  🖺 Full Text HTML: SARS-CoV-2 evolves increased infection elicited cell death and fusion in an immunosuppressed individual
• Rapid Real-time Squiggle Classification for Read Until Using RawMap -
  ReadUntil enables Oxford Nanopore Technology’s (ONT) sequencers to selectively sequence reads of target species in real-time. This enables efficient microbial enrichment for applications such as microbial abundance estimation and is particularly beneficial for metagenomic samples with a very high fraction of non-target reads (> 99% can be human reads). Read-until, however, requires a fast and accurate software filter that analyzes a short prefix of a read and determines if it belongs to a microbe of interest (target) or not. The baseline Read Until pipeline uses a deep neural network-based basecaller called Guppy and is slow and inaccurate for this task (60% of bases sequenced are unclassified). We present RawMap, an efficient CPU-only microbial species-agnostic Read Until classifier for filtering non-target human reads in the squiggle space. RawMap uses a Support Vector Machine (SVM), which is trained to distinguish human from microbe using non-linear and non-stationary characteristics of ONT’s squiggle output (continuous electrical signals). Compared to the baseline Read Until pipeline, RawMap is 1327X faster and significantly improve the sequencing time and cost, and compute time savings. We show that RawMap augmented pipelines reduce sequencing time and cost by 23.79% and computing cost by 22%. Additionally, since RawMap is agnostic to microbial species, it can also classify microbial species it is not trained on. We also discuss how RawMap may be used as an alternative to the RT-PCR test for viral load quantification of SARS-CoV-2.
  🖺 Full Text HTML: Rapid Real-time Squiggle Classification for Read Until Using RawMap

From Clinical Trials

• A Study on Voluntary Routine COVID-19 Self-testing in Mizoram, India. - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Diagnostic Test: COVID-19 Self testing and related messaging
  Sponsors:   PATH;   UNITAID;   Zoram Medical College (ZMC);   Pacchunga University College;   Association for Leprosy Education Rehabilitation & Treatment India (ALERT India);   Government of Mizoram
  Not yet recruiting

• A Study to Evaluate EDP-235 in Non-hospitalized Adults With COVID-19 - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: EDP-235;   Drug: Placebo
  Sponsor:   Enanta Pharmaceuticals, Inc
  Recruiting

• Study of RAY1216 Tablets Compared With Placebo in Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 - Condition:   Mild to Moderate COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: RAY1216;   Drug: Placebo
  Sponsor:   Guangdong Raynovent Biotech Co., Ltd
  Not yet recruiting

• The LAVA (Lateral Flow Antigen Validation and Applicability) 2 Study for COVID-19 - Condition:   SARS-CoV-2 Infection
  Intervention:   Diagnostic Test: Innova Lateral Flow Test
  Sponsor:   Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  Completed

• Q-POC SARS-CoV-2 Assay COVID-19 Clinical Evaluation - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Diagnostic Test: RT-PCR Test;   Diagnostic Test: Real-time PCR Test
  Sponsors:   QuantuMDx Group Ltd;   EDP Biotech;   Paragon Rx Clinical;   PathAI;   PRX Research and Development
  Not yet recruiting

• Acute Rehabilitation in Patients With COVID-19 Pneumonia - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Rehabilitation;   Physical Medicine
  Intervention:   Procedure: Acute rehabilitation program
  Sponsor:   Institut za Rehabilitaciju Sokobanjska Beograd
  Recruiting

• Enhancing Protection Against Influenza and COVID-19 for Pregnant Women and Medically at Risk Children - Conditions:   Influenza;   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Behavioral: Nudge
  Sponsor:   University of Adelaide
  Recruiting

• A Trial Evaluate the Immunogenicity and Safety of Recombinant COVID-19 Omicron-Delta Variant Vaccine (CHO Cell) - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Biological: Omicron-Delta Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Protein Vaccine (CHO cells);   Biological: Recombinant Novel Coronavirus Protein Vaccine (CHO cells)
  Sponsor:   Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biologic Pharmacy Co., Ltd.
  Recruiting

• COVID-19 Antibody Responses in Cystic Fibrosis - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Cystic Fibrosis
  Intervention:   Biological: Blood sample
  Sponsors:   Hospices Civils de Lyon;   Queen’s University, Belfast
  Recruiting

• Message Communicating Latest Data on COVID Transmission in Patient’s Area - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Behavioral: COVID Booster text messages
  Sponsor:   University of Pennsylvania
  Enrolling by invitation

• Message From Local Pharmacy Team - Condition:   COVID-19
  Intervention:   Behavioral: COVID Booster text messages
  Sponsor:   University of Pennsylvania
  Enrolling by invitation

• Safety, Tolerability, and Immunogenicity of Trivalent Coronavirus Vaccine Candidate VBI-2901e With E6020 Adjuvant - Conditions:   COVID-19;   Coronavirus Infections
  Intervention:   Biological: VBI-2901e
  Sponsor:   VBI Vaccines Inc.
  Not yet recruiting

• Dietary Modulation of Gut Microbiota in Overweight/Obese Adolescents and COVID-19 Infection - Conditions:   Health Behavior;   Child Development;   Adolescent Obesity
  Interventions:   Dietary Supplement: Probiotics;   Behavioral: Counselling on healthy eating, physical activity, and psychosocial stimulation;   Dietary Supplement: Placebo probiotics
  Sponsors:   Indonesia University;   Gadjah Mada University;   Universitas Airlangga;   University of Melbourne;   The Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education, Ministry of Finance Indonesia
  Recruiting

• Phonation Therapy to Improve Symptoms and Lung Physiology in Patients Referred for Pulmonary Rehabilitation - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Behavioral: Tonation Breathing Techniques;   Behavioral: Music Driven Vocal Exercises;   Behavioral: Silent Breathing
  Sponsor:   MetroHealth Medical Center
  Recruiting

• Canadian Adaptive Platform Trial of Treatments for COVID in Community Settings - Condition:   COVID-19
  Interventions:   Drug: Paxlovid;   Drug: Other;   Other: Other
  Sponsors:   Unity Health Toronto;   Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR);   Health Canada
  Not yet recruiting

From PubMed

• Safety and immunogenicity of a third dose of COVID-19 protein subunit vaccine (Covovax^TM) after homologous and heterologous two-dose regimens - CONCLUSION: The protein subunit vaccine (Covovax^(TM)) can be proposed as a booster dose after two different priming dose regimens. It has strong immunogenicity and good safety profiles.

• Human 14-3-3 proteins site-selectively bind the mutational hotspot region of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein modulating its phosphoregulation - Phosphorylation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein recruits human cytosolic 14-3-3 proteins playing a well-recognized role in replication of many viruses. Here we use genetic code expansion to demonstrate that 14-3-3 binding is triggered by phosphorylation of SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein at either of two pseudo-repeats centered at Ser197 and Thr205. According to fluorescence anisotropy, the pT205-motif,presentin SARS-CoV-2 but not in SARS-CoV, is preferred over the pS197-motif by all seven human 14-3-3…

• Antiviral activity of amiodarone in SARS-CoV-2 disease - Amiodarone seems to exhibit some antiviral activity in the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. Here we have examined the SARS-CoV-2 disease course in the entire population of the Czech Republic and compared it with the course of the disease in patients treated with amiodarone in two major Prague’s hospitals. In the whole population of the Czech Republic SARS-CoV-2 infected 1665070 persons (15.6 %) out of 10694000 (100 %) between 1 April 2020 and 30 June 2021. In the same time period only 35 patients…

• Treatment of Advanced Systemic Mastocytosis with Midostaurin: Practical Guidance for Optimal Therapy and Management - Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare disease with a range of clinical presentations, and the vast majority of patients have a KIT D816V mutation that results in a gain of function. The multikinase/KIT inhibitor midostaurin inhibits the D816V mutant and has a well-established role in treating advanced SM. Even if considered the standard of therapy, some open questions remain on optimizing midostaurin management in daily practice. The current review presents the opinions of a group of experts who…

• Computational search for potential COVID-19 drugs from ayurvedic medicinal plants to identify potential inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 targets - CONCLUSION: Molecular ADMET profile estimation showed that the docked phytochemicals were safe. The present study suggested that active phytochemicals from medicinal plants could inhibit RdRp and spike protein of SARS-CoV-2.

• CD147 contributes to SARS-CoV-2-induced pulmonary fibrosis - COVID-19 patients can develop clinical and histopathological features associated with fibrosis, but the pathogenesis of fibrosis remains poorly understood. CD147 has been identified as a universal receptor for SARS-CoV-2 and its variants, which could initiate COVID-19-related cytokine storm. Here, we systemically analyzed lung pathogenesis in SARS-CoV-2- and its delta variant-infected humanized CD147 transgenic mice. Histopathology and Transmission Electron Microscopy revealed inflammation,…

• Rational Design and Synthesis of D-galactosyl Lysophospholipids as Selective Substrates and non-ATP-competitive Inhibitors of Phosphatidylinositol Phosphate Kinases - Phosphatidylinositol phosphate kinases (PIPKs) produce lipid signaling molecules and have been attracting increasing attention as drug targets for cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and viral infection. Given the potential cross-inhibition of kinases and other ATP-utilizing enzymes by ATP-competitive inhibitors, targeting the unique lipid substrate binding site represents a superior strategy for PIPK inhibition. Here, by taking advantage of the nearly identical stereochemistry between…

• Inhibition of p38 signaling curtails the SARS-CoV-2 induced inflammatory response but retains the IFN-dependent antiviral defense of the lung epithelial barrier - SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent of the immune response-driven disease COVID-19 for which new antiviral and anti-inflammatory treatments are urgently needed to reduce recovery time, risk of death and long COVID development. Here, we demonstrate that the immunoregulatory kinase p38 MAPK is activated during viral entry, mediated by the viral spike protein, and drives the harmful virus-induced inflammatory responses. Using primary human lung explants and lung epithelial organoids, we demonstrate…

• Nanobody derived using a peptide epitope from the Spike protein receptor-binding motif inhibits entry of SARS-CoV-2 variants - The emergence of new escape mutants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has escalated its penetration among the human population and has reinstated its status as a global pandemic. Therefore, developing effective antiviral therapy against emerging SARS-CoV variants and other viruses in a short period of time becomes essential. Blocking SARS-CoV-2 entry into human host cells by disrupting the Spike glycoprotein-angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) interaction has already been exploited for vaccine…

• Xuanfei Baidu formula alleviates impaired mitochondrial dynamics and activated NLRP3 inflammasome by repressing NF-κB and MAPK pathways in LPS-induced ALI and inflammation models - CONCLUSION: In this study, we demonstrate that XBF exerts anti-ALI and -inflammatory effects by recovering mitochondrial dynamics and reducing inflammasome activation, providing a biological illustration of the clinical efficacy of XBF in treating COVID-19 patients.

• Computational investigation of natural compounds as potential main protease (M^pro) inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 virus - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is significantly impacting human lives, overburdening the healthcare system and weakening global economies. Plant-derived natural compounds are being largely tested for their efficacy against COVID-19 targets to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection. The SARS-CoV-2 Main protease (M^(pro)) is considered an appealing target because of its role in replication in host cells. We curated a set…

• IFITM3 Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Is Associated with COVID-19 Susceptibility - SARS-CoV-2 has become a global threat to public health. Infected individuals can be asymptomatic or develop mild to severe symptoms, including pneumonia, respiratory distress, and death. This wide spectrum of clinical presentations of SARS-CoV-2 infection is believed in part due to the polymorphisms of key genetic factors in the population. In this study, we report that the interferon-induced antiviral factor IFITM3 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection by preventing SARS-CoV-2 spike-protein-mediated…

• Prevention and Treatment of Monkeypox: A Systematic Review of Preclinical Studies - The outbreak of monkeypox, coupled with the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic is a critical communicable disease. This study aimed to systematically identify and review research done on preclinical studies focusing on the potential monkeypox treatment and immunization. The presented juxtaposition of efficacy of potential treatments and vaccination that had been tested in preclinical trials could serve as a useful primer of monkeypox virus. The literature identified using key terms such as…

• Antiviral activity of nano-monocaprin against Phi6 as a surrogate for SARS-CoV-2 - The COVID-19 pandemic involving SARS-CoV-2 has raised interest in using antimicrobial lipid formulations to inhibit viral entry into their host cells or to inactivate them. Lipids are a part of the innate defense mechanism against pathogens. Here, we evaluated the use of nano-monocaprin (NMC) in inhibiting enveloped (phi6) and unenveloped (MS2) bacteriophages. NMC was prepared using the sonochemistry technique. Size and morphology analysis revealed the formation of ~ 8.4 ± 0.2-nm NMC as measured…

• Antiviral Properties of Pennisetum purpureum Extract against Coronaviruses and Enteroviruses - Many severe epidemics are caused by enteroviruses (EVs) and coronaviruses (CoVs), including feline coronavirus (FCoV) in cats, epidemic diarrhea disease virus (PEDV) in pigs, infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in chickens, and EV71 in human. Vaccines and antiviral drugs are used to prevent and treat the infection of EVs and CoVs, but the effectiveness is affected due to rapidly changing RNA viruses. Many plant extracts have been proven to have antiviral properties despite the continuous mutations…

From Patent Search