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<title>12 December, 2023</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
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<li><strong>CITY LEADERSHIP IN PARA-DIPLOMACY: DRIVERS OF JAKARTA’S INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT IN ADDRESSING COVID-19 PANDEMIC</strong> -
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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted all the world’s aspects, including the interactions among governments. While some either chose to conflict with others or overlooked the pandemic, the rest attempted to collaborate in addressing the new global threat. Mega-cities in many countries were the most suffering regions due to the enormous virus-confirmed cases, deaths, and economic declines, intertwining with other urban issues. As the largest city in Southeast Asia and Indonesia, Jakarta also experienced an unprecedented crisis. However, apart from the efforts to tackle the crisis at home, the city showed its international engagement in addressing the issue together with other world cities as its para-diplomacy. This research aimed to answer the driving factors encouraging the city for such engagement. This research employed the qualitative method with descriptive analysis and the city leadership theory proposed by Rapoport, Acuto, and Grcheva. This research found that Jakarta’s international engagement in addressing the pandemic as the city leadership action was driven by the role of city leader, decentralization and global city networking, and the regional COVID-19 policies and internet representing three elements in the theory: actor, structures, and tools. This paper argues that cities within the global city networking have demonstrated their stronger role during the pandemic, providing opportunities for nation branding by regional initiatives in handling the pandemic in addition to state foreign policy. As cities have been more consolidated within the networks, seeing the city leadership in responding to global issues merits attention among scholars.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/6f3j5/" target="_blank">CITY LEADERSHIP IN PARA-DIPLOMACY: DRIVERS OF JAKARTA’S INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENT IN ADDRESSING COVID-19 PANDEMIC</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Restoring Protein Glycosylation with GlycoShape</strong> -
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<div>
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During the past few years we have been witnessing a revolution in structural biology. Leveraging on technological and computational advances, scientists can now resolve biomolecular structures at the atomistic level of detail by cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and predict 3D structures from sequence alone by machine learning (ML). One technique often supports the other to provide the view of atoms in molecules required to capture the function of molecular machines. An example of the extraordinary impact of these advances on scientific discovery and on public health is given by how structural information supported the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines based on the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein. Yet, none of these new technologies can capture the details of the dense coat of glycans covering S, which is responsible for its natural, biologically active structure and function and ultimately for viral evasion. Indeed, glycosylation, the most abundant post-translational modification of proteins, is largely invisible through experimental structural biology and in turn it cannot be reproduced by ML, because of the lack of data to learn from. Molecular simulations through high-performance computing (HPC) can fill this crucial information gap, yet the computational resources, the users skills and the long timescales involved limit applications of molecular modelling to single study cases. To broaden access to structural information on glycans, here we introduce GlycoShape (https://glycoshape.org) an open access (OA) glycan structure database and toolbox designed to restore glycoproteins to their native functional form by supplementing the structural information available on proteins in public repositories, such as the RCSB PDB (www.rcsb.org) and AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (https://alphafold.ebi.ac.uk/), with the missing glycans derived from over 1 ms of cumulative sampling from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The GlycoShape Glycan Database (GDB) currently counts over 435 unique glycans principally covering the human glycome and with additional structures, fragments and epitopes from other eukaryotic and prokaryotic organisms. The GDB feeds into Re-Glyco, a bespoke algorithm in GlycoShape designed to rapidly restore the natural glycosylation to protein 3D structures and to predict N-glycosylation occupancy, where unknown. Ultimately, integration of GlycoShape with other OA protein structure databases can provide a much needed step-change in scientific discovery, from the structural and functional characterization of the active form of biomolecules, all the way down to pharmacological applications and drug discovery.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.11.571101v1" target="_blank">Restoring Protein Glycosylation with GlycoShape</a>
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<li><strong>Online holistic program to foster health amongst students: a pilot study in a Portuguese University during COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, several preventive mental health interventions took place to increase the psychological well-being of university students due to the high levels of stress, anxiety and negative emotions experienced in that period. This context reinforced the role of universities in supporting students and preventing the mental health risk factors they faced. In this context a multidisciplinary team of professionals (psychologists, nurses, nutritionists, and artists) in the Portuguese Catholic University, gathered efforts and developed an holistic intervention program for university students based on a mind and body integrated approach. This program of 8 online sessions aims to improve students’ resilience to the psychosocial consequences of COVID-19 pandemic and promote their wellbeing. The twenty university students that participated in this pilot study reported that this intervention improved their emotional self-awareness, their ability to apply self-care strategies, as well as they believed it promoted healthier lifestyle changes. These findings suggest that this program consists in an innovative approach with the potential to promote the psychological health and well-being of university students in adverse circumstances.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/a2f5y/" target="_blank">Online holistic program to foster health amongst students: a pilot study in a Portuguese University during COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant</strong> -
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<div>
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The SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 lineage, first identified in August 2023, is phylogenetically distinct from the currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB lineages, including EG.5.1 and HK.3. Comparing to XBB and BA.2, BA.2.86 carries more than 30 mutations in the spike (S) protein, indicating a high potential for immune evasion. BA.2.86 has evolved and its descendant, JN.1 (BA.2.86.1.1), emerged in late 2023. JN.1 harbors S:L455S and three mutations in non-S proteins. S:L455S is a hallmark mutation of JN.1: we have recently shown that HK.3 and other "FLip" variants carry S:L455F, which contributes to increased transmissibility and immune escape ability compared to the parental EG.5.1 variant. Here, we investigated the virological properties of JN.1.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.08.570782v1" target="_blank">Virological characteristics of the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant</a>
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<li><strong>Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</strong> -
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COVID-19 remains a leading cause of mortality in the U.S., despite widespread availability of vaccines. Conventional wisdom ties failure to vaccinate primarily to vaccine-skeptic beliefs (e.g., conspiracy theories, partisanship). Yet in this research, we find that vaccination is also hindered by travel distance to vaccine sites (a form of friction, or structural barriers). In study 1, Californians living farther from vaccine sites had lower vaccination rates, and this effect held regardless of partisanship. In study 2, Chicago zip codes saw an uptick in vaccination following vaccine site opening. These results proved robust in multiverse analyses accounting for a wide range of covariates, outcomes, and distance indicators. COVID-19 vaccination is hampered not just by vaccine hesitancy, but also structural barriers like distance. Efforts to boost vaccination could benefit from minimizing friction.
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</div>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/mux5s/" target="_blank">Distance to Vaccine Sites is Associated with Lower COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</strong> -
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and associated severity has been linked to uncontrolled inflammation and may be associated with changes in the microbiome of mucosal sites including the gastrointestinal tract and oral cavity. These sites play an important role in host-microbe homeostasis and disruption of epithelial barrier integrity during COVID-19 may potentially lead to exacerbated inflammation and immune dysfunction. Outcomes in COVID-19 are highly disparate, ranging from asymptomatic to fatal, and the impact of microbial dysbiosis on disease severity is unclear. Here, we obtained plasma, rectal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, and nasal swabs from 86 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and 12 healthy volunteers. We performed 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the microbial communities in the mucosal swabs and measured circulating cytokines, markers of gut barrier integrity, and fatty acids in the plasma samples. We compared these plasma concentrations and microbiomes between healthy volunteers and the COVID-19 patients who had survived or unfortunately died by the end of study enrollment, and between severe disease and healthy controls, as well as performed a correlation analysis between plasma variables and bacterial abundances. The rectal swabs of COVID-19 patients had reduced abundances of several commensal bacteria including Faecalibacterium prausnitsii, and an increased abundance of the opportunistic pathogens Eggerthella lenta and Hungatella hathewayi. Furthermore, the oral pathogen Scardovia wiggsiae was more abundant in the oropharyngeal swabs of COVID-19 patients who died. The abundance of both H. hathewayi and S. wiggsiae correlated with circulating inflammatory markers including IL-6, highlighting the possible role of the microbiome in COVID-19 severity, and providing potential therapeutic targets for managing COVID-19.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.07.570670v1" target="_blank">SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with intestinal permeability, systemic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients</a>
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<li><strong>Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</strong> -
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This study investigates the impact of remote work adoption on the size and competitiveness of cities in the United States. As a contribution to the ongoing debate sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic, the research initially establishes city-specific upper-bound measures of potential remote work adoption, utilizing the share of employment in remotely-performable occupations for each city. Subsequently, it employs a Quantitative Spatial Economic model, incorporating shipping and commuting costs, to assess the counterfactual effects that these potential levels of remote work adoption would have on population distribution across US cities. Model predictions indicate that upon full remote-work adoption, only select highly productive cities would grow in size and productivity, tothe detriment of the majority of locations. Nevertheless, the emerging spatial equilibrium yields generalized welfare gains characterized by reduced markups in larger cities, extending even to shrinking cities through the pro-competitive effect of trade. The findings suggest a policy-relevant dual role of remote work, concurrently enhancing welfare while reinforcing agglomeration and inequality across cities.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/krnzq/" target="_blank">Effects of remote work on population distribution across cities: US evidence from a QSE model</a>
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<li><strong>Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</strong> -
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The “Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on NIMH Patients and Volunteers” study was a longitudinal study launched in spring 2020 by researchers at NIMH, to investigate the effect of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. For each participant, the study collected personal characteristics, such as demographics, psychological traits, and clinical history, together with personal circumstances at regular intervals during their enrollment in the study. In this paper, we examine the degree to which a variety of mental health outcomes over time for an individual can be predicted from personal characteristics and their changing circumstances, using regression models trained on other study participants. We find that it is possible to predict the variation of a participant’s mental health outcomes from time point to time point, for most of the outcomes we consider. This capability is dominated by information about the primary outcome measures that were collected at the time of study enrollment but can be improved by considering personal characteristics and circumstances.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/7enqw/" target="_blank">Prediction of mental well-being from individual characteristics and circumstances during the COVID-19 pandemic</a>
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<li><strong>Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</strong> -
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To appear in: Colleen M. Flood, Y.Y. Brandon Chen, Raywat Deonandan, Sam Halabi, and Sophie Thériault (eds.) Pandemics, Public Health, and the Regulation of Borders: Lessons from COVID-19 (Routledge, forthcoming). This version: August 2023. Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic saw the creation of a wide array of digital infrastructures, underpinning both digital and paper systems, for proving attributes such as vaccination, test results or recovery. These systems were hotly debated. Yet this debate often failed to connect their social, technical and legal aspects, focussing on one area to the exclusion of the others. In this paper, I seek to bring them together. I argue that fraud-free “vaccination certificate” systems were a technical and social pipe-dream, but one that was primarily advantageous to organisations wishing to establish and own infrastructure for future ambitions as verification platforms. Furthermore, attempts to include features to ostensibly reduce fraud had, and risks further, broader knock-on effects on local digital infrastructures around the world, particularly in countries with low IT capacities easily captured by large firms and de facto excluded from and by global standardisation processes. The paper further reflects on the role of privacy in these debates, and how privacy, and more specifically confidentiality, was misconstrued as a main design aim of these systems, when the main social problems could manifest even in a system built with state of the art privacy-enhancing technologies. The COVID-19 pandemic should sharpen our senses towards the importance of infrastructures, and more broadly, how to use technologies in societies in crises.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/h24uv/" target="_blank">Verification Theatre at Borders and in Pockets</a>
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<li><strong>Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</strong> -
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of biosafety in the biomedical sciences. While it is often assumed that biosafety is purely technical matter that has little to do with philosophy or the humanities, biosafety raises important ethical issues that have not been adequately examined in the scientific or bioethics literature. This article reviews some pivotal events in the history of biosafety and biosecurity and explores three different biosafety topics that generate significant ethical concerns, i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk distribution. The article also discusses the role of democratic governance in the oversight of biosafety and offers some suggestions for incorporating bioethics into biosafety practice, education, and policy.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/cjf2u/" target="_blank">Biosafety, Biosecurity, and Bioethics</a>
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<li><strong>COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</strong> -
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The COVID-19 is a social disaster that has affected the operation of judicial systems globally. Access to justice is a vital right that ensures all other rights can be upheld. This study investigates how national lockdown affected the operation of family courts and children’s access to justice in Morocco. National lockdowns were enforced between March 21th and June 10th 2020 in response to the spread of coronavirus. The general closure of civil society was not extended to the judicial system and family courts were expected to continue operating and provide access to protection and justice. How well the court system mentioned to function under the constraints of stay-at-home orders is an open question. To investigate the impact of the national COVID-19 lockdown on family court systems and access to justice for children in Morocco this study used publicly available court filings (N= 77,335) pertaining to child abuse and neglect from 1st January 2020 to 30th December 2020 spanning the pre-lockdown, lockdown, and post-lockdown periods. Interrupted time series analysis was conducted to assess the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on court filing outcomes across different case types including penal, civil, complaints, and reports at the national, regional, and court level, controlling for time trends and regional fixed effects. National lockdowns were associated with decrease in cases filed and an increase in the percentages of cases with delays. Average case length differed by case type. Post-lockdown, case numbers recovered however there was large weekly variation likely due to rolling regional lockdowns. Evidence suggests that national lockdowns had a significant adverse impact on the judicial systems ability to provide access to justice for children.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/bf8vt/" target="_blank">COVID-19 Lockdowns and Children’s Access to Justice: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis of Moroccan Family court filings</a>
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<li><strong>From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</strong> -
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Emerging evidence suggests that certain microorganisms, including viral infections, may contribute to the onset and/or progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a neurodegenerative condition characterized by memory impairment and cognitive decline. However, the precise extent of their involvement and the underlying mechanisms through which specific viruses increase AD susceptibility risk remain elusive. We used an integrative systems bioinformatics approach to identity viral-mediated pathogenic mechanisms by which specific viral species, namely Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (HSV-1), Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV), Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), Kaposi Sarcoma-associated Herpesvirus (KSHV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), Influenza A virus (IAV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), could facilitate the pathogenesis of AD via virus-host protein-protein interactions (PPIs). We also sought to uncover potential synergistic pathogenic effects resulting from the reactivation of specific herpesviruses (HSV-1, HCMV and EBV) during acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, potentially increasing AD susceptibility. Our findings show that Herpesviridae Family members (HSV-1, EBV, KSHV, HCMV) impact AD-related processes like amyloid-beta formation, neuronal death, and autophagy. Hepatitis viruses (HBV, HCV) influence processes crucial for cellular homeostasis and dysfunction. Importantly, hepatitis viruses affect microglia activation via virus-host PPIs. Reactivation of HCMV during SARS-CoV-2 infection could potentially foster a lethal interplay of neurodegeneration, via synergistic pathogenic effects on AD-related processes like response to unfolded protein, regulation of autophagy, response to oxidative stress and amyloid-beta formation. Collectively, these findings underscore the complex link between viral infections and AD development. Perturbations in AD-related processes by viruses can arise from both shared and distinct mechanisms among viral species in different categories, potentially influencing variations in AD susceptibility.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570187v1" target="_blank">From Viral Infections to Alzheimer’s Disease: Unveiling the Mechanistic Links Through Systems Bioinformatics</a>
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<li><strong>In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</strong> -
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The recent global COVID-19 outbreak, attributed by the World Health Organization to the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), underscores the need for an extensive exploration of virological intricacies, fundamental pathophysiology, and immune responses. This investigation is vital to unearth potential therapeutic avenues and preventive strategies. Our study delves into the intricate interaction between SARS-CoV-2 and the immune system, coupled with exploring therapeutic interventions to counteract dysfunctional immune responses like the 'cytokine storm' (CS), a driver of disease progression. Understanding these immunological dimensions informs the design of precise multiepitope-targeted peptide vaccines using advanced immunoinformatics and equips us with tools to confront the cytokine storm. Employing a control theory-based approach, we scrutinize the perturbed behavior of key proteins associated with cytokine storm during COVID-19 infection. Our findings support ACE2 activation as a potential drug target for CS control and confirm AT1R inhibition as an alternative strategy. Leveraging deep learning, we identify potential drugs to individually target ACE2 and AT1R, with Lomefloxacin and Fostamatinib emerging as standout options due to their close interaction with ACE2. Their stability within the protein-drug complex suggests superior efficacy among many drugs from our deep-learning analysis. Moreover, there is a significant scope for optimization in fine-tuning protein-drug interactions. Strong binding alone may not be the sole determining factor for potential drugs; precise adjustments are essential. The application of advanced computational power offers novel solutions, circumventing time-consuming lab work. In scenarios necessitating both ACE2 and AT1R targeting, optimal drug combinations can be derived from our analysis of drug-drug interactions, as detailed in the manuscript.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570280v1" target="_blank">In Silico Therapeutic Intervention on Cytokine Storm in COVID-19</a>
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<li><strong>COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</strong> -
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The authors reanalyzed the data and conducted a close replication of a study by Georgiou et al. (2020), who found amongst 660 (reported in abstract) or 640 (reported in participant section) participants that 1) COVID-19 related conspiracy theory beliefs were strongly related to broader conspiracy theory beliefs, that 2) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were higher in those with lower levels of education, and that 3) COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs were positively (although weakly) correlated with more negative attitudes towards different individual items measuring the government’s response. Finally, Georgiou et al. (2020) found that 4) COVID-19 beliefs were unrelated to self-reported stress. Reanalyzing their data and adjusting the analytical framework, the authors only found that an average of attitudes towards the appropriateness of the government response towards the pandemic was negatively related to conspiracy beliefs in general (not just COVID-19). In the present replication and extension study, random forest analyses show that attitude towards government responses (like the original study), stress (unlike the original study), and attachment avoidance towards the partner (unlike the original study) are the most important predictors of conspiracy beliefs. However, the explained variance of the whole random forest model (3.5-7.5%) was low and model fit of the presently and widely used conspiracy belief inventories was poor. Measurement error is a likely explanation for the differences between the original and replication study and independent development-validation studies therefore need to be conducted to better measure conspiracy beliefs.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/t62s7/" target="_blank">COVID-19-related conspiracy beliefs and their relationship with perceived stress and pre-existing conspiracy beliefs in a Prolific Academic sample: A replication and extension of Georgiou et al. (2020)</a>
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<li><strong>Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</strong> -
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COVID-19, currently prevalent worldwide, is caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. Similar to other RNA viruses, SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve through random mutations, creating numerous variants, such as Alpha, Beta, and Delta. It is, therefore, necessary to predict the mutations constituting the dominant variant before they are generated. This can be achieved by continuously monitoring the mutation trends and patterns. Hence, in the current study, we sought to design a dominant variant candidate (DVC) selection algorithm. To this end, we obtained COVID-19 sequence data from GISAID and extracted position-nucleotide (POS-NT) frequency ratio data by country and date through data preprocessing. We then defined the dominant dates for each variant in the USA and developed a frequency ratio prediction model for each POS-NT. Based on this model, we applied DVC criteria to develop the selection algorithm, verified for Delta and Omicron. Using Condition 3 as the DVC criterion, 69 and 102 DVC POS-NTs were identified for Delta and Omicron an average of 47 and 82 days before the dominant dates, respectively. Moreover, 13 and 44 Delta- and Omicron-defining POS-NTs were recognized 18 and 25 days before the dominant dates, respectively. We identified all DVC POS-NTs before the dominant dates, including soaring and gently increasing POS-NTs. Considering that we successfully defined all POS-NT mutations for Delta and Omicron, the DVC algorithm may represent a valuable tool for providing early predictions regarding future variants, helping improve global health.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.12.05.570216v1" target="_blank">Algorithm for selecting potential SARS-CoV-2 dominant variants based on POS-NT frequency</a>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ensitrelvir for Viral Persistence and Inflammation in People Experiencing Long COVID</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post Acute Sequelae of COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Ensitrelvir; Other: Placebo <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Timothy Henrich; Shionogi Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low-intensity Aerobic Training Associated With Global Muscle Strengthening in Post-COVID-19</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Procedure: muscle strengthening <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Centro Universitário Augusto Motta <br/><b>Completed</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Intravenous Immunoglobulin Replacement Therapy for Persistent COVID-19 in Patients With B-cell Impairment</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Immunoglobulins <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Jaehoon Ko <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of Inhaled Hydroxy Gas on Long COVID Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Hydroxy gas <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Oxford Brookes University <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Community Care Intervention to Decrease COVID-19 Vaccination Inequities</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Vaccination <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Community Health Worker Intervention to Enhance Vaccination Behavior (CHW-VB) <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: RAND; Clinical Directors Network; National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) <br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>PROmotion of COVID-19 BOOSTer VA(X)Ccination in the Emergency Department - PROBOOSTVAXED</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Vaccine Messaging; Behavioral: Vaccine Acceptance Question <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, San Francisco; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Pfizer; Duke University; Baylor College of Medicine; Thomas Jefferson University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Evaluating a Comprehensive Multimodal Outpatient Rehabilitation Program for PASC Program to Improve Functioning of Persons Suffering From Post-COVID Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19; Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-Acute COVID-19 Infection; Long COVID; Long Covid19; Dyspnea; Orthostasis; Cognitive Impairment <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: Comprehensive Rehabilitation; Other: Augmented Usual Care <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of Pennsylvania; Medical College of Wisconsin; National Institutes of Health (NIH) <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Stem Cell Study for Long COVID-19 Neurological Symptoms</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Stem Cell <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Charles Cox; CBR Systems, Inc. <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Multilevel Intervention of COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Among Latinos</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Vaccine Hesitancy <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Behavioral: Multilevel Intervention <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: San Diego State University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Pursuing Reduction in Fatigue After COVID-19 Via Exercise and Rehabilitation (PREFACER): A Randomized Feasibility Trial</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long-COVID; Long Covid19; Post-COVID-19 Syndrome; Post-COVID Syndrome; Fatigue <br/><b>Interventions</b>: Other: COVIDEx <br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Lawson Health Research Institute; Western University <br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Molybdenum Nanodots for Acute Lung Injury Therapy</strong> - Acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS) is a common critical disease with high morbidity and mortality rates, yet specific and effective treatments for it are currently lacking. ARDS was especially apparent and rampant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and an uncontrolled inflammatory response play a critical role in the disease progression of ARDS. Herein, we developed molybdenum nanodots (MNDs) as a functional nanomaterial with ultrasmall size,…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Levocetrizine attenuates cyclophosphamide-induced lung injury through inhibition of TNF-α, IL-1β, TGF-β and MMP-9</strong> - Cyclophosphamide (CP) is an antineoplastic drug commonly used worldwide. Despite its spread, it causes fatal organ toxicity. Lung toxicity is a serious side effect of CP. Actually, in the past three years the world has been facing an un-predicted crisis following COVID-19 pandemic and the associated high-mortality rates attributed to respiratory distress. Accordingly; this study aimed to probe the potential prophylactic role of levocetrizine against CP-induced lung injury. Animals were allocated…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Peroxides Derivatives as SARS-CoV-2 Entry Inhibitors</strong> - Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Host cell invasion is mediated by the interaction of the viral spike protein (S) with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) through the receptor-binding domain (RBD). In this work, bio-layer interferometry (BLI) was used to screen a series of fifty-two peroxides, including aminoperoxides and bridged 1,2,4 - trioxolanes (ozonides) classes, with the aim of…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bile acids and bile acid activated receptors in the treatment of Covid-19</strong> - Since its first outbreak in 2020, the pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the death of almost 7 million people worldwide. Vaccines have been fundamental in disease prevention and to reduce disease severity especially in patients with comorbidities. Nevertheless, treatment of COVID-19 has been proven difficult and several approaches have failed to prevent disease onset or disease progression, particularly in patients with comorbidities….</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Antimicrobial activity of silver-copper coating against aerosols containing surrogate respiratory viruses and bacteria</strong> - The transmission of bacteria and respiratory viruses through expelled saliva microdroplets and aerosols is a significant concern for healthcare workers, further highlighted during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To address this issue, the development of nanomaterials with antimicrobial properties for use as nanolayers in respiratory protection equipment, such as facemasks or respirators, has emerged as a potential solution. In this study, a silver and copper nanolayer called SakCu® was deposited on one…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An ACE2 decamer viral trap as a durable intervention solution for current and future SARS-CoV</strong> - The capacity of SARS-CoV-2 to evolve poses challenges to conventional prevention and treatment options such as vaccination and monoclonal antibodies, as they rely on viral receptor binding domain (RBD) sequences from previous strains. Additionally, animal CoVs, especially those of the SARS family, are now appreciated as a constant pandemic threat. We present here a new antiviral approach featuring inhalation delivery of a recombinant viral trap composed of ten copies of angiotensin-converting…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Serum Antibody Post-Vaccination Utilizing Immortalized Human Hepatocyte-Like Cells (HLC) to Assess Development of Immunity</strong> - CONCLUSION: HLC, along with AT-2 cells, provides a useful platform to study the development of neutralizing antibodies post-vaccination. Vaccination with the 3 available vaccines all elicited neutralizing serum antibodies that inhibited binding of each of the variant spike proteins to both AT-2 and HLC cells. This study suggests that inhibition of spike binding to target cells may be a more useful technique to assess immunity than gross quantitation of antibody.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Quercetin improves and protects Calu-3 airway epithelial barrier function</strong> - Introduction: In light of the impact of airway barrier leaks in COVID-19 and the significance of vitamin D in COVID-19 outcomes, including airway barrier protection, we investigated whether the very common dietary flavonoid quercetin could also be efficacious in supporting airway barrier function. Methods: To address this question, we utilized the widely used airway epithelial cell culture model, Calu-3. Results: We observed that treating Calu-3 cell layers with quercetin increased…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Main and papain-like proteases as prospective targets for pharmacological treatment of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 led to a global crisis in the world healthcare system. Despite some progress in the creation of antiviral vaccines and mass vaccination of the population, the number of patients continues to grow because of the spread of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations. There is an urgent need for direct-acting drugs capable of suppressing or stopping the main mechanisms of reproduction of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Several studies have shown that the successful…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Novel mechanism of the COVID-19 associated coagulopathy (CAC) and vascular thromboembolism</strong> - Previous studies from our laboratory revealed that SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP) administration to a genetically engineered model expressing the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2; ACE2 receptor (i.e., hACE2 humanized mouse) mimicked the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pathology. In humans the cause of high morbidity, and mortality is due to ‘cytokine-storm’ led thromboembolism; however, the exact mechanisms of COVID-19 associated coagulopathy (CAC) have yet to be discovered. Current…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Successful Treatment of Post COVID-19 Neurogenic Dysphagia with Botulinum Toxin</strong> - CONCLUSION: We suggest that electrophysiology is a valid tool for the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Impact of an exergame intervention on cognitive-motor functions and training experience in young team sports athletes: a non-randomized controlled trial</strong> - CONCLUSION: The ExerCube training yielded positive effects on concentration, flexibility, and divided attention indicating that exergaming can be an innovative training approach for team sports athletes.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Design of SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease inhibitor with antiviral efficacy in a mouse model</strong> - The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants and drug-resistant mutants calls for additional oral antivirals. The SARS-CoV-2 papain-like protease (PL ^(pro) ) is a promising but challenging drug target. In this study, we designed and synthesized 85 noncovalent PL ^(pro) inhibitors that bind to the newly discovered Val70 ^(Ub) site and the known BL2 groove pocket. Potent compounds inhibited PL ^(pro) with inhibitory constant K (i) values from 13.2 to 88.2 nM. The co-crystal structures of PL ^(pro) with…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Outcomes of COVID-19 amongst patients with ongoing use of inhaled corticosteroids - a systematic review & meta-analysis</strong> - CONCLUSION: ICS is associated with increased mortality and risk for hospitalization in patients with COVID-19 as compared to standard non-steroid-based COVID-19 therapy. It is crucial for healthcare providers to carefully evaluate the potential risks and benefits of ICS usage in the context of COVID-19 management to optimize patient outcomes and safety.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The relationship between the number of COVID-19 vaccines and infection with Omicron ACE2 inhibition at 18-months post initial vaccination in an adult cohort of Canadian paramedics</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has rapidly evolved since late 2019, due to highly transmissible Omicron variants. While most Canadian paramedics have received COVID-19 vaccination, the optimal ongoing vaccination strategy is unclear. We investigated neutralizing antibody (NtAb) response against wild-type (WT) Wuhan Hu-1 and Omicron BA.4/5 lineages based on the number of doses and past SARS-CoV-2 infection, at 18 months post-initial vaccination…</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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