Diagnosis, treatment, control and prevention of SARS-CoV-2 and coronavirus disease 2019: back to the future / 生物工程学报

The ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as named by the World Health Organization has millions of confirmed cases around the world and has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The virus was named SARS-CoV-2 in February by International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. COVID-19 presents as fever, dry cough, dyspnea, headache and pneumonia. In a small subset of severe cases, the disease quickly progresses to respiratory failure and even death. Since the 21st century, there have been three major outbreaks caused by human coronaviruses, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) that broke out in 2003, the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012, and the recent pandemic of COVID-19. Since 2003, significant progress has been made in the study of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV concerning their natural origins, pathogenesis, antiviral development and vaccine design. Since SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV are closely related, previous findings on SARS-CoV are highly relevant to a better understanding as well as diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we highlight recent progresses in the field; compare the biological characteristics of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2; summarize the urgently-needed diagnostic, treatment, prevention and control options; and provide future perspectives for the outcome of the outbreak and research questions to be answered, including some of the difficulties in vaccine development. Hopefully, our comments and suggestions would prove useful for the control of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in China and the world.

Risk factors of congenital malformations and its impacts on adverse pregnancy outcomes: A prospective cohort study / 中华疾病控制杂志

Objective To explore risk factors of congenital malformations (CMs) and to evaluate its impacts on adverse pregnancy outcomes (APOs). Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted among pregnant women who received the first antenatal care from March 2013 to February 2016 in the reproductive center, obstetrics clinics, infertility clinics and ultrasound department of Hunan Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital. Corresponding information from pregnant women and their spouses were collected. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression were used to screen possible risk factors of CMs and evaluate the impacts of CMs on other APOs. Results The study showed that women had history of non-standard BMI, smoking, hepatitis, pregnancy-related complications, gestational diabetes mellitus, infertility and using assisted reproductive technology before pregnancy; had no folic acid taking, active and passive smoking, drinking, uneven diet, high intensity physical activity during pregnancy increased the risk of CMs in offspring. Furthermore, the history of spouse smoking and eating betel nut also increased the risk of CMs in offspring. CMs might increase the risk of preterm birth, very preterm birth, low birth weight, very low birth weight, and perinatal mortality. Conclusions There are many risk factors of CMs. Knowing these risk factors, and giving them optimal prevention strategies and effective intervention measures are important measures in preventing the occurrence of CMs and other APOs.

Association of single nucleotide polymorphisms of transcription factors with congenital heart diseases in the Chinese population: a Meta analysis / 中国当代儿科杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To study the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of transcription factors (NKX2.5, GATA4, TBX5, and FOG2) with congenital heart disease (CHD) in the Chinese population.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>PubMed, Google Scholar, CNKI, Wanfang Data, and Weipu Data were searched for articles on the association of SNPs of target genes with CHD in the Chinese population. If one locus was mentioned in at least two articles, the random or fixed effect model was used to perform a pooled analysis of study results and to calculate the pooled OR and its 95%CI. If a locus was mentioned in only one article, related data were extracted from this article to analyze the association between the SNPs of this locus and CHD.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Twenty-three articles were included. The Meta analysis showed that there were significant differences between the CHD and control groups in the genotype and allele frequencies of GATA4 rs1139244 and rs867858 and the genotype frequency of GATA4 rs904018, while there were no significant differences in the SNPs of the other genetic loci between the two groups. The single-article analysis showed that there were significant differences between the two groups in the allele frequencies of NKX2.5 rs118026695/rs703752, GATA4 rs884662/rs12825/rs12458/rs3203358/rs4841588, and TBX5 rs6489956. There were no significant differences in the SNPs of FOG2 locus between the two groups.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The SNPs of some loci in NKX2.5, GATA4, and TBX5 are associated with CHD in the Chinese population, but the association between the SNPs of FOG2 locus and the development of CHD has not been found yet.</p>