SARS-CoV-2 Affects Both Humans and Animals: What Is the Potential Transmission Risk? A Literature Review.

In March 2020, the World Health Organization Department declared the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak a global pandemic, as a consequence of its rapid spread on all continents. The COVID-19 pandemic has been not only a health emergency but also a serious general problem as fear of contagion and severe restrictions put economic and social activity on hold in many countries. Considering the close link between human and animal health, COVID-19 might infect wild and companion animals, and spawn dangerous viral mutants that could jump back and pose an ulterior threat to us. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the pandemic, with a particular focus on the clinical manifestations in humans and animals, the different diagnosis methods, the potential transmission risks, and their potential direct impact on the human-animal relationship.

Preliminary data of immunogenicity of SARS-COV-2 mRNA vaccine in thymic epithelial tumors

Background Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare malignancies associated with dysregulation of the immune system with humoral and cell mediated immunity abnormalities. Anti-syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine is effective at preventing COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. No published data are available regarding the immunization in TET patients. The aim of our study is evaluating immunization in TET patients, who received both doses of mRNA vaccine, by longitudinal serological detection of SARS-COV-2 spike-binding IgG antibody. Methods Starting from 14 April 2021, we enrolled 50 TET patients (pts), who received COVID-19 mRNA vaccine (BNT162b2 by Pfizer-BioNTech). SARS-CoV-2 spike-binding IgG antibody serological levels were analysed by chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) at different time-points: T0 (before the first vaccine dose), T1 (1 week after second dose), T2 (4 weeks after second dose), and late monitoring T3, T4, T5, T6 (at 3, 6, 9, 12 months after second dose, respectively). Preliminary data relative to12 pts, collected at T0, T1 and T2, were available for this report. Local ethical committee approved this study and all enrolled patients signed informed consent. Results Among the 12 patients, 8 were female and 4 males;9 pts had thymoma and 3 thymic carcinomas;myasthenia gravis (autoimmunity) was diagnosed in one patient, and 4 patients suffered from Good Syndrome (immunodeficiency). None had COVID-19 infection prior to immunization. All 12 pts had received both vaccine doses by the time of this analysis. At baseline, all pts were negative for the serological antibody titers (method range, 3.80–400 AU/mL, positivity for titer >25);at T1, 11 pts (92%) were negative;at T2, 10 pts (84%) remained negative. Interestingly, the only 2 pts with positive titers at T2 were both in remission of disease. Conclusions Our preliminary data showed that the majority of TET patients enrolled in this study had no seroconversion after 4 weeks from the second dose of COVID 19 vaccine. Despite preliminary, our data might have important implications for the immunization of TET patients.

Cytokine signature and COVID-19 prediction models in the two waves of pandemics.

In Europe, multiple waves of infections with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) have been observed. Here, we have investigated whether common patterns of cytokines could be detected in individuals with mild and severe forms of COVID-19 in two pandemic waves, and whether machine learning approach could be useful to identify the best predictors. An increasing trend of multiple cytokines was observed in patients with mild or severe/critical symptoms of COVID-19, compared with healthy volunteers. Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) clearly recognized the three groups based on cytokine patterns. Classification and Regression Tree (CART) further indicated that IL-6 discriminated controls and COVID-19 patients, whilst IL-8 defined disease severity. During the second wave of pandemics, a less intense cytokine storm was observed, as compared with the first. IL-6 was the most robust predictor of infection and discriminated moderate COVID-19 patients from healthy controls, regardless of epidemic peak curve. Thus, serum cytokine patterns provide biomarkers useful for COVID-19 diagnosis and prognosis. Further definition of individual cytokines may allow to envision novel therapeutic options and pave the way to set up innovative diagnostic tools.