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The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has seriously affected people's normal work, life, and medical treatment. Since Mar. 2022, there has been a pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) omicron variant in Shanghai. In order to meet the needs of hospitalization for patients, and at the same time for better control of epidemic and nosocomial infections, a large hospital in Shanghai innovatively set up a centralized transition ward in the hospital, and established scientific rules of medical work, regulations for prevention of nosocomial infections and efficient norms for patient admission. During the operation of the ward, a total of 211 patients were treated and one of the patients was confirmed of COVID-19 recurrence. All work was carried out methodically, and neither hospitalized patients nor medical staff had nosocomial infection of COVID-19. The preparation, operation and management of the central transition ward in our hospital are summarized here to provide guidance and reference for general hospitals to carry out similar work under the epidemic.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.
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In this paper, a research was conducted to analyse and predict the impacts of COVID-19 on public transportation ridership in the U.S. and 5 most populous cities of the U.S. (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia). The paper aims to exploit the correlation between COVID-19 and public transportation ridership in the U.S. and make the reasonable prediction by machine learning models, including ARIMA and Prophet, to help the local governments improve the rationality of their policy implementation. After correlation analyses, high level of significant and negative correlations between monthly growth rate of COVID-19 infections and monthly growth rate of public transportation ridership are decidedly validated in the total U.S., and New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, except Houston. To analyse the errors of Houston, we consult the literature and made a discussion of Influencing factors. We find that the level of public transportation in quantity and utilization is terribly low in Houston. In addition, the factors, such as the lack of planning law and estimation of urban expressways, the high level of citizens' dependence on private cars and pride of owning cars play a considerable roll in the errors. And the impacts can be predicted to a certain extent through two forecasting models (ARIMA and Prophet), although the precision of our models is not enough to make a precise forecast due to the limitations of model tuning and model design. According to the comparison of the two models, ARIMA models' forecasting accuracy is between 6% and 10%, and Prophet's forecasting accuracy is between 8%-12%, depending on the city. Since the insufficient stationarity, periodicity, seasonality of time series, the Prophet models are hard be more refined. © 2023 SPIE.
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Objective To analyze the changes of disease spectrum in pediatric inpatients before and after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods The data of gender, age, habitual residence, diagnosis and other relevant information of 1 931 hospitalized children in Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Second Military Medical University) from Feb. 2019 to Jan. 2020 (1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic) and 618 hospitalized children from Feb. 2020 to Jan. 2021 (1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic) were collected. The total number, habitual residence, gender and disease spectrum of hospitalized children 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic were statistically analyzed. Results The number of hospitalized children decreased by 68.00% (1 313/1 931) 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic. The number of hospitalized children from other provinces and cities was decreased (17.80%110/618vs 29.00%560/1 931) and there was significantly difference in the distribution of habitual residence of hospitalized children between 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (P<0.01). One year after the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of children with respiratory diseases decreased by 92.04% (971/1 055), and the proportion was also decreased (13.59%84/618vs 54.63%1 055/1 931);the number of children with endocrine system diseases increased by 20.71% (29/140), and the proportion was increased (27.35%169/618vs 7.25%140/1 931);the number of children with neonatal diseases decreased by 43.01% (166/386), but the proportion was increased (35.60%220/618 vs 19.99%386/1 931). Compared with 1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic, there were significant differences in the proportions of respiratory diseases, endocrine system diseases and neonatal diseases in hospitalized children 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (all P<0.01). The age distribution of hospitalized children 1 year before and 1 year after the epidemic of COVID-19 was different (P<0.01), and the number of hospitalized children was also different in different seasons (P<0.05). One year after the epidemic of COVID-19, the number of hospitalized children with respiratory diseases was decreased most significantly, and the number of children with pneumonia decreased by 93.71% (655/699), with a significant difference found in the proportions of pneumonia between 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (52.38%44/84vs 66.26% 699/1 055, P<0.05). Compared with 1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic, the proportion of endocrine system diseases such as short stature/growth retardation was decreased and the proportion of precocious puberty/early puberty development was increased 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (P<0.05). Conclusion The COVID-19 epidemic has led to a significant decrease in hospitalized children in department of pediatric, especially in the proportion of respiratory diseases, but it has led to an increase in hospitalized children with endocrine system diseases, suggesting that epidemic prevention and control measures can effectively reduce respiratory diseases requiring hospitalization, but may increase precocious puberty and early puberty development. These changes should be considered by department of pediatrics in general hospitals.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.
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Objective To analyze the changes of disease spectrum in pediatric inpatients before and after the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods The data of gender, age, habitual residence, diagnosis and other relevant information of 1 931 hospitalized children in Department of Pediatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of Naval Medical University (Second Military Medical University) from Feb. 2019 to Jan. 2020 (1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic) and 618 hospitalized children from Feb. 2020 to Jan. 2021 (1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic) were collected. The total number, habitual residence, gender and disease spectrum of hospitalized children 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic were statistically analyzed. Results The number of hospitalized children decreased by 68.00% (1 313/1 931) 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic. The number of hospitalized children from other provinces and cities was decreased (17.80%[110/618]vs 29.00%[560/1 931]) and there was significantly difference in the distribution of habitual residence of hospitalized children between 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (P<0.01). One year after the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of children with respiratory diseases decreased by 92.04% (971/1 055), and the proportion was also decreased (13.59%[84/618]vs 54.63%[1 055/1 931]);the number of children with endocrine system diseases increased by 20.71% (29/140), and the proportion was increased (27.35%[169/618]vs 7.25%[140/1 931]);the number of children with neonatal diseases decreased by 43.01% (166/386), but the proportion was increased (35.60%[220/618] vs 19.99%[386/1 931]). Compared with 1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic, there were significant differences in the proportions of respiratory diseases, endocrine system diseases and neonatal diseases in hospitalized children 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (all P<0.01). The age distribution of hospitalized children 1 year before and 1 year after the epidemic of COVID-19 was different (P<0.01), and the number of hospitalized children was also different in different seasons (P<0.05). One year after the epidemic of COVID-19, the number of hospitalized children with respiratory diseases was decreased most significantly, and the number of children with pneumonia decreased by 93.71% (655/699), with a significant difference found in the proportions of pneumonia between 1 year before and 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (52.38%[44/84]vs 66.26% [699/1 055], P<0.05). Compared with 1 year before the COVID-19 epidemic, the proportion of endocrine system diseases such as short stature/growth retardation was decreased and the proportion of precocious puberty/early puberty development was increased 1 year after the COVID-19 epidemic (P<0.05). Conclusion The COVID-19 epidemic has led to a significant decrease in hospitalized children in department of pediatric, especially in the proportion of respiratory diseases, but it has led to an increase in hospitalized children with endocrine system diseases, suggesting that epidemic prevention and control measures can effectively reduce respiratory diseases requiring hospitalization, but may increase precocious puberty and early puberty development. These changes should be considered by department of pediatrics in general hospitals.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.
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The epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has seriously affected people's normal work, life, and medical treatment. Since Mar. 2022, there has been a pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) omicron variant in Shanghai. In order to meet the needs of hospitalization for patients, and at the same time for better control of epidemic and nosocomial infections, a large hospital in Shanghai innovatively set up a centralized transition ward in the hospital, and established scientific rules of medical work, regulations for prevention of nosocomial infections and efficient norms for patient admission. During the operation of the ward, a total of 211 patients were treated and one of the patients was confirmed of COVID-19 recurrence. All work was carried out methodically, and neither hospitalized patients nor medical staff had nosocomial infection of COVID-19. The preparation, operation and management of the central transition ward in our hospital are summarized here to provide guidance and reference for general hospitals to carry out similar work under the epidemic.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.
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Objective To investigate the dynamic changes of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) specific antibody IgG positive rate in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) survivors in China. Methods the relevant literatures about the positive rate of SARS-COV-2 specific antibody IgG in COVID-19 survivors in China were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang database and VIP database from December 2019 to February 24, 2022. The quality of the documents were assessed according the revised AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) statement. Freeman-tukey double arsinusoidal conversion method was used to calculate the positive rate, and StataSE15.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Subgroup analysis was performed according to detection method and fragment, and publication bias was examined by Egger method. Results A total of 12 articles were included, IgG was detected from the first month to the twelfth month after SARS-COV-2 infection, and the total sample size ranged from 74 to 2 907 cases per month. The positive rate was the highest in the second month and the third month, 96.35% (95% CI: 93.98%-98.14%) and 97.23% (95% CI: 94.47%-99.05%) respectively. The positive rate decreased gradually with time, and reached 73.63% (95% CI: 50.31%-91.45%) in the twelfth month. The results of subgroup analysis showed that the heterogeneity between studies with the different detection method and the different detection fragment were significant differences (X2=5.02-39.57, all P < 0.05). Egger method test published bias, and the difference was not statistically significant (t=1.85, P=0.101). Conclusion Most people, one year after infection with SARSCOV- 2, could still detect SARS-COV-2 specific antibody IgG.
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Background: Immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in people living with HIV (PLWH) have been the focus of several recent studies. As the gut microbiome can influence vaccine immunogenicity, in this study we are the first to investigate whether the baseline gut microbiota can predict immune responses to the BNT162b2 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in people living with HIV (PLWH) and healthy controls (HC). Method(s): Fecal samples were collected from PLWH (n=68) and HC (n=75) at baseline, prior to the first vaccine dose, to extract DNA for 16S rRNA sequencing. The individuals were part of the COVAXID Clinical trial, where humoral and cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine were evaluated on day 35 after the first dose. Comprehensive bioinformatic tools were used for bacterial identification to further reveal the associations between gut microbiota and SARS-CoV-2 antibody, spike CD4+ T cell responses, and clinical parameters such as age, gender, CD4/CD8 ratio, and length of antiretroviral (ART) treatment. Result(s): At day 35 post vaccination, HC showed significantly higher spike IgG titers than PLWH (p=0.0001). Interestingly, both phylogenetic and alpha-diversity were negatively correlated with antibody titers, in the whole cohort and within groups. Similarly, individuals with low alpha-diversity had higher levels of spike specific CD4+T-cell responses. Agathobacter, Lactobacillus, Bacteroides, and Lachnospira were positively correlated with both antibody levels and spike-specific CD4+ T-cell responses while Methanobrevibacter, Marvinbryantia, Cloacibacillus, and Succinivibrio have a negative one. Within the PLWH group, the gut microbiota taxa associated with CD4+ counts, such as Lachnospira (p=0.002), Oscillibacter (p=0.019) and Flavonifractor (p=0.017), were found to be positively correlated with spike IgG levels. Additionally, the length of ART treatment and CD4/CD8 ratio displayed a positive association with bacterial diversity. Notably, different microbiome profiles and immune status in PLWH, affect their immune responses to vaccination. Conclusion(s): Our results show potential associations between gut microbiota diversity and spike IgG responses after COVID-19 vaccination. These findings were consistent in the whole cohort, albeit group differences between the microbiome compositions in PLWH and HC were observed. Based on our findings, we propose that microbiome modulation could optimize immunogenicity to SARS-Cov-2 vaccines.
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Objective:To determine the therapeutic effect of Gegentang granules on a disease-syndrome mouse model combining human coronavirus 229EhCoV-229Epneumonia with Hanshi Yidu Xifei syndrome in vivo. Method(s): Mice were randomly divided into normal group,infection group,cold-dampness group,model group,chloroquine phosphate group0.18 g.kg-1,interferon-alpha2bIFN-alpha2bgroup1.83x106 U.kg-1, Gegentang granules high-dose and low-dose groups6.6,3.3 g.kg-1with 10 mice in each group. Cold-dampness environment and hCoV-229E infection were used for modeling,and the general status and lung index of mice in each group were observed. The viral load in lung tissue was detected by real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reactionReal-time PCR,the pathological changes in lung tissue were evaluated by hematoxylin-eosinHEstaining,the levels of serum gastrointestinal hormones and inflammatory factors in lung tissue were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assayELISA,and the percentage of peripheral blood lymphocytes was detected by flow cytometry. Result(s):Comparing with model group,Gegentang granules could significantly alleviate the physical signs of Hanshi Yidu Xifei syndrome,including listlessness,weakness of limbs,sticky stool,etc. Comparing with model group,Gegentang granules high-dose group significantly reduced lung index,histopathological score of interstitial lung and bronchus,and the level of serum motilinP< 0.05,P<0.01,two doses of Gegentang granules could significantly increase the level of serum gastrinP< 0.05,P<0.01,the percentage of CD4+ ,CD8+ T lymphocytes in peripheral bloodP<0.05,P<0.01,and the level of tumor necrosis factor-alphaTNF-alphain lung tissue was significantly decreasedP<0.01,and the level of interleukin-6IL-6showed decreasing tendency. Conclusion(s): Gegentang granules has therapeutic effect on model mice. It can improve the appearance and behavior characterization,regulate the level of gastrointestinal hormones,decrease lung index and histopathological score,and possibly play an immunomodulatory role by inhibiting the expression of inflammatory cytokines in lung tissue and restoring the percentage of peripheral blood lymphocytes.Copyright © 2022, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.
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Aims: The aim of this study is to investigate the potential mechanisms of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and asthma comor-bidities.Methods: GSE147507 and GSE143303 datasets were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, the differ-ential expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, and the overlapping DEGs were obtained by determining the DEG intersection between the two datasets. A series of analyses of the shared DEGs were performed, including enrichment analysis, protein -protein interaction (PPI) network construction, construction of transcription factor (TF)/microRNA (miRNA)-gene interaction networks, drug-gene and disease-gene interactions, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis.Results: A total of 135 overlapping DEGs were obtained by determining the DEGs intersection between the GSE147507 and GSE143303 datasets. These overlapped DEGs were significantly enriched in the regulation of DNA-templated transcription, initi-ation, clathrin-sculpted gamma-aminobutyric acid transport vesicle, DNA binding, and eight KEGG (kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes) pathways. The PPI network revealed that HSPA8, SRSF1, NDUFAB1, PTEN, CCT8, HIST1H2BK, HIST2H2BE, DLAT, EIF3G, and WAC, with high scores, were the hub genes. In addition, 65 TFs (transcription factors) and 369 miRNAs tar-geted overlapping DEGs. Finally, these overlapped DEGs were also related to other diseases, such as hyperglycemia, metabolic acidosis, and lung neoplasm, and the top 10 drugs with the most significant potential included lanatoside C, digoxin, GW-8510, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, proscillaridin, anisomycin, helveticoside, ouabain, and bisacodyl. The ROC analysis results shown that these hub genes had good diagnostic performance.Conclusions: HSPA8, SRSF1, NDUFAB1, PTEN, CCT8, HIST1H2BK, HIST2H2BE, DLAT, EIF3G, WAC, FOXC1, GATA2, hsa-miR-93-5p, and hsa-miR-17-5p may play vital roles in COVID-19 (corona virus disease-2019)/asthma comorbidity. Lanatoside C, digoxin, GW-8510, doxorubicin, daunorubicin, proscillaridin, anisomycin, helveticoside, ouabain, and bisacodyl may serve as drug targets against COVID-19/asthma comorbidity.
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Objective:To determine the therapeutic effect of in vitro cultivation of bezoar on a mouse model adding disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome. Method: BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups according to their weight grade:normal group,HCoV-229E infection group,cold and damp group,a mouse model combining disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome,and high and low dose group of in vitro cultivation of bezoar. The combination model of human coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome mice was established by the method of cold dampness condition stimulation+coronavirus HCoV-229E infection. In vitro cultivation of bezoar (0.128,0.064 g.kg-1 )was administrated by gavage for 3 days from the day of infection. The observation indexes included:general state observation of mice,inhibition rate of lung index and lung index of mice. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(Real-time PCR)was used to detect the viral load in the lung tissues of mice. Serum levels of motilin(MTL),gastrin(GAS),and cytokines interleukin(IL)-10,IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-alpha)and interferon-gamma(IFN-gamma)in lung tissue of mice were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The percentages of CD4+ T lymphocytes,CD8+ T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes in the blood of mice were determined by flow cytometry. Result:The high and low dose group of in vitro cultivation of bezoar can significantly improve the general condition of model mice. Compared with blank group, model group mice lung index increased significantly(P<0.01), nucleic acids significantly increased expression of lung tissue in mice(P<0.01),significantly higher serum MTL content in mice,GAS content significantly decreased(P<0.05,P<0.01),lung tissue cells in the immune factor TNF-alpha,IL-10 and IL-6 were significantly increased(P<0.01),peripheral blood lymphocyte CD4+ T cells in mice,The percentages of CD8+ T cells and B cells were significantly decreased(P<0.01). Compared with model group, in vitro cultivation bezoar mice lung index of high and low dose group were significantly lower(P<0.01),the lung tissue of mice express nucleic acid decreased significantly(P<0.01),MTL content decreased significantly(P< 0.01),the lung tissue of mice in the IL-6,IL-10,the TNF-alpha,IFN-gamma levels were significantly lower(P<0.01), in vitro cultivation bezoar high dose group can significantly increase the CD4+ T cell percentage(P<0.05),in vitro cultivation bezoar can to a certain extent reduce model mice lung inflammatory exudation,pulmonary interstitial edema,as well as blood stasis symptoms. Conclusion:In vitro cultivation of bezoar has a significant therapeutic effect on a mice model adding disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome. It can be treated by reducing the lung index of the model mice,improving the pathological damage of the lung tissue,adjusting the immune effective and inhibiting the clearing of inflammatory factors,and to provide a laboratory basis for clinical medication.Copyright © 2021, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.
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Objective To detect the active ingredients in the traditional Chinese medicine prescription and its molecular mechanisms against SARS-CoV-2 by prescription mining and molecular dynamics simulations. Methods Herein, prescription mining and virtual screening of drugs were performed to screen the potential inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MDs) simulations were further performed to explore the molecular recognition and inhibition mechanism between the potential inhibitors and SARS-CoV-2. Results The natural compounds library was constructed by 143 prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicine, which contained 640 natural compounds. Ten compounds were screened out from the natural compounds library. Among the 10 compounds, 23-trans-p-coumaryhormentic acid, the main active constituent of the Loquat leaf, showed the best binding affinity targeting the recognizing interface of SARS-CoV-2 S protein/ACE2. Upon binding 23-trans-p-coumaryhormentic acid, the key interactions between SARS-CoV-2 S protein and ACE2 were almost interrupted. Conclusion Ten compounds targeting SARS-CoV-2 S protein/ACE2 interface were screened out from natural compound library. And we inferred that 23-trans-p-coumaryhormentic acid is a potential inhibitor against SARS-CoV-2, which would contribute to the development of the antiviral drug for SARS-CoV-2. © 2022 Institute of Biophysics,Chinese Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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The pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 created panic all over the world. As therapeutics that can effectively wipe out the virus and terminate transmission are not available, supportive therapeutics are the main clinical treatments for COVID-19. Repurposing available therapeutics from other viral infections is the primary surrogate in ameliorating and treating COVID-19. The therapeutics should be tailored individually by analyzing the severity of COVID-19, age, gender, comorbidities, and so on. We aim to investigate the effects of COVID-19 therapeutics and to search for laboratory parameters indicative of severity of illness. Multi-center collaboration and large cohort of patients will be required to evaluate therapeutics combinations in the future. This study is a single-center retrospective observational study of COVID-19 clinical data in China. Information on patients' treatment modalities, previous medical records, individual disease history, and clinical outcomes were considered to evaluate treatment efficacy. After screening, 2,844 patients are selected for the study. The result shows that treatment with TCM (Hazard Ratio (HR) 0.191 [95% Confidence Interval (CI), 0.14–0.25];p < 0.0001), antiviral therapy (HR 0.331 [95% CI 0.19–0.58];p = 0.000128), or Arbidol (HR 0.454 [95% CI 0.34–0.60];p < 0.0001) is associated with good prognostic of patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed TCM treatment decreased the mortality hazard ratio by 69.4% (p < 0.0001). © 2022, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.
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To better understand English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' voices in online English teaching in China, a qualitative case study was carried out by analyzing semi-interviews, and in-depth data of six EFL teachers from a central Chinese university. With thematic analysis, seven themes emerged, including the choices of teaching platforms or Apps, the negative attitude, the preparation for online teaching, teaching design, teaching assessment, advantages, and challenges. Overall, the study contributed to the existing knowledge of online language teaching theoretically and practically by providing a Chinese contextual phenomenon of EFL teaching. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
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The novel coronavirus that caused pandemic in 2020 started from a number of cases of unexplained pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December of 2019. Unlike the other human coronavirus previously reported, this new strain of coronavirus is much more contagious and rapidly spread in the city of Wuhan and subsequently various regions of China from the epicenter of Wuhan. Within several weeks, many countries of Asia, Europe, North America, and Oceania reported the confirmed cases with the worldwide total number quickly rising to over 5.35 million and more than 343,000 deaths on May 24, 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) initially named this novel coronavirus as "2019 Novel Coronavirus” (2019-nCoV) on January 12, 2020. National Health Commission of China named the pneumonia caused by 2019-nCoV as Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) on January 20, 2020. In the meantime, National Health Commission of China issued an announcement to include this disease in the category B infectious diseases as stipulated in the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, but to manage this disease according to Class A infectious diseases. On February 11, 2020, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO, announced the revised name of the pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus as "Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19). At the same time, the International Committee for Virus Classification named the novel coronavirus "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2” (SARS-CoV-2). Given the high incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the rapid increase of the cases globally, WHO officially declared on March 11, 2020 in Geneva that the COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has the characteristics of a global pandemic. At present, the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is still under investigation. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.
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The rapid spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has led to an unprecedented public health, economic, and social crisis worldwide. Since no therapeutic treatment is yet available to effectively clear the virus and terminate transmission, supportive therapy is the primary clinical approach for coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The role of corticosteroids as one of the main means of anti-inflammatory adjuvants in the treatment of COVID-19 is controversial. Here, we retrospectively evaluated the therapeutic effects of corticosteroids by comparing clinical data of patients treated with or without a corticosteroids therapy at different severity levels. Kaplan-Meier curves shows that therapy with methylprednisolone and cortico-steroids increases the risk of death in patients with critical COVID-19 pneumonia. For patients in the critical group, the risk of death was slightly higher in males receiving corticosteroids therapy, while hypertension and trauma history reduced the hazard ratio. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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The permutation flow shop scheduling problem (PFSSP) is well-applied in the industry, which is confirmed to be an NP-Hard optimization problem, and the objective is to find the minimum completion time (makespan). A modified coronavirus herd immunity optimizer (CHIO) with a modified solution update is suggested in this work. Meanwhile, the simulated annealing strategy is used on the updating herd immunity population to prevent trapping on local optima, and an adjusted state mechanism is involved to prevent fast state change/ convergence. Nine instances of different problem scales on the FPSSP dataset of Taillard were tested. The experimental results show that the proposed method can find the optimal solutions for the tested instances, with ARPDs no more than 0.1, indicating that the proposed method can effectively and stably solve the PFSSP. © 2022 IEEE.
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The identification of the mechanisms by which T-cell receptors (TCRs) interact with human antigens provides a crucial opportunity to develop new vaccines, diagnostics and immunotherapies. However, the accurate prediction and recognition of TCR–antigen pairing represents a substantial computational challenge in immunology. Existing tools only learn the binding patterns of antigens from many known TCR binding repertoires and fail to recognize antigens that have never been presented to the immune system or for which only a few TCR binding repertoires are known. However, the binding specificity for neoantigens or exogenous peptides is crucial for immune studies and immunotherapy. Therefore, we developed Pan-Peptide Meta Learning (PanPep), a general and robust framework to recognize TCR–antigen binding, by combining the concepts of meta-learning and the neural Turing machine. The neural Turing machine adds external memory to avoid forgetting previously learned tasks, which is used here to accurately predict TCR binding specificity with any peptide, particularly unseen ones. We applied PanPep to various challenging clinical tasks, including (1) qualitatively measuring the clonal expansion of T cells;(2) efficiently sorting responsive T cells in tumour neoantigen therapy;and (3) accurately identifying immune-responsive TCRs in a large cohort from a COVID-19 study. Our comprehensive tests show that PanPep outperforms existing tools. PanPep also offers interpretability, revealing the nature of peptide and TCR interactions in 3D crystal structures. We believe PanPep can be a useful tool to decipher TCR–antigen interactions and that it has broad clinical applications. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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Objective:To determine the therapeutic effect of in vitro cultivation of bezoar on a mouse model adding disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome. Method: BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups according to their weight grade:normal group,HCoV-229E infection group,cold and damp group,a mouse model combining disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome,and high and low dose group of in vitro cultivation of bezoar. The combination model of human coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome mice was established by the method of cold dampness condition stimulation+coronavirus HCoV-229E infection. In vitro cultivation of bezoar (0.128,0.064 g.kg-1 )was administrated by gavage for 3 days from the day of infection. The observation indexes included:general state observation of mice,inhibition rate of lung index and lung index of mice. Real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(Real-time PCR)was used to detect the viral load in the lung tissues of mice. Serum levels of motilin(MTL),gastrin(GAS),and cytokines interleukin(IL)-10,IL-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF-alpha)and interferon-gamma(IFN-gamma)in lung tissue of mice were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). The percentages of CD4+ T lymphocytes,CD8+ T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes in the blood of mice were determined by flow cytometry. Result:The high and low dose group of in vitro cultivation of bezoar can significantly improve the general condition of model mice. Compared with blank group, model group mice lung index increased significantly(P<0.01), nucleic acids significantly increased expression of lung tissue in mice(P<0.01),significantly higher serum MTL content in mice,GAS content significantly decreased(P<0.05,P<0.01),lung tissue cells in the immune factor TNF-alpha,IL-10 and IL-6 were significantly increased(P<0.01),peripheral blood lymphocyte CD4+ T cells in mice,The percentages of CD8+ T cells and B cells were significantly decreased(P<0.01). Compared with model group, in vitro cultivation bezoar mice lung index of high and low dose group were significantly lower(P<0.01),the lung tissue of mice express nucleic acid decreased significantly(P<0.01),MTL content decreased significantly(P< 0.01),the lung tissue of mice in the IL-6,IL-10,the TNF-alpha,IFN-gamma levels were significantly lower(P<0.01), in vitro cultivation bezoar high dose group can significantly increase the CD4+ T cell percentage(P<0.05),in vitro cultivation bezoar can to a certain extent reduce model mice lung inflammatory exudation,pulmonary interstitial edema,as well as blood stasis symptoms. Conclusion:In vitro cultivation of bezoar has a significant therapeutic effect on a mice model adding disease with syndrome of coronavirus pneumonia with Yidu Xifei syndrome. It can be treated by reducing the lung index of the model mice,improving the pathological damage of the lung tissue,adjusting the immune effective and inhibiting the clearing of inflammatory factors,and to provide a laboratory basis for clinical medication.Copyright © 2021, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Institute of Chinese Materia Medica. All rights reserved.
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COVID-19 has obvious family clustering, and clustering refers to the occurrence of 2 or more confirmed es or asymptomatic infection in a small area within 14 days [1]. The clinical manifestations of familial clustering COVID-19 are related to exposure time, exposure degree, virus type, virus virulence, and patient age [2], which are mostly manifested as fever, chills, fatigue, ocional diarrhea, sore throat, or asymptomatic [3]. Symptoms are mild in children, and more severe in elderly or patients with chronic underlying diseases [4]. If there is an infected person in the family, it is easy to cause mutual infection;chest CT is helpful for the screening of suspected family es, early diagnosis, early treatment, and early isolation. The CT findings of the family cluster COVID-19 es are consistent with the typical manifestations of COVID-19. In the same group of family es, the lesion density and degree are similar [5]. The number of lesions and the range of involvement of multi-generation infected persons are reduced compared with earlier generations. The chest CT of children may be negative, and the lung lesions of the elderly or patients with chronic underlying diseases may be more severe. In the follow-up after treatment, the vast majority of the lung lesions were absorbed to different degrees, and the residual shadows were mostly ground-glass opacities or fibrous shadows. The chest CT findings of most patients could finally return to normal. © Henan Science and Technology Press 2020.
ABSTRACT
Background: Global evidence on the transmission of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection needs to be synthesized. Methods: A search of 4 electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science databases) as of January 24, 2021 was performed. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Studies which reported the transmission rate among close contacts with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 cases were included, and transmission activities occurred were considered. The transmission rates were pooled by zero-inflated beta distribution. The risk ratios (RRs) were calculated using random-effects models. Results: Of 4923 records retrieved and reviewed, 15 studies including 3917 close contacts with asymptomatic indexes were eligible. The pooled transmission rates were 1.79 per 100 person-days (or 1.79%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.41%–3.16%) by asymptomatic index, which is significantly lower than by presymptomatic (5.02%, 95% CI 2.37%–7.66%;p<0.001), and by symptomatic (5.27%, 95% CI 2.40%–8.15%;p<0.001). Subgroup analyses showed that the household transmission rate of asymptomatic index was (4.22%, 95% CI 0.91%–7.52%), four times significantly higher than non-household transmission (1.03%, 95% CI 0.73%–1.33%;p=0.03), and the asymptomatic transmission rate in China (1.82%, 95% CI 0.11%–3.53%) was lower than in other countries (2.22%, 95% CI 0.67%–3.77%;p=0.01). Conclusions: People with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection are at risk of transmitting the virus to their close contacts, particularly in household settings. The transmission potential of asymptomatic infection is lower than symptomatic and presymptomatic infections. This meta-analysis provides evidence for predicting the epidemic trend and promulgating vaccination and other control measures. Registered with PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, CRD42021269446;https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=269446. © 2022 The Author(s)