Therapeutic strategies encompassing monoclonal antibodies and vaccines to tackle the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant amongst European children

Omicron is a notable B.1.1.529 variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) comprising 50 gene mutations in total, within which 32 gene mutations were recorded on spike 1 (S1) protein. Omicron beholding higher gene mutations than other prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including the Delta-SARS-CoV-2 variant, exhibited the highest transmission efficacy. About 2152 individuals from 57 countries contracted Omicron in the shortest interval of two weeks proclaiming the variant to be the most contagious SARS-CoV-2 variant amongst all other SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. The first Omicron contracted patient was diagnosed on 24 November 2021 in South Africa, and the South African population was infected presenting these health ailments: sore throat, headache, body pain, and mild to severe fatigue commonly witnessed among children and adults. In Germany, together with aged people with co-morbidities and young adults, children of 0-4 yrs and 5-14 yrs were profusely affected by Omicron. Omicron contracted Swedish children showed moderate to severe convulsions as adverse symptoms. In the UK, Omicron positive children in higher numbers were examined and treated under hospital care with ventilators and oxygen cylinders. This narrative insight review illustrates the distinct virulence characteristics of Omicron in evading the human-host neutralizing antibodies action in both SARS-CoV-2 convalescent individuals and immunized population in the context of its outbreak in European children. Moreover, the effect of monoclonal antibodies and the appropriate therapeutic dosage of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and the common pediatric vaccines that finds promising to tackle Omicron outbreaks in children across Europe have been unveiled in the review.

[Strengthening the prevention and treatment of Omicron infection in children]. / åŠ å¼ºå„¿ç«¥å¥¥å¯†å ‹æˆŽæ„ŸæŸ“çš„é˜²æ²».

Omicron is a newly discovered variant virus of coronavirus disease 2019 and has spread rapidly around the world. Omicron has been defined as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization. Its epidemiology, pathogenic characteristics, clinical diagnosis, treatment, and prevention are still being observed and summarized, and in particular, there are few reports on the diagnosis and treatment of children with Omicron infection. This article introduces the influence of Omicron infection in children and its prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Visual detection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus by recombinase polymerase amplification combined with lateral flow dipstrip.

BACKGROUND: Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is one of the most important enteric viruses causing diarrhea in pigs. The establishment of a rapid detection method applicable in field conditions will be conducive to early detection of pathogen and implementation of relevant treatment. A novel nucleic acid amplification method, recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), has been widely used for infectious disease diagnosis. RESULTS: In the present study, a reverse transcription (RT)-RPA assay combined with lateral flow dipstrip (LFD) was established for the visual detection of PEDV by targeting the N gene. The RT-RPA-LFD assay detected as low as 102 copies/µL of PEDV genomic RNA standard. Moreover, the novel RT-RPA-LFD assay did not show cross-reactivity with common swine pathogens, demonstrating high specificity. The performance of the assay for detection of clinical samples was also evaluated. A total number of 86 clinical samples were tested by RT-RPA-LFD and RT-PCR. The detection results of RT-RPA-LFD were compared with those of RT-PCR, with a coincidence rate of 96.5%. CONCLUSION: The newly established RT-RPA-LFD assay in our study had high sensitivity and specificity, with a potential to use in resource-limited areas and countries.

County-level estimates of excess mortality associated with COVID-19 in the United States.

The COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. has been largely monitored using death certificates containing reference to COVID-19. However, prior analyses reveal that a significant percentage of excess deaths associated with the pandemic were not directly assigned to COVID-19. In this study, we estimated a generalized linear model of expected mortality based on historical trends in deaths by county of residence between 2011 and 2019. We used the results of the model to generate estimates of excess mortality and excess deaths not assigned to COVID-19 in 2020 for 1470 county sets in the U.S. representing 3138 counties. Across the country, we estimated that 438,386 excess deaths occurred in 2020, among which 87.5% were assigned to COVID-19. Some regions (Mideast, Great Lakes, New England, and Far West) reported the most excess deaths in large central metros, whereas other regions (Southwest, Southeast, Plains, and Rocky Mountains) reported the highest excess mortality in nonmetro areas. The proportion assigned to COVID-19 was lowest in large central metro areas (79.3%). Regionally, the proportion of excess deaths assigned to COVID-19 was lowest in the Southeast (81.6%), Southwest (82.6%), Far West (83.7%), and Rocky Mountains (86.7%). Across the regions, the number of excess deaths exceeded the number of directly assigned COVID-19 deaths in most counties. The exception to this pattern occurred in New England, which reported more directly assigned COVID-19 deaths than excess deaths in metro and nonmetro areas. Many county sets had substantial numbers of excess deaths that were not accounted for in direct COVID-19 death counts. Estimates of excess mortality at the local level can inform the allocation of resources to areas most impacted by the pandemic and contribute to positive behavior feedback loops, such as increases in mask-wearing and vaccine uptake.

Electrocatalytic Degradation of Levofloxacin, a Typical Antibiotic in Hospital Wastewater.

Presently, in the context of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, several antibiotics are overused in hospitals, causing heavy pressure on the hospital's wastewater treatment process. Therefore, developing stable, safe, and efficient hospital wastewater treatment equipment is crucial. Herein, a bench-scale electrooxidation equipment for hospital wastewater was used to evaluate the removal effect of the main antibiotic levofloxacin (LVX) in hospital wastewater using response surface methodology (RSM). During the degradation process, the influence of the following five factors on total organic carbon (TOC) removal was discussed and the best reaction condition was obtained: current density, initial pH, flow rate, chloride ion concentration, and reaction time of 39.6 A/m2, 6.5, 50 mL/min, 4‱, and 120 min, respectively. The TOC removal could reach 41% after a reaction time of 120 min, which was consistent with the result predicted by the response surface (40.48%). Moreover, the morphology and properties of the electrode were analyzed. The degradation pathway of LVX was analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Subsequently, the bench-scale electrooxidation equipment was changed into onboard-scale electrooxidation equipment, and the onboard-scale equipment was promoted to several hospitals in Dalian.

Chapter 12 - Rapid disease diagnosis using low-cost paper and paper-hybrid microfluidic devices

Paper-based microfluidic devices have undergone rapid development and offered a promising low-cost platform for disease diagnostics in poor-resource areas. Recently, paper-hybrid microfluidic devices have attracted much attention and been applied in various low-cost point-of-care testings, due to multiple merits derived from both paper and other substrates. This chapter summarizes the recent progress of low-cost paper and paper-hybrid microfluidic devices for rapid diagnostics of human diseases. The commonly used fabrication techniques are first introduced, and the applications of numerous paper and paper-hybrid microfluidic devices are then elaborated with an emphasis on rapid disease diagnostics in terms of the nature of biomolecules in three major categories, namely, protein-, gene-, and cell-based diagnostics. Both advantages and disadvantages of using these devices are discussed, followed by the perspectives for broad applications in low-cost diagnostics.

Study on the Mixed Teaching Mode of the Program Language Courses in the New Situation

With the spread of new coronavirus, new forms of online teaching are widely used in colleges and universities in China. Teachers are the main parts relying on the existing online teaching platform, which can make up for the defect of single online platform, simulate off-line teaching better, complement the advantage of off-line teaching, and improve the quality of online teaching effectively by using the new hybrid teaching mode of program language courses with other network tools software.

Kawasaki Disease- Management Strategies Given Symptoms Overlap to COVID-19: A Review.

Kawasaki disease is an acute, self-limiting vasculitis in children. Early treatment is necessary to prevent cardiovascular complications. The acute phase of Kawasaki disease may present with hemodynamic instability. An association between viral respiratory infections and Kawasaki disease has been reported. Studies have shown that Kawasaki and Kawasaki-like disease may be associated with and have symptoms overlapping COVID-19. Children with COVID-19 may present as Kawasaki-like disease with pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome, or macrophage activation syndrome. Clinicians need to be aware of the early diagnosis and management of Kawasaki disease to prevent the development of coronary artery aneurysms. The symptoms overlap of multisystem inflammatory disease seen in COVID-19 adds to the difficulties in timely diagnosis and treatment. Children with Kawasaki disease require regular follow-up plans for coronary artery aneurysms. This adds to the difficulties during the changed environment of COVID-19 for control and prevention. Missed diagnosis and early treatment of Kawasaki disease with immunoglobulin and aspirin results in the development of coronary artery aneurysm in up to 25% of cases, with grave consequences. Here, we briefly review the management of typical and atypical Kawasaki disease which has symptoms overlapping with the multisystem inflammatory disease as seen in COVID-19.

[Analysis of the clinical characteristics and early warning model construction of severe/critical coronavirus disease 2019 patients].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the clinical characteristics of critical patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), build an early warning model for severe/critical type, and aim at providing reference for the prediction of severe/critical COVID-19. METHODS: The clinical data of COVID-19 patients treated in the Second People' Hospital of Fuyang City from January 20th to February 18th in 2020 were retrospective analyzed, including the demographic and epidemiological date, vital signs and hematology indexes, etc. on admission. Patients were divided into the normal type (set as normal group) and severe/critical type (set as severe group) according to the COVID-19 treatment plan classification standard published by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China. The differences between two groups were compared, and the variables with statistical significance were incorporated in the multivariate binary unconditional Logistic regression analysis to screen the risk factors of severe/critical type. Risk factors were summarized to establish an early warning model, and the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was carried out to evaluate the significance of the early warning model in the screening of critically COVID-19. RESULTS: A total of 155 patients with COVID-19 were admitted, including 125 patients of normal type and 30 patients of severe/critical type. (1) Compared with normal group, patients in severe group were older, and with higher proportion of basic diseases, higher body mass index (BMI), higher incidence of tachypnea, persistent high fever, peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) < 0.95, while the white blood cell count (WBC), CD4+T lymphocyte, CD8+T lymphocyte, lymphocyte count (LYM) were decreased obviously, the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum amyloid a protein (SAA), and CT showed higher incidence of multi-pulmonary lobe lesions. There were no significant differences of gender, travel history from Wuhan, smoking history, shock index (SI) and CD4+/CD8+ ratio between the two groups. (2) Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that age ≥ 60 years old [odds ratio (OR) = 1.620, P = 0.031], combined with underlying diseases (OR = 1.521, P = 0.044), persistent high fever (OR = 2.469, P = 0.014), WBC < 2.0×109/L and/or LYM < 0.4×109/L (OR = 3.079, P = 0.006), pulmonary multilobar lesions (OR = 1.367, P = 0.047), and IL-6 ≥ 30 ng/L (OR = 2.426, P = 0.010) were the risk factors of severe/critical COVID-19. (3) The OR value corresponding to each risk factors were scored by rounding. Two points were scored for age ≥ 60 years old, with underlying diseases, persistent high fever and IL-6 ≥ 30 ng/L, 3 points for WBC < 2.0×109/L and/or LYM < 0.4×109/L, 1 point for pulmonary multilobar lesions, and totally calculated as early warning model scores. The early warning model score of the severe group was significantly higher than that of the normal group (9.33±2.79 vs. 5.04±2.38, t = 9.010, P = 0.001). (4) The ROC curve analysis showed the area under ROC curve (AUC) of early warning model on the early screening of severe/critical patients in COVID-19 was 0.944, and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.903-0.985; and the sensitivity and specificity were 93.3% and 72.0% respectively while the cut-off was 6.5. CONCLUSIONS: There are many differences between severe/critical and mild COVID-19 patients. The establishment of early warning model could help to screen severe/critical patients at an early stage, with certain significance for guiding treatment.