ABSTRACT
Context: An outbreak of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, subse-quently affecting countries worldwide and causing a pandemic. Although several vaccines, such as mRNA vaccines, inactivated vaccines, and adenovirus vaccines, have been licensed in several countries, the danger of severe acute respiratory syndrome coron-avirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants persists. To date, Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351, B.1.351.2, B.1.351.3), Delta (B.1.617.2, AY.1, AY.2, AY. 3), Gamma (P.1, P.1.1, P.1.2), and Iota (B.1 .526) circulating in the United States, Kappa (B.1.617.1) in India, Lambda (C.37) in Peru and Mu (B.1.621) in Colombia are considered the variants of concern and interest. Evidence Acquisition: Data were collected through the end of August 2021 by searching PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. There were findings from in silico, in vitro cell-based, and non-cell-based investigations. Result(s): The potential and safety profile of herbal medicines need clarification to scientifically support future recommendations regarding the benefits and risks of their use. Conclusion(s): Current research results on natural products against SARS-CoV-2 and variants are discussed, and their specific molecular targets and possible mechanisms of action are summarized. Copyright © 2022, Brieflands All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: Although COVID-19 patients typically present with respiratory symptoms such as cough, dyspnea, and bilateral pulmonary infiltration, there have been numerous reports of gastrointestinal manifestations such as diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, anorexia, and abdominal pain in these patients. The aim of this study was to review the gastrointestinal manifestations in COVID-19 patients. Materials and Methods: In this systematic review, we searched the key-words in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for studies published between 2019, and July 22, 2020. We selected the studies on epidemiological and clinical manifestations of COVID-19 including gastrointestinal symptoms, and excluded, duplicate publications, review articles, meta-analysis, guidelines, comment or editorials, case reports, studies with unavailable data, and studies in children. Finally, 35 articles were selected for our systematic review. Results: In our study, 6119 COVID-19 patients were evaluated for gastrointestinal manifestations. Four studies showed COVID-19 patients can merely present with gastrointestinal symptoms (highly variable, ranging from 10.1 to 100 percent). In these patients, the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms included anorexia (91.3%), nausea or/and vomiting (79.13%), diarrhea (41.73%), and abdominal pain (18.89%), respectively. Among 6119 patients, the most common gastrointestinal symptoms were nausea or/and vomiting (12.45%), diarrhea (11.47%), anorexia (9.56%), and abdominal pain (2.25%). Conclusion: This review study showed that despite the preliminary opinions, SARS-CoV-2 does not always present with respiratory symptoms. Knowledge of pathophysiology, type, and prevalence of gastrointestinal manifestations can lead to early diagnosis (considering fecal viral RNA testing for diagnosis), timely treatment, and hence better prognosis for the patients. On the other hand, gastrointestinal manifestations can raise the possibility of oral-fecal transmission, which requires necessary recommendations to reduce the risk of transmission. © 2018 the Author (s).