Temporal study of wastewater surveillance from September 2020 to March 2021: an estimation of COVID-19 patients in Lahore, Pakistan.

The first aim of study was to quantify the viral load in the wastewater samples by RT-qPCR testing in Lahore population to estimate the number of patients affected and predict the next resurgence of COVID-19 wave in the city. The second aim of the study was to determine the hotspot areas of Lahore which remained positive more often for virus with high viral load. In this study, n = 420 sewage samples were collected on an average of two weeks intervals from 30 different sewage water disposal stations (14 sampling events) from Sept 2020 to March 2021. RNA was extracted and quantified by RT-qPCR without concentrating the virus in samples. Number of positive disposal sites (7-93%), viral load from sewage samples (100.296 to 103.034), and estimated patients (660-17,030) ranged from low to high according to the surge and restrain of 2nd and 3rd COVID-19 waves in the country. The viral load and estimated patients were reported high in January 2021 and March 2021 which were similar to the peak of 2nd and 3rd waves in Pakistan. Site 18 (Niaz Baig village DS) showed the highest viral load among all sites. Findings of the present study helped to estimate the number of patients and track the resurgence in COVID-19 waves in Lahore particularly, and in Punjab generally. Furthermore, it emphasizes the role of wastewater-based epidemiology to help policymakers strengthen the quarantine measures along with immunization to overcome enteric viral diseases. Local and national stake holders should work in collaboration to improve the environmental hygiene to control the disease.

Renessans Helps in Early Clearance of SARS-CoV-2: In-Vivo Activity of the Iodine Complex in Rhesus macaque.

Iodine complexes have known antimicrobial properties along with reported in-vitro antiviral activity for several viruses. Renessans is one such product with iodine complexes and ascorbic acid. The present study was designed to determine its efficacy for SARS-CoV-2 in Rhesus macaque. Rhesus macaque were assigned to: A) prophylactic group (n = 3), (B) treatment group (n = 3), (C) infection control group (n = 4), and (D) negative control group (n = 4). Groups A, B, and C were challenged with 2 × 106 TCID of SARS-CoV-2. The prophylactic group (A) was administered Renessans from 5 days before infection till 8 days postinfection (DPI). The treatment group (B) was administered Renessans from 3 till 8 DPI. Group C was administered water-insoluble fractions only. Nasal swabs from all monkeys of groups A, B, and C remained positive for SARS-CoV-2 till 2 and 7 DPI, while the swabs became negative for groups A and B at 14 DPI. Likewise, fecal matter of monkeys in group A returned negative results during the experiment, while that of group B had significantly decreased viral load (101.5 genome copies/mL) compared to group C (103 genome copies/mL). Hence, it is concluded that Renessans has in-vivo SARS-CoV-2 activity and may result in early clearance of SARS-CoV-2.

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of University Students in Pakistan Regarding COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic is striking the world with serious public health and socioeconomic complications. The pandemic has influenced all forms of daily life, including educational institutions. Therefore, this cross-sectional survey was conducted to understand knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to COVID-19 among the students of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore. The data was collected using an online self-directed questionnaire. The survey form includes six items about sociodemographic characteristics, 14 knowledge-based questions, seven questions on attitude, and eight questions on practices. The sample number was calculated using the Raosoft sample size calculator. A total number of 3,854 students, including 1,823 men and 2,031 women, were engaged in this survey, having student representation from all the provinces in the country. The data were analyzed using a chi-square test. A total of 97% of the students knew that the etiological agent of COVID-19 is a virus and that it is a disease of the respiratory system (94%). Many students kept visiting their relatives during the lockdown (45%), and their relatives kept visiting them at home (59%). The responses from the students varied a lot on specific questions about the transmission of the virus. Women tended to have less information regarding precautionary travel measures (p < 0.01), but supplemental knowledge of prevention of disease transmission from positive patients (p < 0.01). Conclusively, the majority of the university students surveyed had imperative knowledge, a good attitude, and active practice in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Moreover, the KAP scores have varied by demography, gender, and the number of family members. Therefore, continuous awareness of preventative behaviors should be disseminated regularly in emergencies.

An in vitro antiviral activity of iodine complexes against SARS-CoV-2.

Since the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic in China in late 2019, scientists are striving hard to explore non-toxic, viable anti-SARS-CoV-2 compounds or medicines. We determined In vitro anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of oral formulations (syrup and capsule)of an Iodine-complex (Renessans). First, cell cytotoxicity of Renessans on the Vero cells was determined using MTT assay. Afterwards, the antiviral activity of Renessans was determined using viral inhibition assays and TCID50. For this, nontoxic concentrations of the Renessans were used. The results showed that Renessans is nontoxic to the cells up to 50 µg/mL. At 1.5 µg/mL concentration, SARS-CoV-2 production was significantly reduced to 101.43 TCID50 and 101.58 TCID50 for the syrup and capsule, respectively, as compare to virus infected control cells 106.08 TCID50 and we found the dose dependent inhibition of virus replication in the presence of Renessans. Renessans inhibited SARS-CoV-2 with an EC50 value of 0.425 µg/mL and 0.505 µg/mL for syrup and capsule, respectively. Furthermore, there was no virus detected at concentration of 50 µg/mL of Renessans. This study indicates that Renessans, containing iodine, have potential activity against SARS-CoV-2 which needs to be further investigated in human clinical trials.

Immunoinformatics based prediction of recombinant multi-epitope vaccine for the control and prevention of SARS-CoV-2

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been reported during December 2019, in the city of Wuhan, China. The transmission of this virus via human to human interaction has already been described. The novel virus has become pandemic and declared as a comprehensive emergency worldwide by World Health Organization due to its exponential spread within and outside China. There is a need of time to create a therapeutic agent and a vaccine to cure and control this lethal SARS-CoV-2. Conventionally, the vaccine development process is time taking, tiresome and requires more economical inputs with manpower. However, bioinformatics offers a key solution to compute the possibilities. The present study focuses on the utilization of bioinformatics platforms to forecast B and T cell epitopes that belong to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein. The protein is thought to have an involvement in triggering of momentous immune response. NCBI database was explored to collect the surface glycoprotein sequence and was analyzed to determine the immunogenic epitopes. This prediction analysis was carried out using IEDB web based server and the prediction of protein structure was done by homology modeling approach. This study resulted in prediction of 5 T cell and 13 B cell epitopes. Moreover, GPGPG linker was used to make these predicted epitopes a single peptide prior to further analysis. Afterwards, a 3D model of the final vaccine peptide was constructed, and the structure quality of the final construct was checked by Ramachandran Plot analysis and ProSA-web. Moreover, docking analysis highlighted three interactions of epitope against HLA-B7 including Lys 178, Gol 303 and Thr 31 residues. In conclusion, the predicted multi epitope peptide can be suggested as therapeutic or prophylactic candidate vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 after further confirmation by immunological assays.