ABSTRACT
Burkholderia cepacia is a beta proteobacterium multidrug-resistant Gram-negative pathogen. At least nine different species cause infections in people with chronic granulomatous disease and cystic fibrosis (CF). In this report, we focused on Bcc that caused thyroiditis in people. Isolates were collected from patients with thyroiditis for complete genome sequencing. The sequencing results were 352 contigs, an estimated genome length of 23,628,288 bp, and an average G+C content of 59.99%.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) appeared as outbreak in 2019 in Wuhan, China. It has been classified as pandemic disease and more severe than predicted;with infections already recorded in a variety of countries. This study aims to confirm the COVID-19 infection through the following tests: hematological, C-reactive protein (CRP). Samples were collected from the infected patients and sent to the National Flu Center (Central Public Health Laboratory) for COVID-19 (positive or negative) diagnosis by the RT-PCR technique. In this study, sixty five of COVID-19 patients and twenty five of healthy control samples male and female were collected in Iraq. There are significant differences in the parameters of the hematological markers for patients in comparing with the control group and no significant differences were observed in Hb when RBC and GRAN percent rise in patients relative to the control group with P=0.0395 and P=0.0354 respectively comparing with the control group. White blood cells (WBC), Lymphocyte (LYM%), Platelets (PIT), monocyte (Mid%), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit (PCT) was drop dramatically in patients compared to control group. Fifty-one of patients for whom the test was given exhibited a positive (CRP) result. Likewise, the results showed that few patients were negative to CRP test. The Hematological parameters levels (HCT, MCV, MCH, Pelt, WBC, LYM, Mid, MPV, PCT) decreased, but Hb, RBC, GRAN% increased. C-reactive protein test showed a positive result in 85% of patients which can be considered an indicator for predicting severity infection with COVID-19. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The global prevalence of COVID-19 disease and the overwhelming increase in death toll urge scientists to discover new effective drugs. Although the drug discovery process is a challenging and time-consuming, fortunately, the plant kingdom was found to have many active therapeutics possessing broad-spectrum antiviral activity including those candidates active against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronaviruses (SARS-CoV). Herein, nine traditional Chinese medicinal plant constituents from different origins (Glycyrrhizin 1, Lycorine 2, Puerarin 3, Daidzein 4, Daidzin 5, Salvianolic acid B 6, Dihydrotanshinone I 7, Tanshinone I 8, Tanshinone IIa 9) previously reported to exhibit antiviral activity against SARS-CoV were virtually screened in silico (molecular docking) as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 target proteins. The tested medicinal plant compounds were in silico screened for their activity against two key SARS-CoV-2 target proteins;3CLpro, and Spike binding-domain proteins. Among the tested medicinal plant compounds, Salvianolic acid B 6 (Sal-B) showed promising binding affinities against the two specified SARS-CoV-2 target proteins compared to the reference standards used. Hence molecular dynamics simulations followed by calculating the free-binding energy were carried out for Sal-B providing information on its affinity, stability, and thermodynamic behavior within the two SARS-CoV-2 target proteins as well as key ligand-protein binding aspects. Besides, the quantum mechanical calculations showed that Sal-B can adopt different conformations due to the existence of various rotatable bonds. Therefore, the enhanced antiviral activity of Sal-B among other studied compounds can be also attributed to the structural flexibility of Sal-B. Our study gives an explanation of the structure activity relationship required for targeting SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro and Spike proteins and also facilitates the future design and synthesis of new potential drugs exhibiting better affinity and specificity. Besides, an ADME study was carried out on screened compounds and reference controls revealing their pharmacokinetics properties.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The outbreak of novel coronavirus COVID-19 infections that started in China late 2019 has spread rapidly and cases have been recorded worldwide. So, in this study, we sought clarification of the clinical characteristics and importance of changing the lymphocyte group, antibodies, CD markers, and interleukin-6 in the serum of COVID-19 patients, which may help to clarify the pathogen and develop new biomarkers. Material and Methods: Venous blood samples had been accumulated from patients before taking any medications. Sera had been separated and saved at (-20°C) until analysis. Serum anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins (IgG, IgA, and IgM) were determined in plasma samples using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and Serum IL-6 was assessed. Results: Median IgM (p=0.001), IgG (p<0.0001), and IgA (p<0.001), were decreased in patients comparing with control the control group. There is a significant decrease in CD3+ and CD4+ cells compared to healthy individuals in patients infected with COVID-19 (p<0.0001). CD19+ cell count decreased in COVID-19 patients compared to that of the control group (p<0.0001). After calculating CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio decreased in COVID-19 patients (p<0.0001). However, CD56+ cells were found to be increased (p<0.0001). Conclusions: IgM, IgG, IgA levels and CD19+, CD4+ cells, CD4+/CD8+ cell ratio were found to be decreased whereas CD8+, CD3+, CD4+ cells were detected to be increased in COVID-19 patients compared to those of healthy controls. © 2020 Turkish Journal of Immunology.