COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Comprehensive Review of Their Safety and Efficacy in Special Populations.

COVID-19 has been spreading worldwide since late 2019. There is no definitive cure to date. Global vaccination programs are urgently required to confer herd immunity, reducing the incidence of COVID-19 infections and associated morbidity and mortality. However, a significant proportion of special populations are hesitant to receive vaccination due to their special conditions, namely, age (pediatrics and geriatrics), immunocompromised state, autoimmune diseases, chronic cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions, active or treated cancers, and pregnancy. This review aims to evaluate the existing evidence of COVID-19 vaccinations on these special populations and to provide clues to guide vaccination decision making to balance the benefits and risks of vaccinations.

Effectivity of mesenchymal stem cells for bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis: a systematic review and implication for clinical application.

Pulmonary fibrosis (PF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrotic interstitial disease of the lung with poor prognosis and without effective treatment currently. Data from previous coronavirus infections, such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, as well as current clinical evidence from the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), support that SARS-CoV-2 infection may lead to PF, seriously impacting patient prognosis and quality of life. Therefore, effective prevention and treatment of PF will improve patient prognosis and reduce the overall social and economic burdens. Stem cells, especially mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have many great advantages, including migration to damaged lung tissue and secretion of various paracrine factors, thereby regulating the permeability of endothelial and epithelial cells, reducing inflammatory response, promoting tissue repair and inhibiting bacterial growth. Clinical trials of MSCs for the treatment of acute lung injury, PF and severe and critically ill COVID-19 are ongoing. The purpose of this study is to systematically review preclinical studies, explored the effectiveness of MSCs in the treatment of bleomycin (BLM)-induced pulmonary fibrosis and analyze the potential mechanism, combined with clinical trials of current MSCs for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and COVID-19, so as to provide support for clinical research and transformation of MSCs. Searching PubMed and Embase (- 2021.4) identified a total of 36 preclinical studies of MSCs as treatment of BLM-induced acute lung injury and PF in rodent models. Most of the studies showed the MSCs treatment to reduce BLM-induced lung tissue inflammatory response, inflammatory cell infiltration, inflammatory cytokine expression, extracellular matrix production and collagen deposition, and to improve Ashcroft score. The results of present studies indicate that MSCs may serve as a potential therapeutic modality for the treatment of PF, including viral-induced PF and IPF.

Long COVID-19 Syndrome: A Comprehensive Review of Its Effect on Various Organ Systems and Recommendation on Rehabilitation Plans.

The majority of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 fully recovered within a few weeks. However, a considerable number of patients of different ages still suffer from long-lasting problems similar to the multi-organ damage in its acute phase of infection, or experience symptoms continuously for a longer term after the recovery. The severity of the primary infection seems not to be associated with the possibility and severity of long-term symptoms. Various unresolved symptoms have been reported in COVID-19 survivors months after hospital discharge. Long COVID-19 Syndrome refers to survivors 4 months after initial symptoms onset. It is important to understand the systemic effects of Long COVID-19 Syndrome, its presentations, and the need for rehabilitations to restore functional recovery in survivors. Government, healthcare workers, and survivor groups should collaborate to establish a self-sustaining system to facilitate follow-up and rehabilitations, with prioritization of resources to more severely Long COVID-19 Syndrome survivors. This review looks into the systemic effects of Long COVID-19 Syndrome in various aspects: respiratory, cardiovascular, hematological, renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, and metabolic effects of Long COVID-19 Syndromes. Recommendations for follow-up and rehabilitations details have been explored to cope with the tremendous Long COVID-19 Syndrome patients.

COVID-19 Vaccines: A Review of the Safety and Efficacy of Current Clinical Trials.

Various strategies have been designed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Among them, vaccine development is high on the agenda in spite of the unknown duration of the protection time. Various vaccines have been under clinical trials with promising results in different countries. The protective efficacy and the short-term and long-term side effects of the vaccines are of major concern. Therefore, comparing the protective efficacy and risks of vaccination is essential for the global control of COVID-19 through herd immunity. This study reviews the most recent data of 12 vaccines to evaluate their efficacy, safety profile and usage in various populations.

Inhibition of coronavirus infection by a synthetic STING agonist in primary human airway system.

The newly emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) coronavirus initiated a pneumonia outbreak (COVID-19) that rapidly spread worldwide and quickly became a public health emergency of international concern; However to date, except Remdesivir, there are no clinically approved specific or effective medicines to prevent or treat COVID-19. Therefore, the development of novel treatments against coronavirus infections caused by the current SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as other highly pathogenic human coronaviruses, represents an urgent unmet need. Stimulator of interferon genes (STING) plays a central role in host defense mechanisms against microbial infections. STING activation leads to the induction of both type I interferon and autophagy responses, which elicit strong inhibitory effect against the infections caused by a broad range of microbial pathogens. However, whether STING activation can impact infections from SARS-CoV-2 or other coronaviruses remains largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the anti-coronavirus activity triggered by STING activation. We discovered that dimeric amidobenzimidazole (diABZI), a synthetic small molecule STING receptor agonist, showed potent anti-coronavirus activity against both the common cold human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) and SARS-CoV-2 in cell culture systems. In addition, we demonstrated that the antiviral activity of diABZI was dependent on the interferon pathway in HCoV-229E infected normal human fibroblast lung cells (MRC-5) and reconstituted primary human airway air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures. Furthermore, low-dose of diABZI treatment at 0.1 µM effectively reduced the SARS-CoV-2 viral load at the epithelial apical surface and prevented epithelial damage in the reconstituted primary human bronchial airway epithelial ALI system. Our findings have thus revealed the therapeutic potential of STING agonists, such as diABZI, as treatments for SARS-CoV-2 and other human coronavirus infections.