The lethal internal face of the coronaviruses: Kidney tropism of the SARS, MERS, and COVID19 viruses.

The kidney is one of the main targets attacked by viruses in patients with a coronavirus infection. Until now, SARS-CoV-2 has been identified as the seventh member of the coronavirus family capable of infecting humans. In the past two decades, humankind has experienced outbreaks triggered by two other extremely infective members of the coronavirus family; the MERS-CoV and the SARS-CoV. According to several investigations, SARS-CoV causes proteinuria and renal impairment or failure. The SARS-CoV was identified in the distal convoluted tubules of the kidney of infected patients. Also, renal dysfunction was observed in numerous cases of MERS-CoV infection. And recently, during the 2019-nCoV pandemic, it was found that the novel coronavirus not only induces acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) but also can induce damages in various organs including the liver, heart, and kidney. The kidney tissue and its cells are targeted massively by the coronaviruses due to the abundant presence of ACE2 and Dpp4 receptors on kidney cells. These receptors are characterized as the main route of coronavirus entry to the victim cells. Renal failure due to massive viral invasion can lead to undesirable complications and enhanced mortality rate, thus more attention should be paid to the pathology of coronaviruses in the kidney. Here, we have provided the most recent knowledge on the coronaviruses (SARS, MERS, and COVID19) pathology and the mechanisms of their impact on the kidney tissue and functions.

Psychometric Validation of the Persian Version of the COVID-19-Related Psychological Distress Scale and Association with COVID-19 Fear, COVID-19 Anxiety, Optimism, and Lack of Resilience.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in a global health crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused psychological distress, both in infected and uninfected individuals. The present study evaluated the validity and factor structure of the COVID-19-Related Psychological Distress Scale (CORPDS) among the general public of the Persian-speaking population. The original version of the CORPDS was translated and back-translated into Persian, followed by a pilot study. A total sample (n = 623) completed an online survey including the CORPDS, Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S), Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), and Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). The Persian CORPDS had very good internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability after 4 weeks. Maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to test construct validity (χ2/df = 2.39, CFI = 0.95, SRMR = 0.046, PCLOSE = 0.67 > 0.05, RMSEA = 0.047, 90% CI [0.038, 0.056]). Measurement invariance was performed across gender, including configural invariance, metric invariance, scalar invariance, and error variance invariance, and yielded further support for the two-factor structure of the CORPDS. The CORPDS correlated with the score on the K10 (r = 0.46, p < 0.01, 95% CI [0.43, 0.48]), CAS (r = 0.43, p < 0.01, 95% CI [0.37, 0.45]), FCV-19S (r = 0.29, p < 0.01, 95% CI [0.27, 0.32]), LOT-R (r = - 0.19, p < 0.01, 95% CI [- 0.15, - 0.24]) and BRS (r = - 0.56, p < 0.01, 95% CI [- 0.50, - 0.61]). Resilience was associated with lower psychological distress (ß = - 0.54, SE = 0.05, p < 0.001). The findings provide evidence that CORPDS is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing psychological distress generated by COVID-19 among a healthy Persian-speaking population.

Risk factors for adverse outcomes of COVID-19 patients: Possible basis for diverse responses to the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.

Severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is characterized by an unpredictable disease course, with variable presentations of different organ systems. The clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are highly variable ranging from mild presentations to severe, life-threatening symptoms and the wide individual variability may be due to the broad heterogeneity in the underlying pathologies. There is no doubt that early management may have a major influence on the outcome. This led the scientists to search for ways to monitor disease progression or to predict outcomes in COVID-19. Although it is not yet possible to predict who will progress to the severe forms or in what time, numerous prospective and longitudinal studies represent the evidence for determining the potential immunological risk factors of COVID-19 critical disease and death. The kinetics and breadth of immune responses during COVID-19 appear to follow a trend which is consistent to the predominant pathological alterations. Recent publications have used these biomarkers to help identify patients who will develop the severe acute COVID-19. Of particular interest is the relationship between the kinetics of peripheral leukocytes and clinical progress of the disease in COVID-19. Although research is ongoing in this area, we present details about the current status of the evaluation. Understanding of the COVID-19 related alterations of the innate and adaptive immune responses may help to promote the vaccine development and immunological interventions.

Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells as a valuable source for the treatment of immune-mediated disorders.

Over recent years, mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSCs) and their potential biomedical applications have received much attention from the global scientific community in an increasing manner. Firstly, MSCs were successfully isolated from human bone marrow (BM), but in the next steps, they were also extracted from other sources, mostly from the umbilical cord (UC) and adipose tissue (AT). The International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) has suggested minimum criteria to identify and characterize MSCs as follows: plastic adherence, surface expression of CD73, D90, CD105 in the lack of expression of CD14, CD34, CD45, and human leucocyte antigen-DR (HLA-DR), and also the capability to differentiate to multiple cell types including adipocyte, chondrocyte, or osteoblast in vitro depends on culture conditions. However, these distinct properties, including self-renewability, multipotency, and easy accessibility are just one side of the coin; another side is their huge secretome which is comprised of hundreds of mediators, cytokines, and signaling molecules and can effectively modulate the inflammatory responses and control the infiltration process that finally leads to a regulated tissue repair/healing or regeneration process. MSC-mediated immunomodulation is a direct result of a harmonic synergy of MSC-released signaling molecules (i.e., mediators, cytokines, and chemokines), the reaction of immune cells and other target cells to those molecules, and also feedback in the MSC-molecule-target cell axis. These features make MSCs a respectable and eligible therapeutic candidate to be evaluated in immune-mediated disorders, such as graft versus host diseases (GVHD), multiple sclerosis (MS), Crohn's disease (CD), and osteoarthritis (OA), and even in immune-dysregulating infectious diseases such as the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This paper discussed the therapeutic applications of MSC secretome and its biomedical aspects related to immune-mediated conditions. Sources for MSC extraction, their migration and homing properties, therapeutic molecules released by MSCs, and the pathways and molecular mechanisms possibly involved in the exceptional immunoregulatory competence of MSCs were discussed. Besides, the novel discoveries and recent findings on immunomodulatory plasticity of MSCs, clinical applications, and the methods required for their use as an effective therapeutic option in patients with immune-mediated/immune-dysregulating diseases were highlighted.

Mesenchymal stem cell alongside exosomes as a novel cell-based therapy for COVID-19: A review study.

In the past year, an emerging disease called Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been discovered in Wuhan, China, which has become a worrying pandemic and has challenged the world health system and economy. SARS-CoV-2 enters the host cell through a specific receptor (Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2) expressed on epithelial cells of various tissues. The virus, by inducing cell apoptosis and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, generates as cytokine storm, which is the major cause of mortality in the patients. This type of response, along with responses by other immune cell, such as alveolar macrophages and neutrophils causes extensive damage to infected tissue. Newly, a novel cell-based therapy by Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) as well as by their exosomes has been developed for treatment of COVID-19 that yielded promising outcomes. In this review study, we discuss the characteristics and benefits of MSCs therapy as well as MSC-secreted exosome therapy in treatment of COVID-19 patients.