Is antenatal or early-life vitamin D associated with eczema or food allergy in childhood? A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To summarise the associations between antenatal or early-life blood vitamin D and the development of eczema/food allergy in childhood. DESIGN: A systematic review and meta-analyses were conducted to synthesize the published literature. Two reviewers independently performed the study selection and data extraction on Covidence. We assessed the risk of bias for observational studies by using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale and the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool for clinical trials. The certainty of the evidence was assessed using Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE). DATA SOURCES: We systematically searched PubMed and Embase from inception and April 2022. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Human studies that investigated prospective associations between antenatal or early-life blood vitamin D levels, dietary intake or supplementation and childhood eczema/food allergy. RESULTS: Forty-three articles including six randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Four RCTs of vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy showed no evidence of an effect on the incidence of eczema (pooled odds ratio [OR] = 0.85; 0.67-1.08, I2  = 6.7%, n = 2074). Three RCTs reported null associations between supplementation in pregnancy/infancy and food allergy. From six cohort studies, increasing cord blood vitamin D levels were associated with reduced prevalence of eczema at/close to age one (OR per 10 nmol/L increase = 0.89; 0.84-0.94, I2  = 0%, 2025 participants). We found no evidence of an association between maternal antenatal or infant vitamin D level or dietary intake and the development of food allergy or eczema in offspring. CONCLUSIONS: We found an association between higher vitamin D levels in cord blood and reduced risk of eczema in cohort studies. Further trials with maternal and infant supplementation are needed to confirm if vitamin D supplementation can effectively prevent eczema or food allergy in childhood. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO, No. CRD42013005559.

Widely heterogeneous humoral and cellular immunity after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in a homogeneous population of healthy young men.

BACKGROUND: We studied humoral and cellular responses against SARS-CoV-2 longitudinally in a homogeneous population of healthy young/middle-aged men of South Asian ethnicity with mild COVID-19. METHODS: In total, we recruited 994 men (median age: 34 years) post-COVID-19 diagnosis. Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted between May 2020 and January 2021 at six time points - day 28 (n = 327), day 80 (n = 202), day 105 (n = 294), day 140 (n = 172), day 180 (n = 758), and day 280 (n = 311). Three commercial assays were used to detect anti-nucleoprotein (NP) and neutralizing antibodies. T cell response specific for Spike, Membrane and NP SARS-CoV-2 proteins was tested in 85 patients at day 105, 180, and 280. RESULTS: All serological tests displayed different kinetics of progressive antibody reduction while the frequency of T cells specific for different structural SARS-CoV-2 proteins was stable over time. Both showed a marked heterogeneity of magnitude among the studied cohort. Comparatively, cellular responses lasted longer than humoral responses and were still detectable nine months after infection in the individuals who lost antibody detection. Correlation between T cell frequencies and all antibodies was lost over time. CONCLUSION: Humoral and cellular immunity against SARS-CoV-2 is induced with differing kinetics of persistence in those with mild disease. The magnitude of T cells and antibodies is highly heterogeneous in a homogeneous study population. These observations have implications for COVID-19 surveillance, vaccination strategies, and post-pandemic planning.

Effect of synchronous online vs. face-to-face cardiopulmonary resuscitation training on chest compression quality: A pilot randomized manikin study.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to compare the effect of synchronous online and face-to-face cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training on chest compressions quality in a manikin model. METHODS: A total of 118 fourth-year medical students participated in this study. The participants were divided into two groups: the online synchronous teaching group and the face-to-face group. Then, the participants were further randomly distributed to 1 of 2 feedback groups: online synchronous teaching and training with feedback devices (TF, n = 30) or without feedback devices (TN, n = 29) and face-to-face teaching and training with feedback devices (FF, n = 30) or without feedback devices (FN, n = 29). In the FN group and FF group, instructors delivered a 45-min CPR training program and gave feedback and guidance during training on site. In the TN group and TF group, the participants were trained with an online lecture via Tencent Meeting live broadcasting. Finally, participants performed a 2-min continuous chest compression (CC) during a simulated cardiopulmonary arrest scene without the audiovisual feedback (AVF) device. The outcome measures included CC depth, CC rate, proportions of appropriate depth (50-60 mm) and CC rate (100-120/min), percentage of correct hand location position, and percentage of complete chest recoil. RESULTS: There was little difference in the CC quality between the synchronous online training groups and the face-to-face training groups. There was no statistically significant difference in CC quality between the TN group and FN group. There were also no statistically significant differences between the TF and FF groups in terms of correct hand position, CC depth, appropriate CC depth, complete chest recoil or CC rate. However, the FF group had a higher appropriate CC rate than the TF group (p = 0.045). In the face-to-face training groups, the AVF device group had a significantly greater CC depth, appropriate CC depth, CC rate, and appropriate CC rate. However, there was a lack of statistically significant differences in terms of correct hand position (p = 0.191) and appropriate CC depth (p = 0.123). In the synchronous online training groups, the AVF device had little effect on the CC rate (p = 0.851) and increased the appropriate CC rate, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.178). CONCLUSIONS: Synchronous online training with an AVF device would be a potential alternative approach to face-to-face chest compression training. Synchronous online training with AVF devices seems to be a suitable replacement for face-to-face training to offer adequate bystander CPR chest compression training.

Proteome-wide data analysis reveals tissue-specific network associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

For patients with COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the damages to multiple organs have been clinically observed. Since most of current investigations for virus-host interaction are based on cell level, there is an urgent demand to probe tissue-specific features associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Based on collected proteomic datasets from human lung, colon, kidney, liver, and heart, we constructed a virus-receptor network, a virus-interaction network, and a virus-perturbation network. In the tissue-specific networks associated with virus-host crosstalk, both common and different key hubs are revealed in diverse tissues. Ubiquitous hubs in multiple tissues such as BRD4 and RIPK1 would be promising drug targets to rescue multi-organ injury and deal with inflammation. Certain tissue-unique hubs such as REEP5 might mediate specific olfactory dysfunction. The present analysis implies that SARS-CoV-2 could affect multi-targets in diverse host tissues, and the treatment of COVID-19 would be a complex task.