ABSTRACT
Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus disease in late 2019, it has been a global public safety emergency to efficiently prevent and control the epidemic. Vaccine is one of the means to effectively prevent the virus from infecting humans, protect high-risk groups from rapid disease progression and minimize further spread of the virus-caused epidemic. Subunit vaccine is a safe and effective strategy that contains recombinant protein antigens of specific viral components and vaccine adjuvant that helps increasing the immunogenicity of the antigen. Since the specific immunogenic viral antigen can activate the immune system, which thus produces antibodies against immunodominant epitopes on the surface of the protein antigen, it offers subunit vaccine a high degree of protection and safety. The major severe acute respiratory symptom coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) subunit vaccines that have been marketed and are currently in the clinical stage are reviewed. The design concepts of various antigens and types of vaccine adjuvants, the protective capacity, and the research progress of subunit vaccine candidates are introduced. The applications and technical advantages of subunit vaccine are analyzed. This review is expected to provide suggestions for subunit vaccine development and global epidemic prevention and control. © 2022, China Biotechnology. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To construct single-cell transcription landscape of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with mild, severe and prognosis states of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), and to analyze the relationship between disease progression and host immune response. Methods: Single-cell RNA sequence (scRNA-seq) data of healthy controls and for severe, mild, early recovery stage and later recovery stage PBMCs of patients with COVID-19 were obtained from public databases. After the cells were clustered according to the expression profile of each cell, the cell subtypes of each cluster were determined according to the known cell markers, and the proportion of each cell subtype was counted.The differentially expressed genes of each cell subtype were analyzed. Results: After quality control, the 115 334 PBMCs were classified into 22 cell subsets.Among them, CD14+ monocytes, inflammatory monocytes, naïve B cells and intermediate memory B cells significantly increased in PBMCs of severe patients.The proportion of proliferative CD8+ T/NK cells significantly increased in T cells of severe patients.XCL1+NK cells significantly decrease in PBMCs of severe patients.The proportion of cDC2 cells and pDC cells were significantly increased in PBMCs of recovery patients.With the remission and recovery of the disease, the proportion of NK cells in PBMCs increased gradually.The genes related to leukocyte activation and immune regulation were upregulated in both disease stage and recovery stage. Conclusion: The cell proportion and expression profile of PBMCs in patients with mild, severe and prognosis states of COVID-19 varied greatly. © 2022, Editorial Department of Fudan University Journal of Medical Sciences. All right reserved.
ABSTRACT
This article studies how Chinese internet users mobilized online to participate in actions and articulate social and political disaffection during the COVID-19 outbreak in China after the death of Dr. Li Wenliang in early 2020. Dr. Li saved many people's lives by sending early warnings in late 2019 and ultimately died of the new coronavirus on February 6, 2020. When collectively mourning Dr. Li's death, Chinese people commemorated him as a folk hero, which worked to build a "virtual utopia" through which they could go through the crisis together. This process illustrates the changing tension between state control and individual agency within particular contexts during the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020 in China.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND Abnormal liver function is frequently present in patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), and the reasons for abnormal liver function are still largely unknown. In the present study, we performed a retrospective analysis of COVID-19 cases to identify the risk factors for liver injury. AIM To identify the risk factors for COVID-19-related liver injury. METHODS One-hundred patients with confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized at Huoshenshan Hospital between February 4 and February 29, 2020 were included. Basic information and laboratory parameters (liver function tests) were collected and analyzed. RESULTS Of the 100 COVID-19 patients included, 54% were male and 46% were female. The average age was 59.89 ± 13.07 years. The patients had clinical manifestations of fever (81%), cough (64%), and limb fatigue (52%) at preadmission. Abnormal liver function was observed in 38 patients, including elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT;28 patients), aspartate aminotransferase (AST;10 patients), and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT;20 patients). Patients who had elevated ALT, AST, or GGT were significantly more often present in male patients (P < 0.001, P = 0.006 and P < 0.001, respectively). There was no statistical difference in liver function parameters between patients who received and did not receive prehospital treatment. CONCLUSION Abnormal liver function is more likely to be observed in male patients with COVID-19.