Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine does not increase the risk of relapse in patients with clinically inactive adult-onset Still's disease.

OBJECTIVE: A succession of cases have reported flares of adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) after vaccination against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), raising concerns. We aimed to investigate the impact of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines on disease activity in patients with AOSD. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled clinically inactive AOSD patients visiting the outpatient clinics of our department. The patients received SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (BBIBPCorV, Sinopharm, Beijing, China) voluntarily. The occurrence of relapse in the participants was recorded during the follow-up period and a propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to compare the relapse rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Localized and systemic symptoms were assessed in the vaccinated patients. RESULTS: A total of 122 patients with inactive AOSD were included, of which 49.2% (n = 60) voluntarily received the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The relapse rate did not increase significantly in vaccinated patients in comparison with unvaccinated patients (after PSM: 6.8% versus 6.8%), and no relapse occurred within one month after vaccination. No obvious adverse reactions were reported in 75.0% of the participants, and none of the patients reported severe reactions. CONCLUSION: Increased disease activity or relapse following vaccination with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 were rare in patients with inactive AOSD. Local and systemic adverse reactions were found to be mild and self-limiting. These safety profiles of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in patients with AOSD may assist in eliminating vaccine hesitancy and increase the vaccination rate against SARS-CoV-2.

Programmable Nanostructures Based on Framework-DNA for Applications in Biosensing.

DNA has been actively utilized as bricks to construct exquisite nanostructures due to their unparalleled programmability. Particularly, nanostructures based on framework DNA (F-DNA) with controllable size, tailorable functionality, and precise addressability hold excellent promise for molecular biology studies and versatile tools for biosensor applications. In this review, we provide an overview of the current development of F-DNA-enabled biosensors. Firstly, we summarize the design and working principle of F-DNA-based nanodevices. Then, recent advances in their use in different kinds of target sensing with effectiveness have been exhibited. Finally, we envision potential perspectives on the future opportunities and challenges of biosensing platforms.

Stories or Directives: A Cross Cultural Comparison of Governmental Messages to Their Constituents during COVID-19.

This cross-sectional investigation examines the message strategies employed by the CDC and the NHC regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and established that messages sent by the CDC via Twitter differed significantly from the messages posted by the NHC via Weibo. Within a random sample (n = 200) of CDC and NHC messaging, six common themes emerged. They were: offering general advice, offering advice for professionals, pandemic progress, organizational efforts, knowledge popularization, and event notification. Results suggest the CDC offered advice to the general public (n = 50) more often than the NHC (n = 19). Similarly, the CDC offered more advice oriented toward professionals (n = 20) than the NHC (n = 9). The NHC, was more likely to discuss the role of government in remedying the pandemic (n = 12) than the CDC (n = 0) and more likely to employ a narrative style in their messaging (n = 35) than the CDC (n = 1).

Novel insight into the underlying dysregulation mechanisms of immune cell-to-cell communication by analyzing multitissue single-cell atlas of two COVID-19 patients.

How does SARS-CoV-2 cause lung microenvironment disturbance and inflammatory storm is still obscure. We here performed the single-cell transcriptome sequencing from lung, blood, and bone marrow of two dead COVID-19 patients and detected the cellular communication among them. Our results demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection increase the frequency of cellular communication between alveolar type I cells (AT1) or alveolar type II cells (AT2) and myeloid cells triggering immune activation and inflammation microenvironment and then induce the disorder of fibroblasts, club, and ciliated cells, which may cause increased pulmonary fibrosis and mucus accumulation. Further study showed that the increase of T cells in the lungs may be mainly recruited by myeloid cells through ligands/receptors (e.g., ANXA1/FPR1, C5AR1/RPS19, and CCL5/CCR1). Interestingly, we also found that certain ligands/receptors (e.g., ANXA1/FPR1, CD74/COPA, CXCLs/CXCRs, ALOX5/ALOX5AP, CCL5/CCR1) are significantly activated and shared among lungs, blood and bone marrow of COVID-19 patients, implying that the dysregulation of ligands/receptors may lead to immune cell's activation, migration, and the inflammatory storm in different tissues of COVID-19 patients. Collectively, our study revealed a possible mechanism by which the disorder of cell communication caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection results in the lung inflammatory microenvironment and systemic immune responses across tissues in COVID-19 patients.

Social support and connective affordances: Examining responses to early Covid-19 patient support seeking on microblogs

Focusing on the new Super-Topics Platform (STP) of Weibo, this study examined microblog users' responses to the support seeking of early Covid-19 patients suffering the first outbreak in China. A total of 853 patients' support-seeking messages, along with 81,000 comments to 270 patients' help-requests, were crawled and analyzed. Results showed that content characteristics influenced endorsing, sharing, and commenting by users. Furthermore, the study identified three types of social support present in Weibo viewers' comments: emotional, informational, and diffusional supports. These social support types were inherently linked to the connective affordances, which are more inclusive than paralinguistic digital affordances, of microblogs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

The determinants of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among migrants from 109 countries residing in China: A cross-sectional study.

Background: The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among foreign migrants in China and to explore the determinants of their vaccine uptake behavior. Methods: From June to October 2021, we used convenience and snowball sampling to recruit a sample of 764 participants from five cities in which the overwhelming majority of foreign migrants in China live. The chi-square (χ2) tests were used to examine vaccination distribution according to demographic characteristics. Multivariate logistic regression models visualized by forest plot were used to investigate the associations between significant determinants and vaccine uptake. Results: Overall, the prevalence of vaccination rate was 72.9% [95% confidence interval (CI): 69.9-76.0%]. Migrants whose social participation was very active [adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 2.95, 95% CI: 1.36-6.50, P = 0.007] or had perceived COVID-19 progression prevention by the vaccine (AOR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.01-3.02, P = 0.012) had higher odds of vaccination compared to those whose social participation was inactive or who did not have this perception. Migrants who perceived the vaccine uptake process as complex (AOR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.27-0.80, P = 0.016) or were unsure of their physical suitability for the vaccine (AOR: 0.40, 95% CI: 0.24-0.68, P < 0.001) had lower odds of vaccination compared to those who did not have these perceptions. Furthermore, migrants from emerging and developing Asian countries (AOR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.07-5.21, P = 0.04) and the Middle East and Central Asia (AOR: 2.19, 95% CI: 1.07-4.50, P = 0.03) had higher odds of vaccination than those from major advanced economies (G7) countries, while migrants from other advanced economic countries (OR: 0.27, 95% CI: 0.11-0.63, P = 0.003) had lower odds of vaccination than those from G7 countries. Conclusion: It may be beneficial to promote vaccine uptake among migrants by ensuring effective community engagement, simplifying the appointment and uptake process, and advocating the benefits and target populations of the COVID-19 vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccine affects neither prothrombotic antibody profile nor thrombosis in primary antiphospholipid syndrome: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVE: To explore whether inactivated COVID-19 vaccine influences the profile of prothrombotic autoantibodies and induces thrombotic events in primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients. METHODS: We enrolled 39 primary APS patients who received two doses of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BBIBPCorV, Sinopharm, Beijing, China) voluntarily in this prospective cohort. Prothrombotic autoantibodies were determined before vaccination and four weeks after the 2nd dose of vaccination. Thrombotic disorders were evaluated via hospital site visits and assessments. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the presence of all eleven autoantibodies detected before and four weeks after vaccination: for aCL, IgG (14 vs. 16, P= 0.64), IgM (13 vs. 19, P= 0.34), IgA (2 vs. 3, P= 0.64); anti-ß2GP1, IgG (12 vs. 12, P= 1.00), IgM (5 vs. 8, P= 0.36), IgA (4 vs. 3, P= 0.69); aPS/PT IgG (13 vs. 16, P= 0.48), IgM (17 vs. 22, P= 0.26); LAC (22 vs. 28, P= 0.16); aPF4-heparin (0 vs. 0, P= 1.00), and antinuclear antibody (ANA) (23 vs. 26, P= 0.48). Notably, the distribution of aPL profile in pre- and post- vaccination cohort was not affected by SARS-CoV-2 vaccination: for patients with low-risk aPL profile (11 vs. 10, P= 0.799) and patients with high-risk aPL profile (28 vs. 29, P= 0.799), respectively. Furthermore, no case exhibited symptoms of the thrombotic disorder during a minimum follow-up period of 12 weeks. There was no adjustment to the ongoing treatment regimens following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. CONCLUSIONS: Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine does not influence the profile of antiphospholipid antibodies and anti-PF4-heparin antibodies nor induces thrombotic events in primary APS patients.

COVID-19 Vaccines on TikTok: A Big-Data Analysis of Entangled Discourses.

Focusing on social media affordances and China's social/political context, the present study analyzed the digital communication practices about COVID-19 vaccines on a popular social media platform-TikTok-which is called DouYin in China. Overall, this study identified five major forces partaking in constructing the discourses, with government agencies and state media being the dominant contributors. Furthermore, video posters demonstrated different patterns of utilizing social media affordances (e.g., hashtags) in disseminating their messages. The top hashtags adopted by state media were more representative of international relations and Taiwan; those by government agencies were of updates on pandemic outbreaks; those by individual accounts were of mainstream values and health education; those by commercial media were of celebrities and health education; those by enterprise accounts were of TikTok built-in marketing hashtags. The posted videos elicited both cognitive and affective feedback from online viewers. Implications of the findings were discussed in the context of health communication and global recovery against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and Chinese culture.

Zinc and COVID-19: Immunity, Susceptibility, Severity and Intervention.

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and continuing emergence of viral mutants, there has been a lack of effective treatment methods. Zinc maintains immune function, with direct and indirect antiviral activities. Zinc nutritional status is a critical factor in antiviral immune responses. Importantly, COVID-19 and zinc deficiency overlap in high-risk population. Hence, the potential effect of zinc as a preventive and adjunct therapy for COVID-19 is intriguing. Here, this review summarizes the immune and antiviral function of zinc, the relationship between zinc levels, susceptibility, and severity of COVID-19, and the effect of zinc supplementation on COVID-19. Existing studies have confirmed that zinc deficiency was associated with COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Zinc supplementation plays a potentially protective role in enhancing immunity, decreasing susceptibility, shortening illness duration, and reducing the severity of COVID-19. We recommend that zinc levels should be monitored, particularly in COVID-19 patients, and zinc as a preventive and adjunct therapy for COVID-19 should be considered for groups at risk of zinc deficiency to reduce susceptibility and disease severity.

Impact of Drug Metabolism/Pharmacokinetics and its Relevance Considering Traditional Medicine-based Anti-COVID-19 Drug Research.

BACKGROUND: The representative anti-COVID-19 herbs, i.e., Poriacocos, Pogostemon, Prunus, and Glycyrrhiza plants, are commonly used in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19, a pandemic caused by SARSCoV- 2. Diverse medicinal compounds with favorable anti-COVID-19 activities are abundant in these plants, and their unique pharmacological/pharmacokinetic properties have been revealed. However, the current trends in Drug Metabolism/Pharmacokinetic (DMPK) investigations of anti-COVID-19 herbs have not been systematically summarized. METHODS: In this study, the latest awareness, as well as the perception gaps regarding DMPK attributes, in the anti- COVID-19 drug development and clinical usage was critically examined and discussed. RESULTS: The extracts and compounds of P.cocos, Pogostemon, Prunus, and Glycyrrhiza plants show distinct and diverse absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADME/T) properties. The complicated herbherb interactions (HHIs) and herb-drug interactions (HDIs) of anti-COVID-19 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herb pair/formula dramatically influence the PK/pharmacodynamic (PD) performance of compounds thereof, which may inspire researchers to design innovative herbal/compound formulas for optimizing the therapeutic outcome of COVID-19 and related epidemic diseases. The ADME/T of some abundant compounds in anti-COVID-19 plants have been elucidated, but DMPK studies should be extended to more compounds of different medicinal parts, species, and formulations and would be facilitated by various omics platforms and computational analyses. CONCLUSION: In the framework of pharmacology and pharmacophylogeny, the DMPK knowledge base would promote the translation of bench findings into the clinical practice of anti-COVID-19 and speed up the anti-COVID-19 drug discovery and development.

Network resilience in the financial sectors: advances, key elements, applications, and challenges for financial stability regulation

Security against systemic financial risks is the main theme for financial stability regulation. As modern financial markets are highly interconnected and complex networks, their network resilience is an important indicator of the ability of the financial system to prevent risks. To provide a comprehensive perspective on the network resilience of financial networks, we review the main advances in the literature on network resilience and financial networks. Further, we review the key elements and applications of financial network resilience processing in financial regulation, including financial network information, network resilience measures, financial regulatory technologies, and regulatory applications. Finally, we discuss ongoing challenges and future research directions from the perspective of resilience-based financial systemic risk regulation.

Ligand/Receptor-mediated Cell Communication Alteration Causes the Lung Inflammation Microenvironment and the Redistribution of Inter-tissue Immune Cells in COVID-19 Patients (preprint)

How SARS-CoV-2 causes disturbances of the lung microenvironment and systemic immune response remains a mystery. Here, we first analyze detailedly paired single-cell transcriptome data of the lungs, blood and bone marrow of two patients who died of COVID-19. Second, our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 infection significantly increases the cellular communication frequency between AT1/AT2 cells and highly inflammatory myeloid cells, and induces the pulmonary inflammation microenvironment, and drives the disorder of fibroblasts, club and ciliated cells, thereby causing the increase of pulmonary fibrosis and mucus accumulation. Third, our works reveal that the increase of the lung T cell infiltration is mainly recruited by myeloid cells through certain ligands/receptors (ANXA1/FPR1, C5AR1/RPS19 and CCL5/CCR1), rather than AT1/AT2. Fourth, we find that some ligands and receptors such as ANXA1/FPR1, CD74/COPA, CXCLs/CXCRs, ALOX5/ALOX5AP, CCL5/CCR1, are significantly activated and shared among patients’ lungs, blood and bone marrow, implying that dysregulated ligands and receptors may cause the migration, redistribution and the inflammatory storm of immune cells in different tissues. Overall, our study reveals a latent mechanism by which the disorders of ligands and receptors caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection drive cell communication alteration, the pulmonary inflammatory microenvironment and systemic immune responses across tissues in COVID-19 patients.

Economic Evaluation of First-Line Camrelizumab for Advanced Non-small-cell Lung Cancer in China.

Background: As the first domestic PD-1 antibody approved for lung cancer in China, camrelizumab has exhibited proven effectiveness for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. However, the cost-effectiveness of this new regimen remains to be investigated. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of camrelizumab combination therapy vs. chemotherapy for previously untreated patients with advanced, non-squamous NSCLC without Alk or Egfr genomic aberrations from the perspective of China's healthcare system. Methods: Based on the CameL trial, the study developed a three-health state Markov model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding camrelizumab to chemotherapy compared to chemotherapy alone in NSCLC patients. The analysis models were conducted for patients unselected by PD-L1 tumor expression (the base case) and the patient subgroup with PD-L1-expressing tumors (≥1%). Primary model outcomes included the costs in US dollars and health outcomes in quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) as well as the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) under a willingness-to-pay threshold of $31,500 per QALY. Additionally, a scenario analysis that adjusted within-trial crossover was employed to evaluate camrelizumab combination therapy compared to chemotherapy without subsequent use of PD1/PD-L1 antibodies. Results: Camrelizumab combination therapy was more costly and provided additional 0.11 QALYs over chemotherapy in the base case analysis (0.86 vs. 0.75 QALYs), 0.12 QALYs over chemotherapy in the subgroup analysis (0.99 vs. 0.88 QALYs), and 0.34 QALYs over chemotherapy in the scenario analysis (0.86 vs. 0.52 QALYs). Correspondingly, the ICER was $63,080 per QALY, $46,311 per QALY, and $30,591 per QALY, in the base case, the subgroup, and the scenario analysis, respectively. One-way sensitivity analyses revealed that ICERs of the base case and the subgroup analysis were most sensitive to the cost of camrelizumab, the cost of pemetrexed. Besides, the base case and subgroup analysis were more sensitive to the risk of neutrophil count decreased in the camrelizumab and the utility of stable disease, respectively. Conclusion: Although camrelizumab combination therapy is not cost-effective as first-line therapy for NSCLC patients in China in the base case, adjusting within-trial crossover would move the treatment regimen toward cost-effectiveness in the scenario analysis.

Optimal allocations to heterogeneous agents with an application to stimulus checks

A planner allocates discrete transfers of size Dg to N heterogeneous groups labeled g and has CES preferences over the resulting outcomes, Hg(Dg). We derive a closed-form solution for optimally allocating a fixed budget subject to group-specific inequality constraints under the assumption that increments in the Hg functions are non-increasing. We illustrate our method by studying allocations of “support checks” from the U.S. government to households during both the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare the actual allocations to optimal ones under alternative constraints, assuming the government focused on stimulating aggregate consumption during the 2008–2009 crisis and focused on welfare during the 2020–2021 crisis. The inputs for this analysis are obtained from versions of a life-cycle model with heterogeneous households, which predicts household-type-specific consumption and welfare responses to tax rebates and cash transfers.

Safety, mucosal and systemic immunopotency of an aerosolized adenovirus-vectored vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in rhesus macaques.

Mucosal immunity provides a potential for preventing initial infection and stopping subsequent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we examined the safety and immunogenicity of a replication-defective adenovirus type-5 vectored vaccine (Ad5-nCov) encoding SARS-CoV-2 spike protein delivered by nebulization inhalation in rhesus macaques. The vaccine-associated clinical pathology and toxicity were not observed in the NHP model. The extensive safety study indicated that Ad5-nCoV was mainly confined to the organs related to respiratory system and was rapidly cleared away from the system. Our results showed that Ad5-nCoV delivered by inhalation robustly elicited both systematic and mucosal immune responses against SARS-nCoV-2 and variants. Thus, Ad5-nCoV inhalation may provide an effective, safe and non-invasive vaccination strategy for the control of SARS-CoV-2.

Clinical Characteristics of Refractory Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China.

BACKGROUND: Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe adult respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, occurred in Wuhan, and rapidly spread throughout China. This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of patients with refractory COVID-19. METHODS: In this retrospective single-center study, we included 155 consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University from 1 January to 5 February. The cases were divided into general and refractory COVID-19 groups according to the clinical efficacy of treatment after hospitalization, and the differences between groups were compared. RESULTS: Compared with patients with general COVID-19 (45.2%), those with refractory disease were older, were more likely to be male, and had more underlying comorbid conditions, a lower incidence of fever, higher maximum temperatures among patients with fever, higher incidences of shortness of breath and anorexia, more severe disease assessment at admission, higher neutrophil, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, and C-reactive protein levels, lower platelet counts and albumin levels, and higher incidences of bilateral pneumonia and pleural effusion (P < .05). Patients with refractory COVID-19 were more likely to receive oxygen, mechanical ventilation, expectorant, and adjunctive treatment, including corticosteroids, antiviral drugs, and immune enhancers (P < .05). Considering the factors of disease severity at admission, mechanical ventilation, and intensive care unit transfer, patients with refractory COVID-19 were also more likely to be male, have manifestations of anorexia on admission, and receive oxygen, expectorant, and adjunctive agents (P < .05). CONCLUSION: In nearly 50% of patients with COVID-19 obvious clinical and radiological remission was not achieved within 10 days after hospitalization. Male, anorexia, and no fever at admission was predictive of poor treatment efficacy.

Co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 with multiple common respiratory pathogens in infected children: A retrospective study.

ABSTRACT: Since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, considerable attention has been paid on its epidemiology and clinical characteristics in children patients. However, it is also crucial for clinicians to summarize and investigate the co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 in children.We retrospectively reviewed the clinical manifestations, laboratory findings, and imaging characteristics of COVID-19 patients in co-infection group (CI, n = 27) and single infection group (SI, n = 54). Samples were tested for multiple pathogens.A high incidence (27/81, 33%) of co-infection in children with COVID-19 was revealed. The most frequent co-infected pathogen was mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP, 20/81, 25%), followed by virus (6/81, 7%), and bacteria (4/81, 5%). No significant difference in clinical characteristics, laboratory examinations, or hospital stay was observed between the patients with co-infections and those with monomicrobial, only lower in white blood cell counts (CI: 5.54 ±â€Š0.36 vs SI: 7.38 ±â€Š0.37, P = .002), neutrophil counts (CI: 2.20 ±â€Š0.20 vs SI: 2.92 ±â€Š0.23, P = .024) and lymphocyte counts (CI: 2.72 ±â€Š0.024 vs SI: 3.87 ±â€Š0.28, P = .006). Compared with the patients with monomicrobial, chest imaging of those with co-infections showed consolidation in more cases (CI: 29.6% vs SI: 11.1%, P = .038) and duration of positive in nucleic acid was shorter (CI: 6.69 ±â€Š0.82 vs SI: 9.69 ±â€Š0.74, P = .015).Co-infection was relatively common in children with COVID-19, almost 1/3 had co-infection, most commonly caused by MP. Co-infection did not cause a significant exacerbation in clinical manifestations.

Cytokine Storm in Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Adult-Onset Still's Disease: Similarities and Differences.

The catastrophic outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a public emergency. Adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD) is an autoinflammatory disease characterized by life-threatening complications. Systemic hyperinflammation and cytokine storm play a critical role in the pathogenesis of both COVID-19 and AOSD. We aimed to compare the similarities and differences focusing on ferritin and cytokine levels between severe COVID-19 and active AOSD. A literature search was performed using the databases PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science to collect the levels of cytokine including IL-1ß, IL-6, IL-18, TNF-α, IL-10, and ferritin in severe COVID-19 patients. After extracting available data of indicators of interest, we acquired these statistics with a single-arm meta-analysis. Furthermore, a comparison was conducted between 52 patients with active AOSD in our center and severe COVID-19 patients from databases. The levels of IL-6 and IL-10 were higher in severe COVID-19 compared with those in active AOSD. There were no significant differences on the cytokine of IL-1ß and TNF-α. Fold changes of IL-18 were defined as the mean expression level ratio of severe COVID-19 to healthy controls in the COVID-19 study and active AOSD to healthy controls in our study, individually. Although the fold change of IL-18 in patients with AOSD was significantly higher than patients with severe COVID-19 (fold change: 594.00 vs 2.17), there was no statistical comparability. In addition, the level of ferritin was higher in active AOSD in comparison with severe COVID-19. Our findings suggest that severe COVID-19 and active AOSD have differences in cytokine panel and ferritin level, indicating the pathogenic role of ferritin in overwhelming inflammation. And it paves the way to make efficacy therapeutic strategy targeting the hyperinflammatory process in COVID-19 according to AOSD management, especially in severe COVID-19.