ABSTRACT
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was first detected in December 2019, and shortly after pandemic has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its unstoppable global spread. Considerable amount of effort has beenput around the World in order to develop a safe and effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. Inactivated and RNA vaccines have already passed phase three studies showing sufficient efficacy and safety, respectively. Nowadays, there is a noticeable dominance of SARS-CoV-2 variants with various mutations over the wild type SARS-CoV-2. However, there is no report showing the efficacy of these vaccines on these variants. This case study describes a thirty-eight-year-old male reported to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant following two doses of inactive CoronaVac administration with a protective level of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. The variant analysis of the virus reported to be positive for N501Y mutation.This is the first case in the literature demonstrating that inactive SARS-CoV-2 vaccine might have a lower efficacy on alpha variant.Copyright © 2022 Cenk Serhan Ozverel et al., published by Sciendo.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has been identified as a major international concern and global challenge for public health. We have discussed COVID-19 as an infectious disease creating a pandemic situation aross the globe and various tests that have been carried out to detect and treat the infection along with the possibility of finding a vaccination and its results. We have reviewed diagnostic tests such as serological detection, rapid antibody test, nucleic acid test, polymerase chain reaction test, high sophistication molecular-based laboratory testing (USA) and blood gas analyzer aiding. We have reviewed effective drug therapies and their results along with various drugs like Hydroxychloro-quine in combination with azithromycin and other drugs like remdesivir, favipiravir, lopinavir and ritonavir tried individually. We have discussed in detail the current research on vaccination conducted by the Oxford University, UK. Our review highlights the success of drug therapy and vaccine trials conducted on sample human populations giving a hope to control the pandemic in the future.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.
ABSTRACT
Background: Reviewing the laboratory studies, we observe some drugs with other specified applications, which cause serious inhibitory immune responses in the body. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are among these drugs. Therefore, the current research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of one of the SSRI drugs called fluvoxamine on the cytokine levels in COVID-19 patients. Material(s) and Method(s): The current research included 80 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in ICU in Massih Daneshvari Hospital. They were entered into the research by an accessible method of sampling and then divided into two groups randomly. One of the groups underwent the treatment with fluvoxamine as the experimental group and the other group did not receive fluvoxamine as the control group. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and CRP levels were measured before the onset of fluvoxamine consumption and when discharging from the hospital in all members of the sample group. Result(s): The current study showed that IL-6 levels increased, while CRP levels decreased in the experimental group significantly (P-value<= 0.01). After consuming fluvoxamine, IL-6 and CRP levels were higher and lower in the females compared to the males, respectively. Conclusion(s): Considering the effectiveness of fluvoxamine on IL-6 and CRP in COVID-19 patients, it may ultimately come true to use this drug to improve both psychological and physical conditions simultaneously and leave the COVID-19 pandemic behind with less pathology.Copyright © 2022 NRITLD, National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Iran.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread around the world, caused millions of deaths and a severe illness which poses a serious threat to human health. OBJECTIVE: To develop an antigen detection kit that can identify Omicron novel coronavirus mutants. METHODS: BALB/c mice were immunized with the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron mutant treated with ß-propiolactone. After fusion of myeloma cells with immune cells, Elisa was used to screen the cell lines capable of producing monoclonal antibodies. The detection kit was prepared by colloidal gold immunochromatography. Finally, the sensitivity, specificity and anti-interference of the kit were evaluated by simulating positive samples. RESULTS: The sensitivity of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection kit can reach 62.5 TCID50/mL, and it has good inclusiveness for different SARS-CoV-2 strains. The kit had no cross-reaction with common respiratory pathogens, and its sensitivity was still not affected under the action of different concentrations of interferences, indicating that it had good specificity and stability. CONCLUSION: In this study, monoclonal antibodies with high specificity to the N protein of the Omicron mutant strain were obtained by monoclonal antibody screening technology. Colloidal gold immunochromatography technology was used to prepare an antigen detection kit with high sensitivity to detect and identify the mutant Omicron strain.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Infection by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19), poses a serious risk to humanity and represents a huge challenge for healthcare systems worldwide. Since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been evident that adequate testing is an essential step in limiting and controlling the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we present an accurate, inexpensive, scalable, portable, and rapid detection kit to directly detect SARS-CoV-2 in biological samples that could even be translated for population testing. We have demonstrated that our method can reliably identify viral load and could be used to reach those fractions of the population with limited access to more sophisticated and expensive tests. PROCEDURES: The proposed SARS-CoV-2 detection kit is based on the combination of a SARS-CoV-2-targeted antibody (CR3022) that targets spike protein S1 domain on the viral surface. This antibody was radiolabeled with a long-lived isotope (Iodine-125) to allow us to detect bound antibody in samples with SARS-CoV-2. We used a series of in vitro assays to determine sensitivity and specificity and facilitate automation of the testing kit. Bound antibody was extracted from saliva samples via a centrifugation step and a semi-permeable membrane. Our kit was further validated using SARS-CoV-2 virions. RESULTS: We were able to accomplish radiosynthesis of [125I]I-CR3022 reliably without loss of binding. The SARS-CoV-2-sensing antibody was shown to maintain its spike S1 affinity and to bind to as low as 2.5-5 ng of spike protein. We then used beads-bound spike S1 to develop a separation kit which proved to be both easy to use and inexpensive. The kit made it possible to extract bound antibody from the saliva-like sample. We were able to validate the separation kit using intact SARS-CoV-2 virions and showed that our kit can detect a viral concentration as low as 19,700 PFU/mL (~ 9.22%TBF) and as high as 1,970,000 PFU/mL (45.04%TBF). CONCLUSION: Here we report the development and validation of a SARS-CoV-2 detection system based on the combination of a specific radiolabeled antibody and a separation membrane. We demonstrate our system to be comparable to other SARS-CoV-2 detection kits already approved by the FDA and believe this technology could be easily deployed to countries with limited resources for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Furthermore, workflows could be easily adapted to target other antigens and therefore other types of diseases.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Viral/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , SARS-CoV-2/isolation & purification , Isotope Labeling , Limit of Detection , Protein Domains , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/chemistry , Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus/immunology , Time FactorsABSTRACT
Rapid, robust virus-detection techniques with ultrahigh sensitivity and selectivity are required for the outbreak of the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Here, we report that the femtomolar concentrations of single-stranded ribonucleic acid (ssRNA) of SARS-CoV-2 trigger ordering transitions in liquid crystal (LC) films decorated with cationic surfactant and complementary 15-mer single-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (ssDNA) probe. More importantly, the sensitivity of the LC to the SARS ssRNA, with a 3-bp mismatch compared to the SARS-CoV-2 ssRNA, is measured to decrease by seven orders of magnitude, suggesting that the LC ordering transitions depend strongly on the targeted oligonucleotide sequence. Finally, we design a LC-based diagnostic kit and a smartphone-based application (app) to enable automatic detection of SARS-CoV-2 ssRNA, which could be used for reliable self-test of SARS-CoV-2 at home without the need for complex equipment or procedures.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. Reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) has played a vital role in the diagnosis of COVID-19, but the rates of false negatives is not ideal in dealing with this highly infectious virus. It is thus necessary to systematically evaluate the clinical performance of the single-, dual-, triple-target detection kits to guide the clinical diagnosis of this disease. METHODS: A series of reference materials calibrated by droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and 57 clinical samples were used to evaluate the clinical performance of six single-, dual-, triple-target SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection kits based on RT-qPCR. RESULTS: The dual-target kits, kit B and kit C had the highest and the lowest detection sensitivity, which was 125 copies/mL and 4000 copies/mL, respectively. Among the 57 clinical samples from patients with COVID-19, 47 were tested positive by the kit B, while 35, 29, 28, 30, and 29 were found positive by the kits A, C, D, E, and F, respectively. The number of targets in a detection kit is not a key factor affecting sensitivity, while the amount of sample loading may influence the performance of a detection kit. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a guide when choosing or developing a nucleic acid detection kit for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Also, the absolute-quantification feature and high-sensitivity performance of ddPCR, suggesting that it can be used to review clinically suspected samples.