ABSTRACT
Introduction and Aim: Due to the Coronavirus outbreaks, the SARS-CoV-2, also known as COVID-19, has claimed several lives around the world, with the majority of them being elderly, suffering from underlying chronic illnesses, or living in vulnerable conditions. This study aimed to find the immunological factors CD-79, CD-4, IL-2, and TNF-B in COVID-19 patients utilizing nucleocapsid-(N), a protein structure that interacts with genomic RNA to create complexes. Material(s) and Method(s): SARS-COV-2 infection was detected using RT-PCR. The serum levels of IL-2 and TNF-B, as well as the concentrations of CD4 and CD79, were measured. This study included 100 COVID-19 patients. Result(s): The results showed that the serum concentration of TNF-beta and IL-2 in COVID19 patients was significantly higher than that in the general population (with acute and moderate illness) when compared to normal control groups (p<0.05). COVID-19 patients reported higher levels of CD79 as well as CD4 expression than healthy control groups in a study of activated markers. Conclusion(s): Infection with SARS-COV-2 has a high impact on various immunological and inflammatory markers in patients.Copyright © 2023, Indian Association of Biomedical Scientists. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Since its emergence in Wuhan (China) on December 2019, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread worldwide. After its arrival in South America in February 2020, the virus has expanded throughout the region, infecting over 900,000 individuals with approximately 41,000 reported deaths to date. In response to the rapidly growing number of cases, a number of different primer-probe sets have been developed. However, despite being highly specific, most of these primer-probe sets are known to exhibit variable sensitivity. Currently, there are more than 300 SARS-CoV2 whole genome sequences deposited in databases from Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Peru, and Argentina. To test how regional viral diversity may impact oligo binding sites and affect test performance, we reviewed all available primer-probe sets targeting the E, N, and RdRp genes against available South American SARS-CoV-2 genomes checking for nucleotide variations in annealing sites. Results from this in silico analysis showed no nucleotide variations on the E-gene target region, in contrast to the N and RdRp genes which showed massive nucleotide variations within oligo binding sites. In lines with previous data, our results suggest that the E-gene stands as the most conserved and reliable target when considering single-gene target testing for molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in South America.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Fast, reliable and easy to handle methods are required to facilitate urgently needed point-of-care testing (POCT) in the current coronavirus pandemic. Life-threatening severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly spread all over the world, infecting more than 33,500,000 people and killing over 1 million of them as of October 2020. Infected individuals without any symptoms might still transfer the virus to others underlining the extraordinary transmissibility of this new coronavirus. In order to identify early infections effectively, treat patients on time and control disease spreading, rapid, accurate and onsite testing methods are urgently required. RESULTS: Here we report the development of a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) based method to detect SARS-CoV-2 genes ORF8 and N directly from pharyngeal swab samples. The established reverse transcription LAMP (RT-LAMP) assay detects SARS-CoV-2 directly from pharyngeal swab samples without previous time-consuming and laborious RNA extraction. The assay is sensitive and highly specific for SARS-CoV-2 detection, showing no cross reactivity when tested on 20 other respiratory pathogens. The assay is 12 times faster and 10 times cheaper than routine reverse transcription real-time polymerase chain reaction, depending on the assay used. CONCLUSION: The fast and easy to handle RT-LAMP assay amplifying specifically the genomic regions ORF8 and N of SARS-CoV-2 is ideally suited for POCT at e.g. railway stations, airports or hospitals. Given the current pandemic situation, rapid, cost efficient and onsite methods like the here presented RT-LAMP assay are urgently needed to contain the viral spread.