SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infection in a Cohort of Hospitalized Kidney Transplant Recipients: Risk Factors of Severity (preprint)

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron is a major coronavirus variant, which was prevalent in China at the end of 2022 and caused widespread infection. As a low-immune group, renal transplant recipients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are prone to developing serious pneumonia or an adverse outcome event if the infection is not treated in time. Here, we analyze the possible risk factors of infection severity. Methods: Ninety-two cases of moderate and severe SARS-CoV-2 infection after renal transplantation were collected. Statistical methods, including Fisher’s tests, F test, Spearman relative values, and multi-parameter logistic regression models, were used to analyze the risk factors for severe SARS-CoV-2 infection in renal transplant recipients. Results: Forty-four cases complicated with hypertension wereobserved in the study cohort, among whom 30 were severe (OR: 4.63, P < 0.001). Meanwhile, 30 male patients presented with severe SARS-CoV-2 (OR: 2.45, P = 0.039) out of 51 male patients infected with Omicron. In renal transplant patients, hypertension comorbidity was closely correlated with clinical presentation (R = 0.369, P < 0.001). Interestingly, we found an increased risk of death in renal transplant patients with diabetes (OR: 5.53, P = 0.052), albeit with no significance. Blood routine test, chemistries, and additional indices showed increased neutrophils and C-reactive protein in patients with severe disease compared with themoderate group according to one-way analysis of variance (P = 0.004), while CD3 (P = 0.02) and CD4 (P = 0.04) showed lower expressional levels.Moreover, there was an evident correlation between clinical presentation and outcomes (R = 0.315, P = 0.002), which indicated that a severe status triggers worse outcomes or death events. We also observed meaningful correlations between neutrophil levels and hypertension comorbidity (R = 0.222, P = 0.034) and between interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels and diabetes comorbidity (R = 0.315, P = 0.011), with IL-6 considered a key factor in the context of coronavirus disease. Finally, urea nitrogen (P = 0.03) levels were significantly higher in patients with severe disease than in those with moderate disease, while serum creatinine (P = 0.06) levels showed no significant differences between patients with severe and moderate disease. Conclusions: Renal transplant recipients were generally susceptible to infection with the Omicron variant, with a more pronounced incidence of severe illness observed in men than in women. Hypertension in renal transplant recipients may increase the rate of severe disease, and diabetes mellitus may further increase mortality.

Application of network pharmacology in the study of the mechanism of action of traditional chinese medicine in the treatment of COVID-19

Network pharmacology was rapidly developed based on multidisciplinary holistic analysis of biological systems, which has become a popular tool in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research in recent years. Its characteristics of integrity and systematization provide a new approach for the study on complex TCM systems, which has many similarities with the holistic concept of TCM. It has been widely used to explain the mechanism of TCM treatment of diseases, drug repositioning, and interpretation of compatibility of TCM prescriptions, to promote the modernization of TCM. The use of TCM have provided crucial support on prevention and treatment of diseases such as the famous “three medicines and three prescriptions”. Furthermore, TCM has become an important part of the treatment of COVID-19 and is one of the main contents of the “Chinese plan” to fight the epidemic. The current review demonstrated the role of TCM in treating diseases with multiple components, multiple targets, and multiple pathways, interprets the connotation of TCM treatment method selection based on pathogenesis and also discusses the application of network pharmacology in the study of COVID-19 treatment in TCM including single drug and prescription. However, there are still some shortcomings such as the lack of experimental verification and regular upgrading of the TCM pharmacology network. Therefore, we must pay attention to the characteristics of TCM and develop a network pharmacology method suitable for TCM system research when applying network pharmacology to TCM research.

Digital Technology-and-Services-Driven Sustainable Transformation of Agriculture: Cases of China and the EU

China’s sustainable development goals and carbon neutrality targets cannot be achieved without revolutionary transitions of the agricultural sector. The rapid development of digital technologies is believed to play a huge role in this revolution. The ongoing prevention and control of COVID-19 has greatly boosted the penetration of digital technology services in all areas of society, and sustainable transformation driven by digital technologies and services is rapidly becoming an area of innovation and research. Studies have shown that the rapid advancement of digitalization is also accompanied by a series of new governance challenges and problems: (1) unclear strategic orientation and inadequate policy and regulatory responses;(2) various stakeholders have not formed a sustainable community of interest;(3) information explosion is accompanied by information fragmentation and digital divide between countries and populations within countries. Meanwhile, current research has focused more on the role of digital services in urban governance and industrial development and lacks systematic research on its role in sustainable agricultural and rural development. To address the realities faced by different stakeholders in the process of digital transformation of agriculture, this paper aims to propose an inclusive analytical framework based on the meta-governance theory to identify and analyze the demand, supply, actor networks, and incentives in the digital technology-and-services-driven sustainable agricultural transformation, starting from the goals and connotations of sustainable agricultural and rural transformation and the interactions among different stakeholders in governing information flows. This analytical framework is further applied to analyze the cases of China and the EU. Although China and the EU represent different development phases and policy contexts, the framework is valid for capturing the characteristics of information flows and actor networks along the flows. It is concluded that a common information platform based on the stakeholder network would benefit all stakeholders, help reach common framing of issues, and maintain a dynamic exchange of information. Depending on the country context, different types of stakeholders may play different roles in creating, supervising, and maintaining such platforms. Digital infrastructures/products as hardware and farmers digital capacity as 'software’are the two wings for digital sustainable transformation. Innovative incentives from different countries may inspire each other. In any case, farmers’actual farming behavior changes should be an important criterion for evaluating the effects and effectiveness of digital transition governance.

Analyze the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan City Based on Large-Scale Events and Extreme Weather (preprint)

This article analyzes the impact of large-scale mass activities and extreme weather on the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, confirming that the South China Seafood Market is indeed the origin of the Wuhan epidemic, and found that the probability of respiratory transmission is low in open space, while food transmission is possible. At the same time, it was found that the outbreaks of SARS in Beijing in 2003 and COVID-19 in Wuhan in 2019 were both related to extreme weather. By investigating genomics and epidemiological data, it was determined that the first COVID-19 case in Wuhan was in November, and the beginning of the epidemic was in late November. Comparing the climate of November, December and January in Wuhan from 2011 to 2020, it is found that there are a lot of extreme weather events in Wuhan from the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2020, including strong winds, heavy rains, large cooling after continuous high temperature, and continuous low temperature and rainy after large cooling, the temperature suddenly rises and then drops rapidly, the wind continues to weaken for many days and then suddenly increases, and long rainy days, etc.

Comparative Study of HRCT Imaging Characteristics of Psittaci Pneumonia and COVID-19 Pneumonia (preprint)

Backgroud : Both Chlamydia psittaci and COVID-19 virus can cause lung inflammation, which manifests extremely similarly in clinical symptoms and imaging. Especially during the epidemic of COVID-19, psittacosis pneumonia is easily misdiagnosed as COVID-19 pneumonia. The identification of the chest imaging between the two diseases is of special significance when the epidemiological contact history is unclear, and the etiology and nucleic acid test results are not available. This study conducts to compare the imaging characteristics on chest high-resolution CTs (HRCT) between patients with psittaci pneumonia and COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: : A retrospective analysis of the imaging characteristics on chest HRCTs of 10 psittaci pneumonia patients and 13 COVID-19 pneumonia patients. The similarities and differences in HRCT images of patients with psittaci pneumonia and COVID-19 pneumonia were analyzed. Results: : HRCT showed that among the 10 psittaci pneumonia patients, 8 cases (80.00%) had single lobe involvement, and 2 cases (20.00%) had multiple lobe involvement. Among the 13 COVID-19 pneumonia patients, 2 cases had single lobe involvement (15.38%), and 11 cases had multiple lobe involvement (84.62%). The types of lesions in 10 psittaci pneumonia patients included simple consolidation in 5 cases (50.00%), and ground-glass opacity (GGO) with consolidation in 5 cases (50.00%). The types of lesions in 13 COVID-19 pneumonia patients included simple GGO in 6 cases (46.15%), GGO with consolidation in 4 cases (30.77%), GGO with paving stone sign in 2 cases (15.38%), and simple consolidation in 1 case (7.69%). Lymphadenopathy was observed in 1 psittaci pneumonia patient (10.00%) and 1 COVID-19 pneumonia patient (7.69%). Among the 10 psittaci pneumonia patients, 8 cases (80.00%) had bronchial inflation, and 6 patients (60.00%) had pleural effusion. Among the 13 COVID-19 pneumonia patients, 5 patients (38.46%) showed signs of bronchial inflation, while no pleural effusion was observed in 13 patients. Conclusion: : Chest HRCTs can distinguish COVID-19 pneumonia from psittaci pneumonia, and can provide early diagnoses of these two diseases.

Retropharyngeal Abscess in an adult with Pneumonia during COVID-19 Outbreak in China (preprint)

Background: Retropharyngeal abscesses are rarely reported in adults and occur mostly in patients with immunocompromise or as a foreign body complication. Admittedly, the treatment of retropharyngeal abscesses frequently involves surgical drainage to achieve the best results. However, when retropharyngeal abscesses occurred in a highly suspected patient with COVID-19, the managements and treatments should be caution in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Case presentation: On Feb. 13, a 40-year-old male with retropharyngeal abscesses turned to our department complaining dyspnea and dysphagia. In addition, his chest CT scan shows a suspected COVID-19 infection, thus making out Multiple Disciplinary Team (MDT) determine to perform percutaneous drainage and catheterization through left anterior cervical approach under the guidance of B-ultrasound. Finally, the patient recovered and was discharged from the hospital on Feb. 27 after 14 days of isolation. There was no recurrence after half a year follow-up. Conclusions: By presenting this case, we aim at raising awareness of different surgical drainage methods and summarizing our experience in the management of retropharyngeal abscesses during the outbreak of COVID-19.