Discovery of novel inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease.

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), referred to as 'New Coronary Pneumonia', is a type of acute infectious disease caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Mpro is one of the main targets for treating COVID-19. The current research on Mpro mainly focuses on the repurposing of old drugs, and there are only a few novel ligands that inhibit Mpro. In this research, we used computational free energy calculation to screen a compound library against Mpro, and discovered four novel compounds with the two best compounds (AG-690/13507628 and AG-690/13507724) having experimental measured IC50 of just under 3 µM and low cell toxicity. Detailed decomposition of the interactions between the inhibitors and Mpro reveals key interacting residues and interactions that determine the activity. The results from this study should provide a basis for further development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 drugs.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

How Health-Related Misinformation Spreads Across the Internet: Evidence for the "Typhoon Eye" Effect.

Online health-related misinformation has become a major problem in society and in-depth research is needed to understand its propagation patterns and underlying mechanisms. This study proposes a psychological typhoon eye effect to understand how health-related misinformation spreads during the pandemic using two national studies. In Study 1, we collected online search data from the United States and China to explore the relationship between the physical distance from the epicenter and the spread of health-related misinformation. Two common pieces of health-related misinformation were examined: "Microwaves kill coronavirus" in the United States and "Taking a hot bath can prevent against COVID-19" in China. Our results indicated a "typhoon eye effect" in the spread of two actual pieces of health-related misinformation using online data from the United States and China. In Study 2, we fabricated a piece of health-related misinformation, "Wash Clothes with Salt Water to Block Infection," and measured the spread behavior and perceived credibility of the misinformation. Again, we observed a typhoon eye effect on the spread behavior as well as the perceived credibility of health-related misinformation among people with limited education. In addition, based on the stimulus-organism-response theory, perceived credibility could serve as a mediator in the relationship between physical distance from the epicenter and the spread of health-related misinformation. Our results highlight the importance of psychological approaches to understanding the propagation patterns of health-related misinformation. The present findings provide a new perspective for development of prevention and control strategies to reduce the spread of health-related misinformation during pandemics.

To distance or to help: People's ambivalent attitude towards residents from the COVID-19 epicenter.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to drastic changes in the world. One prominent aspect has been the transformation in interpersonal relations, especially people's attitude towards residents from COVID epicenters. Using a 2-wave national study in mainland China during the pandemic outbreak, this study examined Chinese people's distancing and helping intentions towards residents from Hubei Province, the epicenter of China at that time. Results suggested that individuals had an ambivalent attitude towards denizens from the epicenter. Specifically, people felt greater risk when they perceived a higher severity of the pandemic and so were more likely to distance from epicenter residents. However, individuals showed greater empathy towards epicenter residents when they felt a higher severity of the pandemic and, therefore, were more likely to help them. Group identity moderated these effects: those with a higher identification as Chinese were more inclined to help Hubei residents, but those with a lower identification as Chinese were more prone to distance from them. The findings provide important implications in understanding interpersonal relationships during the pandemic.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Multidisciplinary Clinics: A High-Volume Pancreatic Cancer Center Experience.

The unprecedented impact of the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic (COVID-19) has strained the healthcare system worldwide. The impact is even more profound on diseases requiring timely complex multidisciplinary care such as pancreatic cancer. Multidisciplinary care teams have been affected significantly in multiple ways as healthcare teams collectively acclimate to significant space limitations and shortages of personnel and supplies. As a result, many patients are now receiving suboptimal remote imaging for diagnosis, staging, and surgical planning for pancreatic cancer. In addition, the lack of face-to-face interactions between the physician and patient and between multidisciplinary teams has challenged patient safety, research investigations, and house staff education. In this study, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our high-volume pancreatic multidisciplinary clinic, the unique challenges faced, as well as the potential benefits that have arisen out of this situation. We also reflect on its implications for the future during and beyond the pandemic as we anticipate a hybrid model that includes a component of virtual multidisciplinary clinics as a means to provide accessible world-class healthcare for patients who require complex oncologic management.

Capacitive Aptasensor Coupled with Microfluidic Enrichment for Real-Time Detection of Trace SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein.

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has lasted for almost 2 years. Stemming its spread has posed severe challenges for clinical virus detection. A long turnaround time, complicated operation, and low accuracy have become bottlenecks in developing detection techniques. Adopting a direct antigen detection strategy, we developed a fast-responding and quantitative capacitive aptasensor for ultratrace nucleocapsid protein detection based on a low-cost microelectrode array (MEA) chip. Employing the solid-liquid interface capacitance with a sensitivity of picofarad level, the tiny change on the MEA surface can be definitively detected. As a result, the limit of detection reaches an ultralow level of femtogram per milliliter in different matrices. Integrated with efficient microfluidic enrichment, the response time of this sensor from the sample to the result is shortened to 15 s, completely meeting the real-time detection demand. Moreover, the wide linear range of the sensor is from 10-5 to 10-2 ng/mL, and a high selectivity of 6369:1 is achieved. After application and evaluation in different environmental and body fluid matrices, this sensor and the detection method have proved to be a label-free, real-time, easy-to-operate, and specific strategy for SARS-CoV-2 screening and diagnosis.

The relationship between active coping and hope during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of meaning in life.

This study aims to examine the relationship between active coping and hope during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate the underlying mechanism based on meaning making theory. We conducted a two-wave survey and recruited 521 Chinese adults (aged 18-65). Results show that all three active coping strategies (personal hygiene practice, support seeking, and positive reappraisal) at T1 was positively associated with T2 hope. Importantly, T2 meaning in life serves as a mediator between T1 active coping and T2 hope. Our findings suggest that active coping could be an effective approach to maintain mental health by making meaning and promoting hope.

Evolution trace of SARS-CoV-2 from January 19 to March 12, 2020, in the United States.

As a kind of human betacoronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has endangered globally public health. As of January 2021, the virus had resulted in 2,209,195 deaths. By studying the evolution trend and characteristics of 265 SARS-CoV-2 strains in the United States from January to March, it is found that the strains can be divided into six clades, USA clade-1, USA clade-2, USA clade-3, USA clade-4, USA clade-5, and USA clade-6, in which US clade-1 may be the most ancestral clade, USA clade-2 is an interim clade of USA clade-1 and USA clade-3, the other three clades have similar codon usage pattern, while USA clade-6 is the newest and most adaptable clade. Mismatch analysis and protein alignment showed that the evolution of the clades arises from some special mutations in viral proteins, which may help the strain to invade, replicate, transcribe and so on. Compared with previous research and classifications, we suggest that clade O in GISAID should not be an independent clade and Wuhan-Hu-1 (EPI_ISL_402125) should not be an ancestral reference sequence. Our study decoded the evolutionary dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 in the early stage from the United States, which give some clues to infer the current evolution trend of SARS-CoV-2 and study the function of viral mutational protein.

Money or love? The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumer life goals and subjective well-being.

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly changed how consumers live. This research investigated the impact of the pandemic on two important life goals-material versus relational goals-as well as their subsequent consequences on consumer subjective well-being (SWB). We conducted a three-wave longitudinal study and recruited 1567 participants from mainland China during the pandemic. Cross-lagged model results showed that consumers' perceived threat of the pandemic was positively related to the importance placed on material and relational goals, which conduced to divergent effects on consumer SWB. Specifically, the greater the threat consumers perceived in the pandemic, the more emphasis they placed on material success and social relationships. However, pursuing material goals had a negative impact on SWB, but relational goals had a favorable influence on SWB. Our findings enhance understanding of how consumers' life goals changed during the COVID-19 pandemic and offer insights for marketing in the current and future pandemics.

Coping with coronavirus disease 2019: Relationships between coping strategies, benefit finding and well-being.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused both physical and psychological changes in the general public. The current study aimed to examine the relationship between well-being and coping strategies in response to the pandemic. Furthermore, we aimed to investigate the mediational role of benefit finding. A total of 521 participants aged 18-65 years were recruited from 29 regions of mainland China. Situation-specific coping strategies, including support seeking, personal hygiene practice and social distancing, were measured at Time 1. Benefit finding and well-being were assessed 1 month later. A multilevel mediation model was conducted with region included in level 2 as cluster ID. Support seeking and personal hygiene practice were positive predictors of benefit finding, which further mediated their relationships with well-being, while social distancing negatively predicted well-being. These results highlight the relationships of support seeking, personal hygiene practice and benefit finding with well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings indicate that besides adopting adaptive coping strategies to prevent infection by COVID-19, individuals should be encouraged to recognize benefits associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Real-time, selective, and low-cost detection of trace level SARS-CoV-2 spike-protein for cold-chain food quarantine.

Due to the friendly temperature for virus survival, SARS-CoV-2 is frequently found in cold-chain foods, posing a serious threat to public health. Utilizing an interdigitated microelectrode chip modified with an antibody probe and integrating dielectrophoresis enrichment with interfacial capacitance sensing, a strategy is presented for the detection of trace level spike-protein from SARS-CoV-2. It achieves a limit of detection as low as 2.29 × 10-6 ng/mL in 20 s, with a wide linear range of 10-5-10-1 ng/mL and a selectivity of 234:1. The cost for a single test can be controlled to ~1 dollar. This strategy provides a competitive solution for real-time, sensitive, selective, and large-scale application in cold-chain food quarantine.

Future-oriented function of meaning in life: Promoting hope via future temporal focus

Two studies were conducted to examine the promotional role of meaning in life (MIL) on hope and the underlying mediating mechanism via future temporal focus (FTF). Study 1 was a three-wave longitudinal survey including 418 employees (Mage = 35.68;54.3% women). Results showed that Time 1 MIL positively predicted Time 3 hope via Time 2 FTF. Study 2 was an intervention study conducted with Chinese undergraduate students (n = 129;Mage = 19.65;84.5% women) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intervention involved taking a photograph each day of things that “make you feel your life is meaningful.” MIL and FTF were measured before and after the intervention, and assessed daily during the intervention week. Results of the longitudinal mediation analysis and 2-1-2 multilevel mediation model supported the mediational role of FTF between MIL and hope. Furthermore, results showed that MIL increased significantly in both the intervention (n = 64) and control conditions (n = 65). Hierarchical linear modeling found a significant positive relationship of daily MIL on daily FTF. The present findings supported MIL's future-oriented function on hope via FTF. Nevertheless, special attention should be given to the stress context when conducting MIL interventions to promote MIL and hope.

EDTA-K2 Improves the Detection Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG Antibodies by Chelating Colloidal Gold in the Immunochromatographic Assay.

OBJECTIVE: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is now rapidly spreading globally. Serological tests are an important method to assist in the diagnosis of COVID-19, used for epidemiological investigations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of different types of vacuum collection tubes on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies, using the colloidal gold immunochromatographic assay (GICA). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 112 patients with COVID-19 and 200 healthy control subjects with no infection were enrolled in this study. Their serum and plasma were collected into four different types of vacuum blood collection tubes. SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG specific antibodies in the plasma and serum were then detected by GICA and chemiluminescence assay (CA), respectively. In addition, the particle sizes of different colloidal gold solutions in the presence of different anticoagulants and coagulants were evaluated by both laser diffraction (Malvern) and confocal laser microscope, respectively. RESULTS: Our results revealed that anticoagulated plasma with EDTA-K2 improved the positive detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibodies. Furthermore, our results shown that the detection results by GICA and CA were highly consistent, especially, the results of EDTA-K2 anticoagulated plasma detected by GICA was more consistent with CA results. We confirmed that EDTA-K2 could improve the detection sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies by chelating excessive colloidal gold compared with sodium citrate or lithium heparin, these methodologies did not appear to cause false positives. Colloidal gold particles could be chelated and aggregated by EDTA-K2, but not by sodium citrate, lithium heparin and coagulants. CONCLUSION: GICA is widely used to detect antibodies for the advantages of convenient, fast, low cost, suitable for screening large sample and require minimal equipment. In this study, we found that EDTA-K2 amplified the positive antibody signal by chelating colloidal gold and improved the detection sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG antibodies when using the GICA. Therefore, we suggested that EDTA-K2 anticoagulated plasma was more suitable for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.

Chinese Expert Consensus on the Nucleic Acid Detection of SARS-CoV-2.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has already become a pandemic wherein the infection's timely diagnosis has proven beneficial to patient treatment and disease control. Nucleic acid detection has been the primary laboratory diagnostic method for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. To ensure laboratory staff safety and quality nucleic acid testing, the Chinese Society of Laboratory Medicine formulated this consensus, based on the Chinese National Recommendations and previous literature for nucleic acid detection. A working group comprises 34 hospital professionals experience with real-time polymerase chain reactions (PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 drafted guidance statements during online discussions. A modified Delphi methodology was used in forming a consensus among a wider group of hospital professionals with SARS-CoV-2 detection experience. Guidance statements were developed for four categories: (I) specimen type, priority, collecting, transportation and receiving; (II) nucleic acid isolation and amplification; (III) quality control; (IV) biosafety management and decontamination. The modified Delphi voting process included a total of 29 guidance statements and final agreement. Consensus was reached after two rounds of voting. Recommendations were established for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 using real time PCR testing based on evidence and group consensus. The manuscript was evaluated against The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation Instrument (AGREE II) and was developed to aid medical laboratory staff in the detection of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) of SARS-CoV-2.

Perceived Control Buffers the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on General Health and Life Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Psychological Distance.

BACKGROUND: Ways to maintain good health during a pandemic are very important for the general population; however, little is known about the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on individuals' life satisfaction and perceived general health. This study aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 on life satisfaction and perceived general health and reveal the buffering effect of perceived control on coping with COVID-19. METHODS: We collected 1,847 participants' data from 31 pandemic-affected provinces in China and obtained regional epidemic data of the same provinces. We employed a moderated mediation model with both individuals' self-report data and regional epidemic data to verify the hypotheses. RESULTS: Psychological distance mediated the relationships of regional pandemic severity with perceived general health and life satisfaction. Perceived control moderated the detrimental effects of regional pandemic severity through the moderating effects of regional pandemic severity on psychological distance, as well as the moderating effects of psychological distance on life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that perceived control may act as a protective factor buffering the psychological impact of the pandemic on general health and life satisfaction. Psychological distance can serve as a mediator that explains how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts perceived general health and life satisfaction.

Heat inactivation of serum interferes with the immunoanalysis of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2.

BACKGROUND: The detection of serum antibodies to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is emerging as a new tool for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diagnosis. Since many coronaviruses are sensitive to heat, heating inactivation of samples at 56°C prior to testing is considered a possible method to reduce the risk of transmission, but the effect of heating on the measurement of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is still unclear. METHODS: By comparing the levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies before and after heat inactivation of serum at 56°C for 30 minutes using a quantitative fluorescence immunochromatographic assay RESULTS: We showed that heat inactivation significantly interferes with the levels of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. The IgM levels of all the 34 serum samples (100%) from COVID-19 patients decreased by an average level of 53.56%. The IgG levels were decreased in 22 of 34 samples (64.71%) by an average level of 49.54%. Similar changes can also be observed in the non-COVID-19 disease group (n = 9). Of note, 44.12% of the detected IgM levels were dropped below the cutoff value after heating, suggesting heat inactivation can lead to false-negative results of these samples. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that heat inactivation of serum at 56°C for 30 minutes interferes with the immunoanalysis of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. Heat inactivation prior to immunoanalysis is not recommended, and the possibility of false-negative results should be considered if the sample was pre-inactivated by heating.

Is Lockdown Bad for Social Anxiety in COVID-19 Regions?: A National Study in The SOR Perspective.

Lockdown measures have been widely used to control and prevent virus transmission in pandemic regions. However, the psychological effects of lockdown measures have been neglected, and the related theoretical research lags behind the practice. The present study aimed to better understand the mechanism of social anxiety in pandemic regions where the lockdown measures were imposed, based on the conceptual framework of the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR). For that, this research investigated how lockdown measures and psychological distance influenced social anxiety in the pandemic region. The Chinese national data was analyzed for the outcome. The results showed that (1) psychological distance mediated the relationship between pandemic COVID-19 severity and social anxiety, (2) lockdown measures buffered the detrimental effect of the COVID-19 pandemic severity on social anxiety, (3) lockdown measures moderated the mediation effect of psychological distancing on social anxiety caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In conclusion, under the SOR framework, the lockdown measures had a buffer effect on social anxiety in pandemic regions, with the mediating role of psychological distancing.