ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the pandemic, we observed that lithium carbonate had a positive effect on the recovery of severely ill patients with COVID-19. Lithium is able to inhibit the replication of several types of viruses, some of which are similar to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, increase the immune response and reduce inflammation by preventing or reducing the cytokine storm. Previously, we published an article with data from six patients with severe COVID-19 infection, where we proposed that lithium carbonate could be used as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Now, we set out to conduct a randomized clinical trial number EudraCT 2020-002008-37 to evaluate the efficacy and safety of lithium treatment in patients infected with severe SARS-CoV-2. We showed that lithium was able to reduce the number of days of hospital and intensive care unit admission as well as the risk of death, reduces inflammatory cytokine levels by preventing cytokine storms, and also reduced the long COVID syndromes. We propose that lithium carbonate can be used to reduce the severity of COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: We have evaluated a matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) method for the identification of carbapenemases and for distinguishing metallo-ß-lactamases (MBLs). A total of 49 noncarbapenemase-producing and 14 carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical strains, previously characterized by PCR, were included in the study. With MALDI-TOF MS, the presence of carbapenemases was confirmed by the detection of ertapenem hydrolysis (lost of molecular peaks: 476·5 Da, 498·5 Da, 520·5 Da and presence of degradation products) in the mixture of the bacteria with the antibiotic, and classification was achieved by selective inhibition of carbapenemase activity (the ertapenem molecular peak was maintained) with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). We obtained a good concordance among the results of PCR and MALDI-TOF MS. This method appears to be simple, fast and reliable for distinguishing in few hours different classes of carbapenemases, which can be very useful for epidemiological studies or to establish a specific antimicrobial therapy. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is increasingly present in microbiology laboratories due to its increasing use for bacterial identification. This study describes a method for detection of carbapenemase activity using MALDI-TOF, which is similar to the reference method: the detection of imipenem hydrolysis using UV spectrometry.
