ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Herein we report clinical and virological data in a patient with COVID-19 infection and a prior history of kidney transplantation who had a good clinical recovery despite systemic infection. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR analysis for the RdRp, N and E target genes detected viral RNA in different types of biological specimens. Whole viral genome sequences were obtained and analyzed from respiratory tract, feces and blood. RESULTS: Viral sequences showed high (~99.9%) homology with the Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus. Phylogenetic analysis assigned of the SARS-CoV-2 strains to clade G. A rare variant in the orf1ab gene was present in both sequences, while a missense variant was detected only in viral RNA from stool. CONCLUSIONS: The evolution of the COVID-19 systemic infection in the patient presented here was favorable to the hypothesis that immunosuppressive therapy in organ transplant recipients might be involved in viral dissemination. A missense mutation was present in only one specimen from the same patient implying the occurrence of a mutational event in viral RNA, which is suggestive for the presence of an active virus, even though viral isolation is necessary to demonstrate infectivity.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/virology , Feces/virology , Kidney Transplantation , Nasopharynx/virology , RNA, Viral/genetics , Viral Proteins/genetics , Feces/chemistry , Female , Graft Rejection/prevention & control , High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing , Humans , Immunosuppressive Agents/therapeutic use , Middle Aged , Mutation, Missense/genetics , Nasopharynx/chemistry , Phylogeny , Polyproteins/genetics , RNA, Viral/blood , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , Sequence Analysis, RNAABSTRACT
Humic materials extracted from tree leaves of chestnut (Castanea sativa), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) and oak (Quercus robur) were analyzed by performing conductimetric titrations. Values between about 84 and 236 muS cm(-1) for the molar conductivity and between 0.42 and 0.74 for the charge distribution parameter were obtained when the concentrations of the extract are increased from 40 to 100 mg 1(-1). These variations were explained by using the counterion condensation theory, and the distance between the charged groups of the polyions, the volume of the counterion condensation and the Debye-Hückel potential were also calculated.
