The Level of Expression of Anxiety and Depression in Clinical Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 Outbreak in 2 Hospitals in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The disease caused by the SARS-Cov 2 virus has spread to most areas of the world with high rates of infection and deaths. Facing the complicated developments of the epidemic, clinical medical staff (CMS) are at risk of suffering psychological pressure. This study aimed to investigate the situation of anxiety, depression, and related factors affecting CMS during the COVID-19 pandemic at Dong Da General Hospital and Dong Anh General Hospital in Hanoi. A cross-sectional study was conducted from April to July 2020 using self-administered questionnaires amongst 341 CMS. The participants' anxiety levels were assessed using the standardized General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) toolkit and levels of depression expression were assessed based on the standardized Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) toolkit. Of the CMS who completed the questionnaire, 33.1% had an anxiety disorder and 23.2% exhibited mild to very severe depression. The factors associated with anxiety and depression were department of work, shortage of human resources, and discrimination from the community that directly affects the family of the CMS. The study results highlight the need for a training session to equip CMS with the skills required to cope with psychological stress in all circumstances in general and during the pandemic in particular. This training is especially important for those working in at-risk departments which are susceptible to infection.

Computational Determination of Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease.

The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has infected several million people and caused thousands of deaths worldwide since December 2019. As the disease is spreading rapidly all over the world, it is urgent to find effective drugs to treat the virus. The main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 is one of the potential drug targets. Therefore, in this context, we used rigorous computational methods, including molecular docking, fast pulling of ligand (FPL), and free energy perturbation (FEP), to investigate potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. We first tested our approach with three reported inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, and our computational results are in good agreement with the respective experimental data. Subsequently, we applied our approach on a database of ∼4600 natural compounds, as well as 8 available HIV-1 protease (PR) inhibitors and an aza-peptide epoxide. Molecular docking resulted in a short list of 35 natural compounds, which was subsequently refined using the FPL scheme. FPL simulations resulted in five potential inhibitors, including three natural compounds and two available HIV-1 PR inhibitors. Finally, FEP, the most accurate and precise method, was used to determine the absolute binding free energy of these five compounds. FEP results indicate that two natural compounds, cannabisin A and isoacteoside, and an HIV-1 PR inhibitor, darunavir, exhibit a large binding free energy to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, which is larger than that of 13b, the most reliable SARS-CoV-2 Mpro inhibitor recently reported. The binding free energy largely arises from van der Waals interaction. We also found that Glu166 forms H-bonds to all of the inhibitors. Replacing Glu166 by an alanine residue leads to ∼2.0 kcal/mol decreases in the affinity of darunavir to SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. Our results could contribute to the development of potential drugs inhibiting SARS-CoV-2.

How might the Trans-Pacific Partnership impact on the pharmaceutical sector in Vietnam?

Ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will attract a large number of foreign drug companies in the coming years to Vietnam. It is anticipated to bring investment to Vietnam's pharmaceutical industries, lead to increased infrastructure and enable the use of more sophisticated technologies for the discovery, development and manufacture of drugs. However, with respect to pharmaceutical companies, which are producing generic drugs primarily, the availability of biologic will be reduced. Thus, the consequence is, an increase in drug cost resulting in difficulties for patients wishing to procure these drugs. This will be particularly detrimental for developing countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia.

Bioconversion of waste office paper to L(+)-lactic acid by the filamentous fungus Rhizopus oryzae.

L(+)-lactic acid production was investigated using an enzymatic hydrolysate of waste office automation (OA) paper in a culture of the filamentous fungus Rhizopus oryzae. In 4 d culture, 82.8 g/l glucose, 7 g/l xylose, and 3.4 g/l cellobiose contained in the hydrolysate were consumed to produce 49.1 g/l of lactic acid. The lactic acid yield and production rate were only 0.59 g/g and 16.3 g/l/d, respectively, only 75% and 61% of the results from the glucose medium. The low production rate from waste OA hydrolysate was elucidated by trials using xylose as the sole carbon source; in those trials, the lactic acid production rate was 7.3 g/l/d, only 28% that of glucose or cellobiose. The low lactic acid yield from waste OA hydrolysate was clarified by trials using artificial hydrolysates comprised of 7:2:1 or 7:1:2 ratios of glucose:cellobiose:xylose. For both, the lactic acid production rate of 17.4 g/l/d matched that of waste OA paper, while the lactic acid yield was similar to that of the glucose medium. This indicates that the production rate may be inhibited by xylose derived from hemicellulose, and the yield may be inhibited by unknown compounds derived from paper pulp.