• COVID-19
• Publicationsclose
• Research dataclose
• Other research productsclose
• AU close
• BR close
• IE close

Respiratory viral infections are a leading cause of disease and mortality. The severity of these illnesses can vary markedly from mild or asymptomatic upper airway infections to severe wheezing, bronchiolitis or pneumonia. In this article, we review the viral sensing pathways and organizing principles that govern the innate immune response to infection. Then, we reconstruct the molecular networks that differentiate symptomatic from asymptomatic respiratory viral infections, and identify the underlying molecular drivers of these networks. Finally, we discuss unique aspects of the biology and pathogenesis of infections with respiratory syncytial virus, rhinovirus and influenza, drawing on insights from genomics.

O crescimento acentuado de casos e óbitos por Covid-19 tem levado a grande sobrecarga do sistema de saúde no Brasil em especial em cidades com Manaus e Rio de Janeiro e São Paulo. A descrição do impacto da pandemia tem se baseado em números absolutos ou taxas de mortalidade brutas não considerando o padrão de distribuição das faixas etárias nas diferentes regiões do país. Este estudo tem por objetivo comparar a taxas de mortalidade brutas por Covid-19 com taxas padronizadas por idade nas capitais dos estados brasileiras e no Distrito Federal. As informações sobre óbito foram acessadas no Sistema de Informação de Vigilância da Gripe (SIVEP-Gripe) e os denominadores populacionais foram baseados nas estimativas disponibilizadas pelo Ministério da Saúde. Para o cálculo das padronizadas por idade utilizou-se a estrutura etária da população do Brasil estimada para 2020. Os resultados mostram que as maiores taxas brutas foram em Manaus (253,6/100.000) e Rio de Janeiro (253,2/100.000). Após padronização por idade, houve aumento expressivo das taxas na região Norte. A maior taxa ajustada foi vista em Manaus (412,5/100.000) onde 33% de óbitos por Covid-19 ocorreram entre menores de 60 anos. A mortalidade acima de 70 anos foi o dobro se comparada à do Rio de Janeiro e o triplo se comparada à de São Paulo. A utilização de taxas de mortalidade padronizadas por idade elimina vieses interpretativos expondo de forma marcante o peso ainda maior da Covid-19 na região Norte do país.

AbstractWe analysed human sewage located in Florianópolis (Santa Catalina, Brazil) from late October until the Brazil lockdown on early March. We detected SARS-CoV-2 in two samples collected independently on 27th November 2019 (5.49±0.02 log genome copies/L). Subsequent samplings were positive until 4th March 2020 (coinciding with the first COVID-19 case reported in Santa Catalina), with a SARS-CoV-2 RNA increase of one log (6.68±0.02 log genome copies/L). Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in Brazil since late November 2019, much earlier than the first reported case in the Americas (21st January 2020, USA).

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has evolved as a pandemic of unimaginable magnitude. The health care system is facing a tremendous challenge to provide ethical and quality care. The transformation of the patient-based care to population-based care during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised ethical dilemma among urologists. Our objective is to explore the consensus in modified standard urology care, that can be adopted and applied during COVID-19 and similar pandemic. Methods We adopted an exploratory study design using secondary data. The data were extracted from a web-based medical library using keywords “COVID-19,” “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),” and “urology.” We identify and extrapolate (screening, eligibility, and inclusion) the data using PRISMA protocol, and summarize pandemic standard urology care under four main themes: (1) general urology care, (2) choice of surgical modality, (3) triage, and (4) urology training. Result We identified 63 academic papers related to our research question. The majority are expert opinions and perspectives on urology care. The common consensus is triage-based urology care and surgeries. Life or organ threatening conditions need immediate attention. Universal protective measures (personal protective equipment, safe operative environment) and protocol-based patient care are necessary to prevent and control SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conservation of the resources and its rational distribution provide an ethical basis for population-based health care during a pandemic. Informed decision making serves best to patients, families, and society during the public health crisis. Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic tends to transform standard urology practice into crisis standard population-based care. The consensus in crisis is drawn from evolving pieces of medical evidence and public health ethics. The provision of urology care during a pandemic is based on the availability of resources; severity of the disease, consequences of deferment of service, and dynamics of the pandemic.

This research proposes a global forecasting and inference method based on recurrent neural networks (RNN) to predict policy interventions’ causal effects on an outcome over time through the counterfactual approach. The traditional univariate methods that operate within the well-established synthetic control method have strong linearity assumptions in the covariates. This has recently been addressed by successfully using univariate RNNs for this task. We use an RNN trained not univariately per series but globally across all time series, which allows us to model treated and control time series simultaneously over the pre-treatment period. Therewith, we do not need to make equivalence assumptions between distributions of the control and treated outcomes in the pre-treatment period. This allows us to achieve better accuracy and precisely isolate the effect of an intervention. We compare our novel approach with local univariate approaches on two real-world datasets on 1) how policy changes in Alcohol outlet licensing affect emergency service calls, and 2) how COVID19 lockdown measures affect emergency services use. Our results show that our novel method can outperform the accuracy of state-of-the-art predictions, thereby estimating the size of a causal effect more accurately. The experimental results are statistically significant, indicating our framework generates better counterfactual predictions.

393 of ACE2 on human cells to initiate entry. It was reported earlier that the receptor utilization capacity of ACE2 proteins from different species, such as cats, chimpanzees, dogs, and cattle, are different. A comprehensive analysis of ACE2 receptors of nineteen species was carried out in this study, and the findings propose a possible SARS-CoV-2 transmission flow across these nineteen species. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cellular receptor for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that is engendering the severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The spike (S) protein receptor-binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2 binds to the three sub-domains viz. amino acids (aa) 22&ndash 84, and aa 330&ndash 42, aa 79&ndash

AbstractBackgroundCoronaVac®is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine approved by the World Health Organization. Previous studies reported increased levels of neutralizing antibodies and specific T cells two- and four-weeks after two doses of CoronaVac®, but the levels of neutralizing antibodies are reduced at six to eight months after two doses. Here we report the effect of a booster dose of CoronaVac®on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response generated against variants of concern (VOC) Delta and Omicron in adults participating in a phase 3 clinical trial in Chile.MethodsVolunteers immunized with two doses of CoronaVac®in a four-week interval received a booster dose of the same vaccine between twenty-four and thirty weeks after the 2nd dose. Four weeks after the booster dose, neutralizing antibodies and T cell responses were measured. Neutralization capacities and T cell activation against VOC Delta and Omicron were detected at four weeks after the booster dose.FindingsWe observed a significant increase in neutralizing antibodies at four weeks after the booster dose. We also observed an increase in CD4+T cells numbers over time, reaching a peak at four weeks after the booster dose. Furthermore, neutralizing antibodies and SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells induced by the booster showed activity against VOC Delta and Omicron.InterpretationOur results show that a booster dose of CoronaVac®increases the anti-SARS-CoV-2 humoral and cellular immune responses in adults. Immunity induced by a booster dose of CoronaVac®is active against VOC, suggesting an effective protection.

Abstract Background There has been a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) in Asia-Pacific countries. Because ICU healthcare workers are exposed to aerosol-generating procedures, ensuring optimal personal protective equipment (PPE) preparedness is important. Objective The aim of the study was to evaluate PPE preparedness across ICUs in six Asia-Pacific countries during the initial phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, which is defined by the World Health Organization as guideline adherence, training healthcare workers, procuring stocks, and responding appropriately to suspected cases. Methods A cross-sectional Web-based survey was circulated to 633 level II/III ICUs of Australia, New Zealand (NZ), Singapore, Hong Kong (HK), India, and the Philippines. Findings Two hundred sixty-three intensivists responded, representing 231 individual ICUs eligible for analysis. Response rates were 68–100% in all countries except India, where it was 24%. Ninety-seven percent of ICUs either conformed to or exceeded World Health Organization recommendations for PPE practice. Fifty-nine percent ICUs used airborne precautions irrespective of aerosol generation procedures. There were variations in negative-pressure room use (highest in HK/Singapore), training (best in NZ), and PPE stock awareness (best in HK/Singapore/NZ). High-flow nasal oxygenation and noninvasive ventilation were not options in most HK (66.7% and 83.3%, respectively) and Singapore ICUs (50% and 80%, respectively), but were considered in other countries to a greater extent. Thirty-eight percent ICUs reported not having specialised airway teams. Showering and “buddy systems” were underused. Clinical waste disposal training was suboptimal (38%). Conclusions Many ICUs in the Asia-Pacific reported suboptimal PPE preparedness in several domains, particularly related to PPE training, practice, and stock awareness, which requires remediation. Adoption of low-cost approaches such as buddy systems should be encouraged. The complete avoidance of high-flow nasal oxygenation reported by several intensivists needs reconsideration. Consideration must be given to standardise PPE guidelines to minimise practice variations. Urgent research to evaluate PPE preparedness and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission is required.

ABSTRACT Small noncoding RNAs regulate a variety of cellular processes, including genomic imprinting, chromatin remodeling, replication, transcription, and translation. Here, we report small replication-regulating RNAs (srRNAs) that specifically inhibit DNA replication of the human BK polyomavirus (BKV) in vitro and in vivo . srRNAs from FM3A murine mammary tumor cells were enriched by DNA replication assay-guided fractionation and hybridization to the BKV noncoding control region (NCCR) and synthesized as cDNAs. Selective mutagenesis of the cDNA sequences and their putative targets suggests that the inhibition of BKV DNA replication is mediated by srRNAs binding to the viral NCCR, hindering early steps in the initiation of DNA replication. Ectopic expression of srRNAs in human cells inhibited BKV DNA replication in vivo . Additional srRNAs were designed and synthesized that specifically inhibit simian virus 40 (SV40) DNA replication in vitro . These observations point to novel mechanisms for regulating DNA replication and suggest the design of synthetic agents for inhibiting replication of polyomaviruses and possibly other viruses.

In this study, we investigated the occurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in primary influent (n = 42), secondary effluent (n = 24) and tertiary treated effluent (n = 34) collected from six wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs A–F) in Virginia (WWTP A), Florida (WWTPs B, C, and D), and Georgia (WWTPs E and F) in the United States during April–July 2020. Of the 100 wastewater samples analyzed, eight (19%) untreated wastewater samples collected from the primary influents contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA as measured by reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected in influent wastewater samples collected from WWTP A (Virginia), WWTPs E and F (Georgia) and WWTP D (Florida). Secondary and tertiary effluent samples were not positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA indicating the treatment processes in these WWTPs potentially removed SARS-CoV-2 RNA during the secondary and tertiary treatment processes. However, further studies are needed to understand the log removal values (LRVs) and transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 RNA through analyzing wastewater samples from a wider range of WWTPs.