Skip to main content

Posts

  • Reallocating Ventilators during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is it Ethical?

    15 May, 2020
    The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our society to evaluate our core values and ethics. In a crisis like none other, health care facilities and physicians are now facing shortages of ventilators, beds, and even basic personal protective equipment. Many physicians are already facing a profound ethical dilemma: how to allocate these resources during shortages; with some hospitals, states and countries even having to establish policies on which groups of patients to prioritize in ...
  • COVID-19 in patients with HIV

    15 May, 2020

    We read with interest the report by Blanco and colleagues of five people living with HIV who were admitted to a Barcelona hospital with COVID-19. We believe that caution is required before drawing conclusions on the outcome of COVID-19 in this population. 

    Evidence is evolving that protease inhibitors developed for the treatment of HIV, both lopinavir and darunavir boosted by ritonavir or cobicistat, are not efficacious against severe acute respiratory syndrome cor...
  • The airborne lifetime of small speech droplets and their potential importance in SARS-CoV-2 transmission

    15 May, 2020

    Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of&n...
  • An outbreak of severe Kawasaki-like disease at the Italian epicentre of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic: an observational cohort study

    14 May, 2020
    The Bergamo province, which is extensively affected by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic, is a natural observatory of virus manifestations in the general population. In the past month we recorded an outbreak of Kawasaki disease; we aimed to evaluate incidence and features of patients with Kawasaki-like disease diagnosed during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.
    In the past month we found a 30-fold increased incidence of Kawasaki-like disease. Children diagnose...
  • Structural Basis for Potent Neutralization of Betacoronaviruses by Single-Domain Camelid Antibodies

    14 May, 2020

    Coronaviruses make use of a large envelope protein called spike (S) to engage host cell receptors and catalyze membrane fusion. Because of the vital role that these S proteins play, they represent a vulnerable target for the development of therapeutics. Here, we describe the isolation of single-domain antibodies (VHHs) from a llama immunized with prefusion-stabilized coronavirus spikes. These VHHs neutralize MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1 S pseudotyped viruses, respectively. Crystal structur...
  • A noncompeting pair of human neutralizing antibodies block COVID-19 virus binding to its receptor ACE2

    14 May, 2020
    Abstract
    Neutralizing antibodies could be antivirals against COVID-19 pandemics. Here, we report isolation of four human-origin monoclonal antibodies from a convalescent patient, all of which display neutralization abilities. B38 and H4 block the binding between virus S-protein RBD and cellular receptor ACE2. A competition assay indicates their different epitopes on the RBD, making them a potential virus-targeting MAb-pair to avoid immune escape in future clinical applications. Moreove...
  • Retinal findings in patients with COVID-19

    13 May, 2020
    Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been shown to affect different parts of the body, and ophthalmological changes have been associated with ocular external diseases such as conjunctivitis.
    Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging technique that is useful for demonstrating subclinical retinal changes in systemic conditions such as diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as many viral infections. We used OCT to evaluate patients infected ...
  • Manifestations and prognosis of gastrointestinal and liver involvement in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis

    13 May, 2020
    The prevalence and prognosis of digestive system involvement, including gastrointestinal symptoms and liver injury, in patients with COVID-19 remains largely unknown. We aimed to quantify the effects of COVID-19 on the digestive system.
    In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we systematically searched PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science for studies published between Jan 1, 2020, and April 4, 2020. The websites of WHO, CDC, and major journals were also searched. We included studies t...
  • Association of Treatment With Hydroxychloroquine or Azithromycin With In-Hospital Mortality in Patients With COVID-19 in New York State

    12 May, 2020
    Question 
    Among patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is there an association between use of hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, and in-hospital mortality?



    Findings 
    In a retrospective cohort study of 1438 patients hospitalized in metropolitan New York, compared with treatment with neither drug, the adjusted hazard ratio for in-hospital mortality for treatment with hydroxychloroquine alone was 1.08, for azithromycin alone was 0.56, and...
  • Triple combination of interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin in the treatment of patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19: an open-label, randomised, phase 2 trial

    11 May, 2020
    Effective antiviral therapy is important for tackling the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. We assessed the efficacy and safety of combined interferon beta-1b, lopinavir–ritonavir, and ribavirin for treating patients with COVID-19. This was a multicentre, prospective, open-label, randomised, phase 2 trial in adults with COVID-19 who were admitted to six hospitals in Hong Kong. Patients were randomly assigned (2:1) to a 14-day combination of lopinavir 400 mg and ritonavir ...
  • The pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 in hACE2 transgenic mice

    11 May, 2020

    Severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in China and has become a public health emergency of international concern1. Because angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cell entry receptor of SARS-CoV5, we used transgenic mice bearing human ACE2 and infected with SARS-CoV-2 to study the pathogenicity of the virus. Weight loss and virus replication in lung were observed in hACE2 mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. The typical ...
  • Vitamin D levels appear to play role in COVID-19 mortality rates

    8 May, 2020
    After studying global data from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers have discovered a strong correlation between severe vitamin D deficiency and mortality rates.

    Led by Northwestern University, the research team conducted a statistical analysis of data from hospitals and clinics across China, France, Germany, Italy, Iran, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States.

    The researchers noted that patients from countries with high...