Journal of medical virology
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) broke out in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019. Tens thousands of people have been infected with the disease. Our aim was to distinguish severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-positive patients from SARS-CoV-2-negative patients. ⋯ There were 38.5% of control patients had higher procalcitonin (PCT) levels than 0.5 ng/mL, which was significantly higher than that percentage of COVID-19 patients (X2 = 22.636; P < .05), and COVID-19 patients were also more likely to have decreased or normal urea and creatinine levels than control patients (X2 = 24.930, 8.480; P < .05). Younger age, exposure to Wuhan, fever, cough, and slight changes in routine blood workup parameters, urea and creatinine were important features discriminating COVID-19 from control patients. Slightly increased, but far less than 0.5 ng/mL, PCT levels also differentiated COVID-19 patients from control patients.
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The recent pandemic of COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, is unarguably the most fearsome compared with the earlier outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Human ACE2 is now established as a receptor for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Where variations in the viral spike protein, in turn, lead to the cross-species transmission of the virus, genetic variations in the host receptor ACE2 may also contribute to the susceptibility and/or resistance against the viral infection. ⋯ Most ACE2 variants showed a similar binding affinity for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as observed in the complex structure of wild-type ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. However, ACE2 alleles, rs73635825 (S19P) and rs143936283 (E329G) showed noticeable variations in their intermolecular interactions with the viral spike protein. In summary, our data provide a structural basis of potential resistance against SARS-CoV-2 infection driven by ACE2 allelic variants.
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The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) quickly spread all over China and to more than 20 other countries. Although the virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus [SARS-Cov-2]) nucleic acid real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test has become the standard method for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection, these real-time PCR test kits have many limitations. In addition, high false-negative rates were reported. ⋯ The results indicated great detection consistency among samples from fingerstick blood, serum and plasma of venous blood. The IgM-IgG combined assay has better utility and sensitivity compared with a single IgM or IgG test. It can be used for the rapid screening of SARS-CoV-2 carriers, symptomatic or asymptomatic, in hospitals, clinics, and test laboratories.
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A pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been spreading throughout the world. Though molecular diagnostic tests are the gold standard for COVID-19, serological testing is emerging as a potential surveillance tool, in addition to its complementary role in COVID-19 diagnostics. Indubitably quantitative serological testing provides greater advantages than qualitative tests but today there is still little known about serological diagnostics and what the most appropriate role quantitative tests might play. ⋯ All COVID-19 patients were hospitalized in San Giovanni di Dio Hospital (Florence, Italy) and had a positive oro/nasopharyngeal swab reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction result. The highest sensitivity with a very good specificity performance was reached at a cutoff value of 10.0 AU/mL for IgM and of 7.1 for IgG antibodies, hence near to the manufacturer's cutoff values of 10 AU/mL for both isotypes. The receiver operating characteristic curves showed area under the curve values of 0.918 and 0.980 for anti-SARS CoV-2 antibodies IgM and IgG, respectively. iFlash1800 CLIA analyzer has shown highly accurate results for the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies profile and can be considered an excellent tool for COVID-19 diagnostics.
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The aim is to evaluate pregnant women infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and provide help for clinical prevention and treatment. All five cases of pregnant women confirmed COVID-19 were collected among patients who admitted to the Maternal and Child Hospital of Hubei Province between January 20 and February 10, 2020. All patients, aging from 25 to 31 years old, had the gestational week from 38th weeks to 41st weeks. ⋯ It is probable that pregnant women diagnosed with COVID-19 have no fever before delivery. Their primary initial manifestations were merely low-grade postpartum fever or mild respiratory symptoms. Therefore, the protective measures are necessary on admission; the instant CT scan and real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction assay should be helpful in early diagnosis and avoid cross-infection on the occasion that patients have fever and other respiratory signs.