Journal of medical virology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Ozone as adjuvant support in the treatment of COVID-19: A preliminary report of probiozovid trial.
The evaluation of new therapeutic resources against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a priority in clinical research considering the minimal options currently available. To evaluate the adjuvant use of systemic oxygen-ozone administration in the early control of disease progression in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia. PROBIOZOVID is an ongoing, interventional, randomized, prospective, and double-arm trial enrolling patient with COVID-19 pneumonia. ⋯ Ozone therapy had an impact on the need for the ventilatory support, although did not reach statistical significance. Finally, no adverse events related to the use of ozone-autohemotherapy were reported. Preliminary results, although not showing statistically significant benefits of ozone on COVID-19, did not report any toxicity.
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An optimal clinical specimen for accurate detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by minimizing the usage of consumables and reduce hazard exposure to healthcare workers is an urgent priority. The diagnostic performance of SARS-CoV-2 detection between healthcare worker-collected nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal (NP + OP) swabs and patient performed self-collected random saliva was assessed. Paired NP + OP swabs and random saliva were collected and processed within 48 h of specimen collection from two cohort studies which recruited 562 asymptomatic adult candidates. ⋯ The estimated sensitivity and specificity of random saliva were higher than NP + OP swabs (95.0; 99.9 vs. 72.2; 99.4). The Ct values of ORF1a and N genes were significantly lower in random saliva compared to NP + OP swabs specimens. Our findings demonstrate that random saliva is an alternative diagnostic specimen for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. Self-collected random oropharyngeal saliva is a valuable specimen that provides accurate SARS-CoV-2 surveillance testing of a community.
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The global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) urgently requires an effective vaccine for prevention. In this study, 66 epitopes containing pentapeptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in the IEDB database were compared with the amino acid sequence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, and 66 potentially immune-related peptides of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein were obtained. Based on the single-nucleotide polymorphisms analysis of spike protein of 1218 SARS-CoV-2 isolates, 52 easily mutated sites were identified and used for vaccine epitope screening. ⋯ The results of vaccine candidate sequences screening suggested that sequences (without linker, with linker GGGSGGG, EAAAK, GPGPG, and KK, respectively) were the best. The proteins translated by these sequences were relatively stable, with a high antigenic index and good biological activity. Our study provided vaccine candidate epitopes and sequences for the research of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
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There are very few studies in search of an alternate and convenient diagnostic tool which can substitute nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) specimen for detection of SARS-CoV-2. In the study we analyzed, the comparison and agreement between the feasibility of using the saliva in comparison to NPS for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. A total number of 74 patients were enrolled for this study. ⋯ Bland-Altman analysis produced relatively smaller bias and high agreement between these two clinical specimens. Phylogenetic analysis with the RdRp and S gene confirmed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva samples. Saliva represented a promising tool in COVID-19 diagnosis and the collection method would reduce the exposure risk of frontline health workers which is one of the major concerns in primary healthcare settings.
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The analyses of 2325 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) genomes revealed 107, 162, and 65 nucleotide substitutions in the coding region of SARS-CoV-2 from the three continents America, Europe, and Asia, respectively. Of these nucleotide substitutions 58, 94, and 37 were nonsynonymous types mostly present in the Nsp2, Nsp3, Spike, and ORF9. A continent-specific phylogram analyses clustered the SARS-CoV-2 in the different group based on the frequency of nucleotide substitutions. ⋯ Among the two forms of certain frequent mutation, one form is more prevalent in Europe continents (Nsp12:L314, Nsp13:P504, Nsp13:Y541, Spike:G614, and ORF8:L84) while other forms are more prevalent in American (Nsp12:P314, Nsp13:L504, Nsp13:C541, Spike:D614, and ORF8:L84) and Asian continents (Spike:D614), indicating the spatial and temporal dynamics of SARS-CoV-2. We identified highly conserved 38 regions and among these regions, 11 siRNAs were predicted on stringent criteria that can be used to suppress the expression of viral genes and the corresponding reduction of human viral infections. The present investigation provides information on different mutations and will pave the way for differentiating strains based on virulence and their use in the development of better antiviral therapy.