Articles: coronavirus.
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Frontiers in microbiology · Jan 2020
The Strengths of Scanning Electron Microscopy in Deciphering SARS-CoV-2 Infectious Cycle.
Electron microscopy is a powerful tool in the field of microbiology. It has played a key role in the rapid diagnosis of viruses in patient samples and has contributed significantly to the clarification of virus structure and function, helping to guide the public health response to emerging viral infections. In the present study, we used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to study the infectious cycle of SARS-CoV-2 in Vero E6 cells and we controlled some key findings by classical transmission electronic microscopy (TEM). ⋯ New SARS-CoV-2 particles were expelled from the cells, through cell lysis or by fusion of virus containing vacuoles with the cell plasma membrane. Overall, this cycle is highly comparable to that of SARS-CoV. By providing a detailed and complete SARS-CoV-2 infectious cycle, SEM proves to be a very rapid and efficient tool compared to classical TEM.
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Coronovirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection, which originated from Wuhan, China, has seized the whole world in its grasp and created a huge pandemic situation before humanity. Since December 2019, genomes of numerous isolates have been sequenced and analyzed for testing confirmation, epidemiology, and evolutionary studies. In the first half of this article, we provide a detailed review of the history and origin of COVID-19, followed by the taxonomy, nomenclature and genome organization of its causative agent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-related Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). ⋯ A total of 100-nucleotide segment-based homology studies revealed that the majority of the SARS-CoV-2 genome segments are close to Bat CoV, followed by some to Pangolin CoV, and some are unique ones. Open pan-genome of genus Betacoronavirus members indicates the diversity contributed by the novel viruses emerging in this group. Overall, the exploration of the diversity of these isolates, mutational hotspots and pan-genome will shed light on the evolution and pathogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 and help in developing putative methods of diagnosis and treatment.
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Despite being associated with worse prognosis in patients with COVID-19, systematic determination of myocardial injury is not recommended. The aim of the study was to study the effect of myocardial injury assessment on risk stratification of COVID-19 patients. ⋯ Myocardial injury is independently associated with adverse outcomes irrespective of baseline comorbidities and its addition to multivariate regression models significantly improves their performance in predicting mortality. The determination of myocardial injury biomarkers on hospital admission and its combination with CCI can classify patients in three risk groups (high, intermediate and low) with a clearly distinct 30-day mortality.
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The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is one of the most devastating in this century. It originated in China in December 2019 caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus, and in less than a month it had been classified as an "International Public Health Emergency". To date there are nearly 3 million people infected and more than 250,000 deaths caused by the disease worldwide. ⋯ Of the confirmed cases, 15% are healthcare workers. There is no specific treatment or vaccine yet, so it is important to have hygiene, social isolation and personal protection measures. Health, social and economic consequences could have great impact in the near future.
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As of May 10, 2020, the United States of America (USA) has 1,367,079 cases of SARS CoV-2 and 80,773 deaths associated with the disease. New York alone has more than 333,000 cases and nearly 21,271 deaths. As we are trying to reopen our economies, the biggest risk we face is a surge in the immediate cases of new infections. ⋯ These deaths accounted for one-third of the deaths related to SARS CoV-2, making it the most intensively hurt group of al. lThe ground reality is that unfortunately, even now, most of these facilities do not have enough tests that can stop the outbreak. We suggest special targeting of residents of long-term care facilities, and the HCPs involved in these facilities to stop the spread of SARS CoV-2. Extreme measures including the highest testing numbers should be allocated to these facilities and rigorous Infection control measures should be undertaken so that the SARS-CoV-2 virus does not enter and infect the patients in these facilities and if it does, it is limited to the facility.