scholarly journals Diagnostic Tests and Procedures During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 191-216
Author(s):  
Sherry A. Dunbar ◽  
Yi-Wei Tang
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
Accurate Diagnosis ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Causative Pathogen ◽  
Huge Impact

AbstractCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought a huge impact on global health and the economy. Early and accurate diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections is essential for clinical intervention and pandemic control. This book chapter addresses the evolving approach to the laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 covering preanalytical, analytical, and postanalytical steps. The rapidly changing dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic serve as an example which will be important for laboratories to plan for future pandemics. With the quick identification of the causative pathogen and availability of the genome sequence, it will be possible to develop and implement diagnostic tests within weeks of an outbreak. Laboratories will need to be flexible to continuously adapt to changing testing needs and burdens on the healthcare system, plan mitigation strategies for bottlenecks in testing and workflow due to limitations on resources and supplies, and prepare back-up plans now in order to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Diagnosis of Fatty Liver Disease by a Multiphoton-Active and Lipid-Droplet-Specific AIEgen with Nonaromatic Rotors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hojeong Park ◽  
Shijie Li ◽  
Guangle Niu ◽  
Haoke Zhang ◽  
Zhuo-yue Song ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Liver Disease ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Health Risk ◽  
Fatty Liver ◽  
Lipid Droplet ◽  
Fatty Liver Disease ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Accurate Diagnosis

Fatty liver disease (FLD) has become an increasing global health risk. However, an accurate diagnosis of FLD at an early stage remains a great challenge due to the lack of...

scholarly journals Differential Laboratory Diagnosis of Acute Fever in Guinea: Preparedness for the Threat of Hemorrhagic Fevers

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 6022
Author(s):  
Vladimir G. Dedkov ◽  
N’Faly Magassouba ◽  
Olga A. Stukolova ◽  
Victoria A. Savina ◽  
Jakob Camara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ebola Virus ◽  
Febrile Illness ◽  
Laboratory Diagnosis ◽  
Acute Febrile Illness ◽  
Causative Pathogen ◽  
Hemorrhagic Fevers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Causative Agents ◽  
Pathognomonic Sign

Acute febrile illnesses occur frequently in Guinea. Acute fever itself is not a unique, hallmark indication (pathognomonic sign) of any one illness or disease. In the infectious disease context, fever’s underlying cause can be a wide range of viral or bacterial pathogens, including the Ebola virus. In this study, molecular and serological methods were used to analyze samples from patients hospitalized with acute febrile illness in various regions of Guinea. This analysis was undertaken with the goal of accomplishing differential diagnosis (determination of causative pathogen) in such cases. As a result, a number of pathogens, both viral and bacterial, were identified in Guinea as causative agents behind acute febrile illness. In approximately 60% of the studied samples, however, a definitive determination could not be made.

scholarly journals A Framework for Protecting Pregnant Women in the Era of COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-112
Author(s):  
Deepa Dongarwar ◽  
Veronica Ajewole ◽  
Kiydra Harris ◽  
Emmanuella Oduguwa ◽  
Theresa Ofili ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Access ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Creative Commons ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Work First ◽  
Open Access Article

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, highlighted and compounded problems while posing new challenges for the pregnant population. Although individual organizations have provided disparate information, guidance, and updates on managing the pregnant population during the current COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to develop a collective model that highlights all the best practices needed to protect the pregnant population during the pandemic. To establish a standard for ensuring safety during the pandemic, we present a framework that describes best practices for the management of the pregnant population during the ongoing COVID-19pandemic.   Copyright © 2021 Dongarwar, et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in this journal, is properly cited.

scholarly journals Evaluation of two new rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for the diagnosis of malaria

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fahmida Jahan ◽  
Rubayet Elahi ◽  
Md. Khaja Mohiuddin ◽  
Md. Gulam Musawwir Khan ◽  
Mohammad Shafiul Alam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Predictive Value ◽  
Gold Standard ◽  
Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Rapid Diagnostic Tests ◽  
Accurate Diagnosis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Antibody Detection ◽  
Resource Limited Settings ◽  
Malaria Rdts ◽  
Resource Limited

Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) address the need for accurate diagnosis of malaria, particularly in resource limited settings. In this study, two malaria RDTs were compared with gold standard microscopy: On Site Pf/Pv test detecting Plasmodium falciparum-specific histidine rich protein-2 (Pf HR P2) and P. vivax-specific parasitic lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) antigens; and SD Bioline anti-Pf/Pv test detecting anti-HR P2 and anti-pL DH antibodies for the diagnosis of P. falciparum and P. vivax infections, respectively. For OnSite test, the overall sensitivity was found 96.2% , specificity 98.2% , positive predictive value (PPV ) 98.2% , negative predictive value (NPV ) 96.4% and agreement with microscopy was found to be 0.94. On the other hand SD Bioline test, the overall sensitivity was 75.4%, specificity 83.7%, PPV 84.3% , NPV 74.5% and agreement with microscopy was 0.59. These data revealed that the R DT based on antigen detection (Onsite test) was more reliable than that based on the antibody detection (SD Bioline test).DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjmm.v5i2.16931 Bangladesh J Med Microbiol 2011; 05 (02): 11-15

scholarly journals Screening a library of FDA-approved and bioactive compounds for antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott B. Biering ◽  
Erik Van Dis ◽  
Eddie Wehri ◽  
Livia H. Yamashiro ◽  
Xammy Nguyenla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Combination Therapy ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Antiviral Activity ◽  
Drug Repurposing ◽  
Rapid Identification ◽  
Screening Strategy ◽  
Combination Therapies ◽  
Pulmonary Epithelial Cells ◽  
Compound Screening

AbstractSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has emerged as a major global health threat. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 80 million cases and 1.7 million deaths to date while the number of cases continues to rise. With limited therapeutic options, the identification of safe and effective therapeutics is urgently needed. The repurposing of known clinical compounds holds the potential for rapid identification of drugs effective against SARS-CoV-2. Here we utilized a library of FDA-approved and well-studied preclinical and clinical compounds to screen for antivirals against SARS-CoV-2 in human pulmonary epithelial cells. We identified 13 compounds that exhibit potent antiviral activity across multiple orthogonal assays. Hits include known antivirals, compounds with anti-inflammatory activity, and compounds targeting host pathways such as kinases and proteases critical for SARS-CoV-2 replication. We identified seven compounds not previously reported to have activity against SARS-CoV-2, including B02, a human RAD51 inhibitor. We further demonstrated that B02 exhibits synergy with remdesivir, the only antiviral approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19, highlighting the potential for combination therapy. Taken together, our comparative compound screening strategy highlights the potential of drug repurposing screens to identify novel starting points for development of effective antiviral mono- or combination therapies to treat COVID-19.

Potential neuroinvasive and neurotrophic properties of SARS-CoV-2 in pediatric patients: Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 with non-segmented RNA viruses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Pediatric Patients ◽  
Rna Viruses ◽  
Neurological Diseases ◽  
Protein Sequences ◽  
Infants And Children ◽  
Functional Domains ◽  
Economic Crises

Abstract The emerging severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is causing global health and economic crises. Infants and children can be infected, but are less likely to develop severe abnormalities including neurological disorders compared with adults. However, whether SARS-CoV-2 can directly cause neurological impairments in pediatric patients is not known. The possible evolutionary and molecular relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and non-segmented RNA viruses were examined with reference to neurological disorders in pediatric patients. SARS-CoV-2 appears to share similar functional domains and protein sequences with neuroinvasive and neurotropic RNA viruses and thus has the potential to cause neurological diseases in pediatric patients.

scholarly journals Isolation of potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies and protection from disease in a small animal model

Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 369 (6506) ◽  
pp. 956-963 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Rogers ◽  
Fangzhu Zhao ◽  
Deli Huang ◽  
Nathan Beutler ◽  
Alison Burns ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Small Animal ◽  
Passive Transfer ◽  
Antibody Responses ◽  
High Dose ◽  
Receptor Binding Domain ◽  
Small Animal Model

Countermeasures to prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are a global health priority. We enrolled a cohort of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–recovered participants, developed neutralization assays to investigate antibody responses, adapted our high-throughput antibody generation pipeline to rapidly screen more than 1800 antibodies, and established an animal model to test protection. We isolated potent neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) to two epitopes on the receptor binding domain (RBD) and to distinct non-RBD epitopes on the spike (S) protein. As indicated by maintained weight and low lung viral titers in treated animals, the passive transfer of a nAb provides protection against disease in high-dose SARS-CoV-2 challenge in Syrian hamsters. The study suggests a role for nAbs in prophylaxis, and potentially therapy, of COVID-19. The nAbs also define protective epitopes to guide vaccine design.

scholarly journals Correlation Between Early Plasma Interleukin 37 Responses With Low Inflammatory Cytokine Levels and Benign Clinical Outcomes in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ang Li ◽  
Yun Ling ◽  
Zhigang Song ◽  
Xiaobo Cheng ◽  
Longfei Ding ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Inflammatory Cytokine ◽  
Inflammatory Responses ◽  
Clinical Intervention ◽  
Protective Role ◽  
Interferon Α ◽  
Type I ◽  
C Reactive Protein ◽  
Clinical Prognosis ◽  
Reactive Protein

Abstract Background The immune protective mechanisms during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection remain to be deciphered for the development of an effective intervention approach. Methods We examined early responses of interleukin 37 (IL-37), a powerful anti-inflammatory cytokine, in 254 SARS-CoV-2–infected patients before any clinical intervention and determined its correlation with clinical prognosis. Results Our results demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 infection causes elevation of plasma IL-37. Higher early IL-37 responses were correlated with earlier viral RNA negative conversion, chest computed tomographic improvement, and cough relief, consequently resulted in earlier hospital discharge. Further assays showed that higher IL-37 was associated with lower interleukin 6 and interleukin 8 (IL-8) and higher interferon α responses and facilitated biochemical homeostasis. Low IL-37 responses predicted severe clinical prognosis in combination with IL-8 and C-reactive protein. In addition, we observed that IL-37 administration was able to attenuate lung inflammation and alleviate respiratory tissue damage in human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2–transgenic mice infected with SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions Overall, we found that IL-37 plays a protective role by antagonizing inflammatory responses while retaining type I interferon, thereby maintaining the functionalities of vital organs. IL-37, IL-8, and C-reactive protein might be formulated as a precise prediction model for screening severe clinical cases and have good value in clinical practice.

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