Unpuzzling COVID-19: tissue-related signaling pathways associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission

Abstract The highly infective coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is caused by a novel strain of coronaviruses – the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – discovered in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan (Hubei Province, China). Remarkably, COVID-19 has rapidly spread across all continents and turned into a public health emergency, which was ultimately declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in early 2020. SARS-CoV-2 presents similar aspects to other members of the coronavirus family, mainly regarding its genome, protein structure and intracellular mechanisms, that may translate into mild (or even asymptomatic) to severe infectious conditions. Although the mechanistic features underlying the COVID-19 progression have not been fully clarified, current evidence have suggested that SARS-CoV-2 may primarily behave as other β-coronavirus members. To better understand the development and transmission of COVID-19, unveiling the signaling pathways that may be impacted by SARS-CoV-2 infection, at the molecular and cellular levels, is of crucial importance. In this review, we present the main aspects related to the origin, classification, etiology and clinical impact of SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, here we describe the potential mechanisms of cellular interaction and signaling pathways, elicited by functional receptors, in major targeted tissues/organs from the respiratory, gastrointestinal (GI), cardiovascular, renal, and nervous systems. Furthermore, the potential involvement of these signaling pathways in evoking the onset and progression of COVID-19 symptoms in these organ systems are presently discussed. A brief description of future perspectives related to potential COVID-19 treatments is also highlighted.

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Management and Treatment of Hepatitis C: Are There Still Unsolved Problems and Unique Populations?

Viruses ◽

10.3390/v13061048 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 1048

Author(s):

Virginia Solitano ◽

Maria Corina Plaz Torres ◽

Nicola Pugliese ◽

Alessio Aghemo

Keyword(s):

Hepatitis C ◽

Previous Treatment ◽

World Health ◽

Current Evidence ◽

Decompensated Cirrhosis ◽

Drug Side Effects ◽

Efficacy And Safety ◽

Current Scenario ◽

Health Organization ◽

Direct Acting

Direct-acting antivirals (DAA) have revolutionized the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, possibly leading to HCV elimination by 2030 as endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, some patients belonging to the so-called unique or special populations are referred to as difficult-to-treat due to unreached sustained virological response, potential drug side effects or interactions or co-morbidities. Several years after the DAA introduction and on the basis of excellent findings in terms of efficacy and safety, some doubts arise around the exact meaning of the special population designation and whether this group of patients actually exists. The aim of this review is to discuss and analyze current evidence on the management and treatment of the so-called “unique populations”. We placed particular emphasis on patients with decompensated cirrhosis, chronic kidney disease (CKD), coinfections, rare genotypes, and previous treatment failure, in order to provide physicians with an updated overview of the actual problems and needs in the current scenario.

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Pyrethroid and Etofenprox Resistance in Anopheles gambiae and Anopheles coluzzii from Vegetable Farms in Yaoundé, Cameroon: Dynamics, Intensity and Molecular Basis

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26185543 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (18) ◽

pp. 5543

Author(s):

Michael Piameu ◽

Philippe Nwane ◽

Wilson Toussile ◽

Konstantinos Mavridis ◽

Nadja Christina Wipf ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Anopheles Gambiae ◽

Mortality Rates ◽

World Health ◽

Anopheles Coluzzii ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Metabolic Genes ◽

Anopheles Gambiae S.L ◽

Underlying Mechanisms ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City

Previous studies have indicated widespread insecticide resistance in malaria vector populations from Cameroon. However, the intensity of this resistance and underlying mechanisms are poorly known. Therefore, we conducted three cross-sectional resistance surveys between April 2018 and October 2019, using the revised World Health Organization protocol, which includes resistance incidences and intensity assessments. Field-collected Anopheles gambiae s.l. populations from Nkolondom, Nkolbisson and Ekié vegetable farms in the city of Yaoundé were tested with deltamethrin, permethrin, alpha-cypermethrin and etofenprox, using 1× insecticide diagnostic concentrations for resistance incidence, then 5× and 10× concentrations for resistance intensity. Subsamples were analyzed for species identification and the detection of resistance-associated molecular markers using TaqMan® qPCR assays. In Nkolbisson, both An. coluzzii (96%) and An. gambiae s.s. (4%) were found together, whereas only An. gambiae s.s. was present in Nkolondom, and only An. coluzzii was present in Ekié. All three populations were resistant to the four insecticides (<75% mortality rates―MR1×), with intensity generally fluctuating over the time between mod-erate (<98%―MR5×; ≥98%―MR10×) and high (76–97%―MR10×). The kdr L995F, L995S, and N1570Y, and the Ace-1 G280S-resistant alleles were found in An. gambiae from Nkolondom, at 73%, 1%, 16% and 13% frequencies, respectively, whereas only the kdr L995F was found in An. gambiae s.s. from Nkolbisson at a 50% frequency. In An. coluzzii from Nkolbisson and Ekié, we detected only the kdr L995F allele at 65% and 60% frequencies, respectively. Furthermore, expression levels of Cyp6m2, Cyp9k1, and Gste2 metabolic genes were highly upregulated (over fivefold) in Nkolondom and Nkolbisson. Pyrethroid and etofenprox-based vector control interventions may be jeopardized in the prospected areas, due to high resistance intensity, with multiple mechanisms in An. gambiae s.s. and An. coluzzii.

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Lebanon Cities’ Public Spaces

The Journal of Public Space ◽

10.5204/jps.v3i1.323 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 119-152 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Maryam Nazzal ◽

Samer Chinder

Keyword(s):

Green Space ◽

Public Spaces ◽

World Health ◽

Right To The City ◽

Social Connections ◽

Land Prices ◽

The Social ◽

Health Organization ◽

The Right ◽

The City

In Lebanon, the social connections are undeniable and crucial. However, meeting places remain private such as houses, restaurants, malls, and beach resorts. This is mainly due to the shortage of public spaces in Lebanon resulting from lack of planning, regulations and awareness around the right to the city and the importance of public spaces. In main cities where land prices are so expensive, common practice has prioritized the use of land in real estate development, thus trumping other uses such as public and communal spaces.In the late 1990s, Lebanon saw the emergence of malls, which have arguably acted as alternatives to public spaces. Malls, with their wealth of food courts, restaurants, cinemas, and play areas, have become the new downtown for a portion of the Lebanese population. They are also considered safe, which is another important factor.In 2015, the percentage of green spaces in Lebanon has decreased to less than 13%. While the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a minimum of 9m2 of green space per capita (UN-HABITAT, 2016), Beirut has only 0.8m2.

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A PIECEWISE GROWTH MODEL FOR MODELING THE ACCUMULATED NUMBER OF COVID-19 CASES IN THE CITY OF CAMPO GRANDE

REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE BIOMETRIA ◽

10.28951/rbb.v39i1.542 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 240

Author(s):

Erlandson Ferreira SARAIVA ◽

Leandro SAUER ◽

Basílio De Bragança PEREIRA ◽

Carlos Alberto de Bragança PEREIRA

Keyword(s):

Growth Model ◽

Health Department ◽

World Health ◽

Mathematical Study ◽

Number Of Patients ◽

Technical Report ◽

The World ◽

The Government ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City

In December of 2019, a new coronavirus was discovered in the city of Wuhan, China. The World Health Organization officially named this coronavirus as COVID-19. Since its discovery, the virus has spread rapidly around the world and is currently one of the main health problems, causing an enormous social and economic burden. Due to this, there is a great interest in mathematical models capable of projecting the evolution of the disease in countries, states and/or cities. This interest is mainly due to the fact that the projections may help the government agents in making decisions in relation to the prevention of the disease. By using this argument, the health department of the city (HDC) of Campo Grande asked the UFMS for the development of a mathematical study to project the evolution of the disease in the city. In this paper, we describe a modeling procedure used to fit a piecewise growth model for the accumulated number of cases recorded in the city. From the fitted model, we estimate the date in which the pandemic peak is reached and project the number of patients who will need treatment in intensive care units. Weekly, was sent to HDC a technical report describing the main results.

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CORONOVIRUS INFECTION COVID-19. MASKS (literature review)

Clinical Medicine and Pharmacology ◽

10.12737/2409-3750-2021-7-1-24-32 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 24-32

Author(s):

Semen Kireev ◽

I. Popov ◽

A. Ban'kovskiy ◽

E. Litvinenko ◽

E. Surova

Keyword(s):

World Health Organization ◽

Infectious Agent ◽

International Committee ◽

World Health ◽

Vulnerable Communities ◽

Regional Director ◽

The World ◽

Coronavirus Infection ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City

At the end of 2019, an outbreak of a new coronavirus infection occurred in the People's Re-public of China with an epicenter in the city of Wuhan (Hubei province). On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization has assigned the official name of the infection caused by the new coronavirus - COVID-19 ("Coronavirus disease2019"). On February 11, 2020, the International Committee on Virus Taxonomy gave the official name to the infectious agent - SARS-CoV-2.Since the end of January 2020, cases of COVID-19 have begun to be registered in many coun-tries of the world, mainly associated with travel to the PRC. At the end of February 2020, the epidemiological situation with COVID-19 in South Korea, Iran and Italy sharply worsened, which subsequently led to a significant increase in the number of cases in other countries of the world associated with travel to these countries, incl. and in Russia. The World Health Organiza-tion announced the COVID-19 pandemic on 11 March 2020, and the pandemic's challenge to the world will remain so as long as people are not immune to it.The Regional Director of the World Health Organization Takeshi Kasai, on the basis of an epidemiological analysis, reports that the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19 in July-August 2020 occurred mainly among people under 50 years old, and they often did not even know about it, because they had mild or no symptoms. In the future, these people then infect older people who are more difficult to tolerate COVID-19. And we need to redouble our efforts to prevent the spread of the virus in vulnerable communities.

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Hanseníase: formas sociais da doença no Brasil e na Índia

10.31012/978-65-5861-385-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elizabeth Parente Costa

Keyword(s):

Social Representations ◽

Field Work ◽

World Health ◽

New Delhi ◽

Medical Texts ◽

The Third ◽

The Social ◽

Leprosy Patients ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City

The research proposes a study of the social representations of leprosy, we seek three times to understand the sense of every society and their dynamics in relation to disease. The first in the city of Sobral/CE, where we carry out research in the years 2008 and 2009; the second moment in the city of Mogi das Cruzes/SP, with a man who has gone through several periods of hospitalization and overcame the stigma through work aimed at manufacture of prosthetic patients amputees; and the third time in New Delhi in India, where we find the largest number of leprosy patients. The places chosen for the field work were selected after repeated bibliographical research, readings of scholarly articles, medical texts and physicians about the disease and mainly with the data of the World Health Organization (WHO) and of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). We investigate the sociocultural reality of people afflicted by illness and how these could be with the disease.

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Assessment of Some Heavy Metals in Drinking Water Samples of Tunceli, Turkey

E-Journal of Chemistry ◽

10.1155/2011/370545 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 276-280 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Olcay Kaplan ◽

Nuran Cikcikoglu Yildirim ◽

Numan Yildirim ◽

Nilgun Tayhan

Keyword(s):

Heavy Metals ◽

Drinking Water ◽

Water Samples ◽

World Health ◽

Environment Protection ◽

Protection Agency ◽

Supply Networks ◽

Health Organization ◽

The City ◽

Drinking Water Samples

The drinking water quality is associated with the conditions of the water supply networks, the pollution and the contamination of groundwater with pollutants of both anthropogenic and natural origin. In this study, water samples were taken from four different waterworks in Tunceli, Turkey and heavy metals concentrations (As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni and Hg) were measured. Four sampling sites were pre-defined in different locations of the city. The obtained results showed that, the heavy metals concentrations in water samples did not exceed the values of WHO (World Health Organization), EC (Europe Community), EPA (Environment Protection Agency) and TSE-266 (Turkish Standard) guidelines.

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Radon Gas in the City of Alicante. High Risk of Low Indoor Air Quality in Poorly Ventilated Buildings

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17238762 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (23) ◽

pp. 8762

Author(s):

Carlos Rizo-Maestre ◽

Víctor Echarri-Iribarren

Keyword(s):

World Health ◽

Santa Barbara ◽

Buried Structures ◽

Gaseous State ◽

Major Health ◽

Radon Gas ◽

Health Organization ◽

Measurement Location ◽

First Time ◽

The City

In December 2019, Spain considered for the first time the presence of radon to the Technical Building Code (Basic Document HS 6: Radon Exposure Protection), although it only mentions minimum presences and the need for ventilation. This research shows that in buried structures or in places with little ventilation, even in soils with a low probability of granite, a high content of radon gas can be found. The city of Alicante has been used as a measurement location for different architectural sites; here, the level of 100 Bq/m3 is the first threshold where the gas must be monitored, and the level of 300 Bq/m3 is the maximum threshold above which corrective ventilation measures must be taken. The research conducted during the years 2015 and 2016 shows that it is necessary to account for also the areas considered to be “low presence of radon gas” to achieve healthy constructions. The renewal of air in the different places will be tested for the presence of radon, i.e., the greater the accumulation is, the less ventilation and the greater the risk of accumulation of radon gas. This study is located in the city of Alicante, where the seven civil constructions are located: two Civil War shelters, the Santa Barbara Castle, the Ereta Powder Keg, the Luceros-Marq and Serra Grossa railway tunnels and the Británica underground deposits. Radon gas is currently a concern for major health and medical agencies because it is considered to be a chemical element that is very harmful to people. The World Health Organization is one of the organisations that has the objective of studying and researching this element, to develop solutions. Radon gas is normally found in a gaseous state and is highly radioactive. It is present in many terrains and it is mostly found in those with granite; although the presence of this element is very low, there is always a minimum presence. In the past, in nongranite soils, the dose of radon was considered to be so low that it was insignificant. Therefore, in this research, the aim is to consider the high presence of radon gas in nongranite soils as long as the conditions for its accumulation are present.

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Multidisciplinary Challenges in Mastocytosis and How to Address with Personalized Medicine Approaches

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms20122976 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (12) ◽

pp. 2976 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Peter Valent ◽

Cem Akin ◽

Karoline V. Gleixner ◽

Wolfgang R. Sperr ◽

Andreas Reiter ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mast Cell ◽

Personalized Medicine ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Systemic Mastocytosis ◽

Daily Practice ◽

World Health ◽

Survival Times ◽

Tryptase Level ◽

Organ Systems ◽

Health Organization

Mastocytosis is a hematopoietic neoplasm defined by abnormal expansion and focal accumulation of clonal tissue mast cells in various organ-systems. The disease exhibits a complex pathology and an equally complex clinical behavior. The classification of the World Health Organization (WHO) divides mastocytosis into cutaneous forms, systemic variants, and localized mast cell tumors. In >80% of patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM), a somatic point mutation in KIT at codon 816 is found. Whereas patients with indolent forms of the disease have a normal or near-normal life expectancy, patients with advanced mast cell neoplasms, including aggressive SM and mast cell leukemia, have a poor prognosis with short survival times. In a majority of these patients, multiple somatic mutations and/or an associated hematologic neoplasm, such as a myeloid leukemia, may be detected. Independent of the category of mastocytosis and the serum tryptase level, patients may suffer from mediator-related symptoms and/or osteopathy. Depending on the presence of co-morbidities, the symptomatology in such patients may be mild, severe or even life-threatening. Most relevant co-morbidities in such patients are IgE-dependent allergies, psychiatric, psychological or mental problems, and vitamin D deficiency. The diagnosis and management of mastocytosis is an emerging challenge in clinical practice and requires vast knowledge, a multidisciplinary approach, and personalized medicine procedures. In this article, the current knowledge about mastocytosis is reviewed with special emphasis on the multidisciplinary aspects of the disease and related challenges in daily practice.

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SARS-CoV-2/Renin–Angiotensin System: Deciphering the Clues for a Couple with Potentially Harmful Effects on Skeletal Muscle

International Journal of Molecular Sciences ◽

10.3390/ijms21217904 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 21 (21) ◽

pp. 7904

Author(s):

Andrea Gonzalez ◽

Josué Orozco-Aguilar ◽

Oscar Achiardi ◽

Felipe Simon ◽

Claudio Cabello-Verrugio

Keyword(s):

Skeletal Muscle ◽

Muscle Mass ◽

Renin Angiotensin System ◽

Recovery Process ◽

World Health ◽

Angiotensin System ◽

Renin Angiotensin ◽

Organ Systems ◽

Health Organization ◽

And Function

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has produced significant health emergencies worldwide, resulting in the declaration by the World Health Organization of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Acute respiratory syndrome seems to be the most common manifestation of COVID-19. A high proportion of patients require intensive care unit admission and mechanical ventilation (MV) to survive. It has been well established that angiotensin-converting enzyme type 2 (ACE2) is the primary cellular receptor for SARS-CoV-2. ACE2 belongs to the renin–angiotensin system (RAS), composed of several peptides, such as angiotensin II (Ang II) and angiotensin (1-7) (Ang-(1-7)). Both peptides regulate muscle mass and function. It has been described that SARS-CoV-2 infection, by direct and indirect mechanisms, affects a broad range of organ systems. In the skeletal muscle, through unbalanced RAS activity, SARS-CoV-2 could induce severe consequences such as loss of muscle mass, strength, and physical function, which will delay and interfere with the recovery process of patients with COVID-19. This article discusses the relationship between RAS, SARS-CoV-2, skeletal muscle, and the potentially harmful consequences for skeletal muscle in patients currently infected with and recovering from COVID-19.

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