scholarly journals Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for the Prevention and Treatment of COVID-19; a Fiction, Hope or Hype? An Updated Review

Author(s):  
Sultan Saghir ◽  
Naif AlGabri ◽  
Mahmoud Alagawany ◽  
Youssef Attia ◽  
Salem Alailay ◽  
...  

In December 2019, the novel coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19) that began in China had infected more than 56 million individuals worldwide and accounted for more than 1.344.000 fatalities. With the dawn of this novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), there was a requirement to select potential therapies that might effectively kill the virus, accelerate the recovery, or decrease the case fatality rate. Besides the currently available antiviral medications for HIV and HCV, the chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine (CQ/HCQ) regimen with or without azithromycin has been repurposed in China and was recommended by the National Health Commission, China in mid-February 2020. By this time, the selection of this regimen was based on its efficacy against the previous SARS-CoV-1 virus and its potential to inhibit viral replication of the SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. There was a shortage of robust clinical proof about the effectiveness of this regimen against the novel SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, extensive research effort has been made by several researchers worldwide to investigate whether this regimen is safe and effective for the management of COVID-19. This review article provides a comprehensive overview of the CQ/HCQ regimen. It summarizes the evaluating data from in vitro studies and clinical studies either for the protection or the treatment against SARS-CoV-2. There is a sharp difference of opinion about the role of CQ/HCQ regimen in treatment of COVID-19. The literature data are controversial and contradictory due to the diverse study design, population selection, dosage, regimen, and outcome measures. Current evidence from the two largest randomized-controlled trials (recovery and solidarity) suggests that the HCQ regimen does not decrease COVID-19 patients’ mortality. However, conflicting data were published from observational studies showing that the drug might be sufficient. Therefore, more investigations are needed to emphasize these findings.

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Schön ◽  
Aya Mousa ◽  
Michael Berk ◽  
Wern L. Chia ◽  
Jozef Ukropec ◽  
...  

Neurological, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders represent a serious burden because of their increasing prevalence, risk of disability, and the lack of effective causal/disease-modifying treatments. There is a growing body of evidence indicating potentially favourable effects of carnosine, which is an over-the-counter food supplement, in peripheral tissues. Although most studies to date have focused on the role of carnosine in metabolic and cardiovascular disorders, the physiological presence of this di-peptide and its analogues in the brain together with their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier as well as evidence from in vitro, animal, and human studies suggest carnosine as a promising therapeutic target in brain disorders. In this review, we aim to provide a comprehensive overview of the role of carnosine in neurological, neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders, summarizing current evidence from cell, animal, and human cross-sectional, longitudinal studies, and randomized controlled trials.


Author(s):  
Richard Delahay ◽  
Jose de la Fuente ◽  
Graham Smith ◽  
Khan Sharun ◽  
Emma Snary ◽  
...  

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from a wildlife source with transmission to humans followed by rapid geographic spread throughout the globe and dramatic impacts on both human health and global economies. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been several instances of human-to-animal transmission involving companion, farmed and zoo animals, and one instance of infection in a wild mink, with the clear potential for further spread into free-living wildlife. The establishment of reservoirs of infection in wild animals would create significant challenges to infection control in humans and could pose a threat to the welfare and conservation status of wildlife. Herein, we discuss the potential for exposure, maintenance and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in an initial selection of wild and feral species (bats, canids, felids, mustelids, great apes). Targeted surveillance and dynamic risk assessment are important tools for the early detection of infection in wildlife and a means of collating and synthesising emerging information in a rapidly changing situation. Such efforts should be integrated with public health information to provide insights into the potential role of wild mammals in the continuing epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2. This approach should also be adopted to address the wider need to proactively assess threats to human and animal health from other diseases that may emerge from wildlife.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
M. A. Litvinova ◽  
N. V. Muravyeva ◽  
B. S. Belov

Currently, the close attention of the medical and international community is still riveted on the novel coronavirus infection, which caused the pandemic in 2020. Understanding the underlying mechanisms of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) made it possible to move from the empirical selection of therapy, which was observed at the beginning of the pandemic, to the pathogenetically justified prescription of drugs, including glucocorticoids, anticoagulants, as well as some antirheumatic drugs. However, despite the huge amount of scientific and clinical material accumulated over 1.5 years, the interest in this problem does not wane both due to the existence of a number of unresolved issues, and due to the constant emergence of new (often contradictory) data.


Author(s):  
Richard Delahay ◽  
Jose de la Fuente ◽  
Graham Smith ◽  
Khan Sharun ◽  
Emma Snary ◽  
...  

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from a wildlife source with transmission to humans followed by rapid geographic spread throughout the globe and severe impacts on both human health and the global economy. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been many instances of human-to-animal transmission involving companion, farmed and zoo animals, and limited evidence for spread into free-living wildlife. The establishment of reservoirs of infection in wild animals would create significant challenges to infection control in humans and could pose a threat to the welfare and conservation status of wildlife. We discuss the potential for exposure, onward transmission and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in an initial selection of wild mammals (bats, canids, felids, mustelids, great apes, rodents and cervids). Dynamic risk assessment and targeted surveillance are important tools for the early detection of infection in wildlife, and here we describe a framework for collating and synthesising emerging information to inform targeted surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife. Surveillance efforts should be integrated with information from public and veterinary health initiatives to provide insights into the potential role of wild mammals in the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.


npj Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicja Maria Chmielewska ◽  
Anna Czarnota ◽  
Krystyna Bieńkowska-Szewczyk ◽  
Katarzyna Grzyb

AbstractSince the emergence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered social life and global economic activity. As of July 2021, SARS-CoV-2 has caused over four million deaths. The rapid spread and high mortality of the disease demanded the international scientific community to develop effective vaccines in a matter of months. However, unease about vaccine efficacy has arisen with the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs). Time- and cost-efficient in vitro neutralization assays are widely used to measure neutralizing antibody responses against VOCs. However, the extent to which in vitro neutralization reflects protection from infection remains unclear. Here, we describe common neutralization assays based on infectious and pseudotyped viruses and evaluate their role in testing neutralizing responses against new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Additionally, we briefly review the recent findings on the immune response elicited by available vaccines against major SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. Delahay ◽  
J. de la Fuente ◽  
G. C. Smith ◽  
K. Sharun ◽  
E. L. Snary ◽  
...  

AbstractThe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from a wildlife source with transmission to humans followed by rapid geographic spread throughout the globe and severe impacts on both human health and the global economy. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been many instances of human-to-animal transmission involving companion, farmed and zoo animals, and limited evidence for spread into free-living wildlife. The establishment of reservoirs of infection in wild animals would create significant challenges to infection control in humans and could pose a threat to the welfare and conservation status of wildlife. We discuss the potential for exposure, onward transmission and persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in an initial selection of wild mammals (bats, canids, felids, mustelids, great apes, rodents and cervids). Dynamic risk assessment and targeted surveillance are important tools for the early detection of infection in wildlife, and here we describe a framework for collating and synthesising emerging information to inform targeted surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in wildlife. Surveillance efforts should be integrated with information from public and veterinary health initiatives to provide insights into the potential role of wild mammals in the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.


Author(s):  
Richard Delahay ◽  
Jose de la Fuente ◽  
Graham Smith ◽  
Khan Sharun ◽  
Emma Snary ◽  
...  

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 likely emerged from a wildlife source with transmission to humans followed by rapid geographic spread throughout the globe and dramatic impacts on both human health and global economies. Since the onset of the pandemic, there have been several instances of human-to-animal transmission involving companion, farmed and zoo animals, with the clear potential for spread into free-living wildlife. The establishment of reservoirs of infection in wild animals would create significant challenges to infection control in humans and could pose a threat to the welfare and conservation status of wildlife. Herein, we discuss the potential for exposure, maintenance and onward transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in an initial selection of wild and feral species (bats, canids, felids, mustelids, great apes). Targeted surveillance and dynamic risk assessment are important tools for the early detection of infection in wildlife and a means of collating and synthesising emerging information in a rapidly changing situation. Such efforts should be integrated with public health information to provide insights into the potential role of wild mammals in the continuing epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2. This approach should also be adopted to address the wider need to proactively assess threats to human and animal health from other diseases that may emerge from wildlife.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 977-982
Author(s):  
Mohamed J. Saadh ◽  
Bashar Haj Rashid M ◽  
Roa’a Matar ◽  
Sajeda Riyad Aldibs ◽  
Hala Sbaih ◽  
...  

SARS-COV2 virus causes Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and represents the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. The novel coronavirus (2019) was discovered in 2019 in Wuhan, the market of the wet animal, China with viral pneumonia cases and is life-threatening. Today, WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. COVID-19 is likely to be zoonotic. It is transmitted from bats as intermediary animals to human. Also, the virus is transmitted from human to human who is in close contact with others. The computerized tomographic chest scan is usually abnormal even in those with no symptoms or mild disease. Treatment is nearly supportive; the role of antiviral agents is yet to be established. The SARS-COV2 virus spreads faster than its two ancestors, the SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), but has lower fatality. In this article, we aimed to summarize the transmission, symptoms, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and vaccine to control the spread of this fatal disease.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Wykowska ◽  
Jairo Pérez-Osorio ◽  
Stefan Kopp

This booklet is a collection of the position statements accepted for the HRI’20 conference workshop “Social Cognition for HRI: Exploring the relationship between mindreading and social attunement in human-robot interaction” (Wykowska, Perez-Osorio & Kopp, 2020). Unfortunately, due to the rapid unfolding of the novel coronavirus at the beginning of the present year, the conference and consequently our workshop, were canceled. On the light of these events, we decided to put together the positions statements accepted for the workshop. The contributions collected in these pages highlight the role of attribution of mental states to artificial agents in human-robot interaction, and precisely the quality and presence of social attunement mechanisms that are known to make human interaction smooth, efficient, and robust. These papers also accentuate the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of the factors and the consequences of social interactions with artificial agents.


Author(s):  
Lara Bittmann

On December 31, 2019, WHO was informed of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan City, China. A novel coronavirus was identified as the cause by Chinese authorities on January 7, 2020 and was provisionally named "2019-nCoV". This new Coronavirus causes a clinical picture which has received now the name COVID-19. The virus has spread subsequently worldwide and was explained on the 11th of March, 2020 by the World Health Organization to the pandemic.


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