Differential Peripheral Blood Glycoprotein Profiles in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic COVID-19

Glycosylation is the most common form of post-translational modification of proteins, critically affecting their structure and function. Using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry for high-resolution site-specific quantification of glycopeptides coupled with high-throughput artificial intelligence-powered data processing, we analyzed differential protein glyco-isoform distributions of 597 abundant serum glycopeptides and non-glycosylated peptides in 50 individuals who had been seriously ill with COVID-19 and in 22 individuals who had recovered after an asymptomatic course of COVID-19. As additional comparison reference phenotypes, we included 12 individuals with a history of infection with a common cold coronavirus, 16 patients with bacterial sepsis, and 15 healthy subjects without history of coronavirus exposure. We found statistically significant differences, at FDR<0.05, for normalized abundances of 374 of the 597 peptides and glycopeptides interrogated, between symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. Similar statistically significant differences were seen when comparing symptomatic COVID-19 patients to healthy controls (350 differentially abundant peptides and glycopeptides) and common cold coronavirus seropositive subjects (353 differentially abundant peptides and glycopeptides). Among healthy controls and sepsis patients, 326 peptides and glycopeptides were found to be differentially abundant, of which 277 overlapped with biomarkers that showed differential expression between symptomatic COVID-19 cases and healthy controls. Among symptomatic COVID-19 cases and sepsis patients, 101 glycopeptide and peptide biomarkers were found to be statistically significantly abundant. Using both supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques, we found specific glycoprotein profiles to be strongly predictive of symptomatic COVID-19 infection. LASSO-regularized multivariable logistic regression and K-means clustering yielded accuracies of 100% in an independent test set and of 96% overall, respectively. Our findings are consistent with the interpretation that a majority of glycoprotein modifications observed which are shared among symptomatic COVID-19 and sepsis patients likely represent a generic consequence of a severe systemic immune and inflammatory state. However, there are glyco-isoform changes that are specific and particular to severe COVID-19 infection. These may be representative of either COVID-19-specific consequences or of susceptibility to or predisposition for a severe course of the disease. Our findings support the potential value of glycoproteomic biomarkers in the biomedical understanding, and, potentially, the clinical management of serious acute infectious conditions.

Indigenous Knowledge On Medicinal Plants Practiced At Myagdi District, Nepal

Indigenous knowledge on medicinal plants and practices is outdistancing and vulnerable to loss if not properly documented. A survey on medicinal plants and their practices was carried in the Myagdi district. Around 40 tribal people from four different villages were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Documentation of the indigenous knowledge was done in written form and the pictures of available medicinal plants were taken. The study showed that 93.51% of the respondent has used medicinal plants and 87.20% found them effective in curing several diseases and injuries. They are commonly used to cure diseases like bone fractures, abdominal pain, fever, common cold, dysentery, eye opacity, scabies, worm infection, reproductive problems, mental disorder, and cardiovascular problems. As reported, with access to modern pharmaceuticals, the use of medicinal plants has been less practiced these days. The knowledge on medicinal plants and practices are restricted to older-aged groups of the community (76.32%) reflecting that valuable indigenous knowledge is on the wane. This study portrays the commonly used medicinal plants along with their preparation techniques practiced in the study area.

Bias against Vitamin C in Mainstream Medicine: Examples from Trials of Vitamin C for Infections

Evidence has shown unambiguously that, in certain contexts, vitamin C is effective against the common cold. However, in mainstream medicine, the views on vitamin C and infections have been determined by eminence-based medicine rather than evidence-based medicine. The rejection of the demonstrated benefits of vitamin C is largely explained by three papers published in 1975—two published in JAMA and one in the American Journal of Medicine—all of which have been standard citations in textbooks of medicine and nutrition and in nutritional recommendations. Two of the papers were authored by Thomas Chalmers, an influential expert in clinical trials, and the third was authored by Paul Meier, a famous medical statistician. In this paper, we summarize several flaws in the three papers. In addition, we describe problems with two recent randomized trial reports published in JAMA which were presented in a way that misled readers. We also discuss shortcomings in three recent JAMA editorials on vitamin C. While most of our examples are from JAMA, it is not the only journal with apparent bias against vitamin C, but it illustrates the general views in mainstream medicine. We also consider potential explanations for the widespread bias against vitamin C.

Mr. Dr. Health-Assistant Chatbot

Research says 60% of visits to a doctor are for simple small-scale diseases, 80% of which can be diagnosed at home using simple check-up. These diseases mostly include common cold and cough, headache, abdominal pains etc. Whereas, chat-bots in healthcare are highly in demand, which functioning can offer various services from symptom checking and appointment scheduling. Therefore, the purpose of the research aims to design, develop and evaluate a health-assistant Chat-bot Application entitled “MR.Dr.” that helps users to ask any personal query related to healthcare without physically available to the hospital. MR.Dr. is evaluated in term of usability. 30 respondents attended the survey of usability evaluation. In the system usability scale MR.Dr. achieved 87.6 % rating which means Grade A (excellent). User's feedback level was pretty satisfying where 24/7 service is the highest one.

Maternal Common Cold or Fever During Pregnancy and the Risk of Orofacial Clefts in the Offspring: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

The common cold and/or an associated fever during pregnancy have/has been suspected to harm the developing fetus. We sought possible correlations between a maternal common cold or fever during pregnancy and the risk of orofacial clefts in the offspring. We systematically searched PubMed and Embase using appropriate keywords, and we checked the reference lists of retrieved articles. We used random-effects models to estimate overall relative risks. Incidence of orofacial clefts. We included 13 case-control studies. Modest but statistically significant associations were found between a maternal common cold and cleft lip with or without a cleft palate (CL/CP) (odds ratio [OR] 2.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.66–2.83) and a cleft palate only (CPO) (OR 3.08; 95% CI 1.5–6.34). Furthermore, maternal fever was also associated with an increased risk of CL/CP (OR 1.91, 95% CI 1.3–2.8) and CPO (OR 1.48, 95% CI 0.83–2.63) in the offspring. Further analyses of maternal influenza (alone) yielded similar results. Although evidence of heterogeneity should be carefully evaluated, our findings suggest that maternal common cold or fever during pregnancy may be associated with a greater risk of CL/CP or CPO in the offspring. Future cohort studies using valid assessments of maternal common cold exposure during pregnancy that consider the severity of fever are needed to clarify the contribution of maternal common cold or fever status to the risk of orofacial clefts in children.

Potential cross-protection against SARS-CoV-2 from previous exposure to bovine coronavirus

Humans have long shared infectious agents with cattle, and the common cold OC-43 CoV is a not-so-distant example of cross-species viral spillover. Human exposure to BCoV is certainly common, as the virus is endemic in cattle-raising regions. This article shows an in silico investigation of shared viral epitopes between BCoV and SARS-CoV-2. HLA recognition and lymphocyte reactivity were assessed using freely-available resources. Several epitopes were shared between BCoV and SARS-CoV-2, both for B and T lymphocytes. These data demonstrate that possible cross-protection is being induced by human exposure to cattle.

EDUKASI MANFAAT PIJAT BAYI, UPAYA MENINGKATKAN KESEHATAN PADA BAYI SELAMA MASA PANDEMI COVID-19 DI DESA TELAGAWARU LOMBOK BARAT

ABSTRAKPijat bayi merupakan upaya meningkatkan kesehatan pada bayi balita pada upaya promotif terutama pada masa pandemi covid19, Pijat merupakan terapi sentuh tertua dan terpopuler yang dikenal. Pijat bertujuan untuk menghilangkan rasa sakit dan mengembalikan tubuh menjadi segar kembali. Sentuhan pijat bayi akan merangsang produksi hormon betha endorprin yang akan membantu mekanisme pertumbuhan dan merangsang produksi hormon oksitosin dan menurunkan produksi hormon kortisol sehingga bayi dan balita menjadi rileks dan tenang sehingga perkembangannya akan lebih optimal. Selain itu pijat memiliki beberapa efek positif dalam hal penambahan berat badan, pola tidur yang lebih baik, peningkatan perkembangan neuromotorik, ikatan emosional yang lebih baik, penurunan tingkat infeksi nosokomial salah satunya common cold. Solusi permasalahan yang ditawarkan yaitu edukasi manfaat pijat bayi untuk meningkatkan kesehatan bayi selama masa pandemia Covid-19. Setelah diberikan edukasi tentang manfaat pijat bayi, ibu balita dibekali modul yang dapat dipelajari di rumah dapat mempraktikan pijat bayi di rumah. Jumlah responden yang mengikuti kegiatan ini sebanyak 11 ibu yang memiliki bayi. Hasil pengabdian didapatkan pengetahuan ibu meningkat tentang pijat bayi yaitu sebanyak 46%. Kata kunci: pijat bayi; balita; pandemi covid19 ABSTRACTBaby massage is an effort to improve the health of infants under five in promotive efforts, especially during the covid19 pandemic. Massage is the oldest and most popular touch therapy known. Massage aims to relieve pain and restore the body to be fresh again. The touch of a baby massage will stimulate the production of beta-endorphins which will help the growth mechanism and stimulate the production of the hormone oxytocin and reduce the production of the hormone cortisol so that babies and toddlers become relaxed and calm so that their development will be more optimal. In addition, massage has several positive effects in terms of weight gain, better sleep patterns, increased neuromotor development, better emotional bonds, decreased levels of nosocomial infections, one of which is the common cold. The solution to the problem offered is education on the benefits of baby massage to improve the baby's health during the Covid-19 pandemic. After being given education about the benefits of baby massage, mothers of toddlers are provided with modules that can be studied at home and can practice baby massage at home. The number of respondents who participated in this activity were 11 mothers who had babies. The results of the service showed that the mother's knowledge increased about infant massage as much as 46%. Keywords: baby massage ; toddlers; the covid pandemic 19