Result for
Topic: Testing and Treatment
April 30, 2020
Cotton tipped plastic swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR diagnosis to prevent supplies shortage
Freire-Paspuel et al. validated nasopharyngeal sampling for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis using inexpensive and easily available cotton-tipped plastic swabs with no inhibition effect over PCR reaction instead of plastic synthetic fiber tipped rayon swabs (gold standard by CDC) and found a total agreement among swabs (n=33 positives and n=11 negatives). These results suggest that cotton-tipped swabs could…
Effect of Convalescent Plasma Therapy on Viral Shedding and Survival in COVID-19 Patients
This retrospective, observational study from COVID-19 patients (n=6 treated and n=15 controls) in 2 Chinese hospitals found that all patients treated with convalescent plasma (CP) achieved viral clearance following treatment; however, there was no evidence that CP reduced mortality in critically end-stage patients. Zeng et al. (Apr 29, 2020). Effect of Convalescent Plasma Therapy on…
Poolkeh finds the optimal pooling strategy for a population-wide COVID-19 testing (Israel, UK, and US as test cases)
This study presents a data-driven tool (Poolkeh) to allow decision-makers to assess the spread of virus among the world population. This online tool allows users to develop an optimal scheme to pool tests for an entire population based on COVID-19 prevalence in the test population and the sensitivity of the test being used. Eliaz et…
Modelling of Systemic versus Pulmonary Chloroquine Exposure in Man for COVID-19 Dose Selection
This study explores the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) relationship of chloroquine (CQ) for COVID-19 by modeling both achievable systemic and pulmonary drug concentrations. CQ is unlikely to achieve systemic levels that would exert meaningful anti-viral activity given its in-vitro pharmacodynamics profile. However, if lung exposure is the driver for CQ’s activity, the simulations shows that currently suggested…
Successful manufacturing of clinical-grade SARS-CoV-2 specific T Cells for adoptive cell therapy
Leung et al. demonstrate that clinical-grade SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells can be isolated from the blood of convalescent donors rapidly and efficiently using SARS-CoV-2 specific peptides and an automated medical device expedient for emergent treatment of severe COVID-19 disease until effective vaccines or treatment are developed. Leung et al. (Apr 30, 2020). Successful manufacturing of…
April 29, 2020
Role of Drugs Affecting the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System on Susceptibility and Severity of COVID-19: A Large Case-Control Study from Zheijang Province, China
Medical editorials have suggested limited use of ACEI and ARBs in people with arterial hypertension during the COVID-19 pandemic because of increased risk of worse clinical outcomes and that calcium channel blockers (CCBs) should be used as an alternative. Using a cohort of 610 COVID-19 cases and 48,667 population-based controls from Zheijang, China, Yan et…
Explanable- by-design approach for COVID-19 classification via CT-scan
This paper presents a new eXplainable Deep Learning (XDL) approach to detect COVID-19 from CT. The authors suggest this new approach is more sensitive and the performance surpasses other state-of-the-art approaches such as the baseline Deep Neural Network approach. It produce highly interpretable results which may be helpful for the early detection of the disease…
First detection of SARS-COV-2 in untreated wastewaters in Italy
Several studies support use of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) to assess viruses circulating in a given community. Rosa et al tested twelve influent sewage samples from Wastewater Treatment Plants collected in high (Milan) and low (Rome) epidemic circulation in Italy, reporting that 6 out of 12 samples tested positive. This study further supports potential use of…
April 28, 2020
Long period dynamics of viral load and antibodies for SARS-CoV-2 infection: an observational cohort study
This retrospective observational case series of 33 patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia reviewed analysis of throat swabs, sputum, stool, and blood samples to evaluate viral load, IgM, IgG, spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD), and nucleocapsid. Results suggest that viral RNA persists in sputum and stool samples for a long time, and that anti-RBD may serve…
The effect of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers on death and severity of disease in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): A meta-analysis
This meta-analysis includes five studies totaling 308 patients either taking or not taking angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB). Patients on ACEi/ARB showed a 44% reduction in odds of developing severe disease and a 62% reduction in odds of death when compared to patients not on ACEi/ARB. The authors conclude that…
Previous page Next page