Clinical characteristics,risk factors,and rate of severity of a nationwide COVID-19 Saudi cohort

ObjectiveTo evaluate COVID19 patients’ clinical characteristics, risk factors, and COVID-19 severity at baseline and over one month following hospitalization.Design, setting, and participantsThis prospective cohort study of 598 Saudi COVID19 patients recruited from 4 major medical institutions nationwide between June 01, 2020, and February 28, 2021. Patients were stratified into different demographic characteristics and COVID-19 severity scale.ResultsOf the 598 hospitalized adult COVID19 patients (mean [range] age, 57 [46 to 65] years; 59% male), 300 (50.16%) had severe clinical COVID-19. Comorbidity was high among hospitalized patients (73.5 %), with diabetes mellitus (n=; 46%) and hypertension (n=; 41%) being the most common prevalent. In a multivariate logistic regression model, patient demographics and clinical factors such as age (odds ratio [OR], 1.014 per year; 95% CI, 1.003–1.025), male sex (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.02–2.62), diabetes mellitus (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.06–2.49), obesity (OR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.26–2.94), oxygen saturation<92% (OR, 4.83; 95% CI, 2.96–7.86), and high neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (OR, 3.74 per unit; 95% CI, 1.96–7.14) were independently associated with higher COVID-19 severity. Moreover, more than 60% of male patients and middle-aged patients (40–60 years) were associated with the use of COVID-19 medications, including favipiravir and dexamethasone, during their hospital stay. Additionally, the rate of invasive mechanical ventilation was the highest in female patients (61.5%) and in middle-aged patients (46.2%). However, the death rate was slightly higher in males (56%) than in female patients and in elderly patients (52%). In Cox proportional analysis, age associated with increased risk of 60-days mortality (Hazard ratio; HR, 1.05 per year; 95% CI, 1.018–1.098). Additionally, the Riyadh region associated with more COVID-19 cases required invasive respiratory support (57.7%) and Jeddah was associated with more deceased COVID-19 cases (44%).ConclusionsThe data shows that comorbidity is associated with hospitalization among COVID-19 patients, which indicates the level of severity. Infection during the winter season (November), male gender, elderly, and those with pre-existing diabetes mellitus or obesity were associated with higher COVID-19 clinical severity.     

Review: SARS-CoV-2 infection in farmed minks – an overview of current knowledge on occurrence,disease and epidemiology

Coronaviruses (CoVs), which are enveloped, positive-sense RNA viruses, may cause infections in mammals and birds. Apart from the respiratory manifestations, CoVs are also responsible for infections of the gastrointestinal tract and nervous systems. Their propensity to recombine allows them to easily transmit and adapt to new hosts. The emergence of a new CoV in humans, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is attributed to a zoonotic origin, has provoked numerous studies to assess its pathogenicity for different animal species (pets, farm and wild animals). Available results indicate that numerous animal species are susceptible to infection with SARS-CoV-2. From April 2020, when the first SARS-CoV-2 infection in minks was reported in the Netherlands, to the end of January 2021, further outbreaks have been confirmed in Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the United States, Greece, France, Canada, Lithuania and Poland. It has also been established that human-to-minks and minks-to-human transmission may occur. The results obtained to date indicate that the virus was originally introduced into the minks population by humans, possibly at the start of the pandemic and had been circulating in the population for several weeks before detection. Recent data indicate that minks are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, but the route or routes of virus transmission between farms, other than by direct contact with infected humans, have not been identified. In minks, infection can occur in clinical and subclinical form, making it possibly difficult to detect. Therefore, minks could represent potentially dangerous, not always recognized, animal reservoir for SARS-CoV-2. The current data indicate that further studies on minks and other Mustelidae are needed to clarify whether they may be a potential reservoir for SARS-CoV-2, and if so, how and whether this can be prevented.     

Is COVID-19 receiving ADE from other coronaviruses?

One of the most perplexing questions regarding the current COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic is the discrepancy between the severity of cases observed in the Hubei province of China and those occurring elsewhere in the world. One possible answer is antibody dependent enhancement (ADE) of SARS-CoV-2 due to prior exposure to other coronaviruses. ADE modulates the immune response and can elicit sustained inflammation, lymphopenia, and/or cytokine storm, one or all of which have been documented in severe cases and deaths. ADE also requires prior exposure to similar antigenic epitopes, presumably circulating in local viruses, making it a possible explanation for the observed geographic limitation of severe cases and deaths.     

The frequency of middle phalangeal hair in Saudi Arabia.

Middle phalangeal hair was found to be present in 71% if Saudi Arabian males. For those exhibiting this trait, the frequency of combinations of digits with hair was similar to the frequency in other populations.     

基于专利的冠状病毒技术发展分析

新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)是目前已知的第7种可以感染人的冠状病毒,尚无用于预防和治疗的药物。本文以全球人类冠状病毒的技术专利为研究对象,采用专利分析和文本挖掘的方法,分析了专利的技术发展趋势和技术分布特点,梳理了关键技术的最新发展动向,以期为SARS-CoV-2检测技术、药物筛选、疫苗及抗体研发提供参考。     

EMBOSS软件包序列分析程序应用实例

本文介绍欧洲分子生物学开放软件包EMBOSS序列分析程序应用实例.第1节简单介绍EMBOSS软件包的概况和基本用法.第2节介绍格式转换、序列提取、序列变换和序列显示等常用序列处理程序.第3节介绍序列比对程序,包括双序列比对、多序列比对和点阵图程序.第4节介绍常用核酸序列分析程序,可用于核苷酸组分统计、开放读码框分析、C...     

Anostracans in dark sections of Saudi Arabian caves

Anostracans were found living in ephemeral pools in the dark sections of three caves on the As Summan Plateau in Saudi Arabia. Branchipus schaefferi Fischer, 1834 occurred alone in one while it cohabited with Streptocephalus torvicornisbucheti Daday, 1910 in a second cave; fairy shrimps were observed but not collected from the third. None of the specimens demonstrated any of the types of morphological changes typically associated with cave adapted species. This is likely due to continuing colonization of the pools during flooding events. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

COVID-19确诊病例居住环境病毒检测结果分析及防控探讨

新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)传播速度快、感染范围广,其感染方式主要是聚集性感染,感染途径主要是呼吸道飞沫和接触传播。了解环境中,特别是COVID-19确诊病人生活环境中的病毒存在情况,是做好环境消毒,阻断新型冠状病毒(SARS-CoV-2)传播的重要步骤,对COVID-19防控具有重要意义。本研究旨在探讨COVID-19患者生活环境中SARS-CoV-2的存在情况,从SARS-CoV-2存在的空间部位、病毒核酸含量、消毒效果等方面对SARS-CoV-2的相关特点做出初步研究,为制定有效的SARS-CoV-2防控措施提供科学依据。本研究以COVID-19病例治疗前的3个家庭居住环境和治疗出院后隔离期间的2个宾馆居住环境中采集的样本为研究材料,采用RT-PCR方法检测样本中的SARS-CoV-2核酸并进行比较分析。结果显示,首次从3个家庭环境中采样48份,RTPCR检测SARS-CoV-2核酸阳性5份(10.42%),3个家庭的环境样本中均有阳性样本检出。首次采样48h后在家庭3进行第二次采样16份,SARS-CoV-2核酸检测阳性2份(12.5%),检测Ct值比首次升高。家庭3消毒后24h采集的16份样本SARS-CoV-2核酸检测均为阴性,并且两处宾馆环境采集的24份样本SARS-CoV-2核酸检测也均为阴性。本研究提示,COVID-19病例的生活环境中可以检出SARS-CoV-2,病毒存在区域、存在物品、病毒核酸含量均有差异;对外环境进行消毒可以达到消毒目的,能够起到阻断SARS-CoV-2传播的防控效果。     

The evolution fo rhodopsins and neurotransmitter receptors

Summary Rhodopsins share a limited number of amino acid identities with a variety of other integral membrane proteins. Most of these proteins have seven putative transmembrane segments and are likely to play a role in transmembrane signaling. We have undertaken a systematic series of comparisons of primary and secondary structure in order to clarify the functional and evolutionary significance of these sequence similarities. On the basis of consistently high similarity scores, we find that the most internally consistent definition of the rhodopsis gene family would ionclude vertebrate rhodospins, - and -adrenergic receptors, M1 and M2 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, substance K receptors and insect rhodopsins, while excluding bacterirhodopsin, themas human oncogene, vertebrate and insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and the yeast STE2 and STE3 peptide receptors. The rhodopsin gene family is highly diverged at the primary sequence level but has maintained a conserved secondary structure, including a previosuly unidentified hierarchy of transmembrane segment hydrophobicity. We have deevelope new computer alogithms for progressive multiple sequence alignment and the analysis of local conservation of protein domains, and we have used these algorithms to examined the phylogeny of the rhodopsin gene family and the changing domains of sequence conservation. The results show striking diffiierences and similarities in the conserved domains in each of the three main branches of the rhodopsin gene family, and indicte that color vision arose independently in the lines of descent leading to modern humans and fruit flies.