Universal influenza vaccination: the time to act is now

Annual influenza epidemics create a significant public health burden each year in the United States. That influenza continues to pose a public health threat despite being largely preventable through vaccination is indicative of continuing weaknesses in the U.S.'s public health system. Moreover, the burden of annual influenza epidemics and the fragility and instability of the capacity to respond to them underscore the U.S.'s ongoing vulnerability to pandemic influenza and highlights gaps in bioterrorism preparedness and response efforts. This article examines the burden of annual influenza epidemics in the U.S., efforts to combat that burden with vaccination, shortcomings of influenza vaccination efforts, and how those shortcomings exemplify weaknesses in pandemic influenza and bioterrorism preparedness efforts. We make the case for establishing an annual universal influenza vaccination program to assure access to influenza vaccination to anyone who can safely receive vaccination and desires it. Such a program could greatly reduce the annual burden of influenza while advancing and maintaining U.S. pandemic influenza and bioterrorism preparedness and response efforts.     

mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine boosters induce neutralizing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant

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The challenge of emerging SARS-CoV-2 mutants to vaccine development

正Since the outbreak of the pandemic, waves of epidemics caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Co V-2) variants that harbor novel mutations have never paused. Globally, it undergoes rapid mutations that involve single-nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) dominantly, whereas ORF1ab and spike genes contain the most of more than 20,000 mutation sites reported within a year (Fang et al.,2021). Mutations inside spike protein are highly concerned for their potential impact on viral transmissibility and immune evasion, as spike protein is responsible for the interaction with the viral receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) to mediate viral entry to the target cells. D614G identified in early 2020 is a globally dominant mutation (Korber et al., 2020). In late 2020, several variants were reported, which had caused continental and eventually worldwide epidemics. These notable variants include B.1.1.7 lineage (501Y.V1,Variant of Concern [VOC] 202012/01), 501Y.V2 variant (known as B.1.351 lineage), and P.1 lineage (also named 501Y.V3). In comparison with the D614G and D614 lineages identified in early 2020, they contain a large number of mutations within spike protein (Fig. 1).     

Intranasal pediatric parainfluenza virus-vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is protective in monkeys

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SARS-CoV-2: Targeted managements and vaccine development

Infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) results in diverse outcomes. The symptoms appear to be more severe in males older than 65 and people with underlying health conditions; approximately one in five individuals could be at risk worldwide. The virus’s sequence was rapidly established days after the first cases were reported and identified an RNA virus from the Coronaviridae family closely related to a Betacoronavirus virus found in bats in China. SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh coronavirus known to infect humans, and with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), the only ones to cause severe diseases. Lessons from these two previous outbreaks guided the identification of critical therapeutic targets such as the spike viral proteins promoting the virus’s cellular entry through the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor expressed on the surface of multiple types of eukaryotic cells. Although several therapeutic agents are currently evaluated, none seems to provide a clear path for a cure. Also, various types of vaccines are developed in record time to address the urgency of efficient SARS-CoV-2 prevention. Currently, 58 vaccines are evaluated in clinical trials, including 11 in phase III, and 3 of them reported efficacy above 90 %. The results so far from the clinical trials suggest the availability of multiple effective vaccines within months.     

The Radiation Issue in Cardiology: the time for action is now

Background

The study was designed to evaluate whether the preserved coronary flow reserve (CFR) 72 hours after reperfused acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associated with less microvascular dysfunction and is predictive of left ventricular (LV) functional recovery and the final infarct size at follow-up.

Methods

In our study, CFR was assessed by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TDE) in 44 patients after the successful percutaneous coronary intervention during the acute AMI phase. CFR was correlated with contractile reserve assessed by low-dose dobutamine echocardiography and with the total perfusion defect measured by single-photon emission computed tomography 72 hours after reperfusion and at 5 months follow-up. The ROC analysis was performed to determine test sensitivity and specificity based on CFR. Categorical data were compared by an χ² analysis, continuous variables were analysed with the independent Student's t test. In order to analyse correlation between CFR and the parameters of LV function and perfusion, the Pearson correlation analysis was conducted. The linear regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between CFR and myocardial contractility as well as the final infarct size.

Results

We estimated the CFR cut-off value of 1.75 as providing the maximal accuracy to distinguish between patients with preserved and impaired CFR during the acute AMI phase (sensitivity 91.7%, specificity 75%). Wall motion score index was better in the subgroup with preserved CFR as compared to the subgroup with reduced CFR: 1.74 (0.29) vs. 1.89 (0.17) (p < 0.001) during the acute phase and 1.47 (0.30) vs. 1.81 (0.20) (p < 0.001) at follow-up, respectively. LV ejection fraction was 47.78% (8.99) in preserved CFR group vs. 40.79% (7.25) in impaired CFR group (p = 0.007) 72 hours after reperfusion and 49.78% (8.70) vs. 40.36% (7.90) (p = 0.001) after 5 months at follow-up, respectively. The final infarct size was smaller in patients with preserved as compared to patients with reduced CFR: 5.26% (6.14) vs. 23.28% (12.19) (p < 0.001) at follow-up.

Conclusion

The early measurement of CFR by TDE can be of high value for the assessment of successful reperfusion in AMI and can be used to predict LV functional recovery, myocardial viability and the final infarct size.     

Plant-derived VLP: a worthy platform to produce vaccine against SARS-CoV-2

Biotechnology Letters - After its emergence in late 2019 SARS-CoV-2 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020 and has claimed more than 2.8 million lives. There has...     

Fish ACE2 is not susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has reshaped our daily life and caused > 4 million deaths worldwide (https://covid19.who.int/). Although lockdown and vaccination have improved the situation in many countries, imported cases and sporadic outbreaks pose a constant stress to the prevention and control of COVID-19. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent responsible for COVID-19, has a positive-sense single-stranded RNA genome of 30 kb (Coronaviridae Study Group of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, 2020). We and other groups have demonstrated that the SARS-CoV-2 could use the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) as cell receptor, including orthologs of a broad range of animal species such as human, bats, ferrets, pigs, cats, and dogs (Hoffmann et al., 2020; Zhou et al., 2020; Liu et al., 2021). Although the evolutionary origin of SARS-CoV-2 can be linked to the discoveries of diverse coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 in wild animals such as bats (Zhou et al., 2020; Wacharapluesadee et al., 2021) and pangolins (Liu et al., 2019; Lam et al., 2020), the direct origin of SARS-CoV-2 in humans remains unknown. In China, several sporadic outbreaks of COVID-19 in 2020 were linked to food in cold chain sold at trade markets, including salmon meat (http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqtb/list_gzbd.shtml) (Yang et al., 2020). The detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on the surface of frozen meat for as long as 20 days has also been reported (Feng et al., 2021). A concern regarding the potential role of fish in SARS-CoV-2 transmission has also been raised. Therefore, we investigated the susceptibility of fish ACE2 to SARS-CoV-2.     

Complex quality traits: now time to model

A recently published dynamic peach model by Fran?oise Lescourret and Michel Génard simulates changes in quality during final stages of fruit growth. It predicts quality, emerging from complex processes and influenced by environment and management, remarkably well and describes complex emerging behaviour. The model could prove an excellent tool to integrate novel insight from metabolic profiling and pathways of taste-related compounds, ultimately enabling the analysis of gene networks responsible for fruit maturation processes.