Wood's lamp examination of hair and nails related to COVID-19 treatment.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Demir B
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8646932 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:BackgroundHepatitis B virus (HBV) is detected in extrahepatic tissues of individuals with HBV infection. Whether nails and hair contain HBV has been unknown.MethodsWe examined two patient groups: those with chronic HBV infection alone (n = 71), and those with both chronic HBV and hepatitis delta virus (HDV) infections (n = 15). HBV DNA in the patients' fingernails and hair were measured by real-time PCR. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) of fingernails was evaluated by an enzyme immunoassay. HDV RNA in fingernails was measured by real-time PCR. Immunochemical staining was performed on nails. We used chimeric mice with humanized livers to evaluate the infectivity of nails.ResultsOf the 71 pairs of HBV-alone nail and hair samples, 70 (99%) nail and 60 (85%) hair samples were positive for β-actin DNA. Of those 70 nail samples, 65 (93%) were HBV DNA-positive. Of the 60 hair samples, 49 (82%) were HBV DNA-positive. The serum HBV DNA level of the nail HBV DNA-positive patients was significantly higher than that of the nail HBV DNA-negative patients (p < 0.001). The hair HBV DNA-positive patients' serum HBV DNA level was significantly higher compared to the hair HBV DNA-negative patients (p < 0.001). The nail HBV DNA level was significantly higher than the hair HBV DNA level (p < 0.001). The nails and hair HBV DNA levels were correlated (r = 0.325, p < 0.05). A phylogenetic tree analysis of the complete genome sequence of HBV isolated from nails and hair identified the infection source. Of the 64 nail samples, 38 (59%) were HBsAg-positive. All 15 pairs of chronic HBV/HDV infection nail and hair samples were β-actin DNA-positive. However, nail HBV DNA was detected in two patients (13%). None of the 15 patients were positive for hair HBV DNA. Nail HDV RNA was detected in three patients (20%). Of the 15 patients, eight (53%) were nail HBsAg-positive. HBsAg and hepatitis delta (HD) antigen were detected in the nails by immunochemical staining. Chimeric mice were not infected with PBS containing HBsAg and HBV DNA elucidated from nails.ConclusionsNails and hair were the reservoir of HBV DNA. Moreover, nails can contain HBsAg, HDV RNA, and HD antigen.
| S-EPMC9066816 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST563 | biostudies-other
Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic remains an immediate and present concern, yet as of now there is still no approved therapeutic available for the treatment of COVID-19.This study aimed to investigate and report evidence concerning demographic characteristics and currently-used medications that contribute to the ultimate outcomes of COVID-19 ICU patients.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted among all COVID-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Asir Central Hospital in Saudi Arabia between the 1st and 30th of June 2020. Data extracted from patients' medical records included their demographics, home medications, medications used to treat COVID-19, treatment durations, ICU stay, hospital stay, and ultimate outcome (recovery or death).Descriptive statistics and regression modelling were used to analyze and compare the results. The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committees at both Asir Central Hospital and King Khalid University.ResultsA total of 118 patients with median age of 57 years having definite clinical and disease outcomes were included in the study. Male patients accounted for 87% of the study population, and more than 65% experienced at least one comorbidity. The mean hospital and ICU stay was 11.4 and 9.8 days, respectively. The most common drugs used were tocilizumab (31.4%), triple combination therapy (45.8%), favipiravir (56.8%), dexamethasone (86.7%), and enoxaparin (83%). Treatment with enoxaparin significantly reduced the length of ICU stay (p = 0.04) and was found to be associated with mortality reduction in patients aged 50-75 (p = 0.03), whereas the triple regimen therapy and tocilizumab significantly increased the length of ICU stay in all patients (p = 0.01, p = 0.02 respectively).ConclusionCOVID-19 tends to affect males more significantly than females. The use of enoxaparin is an important part of COVID-19 treatment, especially for those above 50 years of age, while the use of triple combination therapy and tocilizumab in COVID-19 protocols should be reevaluated and restricted to patients who have high likelihood of benefit.
| S-EPMC8401211 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Bat sarbecovirus BANAL-236 is highly related to SARS-CoV-2 and infects human cells, albeit lacking the furin cleavage site in its spike protein. BANAL-236 replicates efficiently and pauci-symptomatically in humanized mice and in macaques, where its tropism is enteric, strongly differing from that of SARS-CoV-2. BANAL-236 infection leads to protection against superinfection by a virulent strain. We find no evidence of antibodies recognizing bat sarbecoviruses in populations in close contact with bats in which the virus was identified, indicating that such spillover infections, if they occur, are rare. Six passages in humanized mice or in human intestinal cells, mimicking putative early spillover events, select adaptive mutations without appearance of a furin cleavage site and no change in virulence. Therefore, acquisition of a furin site in the spike protein is likely a pre-spillover event that did not occur upon replication of a SARS-CoV-2-like bat virus in humans or other animals. Other hypotheses regarding the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 should therefore be evaluated, including the presence of sarbecoviruses carrying a spike with a furin cleavage site in bats.
| S-SCDT-10_15252-EMBR_202256055 | biostudies-other
Project description:The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has infected millions of people around the globe. The outbreak caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) poses a great health risk to the public. Therefore, rapid and accurate diagnosis of the virus plays a crucial role in treatment of the disease and saving lives. The current standard method for coronavirus detection is the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. However, laboratory-based RT-PCR test for SARS-COV-2 requires complex facilities and elaborate training of operators, thus suffering from limit testing capacity and delayed results. Consequently, isothermal PCR such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been emerging as a great alternative to the RT-PCR method. LAMP possesses some fundamental advantages such as amplification at a constant temperature, exclusion of a thermal cycler, a faster test result, and potentially a larger diagnostic capacity, while maintaining similar sensitivity and specificity, thus making it more suitable than the RT-PCR for monitoring a pandemic. Starting with a brief introduction of the working principle of LAMP method, this review summarizes recent progress in LAMP-enabled SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA detection. Lastly, future research directions are discussed. This critical review will motivate biosensor community in furthering the present research, which may pave the road for rapid and large-scale screening of SARS-CoV-2.
| S-EPMC7428436 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Frequent testing of large population groups combined with contact tracing and isolation measures will be crucial for containing Coronavirus Disease 2019 outbreaks. Here we present LAMP-Seq, a modified, highly scalable reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) method. Unpurified biosamples are barcoded and amplified in a single heat step, and pooled products are analyzed en masse by sequencing. Using commercial reagents, LAMP-Seq has a limit of detection of ~2.2 molecules per µl at 95% confidence and near-perfect specificity for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 given its sequence readout. Clinical validation of an open-source protocol with 676 swab samples, 98 of which were deemed positive by standard RT-qPCR, demonstrated 100% sensitivity in individuals with cycle threshold values of up to 33 and a specificity of 99.7%, at a very low material cost. With a time-to-result of fewer than 24 h, low cost and little new infrastructure requirement, LAMP-Seq can be readily deployed for frequent testing as part of an integrated public health surveillance program.
| S-EPMC8678193 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST416 | biostudies-other
Project description:Differentially expressed genes in the skin tissue of newborn Hu sheep were screened using an Agilent gene chip and RT-PCR. Differential expression analysis revealed 3 groups of large waves and small waves; 1067, 2071, and 3879 differentially expressed genes; and 137 genes common to all 3 groups. Differentially expressed genes were classified using gene ontology. They were found to be mainly involved in cell differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis, growth, immune response, and ion transport. RT-PCR results of 4 differentially expressed genes were consistent with gene chip results. Combined with related literature, our results suggest that BMP7, MMP2, SNAI1, SFXN1, CDKNIC, MT3, and POU1F1 may have important effects on the formation of large-wave and small-wave hair follicles. The samples collected with three full-sib individual and they borned at two days, what's more they were from the same paternal, each pair of big wave and small wave individuals from the same female parent.
2013-03-26 | E-GEOD-45501 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:A multicenter Italian retrospective study on COVID-19 pandemic condition and advanced Gastro - Intestinal Cancer.
Are in Italy increased the new diagnosis of GI cancer in advanced stage in the 2020 compared with 2019, as a consequence of COVID-19?
| 2362155 | ecrin-mdr-crc
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC7154570 | biostudies-literature