Articles: coronavirus.
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SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 do not appear to have functions of a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase. This is a mystery, because sugar binding activities appear essential to many other viruses including influenza and even most other coronaviruses in order to bind to and escape from the glycans (sugars, oligosaccharides or polysaccharides) characteristic of cell surfaces and saliva and mucin. The S1 N terminal Domains (S1-NTD) of the spike protein, largely responsible for the bulk of the characteristic knobs at the end of the spikes of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, are here predicted to be "hiding" sites for recognizing and binding glycans containing sialic acid. ⋯ It might even open up the possibility of an alternative receptor to ACE2. The prediction method developed, which uses amino acid residue sequence alone to predict domains or proteins that bind to sialic acids, is naïve, and will be advanced in future work. Nonetheless, it was surprising that such a very simple approach was so useful, and it can easily be reproduced in a very few lines of computer program to help make quick comparisons between SARS-CoV-2 sequences and to consider the effects of viral mutations.
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Ethics Med Public Health · Jul 2020
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Guidelines, adaptations and lessons during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented strain on the American healthcare system. Personal protective equipment (PPE) remains critical in keeping healthcare providers healthy and safe. The sudden increase in demand as well as the limited availability places increased risk on providers which may inhibit their ability to effectively manage patients. The purpose of this brief article is to review the recommended guidelines for PPE usage and compare them to how medical societies have adapted and responded to decreased supply, as well as public response.
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The biological motor behind the current coronavirus pandemic has placed microbiology on a global stage, and given its practitioners a role among the architects of recovery. Planning for a return to normality or the new normal is a complex, multi-agency task for which healthcare scientists may not be prepared. ⋯ From this flows course of action development, analysis, concept of operations development, and an eventual decision to act on the plan. The same planning technique is applicable to the larger scale task of setting a microbiology-centric plan in the broader context of social and economic recovery.
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Radiology case reports · Jul 2020
Case ReportsArterial and venous abdominal thrombosis in a 79-year-old woman with COVID-19 pneumonia.
As coronavirus pandemic continue to spread over the world, we have to be aware of potential complications on hospitalized patients. We report a case of a 79-year-old woman with COVID-19 pneumonia complicated by combined arterial and venous thrombosis of upper mesenteric vessels. As unenhanced chest CT scan plays a key role in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, we should pay attention to indirect signs of thrombosis.