Articles: covid-19.
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Neuropsych Dis Treat · Jan 2020
ReviewTelepsychiatry in the Arab World: A Viewpoint Before and During COVID-19.
Telepsychiatry, a subset of telemedicine, has been increasingly studied to meet the growing demands for psychiatric care. The utility of telepsychiatry is relevant now more than ever as the world endures the COVID-19 global pandemic. This paper describes the prior state and the changes that the COVID-19 outbreak brought to telepsychiatry in a selected group of Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. ⋯ The use of digital mental health services varies between different Arab countries. Even though some nations have laws that regulate the provision of such services, most struggle with multifactorial barriers. As affordable and attainable solutions cannot only rely on training and recruiting more psychiatrists, telepsychiatry would help meet the exceeding demands in the Arab world, particularly after the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Frontiers in immunology · Jan 2020
ReviewInnate Immune Responses to Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses and Other Significant Respiratory Viral Infections.
The new pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 emerged in China and spread around the world in <3 months, infecting millions of people, and causing countries to shut down public life and businesses. Nearly all nations were unprepared for this pandemic with healthcare systems stretched to their limits due to the lack of an effective vaccine and treatment. Infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). ⋯ Details regarding mechanisms of viral entry via the respiratory system and immune system correlates of protection or pathogenesis have not been fully elucidated. Here, we provide an overview of the innate immune responses in the lung to the coronaviruses MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2. This review provides insight into key innate immune mechanisms that will aid in the development of therapeutics and preventive vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
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Frontiers in immunology · Jan 2020
ReviewMitigating Coronavirus Induced Dysfunctional Immunity for At-Risk Populations in COVID-19: Trained Immunity, BCG and "New Old Friends".
The novel, highly contagious coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 spreads rapidly throughout the world, leading to a deadly pandemic of a predominantly respiratory illness called COVID-19. Safe and effective anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are urgently needed. ⋯ Animal data from earlier coronavirus vaccine efforts indicate that elderly people, most at risk from severe COVID-19 disease, could be especially at risk from immunopathologic responses to novel coronavirus vaccines. Bacterial "new old friends" such as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) or Mycobacterium obuense have the ability to elevate basal systemic levels of type 1 cytokines and immune cells, correlating with increased protection against diverse and unrelated infectious agents, called "trained immunity." Here we describe dysfunctional immune responses induced by coronaviruses, representing potentially difficult to overcome obstacles to safe, effective vaccine development for COVID-19, and outline how trained immunity could help protect high risk populations through immunomodulation with BCG and other "new old friends."
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Neuroimmunomodulation · Jan 2020
ReviewHyperinflammation and Immune Response Generation in COVID-19.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide. The pathophysiology of this virus is not very clearly known, thus, enormous efforts are being made by the scientific community to delineate its evading mechanism. ⋯ The inflammatory response generated after infection by increased proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and complement proteins activation may likely contribute to disease severity. We also discussed the other factors that may affect immunity and could be important comorbidities in the disease severity and outcome.
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Frontiers in microbiology · Jan 2020
ReviewTherapeutic Strategies Against COVID-19 and Structural Characterization of SARS-CoV-2: A Review.
The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, or 2019-nCoV, which originated in Wuhan, Hubei province, China in December 2019, is a grave threat to public health worldwide. A total of 3,672,238 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 254,045 deaths were reported globally up to May 7, 2020. However, approved antiviral agents for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 remain unavailable. ⋯ A combination of repurposed drugs can improve the efficacy of treatment, and structure-based drug design can be employed to specifically target SARS-CoV-2. This review discusses therapeutic strategies using promising antiviral agents against SARS-CoV-2. In addition, structural characterization of potentially therapeutic viral or host cellular targets associated with COVID-19 have been discussed to refine structure-based drug design strategies.