Detection Of Coronavirus RNA Research Articles

One of the possibilities of optimizing the therapy of a new coronavirus infection in children with the inclusion of an extract from marshmallow root, chamomile flowers, horsetail grass, walnut leaves, yarrow grass, oak bark and dandelion grass: prospective open comparative cohort study

Background. The issue of acute respiratory infections in children remains one of the most urgent. Therefore, in the pandemic due to the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the search for effective treatment regimens for this disease is necessary.
 Aim. To compare the change of clinical symptoms, terms of virus elimination and disease-related economic cost as well as utilization of outpatient healthcare services in children with new coronavirus infection using the herbal medicine Tonsilgon N, oral solution, added to standard therapy.
 Materials and methods. A prospective open comparative cohort study of the effectiveness of coronavirus infection treatment in children using the standard of care alone and the standard of care with Tonsilgon N was conducted. Group 1 children (n=720) received the standard therapy for COVID-19 and Tonsilgon N oral solution for 10 days, and group 2 patients (n=670) only received the standard therapy for COVID-19. Treatment efficacy was evaluated according to the change of clinical symptoms in the observed patients, the results of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus RNA detection in nasopharyngeal smears by polymerase chain reaction, the utilization of healthcare services, temporary disability of parents, the economic cost of the disease.
 Results. Studied patients of both groups had a typical clinical presentation of mild to moderate severity new coronavirus infection. Fatigue (96.599.7%) and sore throat (93.893.9%) were the most frequent symptoms. Posterior pharynx hyperemia was noted slightly less frequently. Low-grade fever was noted in 85.786.6% of the patients, equally often in patients of both groups. The significant therapeutic effect of the herbal medicine containing extract of marshmallow root, chamomile flowers, horsetail herb, walnut leaf, yarrow herb, oak bark, and dandelion herb includes reducing the time of sore throat relief in 93.2% of main group patients. After 10 days of treatment, sore throat persisted only in 6.8% of group 1 and 68.1% of group 2 patients (p=0.0001). These results indicate that Tonsilgon combined with standard of care is a promising way to improve the quality of life of children with the new coronavirus infection. The addition of Tonsilgon in therapy for new coronavirus infection in children shortens the time of acute inflammation resolution and reduces the duration of inflammatory intoxication. The therapy of new coronavirus infection under the provisional guidelines leads to a reduction in the time for clinical recovery and virus elimination in children and adolescents (p=0.0001) and a decrease in the utilization of outpatient healthcare services are observed: 3/4 of Group 1 patients and 1/2 of Group 2 patients (p=0.0001) applied for medical help twice during the observation period, 14.6% of Group 1 patients and 29.1% of Group 2 parents applied for medical help more than 3 times (p=0.0001). Thus, the direct and indirect economic costs of the disease decreased. The lower economic cost for parents of children in Group 1 was due to less need for medication and a lower reduction in family income due to temporary disability compared to those for parents in Group 2 (p=0.0001). No treatment-related adverse events was reported.
 Conclusion. The above data indicate that Tonsilgon therapy is an affordable way to optimize the treatment of new coronavirus infection in children.

Clinical and morphological characteristics of COVID-19-associated myocarditis

Abstract Background COVID-19 is accompanied by the development of a wide range of cardiovascular lesions. The goal: to study the clinical and morphological features of SARS-CoV-2-associated myocarditis (SCM), determining the presence of viral RNA and proteins in myocardial tissue. Methods The study was based on 32 autopsies with a confirmed diagnosis of myocarditis. The average age of the patients was 72.7±15.5 years. Men predominated in the group (53%). The immunohistochemical determination of the surface markers of CD45, CD3, CD20, CD 68 inflammatory infiltrates and SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid and spike protein has been done. Detection of coronavirus RNA was performed. Results The clinical manifestations SCM included heart failure and variety of rhythm disturbances. Increased level of anticardiac antibodies was detected. Lymphomacrophage infiltrates (more than 7 CD3+ T-lymphocytes, more than 14 CD45+ lymphocytes and more than 7 CD68+ macrophages per 1 mm2) were found in 100% of cases. RNA of the virus was detected in myocardial tissue. Virus proteins were identified in macrophages of the inflammatory infiltrate and cardiomyocytes. Conclusion The results suggest persistence of the virus in the myocardium and the development of chronic myocarditis. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research

HLA class I antigen serves as a receptor for human coronavirus OC43.

Human coronaviruses are associated with acute respiratory and enteric disease in man as such their target cells are probably the epithelial cells lining the respiratory and enteric tract. Attachment of virus to specific receptors on the cell surface is a major determinant of virus tropism in pathogenesis (1). Recently, aminopeptidase-N was identified as a cell receptor for the 229e coronavirus (2). Cell receptor(s) for OC43 coronavirus have not been identified. However, it is of pathologic significance that OC43 virus shares DNA sequence homology with the two coronavirus isolates, SK and SD, from the brain of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) (3). Probing MS and control brain with probes specific for human, murine, porcine and bovine coronavirus by in situ hybridization resulted in the detection of coronavirus RNA in 12 of 22 MS brain samples; five of which were positive with the OC43 probe (4). A study of virus-ligand interactions of OC43 with human rhabdomyosarcoma (RD) cells, which are highly susceptible to virus infection, was undertaken to identify possible cell receptors. The binding of virus collected from the supernatant of infected cells to cell proteins immobilized on nitrocellulose paper was used to screen for virus-ligand interactions. The next step was the identification or development of antibodies to each of the ligands, and to test their ability to blockade receptor activity by culturing infected cells in medium containing the ligand antibodies and measuring the effect on virus yield. The preliminary experiments reported here reveal an interesting observation of strong affinity of OC43 virus for the HLA class I antigen.