Screening of Natural Antivirals Against the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Compilation of Updates

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), named by WHO, is a real public health disaster of the third millennium. This highly contagious viral disease has infected the world population and is now a global pandemic. This acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) has severe complica-tions like pneumonitis, respiratory failure, shock, multiorgan failure, and death. Well-defined FDA-approved synthetic is not yet available. Case management strategies like lockdown, use of masks and sanitizers, social distancing, and repurposing of antiviral drugs were initially undertaken to cope with this pandemic. Different broad-spectrum antiviral drugs are being repurposed as one of the treatment modalities. The global vaccination programme with the newly launched COVID-19 vac-cines, Covishield, covaxin, sputnik V, etc., is an ongoing process. Simultaneously, significant research is being carried out in search of natural antivirals and evaluating the potency of food bioac-tives to aid naturistic protection against the coronavirus. This mini-review has compiled the latest updates on the screening and evidence-based mechanistic evaluation of phytochemicals and food bioactives as non-pharmacological adjuvant aid in COVID pandemics.Copyright © 2023 Bentham Science Publishers.

COVID-19 and Acute Kidney Injury - Direct and Indirect Pathophysiological Mechanisms Underlying Lesion Development.

COVID-19 is a pandemic disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. Although the respiratory system is the main target of COVID-19, the disease can affect other organs, including the kidneys. Acute Kidney Injury (AKI), commonly seen in patients infected with COVID-19, has a multifactorial cause. Several studies associate this injury with the direct involvement of the virus in renal cells and the indirect damage stimulated by the infection. The direct cytopathic effects of SARS-CoV-2 are due to the entry and replication of the virus in renal cells, changing several regulatory pathways, especially the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), with repercussions on the kallikrein-kinin system (KKS). Furthermore, the virus can deregulate the immune system, leading to an exaggerated response of inflammatory cells, characterizing the state of hypercytokinemia. The such exaggerated inflammatory response is commonly associated with hemodynamic changes, reduced renal perfusion, tissue hypoxia, generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), endothelial damage, and coagulopathies, which can result in severe damage to the renal parenchyma. Thereby, understanding the molecular mechanisms and pathophysiology of kidney injuries induced by SARS-COV-2 is of fundamental importance to obtaining new therapeutic insights for the prevention and management of AKI.

Physician Perspectives on Telemedicine Implementation in Radiation Oncology

Background: The use of telemedicine in radiation oncology increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. While prior surveys suggest high levels of satisfaction with telemedicine among radiation oncologists, the published literature is limited regarding provider-specific factors impacting satisfaction and provider preferences regarding how telemedicine is implemented. Objective(s): To assess provider characteristics associated with satisfaction and perceived adoption of telemedicine in radiation oncology, and to characterize implementation preferences of providers at our institution. Method(s): We distributed a survey to all attending radiation oncologists at our large academic institution in October 2021 to assess several measures of satisfaction with telemedicine. We also asked providers to estimate metrics suggestive of successful telemedicine use. Univariate logistic regressions were performed to assess the role of physician characteristics (including age, gender, years in practice, main vs satellite location, disease site treated, annual new patient volume, and selfreported comfort with technology) on satisfaction and on whether physicians reported telemedicine was easy to use. We also performed descriptive statistics to characterize provider-estimated time-savings and training preferences. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to assess whether provider characteristics or scheduling strategy (telemedicine scheduled separately from in-person visits) were associated with the rate of missed video visits. Result(s): A total of 60 of 82 eligible radiation oncologists (73%) responded to the survey. 78% of respondents were satisfied with telemedicine in the radiation oncology department and 78% felt telemedicine was easy to use. None of the tested factors on univariate analysis were statistically significant predictors for these outcomes. 38% of providers believed telemedicine encounters resulted in time savings of at least 10% compared to in-person visits, while 20% of providers reported virtual encounters took at least 10% more time. A median (IQR) of 10% (5%-20%) of video visits were estimated to be missed, and none of the tested provider characteristics or scheduling preferences were associated with a significantly greater proportion of missed visits. 78% of respondents reported having adequate training and support to perform telemedicine. Text, video, and private instruction were nearly equally preferred training modalities (31%, 31%, 34% respectively). Conclusion(s): Nearly 80% of surveyed radiation oncologists were satisfied with telemedicine, felt it was easy to use, and reported adequate training and support to perform telemedicine. In this highly technologically advanced field, age and years in practice were not significantly associated with satisfaction or self-reported success rates with telemedicine. Future directions include addressing actionable concerns and correlating these findings with patient impressions.

Physician Perspectives on Telemedicine in Radiation Oncology

Telemedicine enthusiasm and uptake in radiation oncology rapidly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is unclear if and how telemedicine should be utilized after the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends. Despite ongoing COVID-19 risks and public payer support for telemedicine, several private payers have stopped reimbursing telemedicine weekly see video visits. We performed a large single-institution assessment of provider perspectives on telemedicine after we had achieved a more mature level of adoption to better understand factors considered when determining to use telemedicine and to estimate the percent of visits that could be safely performed with telemedicine. We distributed a survey to all radiation oncology attendings at our large academic institution in October 2021 to assess satisfaction, facilitators, and barriers to telemedicine implementation. We performed quantitative and qualitative analyses to characterize satisfaction and to identify factors influencing whether telemedicine is employed. For the qualitative analysis, two authors independently coded open-ended survey responses and identified categories and themes following established content analysis methodology. We calculated the average proportion of visits that providers expected could be appropriately performed with telemedicine without a clinically significant decline in the quality of care for each disease site and visit type. 60 of 82 eligible radiation oncologists (73%) responded to the survey. 78% of respondents were satisfied with telemedicine in the radiation oncology department, and 83% wished to continue offering video visits after the COVID-19 PHE ends. Common reasons providers endorsed for wanting to integrate telemedicine into practice included: patient and provider preference, increased access to care and clinical trials, allowing for greater relationship with the care team, and improved clinical safety, efficiency, and quality. Patient factors influencing whether physicians offer telemedicine included the patient's travel burden, patient preferences, and whether a physical exam is required. About 20% of new consultations and 50% of weekly management visits were estimated to be clinically appropriate for telemedicine. Central Nervous System/Pediatrics and Thoracic faculty considered telemedicine appropriate for the greatest proportion (50%) of new consultations. 93% of respondents felt comfortable determining whether telemedicine was appropriate. Surveyed radiation oncologists were satisfied with telemedicine in their practice and wished to continue offering video visits in the future. Although provider perceptions of clinical appropriateness of telemedicine varied widely based on disease site and visit type, providers felt comfortable determining when telemedicine would be appropriate for patients. Our data suggest payers should continue to support this patient-centered technology. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics is the property of Pergamon Press - An Imprint of Elsevier Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Retrospective Cohort Study of COVID-19 in Patients of the Brazilian Public Health System with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant Infection.

Several vaccines against COVID-19 are now available, based on different techniques and made by different laboratories spread around the world. With the roll out of the vaccination process in an advanced stage in many countries, the reduced risk of hospitalization due to the Omicron variant relative to the Delta variant infection, despite the higher transmission risk of Omicron, may lead to a misinterpretation of the results, as infection by Omicron is associated with a significant reduction in severe outcomes and shorter hospitalization time than the Delta variant. We compared the in-hospital mortality due to the Omicron (Jan-Mar 2022) with Gamma (Jan 2021) and Delta (Oct-Dec 2021) variants of patients in the Brazilian public health system. This study also discusses the decrease in booster vaccine effectiveness in patients hospitalized due to the Omicron variant compared with the Delta variant. Without a remodeling of vaccines for new variants, booster doses may be necessary with a shorter time interval.

Tracking the turnover of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs Gamma to Delta in a Brazilian state (Minas Gerais) with a high-vaccination status.

The emergence and global dissemination of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants of concern (VOCs) have been described as the main factor driving the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. In Brazil, the Gamma variant dominated the epidemiological scenario during the first period of 2021. Many Brazilian regions detected the Delta variant after its first description and documented its spread. To monitor the introduction and spread of VOC Delta, we performed Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) genotyping and genome sequencing in ten regional sentinel units from June to October 2021 in the State of Minas Gerais (MG). We documented the introduction and spread of Delta, comprising 70 per cent of the cases 8 weeks later. Comparing the viral loads of the Gamma and Delta dominance periods, we provide additional evidence that the latter is more transmissible. The spread and dominance of Delta did not culminate in the increase in cases and deaths, suggesting that the vaccination may have restrained the epidemic growth. Analysis of 224 novel Delta genomes revealed that Rio de Janeiro state was the primary source for disseminating this variant in the state of MG. We present the establishment of Delta, providing evidence of its enhanced transmissibility and showing that this variant shift did not aggravate the epidemiological scenario in a high immunity setting.

Needs of education about infectious disease with special reference to respiratory tract infection (RTI) and COVID 19

The present study reveals the importance of inclusion of knowledge regarding infectious diseases and their effect on the respiratory system in the school education system and in pharmacy courses. An integrative review of diseases that affect respiratory tract along with COVID 19. Family plays an important role to give protection from any kind of infectious diseases based on the achieved knowledge. Thus the education of consciousness in each and every family about the infectious diseases is very important, particularly mother and head of the family must be well equipped with the knowledge of infectious diseases including RTI etc. and then the only large population can fight against COVID 19 like pandemic with minimum mortality and fit society with the good financial system. To restructure the syllabus content in the school education system so that in each and every age, students are compulsory to be knocked about the infectious diseases.

Synthesis, antioxidant, antimicrobial and antiviral docking studies of ethyl 2-(2-(arylidene)hydrazinyl)thiazole-4-carboxylates.

A series of ethyl 2-(2-(arylidene)hydrazinyl)thiazole-4-carboxylates (2a-r) was synthesized in two steps from thiosemicarbazones (1a-r), which were cyclized with ethyl bromopyruvate to ethyl 2-(2-(arylidene)hydrazinyl)thiazole-4-carboxylates (2a-r). The structures of compounds (2a-r) were established by FT-IR, 1H- and 13C-NMR. The structure of compound 2a was confirmed by HRMS. The compounds (2a-r) were then evaluated for their antimicrobial and antioxidant assays. The antioxidant studies revealed, ethyl 2-(2-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)hydrazinyl)thiazole-4-carboxylate (2g) and ethyl 2-(2-(1-phenylethylidene)hydrazinyl)thiazole-4-carboxylate (2h) as promising antioxidant agents with %FRSA: 84.46 ± 0.13 and 74.50 ± 0.37, TAC: 269.08 ± 0.92 and 269.11 ± 0.61 and TRP: 272.34 ± 0.87 and 231.11 ± 0.67 µg AAE/mg dry weight of compound. Beside bioactivities, density functional theory (DFT) methods were used to study the electronic structure and properties of synthesized compounds (2a-m). The potential of synthesized compounds for possible antiviral targets is also predicted through molecular docking methods. The compounds 2e and 2h showed good binding affinities and inhibition constants to be considered as therapeutic target for Mpro protein of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). The present in-depth analysis of synthesized compounds will put them under the spot light for practical applications as antioxidants and the modification in structural motif may open the way for COVID-19 drug.

Estudo Comparativo de Abordagens para Sistemas de Recomendação baseados em Personalidade com uso do serviço IBM Watson Personality Insights

In this study, we analyzed whether, with advances in personality detection (inference without using questionnaires), Collaborative Filtering approaches based on personality continue to improve the accuracy of traditional approaches (based essentially on ratings). The results indicated the possibility of improving accuracy by employing an approach using inferred data concerning any personality models analyzed (Big Five, Needs, and Values). [...]the Values model provided results equivalent to the Big Five model (without facets), and, in general terms, there was no improvement when using the Big Five model with data from its facets (nor when including data from the other models). Keywords: Recommender Systems;Collaborative Filtering;Personality-based Recommendation;Watson Personality Insights. 1.Introduçao Há pesquisadores, a exemplo de Nunes & Hu (2012) e Tkalčič (2018), indicando que a personalidade humana relaciona-se a tomada de decisoes e as preferencias do individuo e, portanto, deve ser considerada no projeto de Sistemas de Recomendaçao. O modelo Big Five é também denominado FFM (Five-Factor Model) ou OCEAN (acrônimo, em ingles, dos cinco traços do modelo:

Beyond ventilatory support: challenges in general practice and in the treatment of critically Ill children and adolescents with SARS-CoV-2 infection

SUMMARY Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2 infection) is a new challenge for all countries, and children are predisposed to acquire this disease. Some studies have demonstrated more severe diseases in adults, but critically ill pediatric patients have been described in all ages. Pulmonary involvement is the major feature, and ventilatory support is common in critical cases. Nevertheless, other very important therapeutic approaches must be considered. In this article, we reviewed extensively all recent medical literature to point out the main clinical attitudes to support these pediatric patients during their period in respiratory support. Radiologic findings, fluid therapy, hemodynamic support, use of inotropic/vasopressors, nutritional therapy, antiviral therapy, corticosteroids, antithrombotic therapy, and immunoglobulins are analyzed to guide all professionals during hospitalization. We emphasize the importance of a multi-professional approach for adequate recovery. RESUMO A síndrome respiratória aguda grave (SRAG) pelo novo coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) é um novo desafio para todos os países e crianças estão predispostas a adquirir a doença. Alguns estudos demonstraram quadros mais graves em adultos, mas crianças criticamente doentes foram descritas em todas as idades. O envolvimento pulmonar é a principal característica e a necessidade de suporte ventilatório é comum nos casos mais graves. Entretanto, outras abordagens terapêuticas importantes devem ser consideradas. Nesse artigo revisamos extensamente a literature médica até o momento a fim de citar os principais recursos terapêuticos para o manejo dos pacientes pediátricos durante o período de suporte ventilatório. Achados radiológicos, terapia fluídica, terapia antiviral, o uso de corticosteroides, terapia antitrombótica e o uso de imunoglobulinas foram analisados a fim de guiar os profissionais durante o período de hospitalização desses pacientes. Nós reforçamos a importância de uma abordagem multiprofissional para recuperação adequada.

Beyond ventilatory support: challenges in general practice and in the treatment of critically Ill children and adolescents with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2 infection) is a new challenge for all countries, and children are predisposed to acquire this disease. Some studies have demonstrated more severe diseases in adults, but critically ill pediatric patients have been described in all ages. Pulmonary involvement is the major feature, and ventilatory support is common in critical cases. Nevertheless, other very important therapeutic approaches must be considered. In this article, we reviewed extensively all recent medical literature to point out the main clinical attitudes to support these pediatric patients during their period in respiratory support. Radiologic findings, fluid therapy, hemodynamic support, use of inotropic/vasopressors, nutritional therapy, antiviral therapy, corticosteroids, antithrombotic therapy, and immunoglobulins are analyzed to guide all professionals during hospitalization. We emphasize the importance of a multi-professional approach for adequate recovery.