Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 Interaction Domain Enhances Phosphorylation of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein.

A structural protein of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), nucleocapsid (N) protein is phosphorylated by glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)-3 on the serine/arginine (SR) rich motif located in disordered regions. Although phosphorylation by GSK-3ß constitutes a critical event for viral replication, the molecular mechanism underlying N phosphorylation is not well understood. In this study, we found the putative alpha-helix L/FxxxL/AxxRL motif known as the GSK-3 interacting domain (GID), found in many endogenous GSK-3ß binding proteins, such as Axins, FRATs, WWOX, and GSKIP. Indeed, N interacts with GSK-3ß similarly to Axin, and Leu to Glu substitution of the GID abolished the interaction, with loss of N phosphorylation. The N phosphorylation is also required for its structural loading in a virus-like particle (VLP). Compared to other coronaviruses, N of Sarbecovirus lineage including bat RaTG13 harbors a CDK1-primed phosphorylation site and Gly-rich linker for enhanced phosphorylation by GSK-3ß. Furthermore, we found that the S202R mutant found in Delta and R203K/G204R mutant found in the Omicron variant allow increased abundance and hyper-phosphorylation of N. Our observations suggest that GID and mutations for increased phosphorylation in N may have contributed to the evolution of variants.

Relative Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination in Healthcare Workers: 3-Dose Versus 2-Dose Vaccination.

The omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is known to have high infectivity and is more likely to evade vaccine immunity. However, booster vaccination is expected to strengthen cross-reactive immunity, thereby increasing the vaccine effectiveness (VE). This study aimed to evaluate the relative VE of the 3-dose (booster) vaccination compared with the 2-dose primary series vaccination in healthcare workers during omicron variant-dominant periods. During the omicron-dominant period from February 1, 2022 to February 28, 2022, a 1:1 matched case-control study was conducted. Healthcare workers with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were classified as positive cases, whereas those with negative results served as controls. Compared with the 2-dose primary series vaccination, booster vaccination with mRNA vaccine showed moderate VE (53.1%). However, in multivariate analysis including the time elapsed after vaccination, the significant VE disappeared, reflecting the impact of recent vaccination rather than the third dose itself.

Effect of Public Empathy with Infection-Control Guidelines on Infection-Prevention Attitudes and Behaviors: Based on the Case of COVID-19.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the government has provided infection-control guidelines to prevent the spread of the virus. The authors of this study examined the structure (causal relationship) of factors that influence public behavior toward COVID-19 and verified the effect of public empathy with infection-control guidelines in each structure. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire survey from 211 Korean adults. The results showed that (1) the perceived susceptibility and severity of economic damage had a positive effect on infection-prevention attitudes and infection-prevention attitudes had a positive effect on infection-prevention behaviors; (2) the perceived severity of economic damage had a positive effect on infection-prevention attitudes; and (3) public empathy with infection-control guidelines positively moderated the effect of the perceived severity of economic damage on infection-prevention behaviors and that of perceived susceptibility on infection-prevention attitudes. Accordingly, the authors of this study present the following three suggestions to prevent the spread of an infectious disease: engage in risk communication focused on a potential virus infection and cooperation, make multifaceted efforts to increase public empathy with infection-control guidelines, and implement measures to alleviate or reduce economic damage to the public in a viral pandemic.

A Study on the Public’s Crisis Management Efficacy and Anxiety in a Pandemic Situation—Focusing on the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea

Social distancing, shutdown, and lockdown policies have recently been implemented worldwide to help slow the spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which has caused economic, social, and cultural crises on a global scale. To help create safe communities, we aimed to analyze the factors affecting the public’s anxiety and efficacy to overcome crises. The results show that efficacy is associated with sex, education, central government support, the public hygiene environment, and public hygiene behaviors. Anxiety was shown to have a negative relationship with central government support, a positive relationship with civilian support, and a negative relationship with efficacy. For a country to prevent the spread of a novel infectious disease, alleviate the anxiety of the population, and construct a safe community in the midst of a global pandemic, active central government support and response, protection of vulnerable populations, publicization of policies, and crisis management communication are essential. In particular, identifying an evidence-based method to understand and address the psychological and social influences of COVID-19, such as excessive fear and discrimination, providing insight into risk factors associated with future society for policy makers, and establishing potential and sustainable public health communication strategies are of paramount importance.

Risk perception of COVID-19: A comparative analysis of China and South Korea.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has become a pandemic and the risk perception plays an important role in self-protection and spread prevention. This study attempts to explore the intrinsic characteristic of risk perception and the spatial distribution of it, which have not been involved in previous studies. To attach this purpose, data from questionnaire conducted in China and Korea (samples of 897 respondents in China and 340 respondents in South Korea) are used to produce risk perception of COVID- 19. Results reveal four principal findings: (1) risk perception of COVID-19 can be categorized into perceived social risk and perceived risk of being infected; (2) the internal differences are most pronounced in perceived risk of being infected about oneself in China, and in perceived social risk disorder about local community in South Korea; (3) the spatial distribution of risk perception is not consistent with that of epidemic severity, for high-risk perception spread out beyond the epicenter with different performance in the two categories; and (4) among the influence factors, trust in information, familiarity with epidemic situation, and interpersonal distance from suffers in the epicenter are found to have a significant influence on different aspects of risk perception. The theoretical and practical implications of this study enrich the understanding of risk perception of epidemic, and provide specific suggestions for preventing this ongoing epidemic spread across the population.

Trends in academic productivity in the COVID-19 era: analysis of neurosurgical, stroke neurology, and neurointerventional literature.

BACKGROUND: Academic physicians aim to provide clinical and surgical care to their patients while actively contributing to a growing body of scientific literature. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in procedural-based specialties across the United States witnessing a sharp decline in their clinical volume and surgical cases. OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgical, stroke neurology, and neurointerventional academic productivity. METHODS: The study compared the neurosurgical, stroke neurology, and neurointerventional academic output during the pandemic lockdown with the same time period in previous years. Editors from a sample of neurosurgical, stroke neurology, and neurointerventional journals provided the total number of original manuscript submissions, broken down by months, from the year 2016 to 2020. Manuscript submission was used as a surrogate metric for academic productivity. RESULTS: 8 journals were represented. The aggregated data from all eight journals as a whole showed that a combined average increase of 42.3% was observed on original submissions for 2020. As the average yearly percent increase using the 2016-2019 data for each journal exhibited a combined average increase of 11.2%, the rise in the yearly increase for 2020 in comparison was nearly fourfold. For the same journals in the same time period, the average percent of COVID-19 related publications from January to June of 2020 was 6.87%. CONCLUSION: There was a momentous increase in the number of original submissions for the year 2020, and its effects were uniformly experienced across all of our represented journals.