Latest Insights on the Diagnostic Approaches and Treatment Strategies of COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has emerged as the most serious pandemic in the 21st century to date. COVID-19 patients may develop various disease symptoms that hinder the accurate clinical diagnosis. SUMMARY: Routine diagnosis of COVID-19 requires complementary investigations, including computed tomography, immunological assays, and molecular assays like real-time RT-PCR, loop-mediated isothermal amplification, metagenomic next-generation sequencing, and clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-based assays. Clinically approved antiviral drugs available for the COVID-19 treatment are very limited. The most common measurements that enhance health condition and patients' viability are conservation fluid management, oxygen therapy, and antibiotics. Several therapeutic options have been developed or repurposed to prevent virus replication and/or modulate the immune response against virus infection. These options include various drugs that affect virus entry and membrane fusion, inhibit polymerase and protease activity, suppress the host pro-inflammatory cytokines, and utilize cell therapy approaches. KEY MESSAGES: In this review, we aimed to provide an up-to-date discussion on the current diagnostic options and therapeutic strategies used to control and manage COVID-19 in clinical and point-of-care settings.

Echinochrome pigment extracted from sea urchin suppress the bacterial activity, inflammation, nociception, and oxidative stress resulted in the inhibition of renal injury in septic rats.

The current study aimed to evaluate the antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and renoprotective effects of echinochrome pigment extracted from sea urchin. The disk diffusion method was used for the antibacterial activity of echinochrome against four different bacterial strains; Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes. While, acetic acid-induced writhing, formalin-induced licking, and hot plate latency assays evaluate the analgesic activity. The biochemical and oxidative stress markers of kidneys, as well as the histopathological examination, were measured to evaluate the renoprotective activity of echinochrome for cecal ligation and puncture-induced renal injury in rats. Echinochrome pigment exhibited in vitro antibacterial activity against all aforementioned bacterial species besides a powerful anti-inflammatory impact in vitro by the effective stabilization of the RBCs membrane and in vivo by decrease levels of serum IL6 and TNF-α. What's more, echinochrome showed a notable analgesic efficacy as well as an enhancement of the kidney's biochemical markers, oxidative stress status, and histopathological screening. Ech attenuated cecal ligation and puncture-induced renal injury by improving renal biomarkers, suppressing reactive oxygen species propagation as well as its antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and anti-nociceptive activities. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Sea urchins are rich in pharmacologically important quinone pigments, specifically echinochrome. The current study aimed to evaluate the role of echinochrome as a renal protective remedy in sepsis and clarify its biological activities. Echinochrome exhibited antibacterial activity in vitro against Salmonella typhimurium, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Listeria monocytogenes. Our results revealed that echinochrome protects the kidney against damage caused by sepsis in rats. Echinochrome can use in the treatment of sepsis as an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant agent.

Sodium pentobarbital dosages for exsanguination affect biochemical, molecular and histological measurements in rats.

Rodents are widely used for animal research in Egypt. Pentobarbital is the most common anesthetic agent; however overdoses may affect the experimental outcomes and limit the use of tissues. To investigate the effects of sodium pentobarbital overdoses during exsanguination, three groups (6 rats/group) of male and female rats were injected i.p. with 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg of sodium pentobarbital, then carotid exsanguination was performed immediately after loss of consciousness. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (Hif1a) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (Tnfa) mRNA expressions in liver and kidney organs were evaluated. As well as, serum aminotransferase activities (AST&ALT), glucose, urea, creatinine, malondialdehyde (MDA), reduced glutathione (GSH) and catalase (CAT) levels were determined. The histological alterations in liver, kidney and spleen were studied. It was found that Hif1a and Tnfa were significantly overexpressed in the studied organs and serum AST, glucose, creatinine and urea levels were significantly increased after sodium pentobarbital overdoses (100 and 150 mg/kg) compared to 50 mg/kg dose. Similarly, significant increase in MDA and GSH levels of liver, kidney and spleen were noticed. Results showed gender difference where Hif1a and Tnfa levels were significantly overexpressed at high dose of sodium pentobarbital of liver and kidney organs in female more than male rats. Since euthanasia protocol may influence the physiological variables and affect genes' expression, it is recommended to avoid sodium pentobarbital overdose during euthanasia as it may interfere with the biochemical, molecular and histological measurements.

Effectiveness of Echinochrome on HFD-Induced Hyperlipidemia in Rats.

Obesity has been identified with an expanded danger of a progression of illnesses that include different organ-frameworks of the body. In the present examination, we evaluated the hypolipidemic properties of Echinochrome (Ech) pigment in a high-fat diet (HFD) induced hyperlipidemia in rats. After the hyperlipidemic model was set up, rats were haphazardly separated into five groups as follows: normal control group, HFD group, Atorvastatin (ATOR) group (80 mg/kg), Ech group (1 mg/kg) and combined group ATOR + Ech. The outcomes demonstrated that Ech improves lipid profile, liver functions, kidney functions and antioxidant markers of obese rats. The findings of the present investigation indicated that the Ech possesses hypolipidemic potential in obese rats.

Hepatotoxicity effect of short-term Bradykinin potentiating factor in cholestatic rats.

BACKGROUND: Drug-induced hepatotoxicity is an extremely widespread condition and is responsible for a variety of pathological effects on the liver. It was reported that hepatotoxicity induced by angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) is cholestasis mediated hepatitis. Bradykinin-potentiating factor (BPF) is one of the natural ACEIs. Although prolonged treatment with ACEIs provides protection against liver injury, the effect of short-term treatment with ACEIs has not been fully elucidated before. Thereby, the present study sought to determine if transient ACE inhibition may exacerbate the hepatotoxicity caused by bile duct ligation (BDL) in rats. METHODS: Twenty one Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: Sham-operated group, bile duct ligated (BDL) rats, and BDL rats treated for short-term with BPF (1 µg/kg body weight) day after day for one week and biochemical parameters were measured. Also, we assessed expression level of ACE1 and detection of hepatotoxicity in the liver tissues of different groups. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in liver enzymes, bilirubin levels, and oxidative stress in the BDL group after treatment with BPF as compared to BDL group. We found overexpression of ACE1 gene in BDL group compared to BPF and Sham-operated control group. Histopathological examination of liver treated with BPF showed severe degeneration hepatic architecture and hepatocytes as compared to BDL group. Collagen deposition increased after BPF treatment as compared to BDL groups. CONCLUSION: The present investigation suggests and recommends that short- term ACE inhibition pathway potentiates liver fibrosis during cholestasis disease.

Hepatoprotective Effect of Echinochrome Pigment in Septic Rats.

BACKGROUND: Sepsis is an inevitable stage of bacterial invasion characterized by the deregulated inflammatory response, resulting in multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. Acute liver injury is a common and serious complication in patients with severe sepsis. The most of conventional antibiotics in managing sepsis are effective, but they are accompanied by undesirable side effects. Therefore, the ongoing study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of echinochrome (Ech) pigment isolated from sea urchins on sepsis-induced liver damage using cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Male albino rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham group, CLP-induced sepsis, and septic rats treated with Ech. The estimation of liver function markers and oxidative status were analyzed. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that Ech administration significantly improved liver function, as indicated by the decreased liver enzyme activities such as alanine transaminase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate transaminase, and alkaline phosphatase, as well as the increase of albumin content. Moreover, Ech could counteract the hepatic oxidative stress induced by CLP via a marked increment in glutathione content and antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione-s-transferase), as well as downregulation of malondialdehyde, nitric oxide, and hydrogen peroxide formation. In addition, the Ech treatment repaired, to some extent, the abnormal architecture of hepatic tissues induced by polymicrobial infection. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, Ech could be used as a potential alternative antiseptic remedy via oxidative damage attenuation.