Coronavirus Disease Outbreak in Call Center, South Korea.

We describe the epidemiology of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in a call center in South Korea. We obtained information on demographic characteristics by using standardized epidemiologic investigation forms. We performed descriptive analyses and reported the results as frequencies and proportions for categoric variables. Of 1,143 persons who were tested for COVID-19, a total of 97 (8.5%, 95% CI 7.0%-10.3%) had confirmed cases. Of these, 94 were working in an 11th-floor call center with 216 employees, translating to an attack rate of 43.5% (95% CI 36.9%-50.4%). The household secondary attack rate among symptomatic case-patients was 16.2% (95% CI 11.6%- 22.0%). Of the 97 persons with confirmed COVID-19, only 4 (1.9%) remained asymptomatic within 14 days of quarantine, and none of their household contacts acquired secondary infections. Extensive contact tracing, testing all contacts, and early quarantine blocked further transmission and might be effective for containing rapid outbreaks in crowded work settings.

Application of Testing-Tracing-Treatment Strategy in Response to the COVID-19 Outbreak in Seoul, Korea.

BACKGROUND: Following the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China, a total of 637 patients had been diagnosed with the disease in Seoul as of May 2, 2020. Our study aimed to describe the impact of the 3T strategies (preemptive testing, prompt tracing and proper treatment) on the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in Seoul. METHODS: The descriptive and explanatory analysis was carried out on critical indicators such as epidemiological characteristics and key duration of patient status change from January 24 to May 2 in Seoul before and after preemptive testing for patients under investigation associated with COVID-19 clusters. RESULTS: Preemptive testing increased the positive test rate (3.9% to 4.2%), an asymptomatic case at diagnosis (16.9% to 30.6%), and reduced the time from symptom onset to quarantine (4.0 to 3.0 days). Prompt tracing decreased unknown sources of infection (6.9% to 2.8%), the mean number of contacts (32.2 to 23.6), and the time-varying reproduction number R(t) (1.3 to 0.6). With proper treatment, only 2 cases of mortality occurred, resulting in a fatality rate of just 0.3%. CONCLUSION: In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic lasting 100 days, the effect of the 3T strategies flattened the curve and decreased the time during which infected individuals were contagious, thereby lowering the R(t) below 1 in Seoul.

Natural form of noncytolytic flexible human Fc as a long-acting carrier of agonistic ligand, erythropoietin.

Human IgG1 Fc has been widely used as a bioconjugate, but exhibits shortcomings, such as antibody- and complement-mediated cytotoxicity as well as decreased bioactivity, when applied to agonistic proteins. Here, we constructed a nonimmunogenic, noncytolytic and flexible hybrid Fc (hyFc) consisting of IgD and IgG4, and tested its function using erythropoietin (EPO) conjugate, EPO-hyFc. Despite low amino acid homology (20.5%) between IgD Fc and IgG4 Fc, EPO-hyFc retained "Y-shaped" structure and repeated intravenous administrations of EPO-hyFc into monkeys did not generate EPO-hyFc-specific antibody responses. Furthermore, EPO-hyFc could not bind to FcγR I and C1q in contrast to EPO-IgG1 Fc. In addition, EPO-hyFc exhibited better in vitro bioactivity and in vivo bioactivity in rats than EPO-IgG1 Fc, presumably due to the high flexibility of IgD. Moreover, the mean serum half-life of EPO-hyFc(H), a high sialic acid content form of EPO-hyFc, was approximately 2-fold longer than that of the heavily glycosylated EPO, darbepoetin alfa, in rats. More importantly, subcutaneous injection of EPO-hyFc(H) not only induced a significantly greater elevation of serum hemoglobin levels than darbepoetin alfa in both normal rats and cisplatin-induced anemic rats, but also displayed a delayed time to maximal serum level and twice final area-under-the-curve (AUC(last)). Taken together, hyFc might be a more attractive Fc conjugate for agonistic proteins/peptides than IgG1 Fc due to its capability to elongate their half-lives without inducing host effector functions and hindering bioactivity of fused molecules. Additionally, a head-to-head comparison demonstrated that hyFc-fusion strategy more effectively improved the in vivo bioactivity of EPO than the hyperglycosylation approach.

Stabilization and activation of p53 induced by Cdk5 contributes to neuronal cell death.

The p53 tumor suppressor protein is a key regulator of cellular functions including responses to numerous stress signals, and triggers apoptosis in many cell types, including neurons. The major mechanisms known to regulate p53 stabilization and activation include phosphorylation and ubiquitin ligase-mediated proteasomal degradation. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5), a proline-directed serine/threonine kinase, is most active in the central nervous system and plays a variety of roles in neuronal degeneration. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that Cdk5 interacts with p53 and increases its stability through posttranslational regulation, leading to accumulation of p53, particularly in the nucleus. We show that Cdk5 phosphorylates p53 on Ser15, Ser33 and Ser46 in vitro, and that increased Cdk5 activity in the nucleus mediates these phosphorylation events in response to genotoxic and oxidative stresses. Cdk5 mediates disruption of the interaction between p53 and Hdm2 (also known as Mdm2), and prevents Hdm2-induced p53 ubiquitylation and downregulation. Cdk5 additionally enhances phosphorylation-dependent binding of the p300 coactivator, inducing acetylation of p53. Cdk5-stabilized p53 protein is transcriptionally active, resulting in the induction of pro-apoptotic genes and subsequent mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in response to genotoxic or oxidative stress. Collectively, these novel findings help define the mechanisms underlying neuronal apoptosis occurring as a result of Cdk5-mediated p53 stabilization and transcriptional activation.