ABSTRACT
BackgroundChloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have been found to be efficient on SARS-CoV-2, and reported to be efficient in Chinese COV-19 patients. We evaluate the role of hydroxychloroquine on respiratory viral loads. Patients and methodsPatients were included in a single arm protocol to receive 600mg of hydroxychloroquine daily and their viral load in nasal swabs was tested daily. Depending on their clinical presentation, azithromycin was added to the treatment. Untreated patients from another center and cases refusing the protocol were included as negative controls. Presence and absence of virus at Day6-post inclusion was considered the end point. ResultsTwenty cases were treated in this study and showed a significant reduction of the viral carriage at D6-post inclusion compared to controls, and much lower average carrying duration than reported of untreated patients in the literature. Azithromycin added to hydroxychloroquine was significantly more efficient for virus elimination. ConclusionHydroxychloroquine is significantly associated with viral load reduction/disappearance in COVID-19 patients and its effect is reinforced by azithromycin.
ABSTRACT
Our digestive tract hosts more than a billion microorganisms comprising non-pathogenic bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Understanding and characterizing the human gut microbiota has become a fundamental common theme to establish a link between its dysbiosis and certain pathologies, especially autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Meta-Omics studies have, so far, provided great progress in this field. Genomics is conventionally used to determine the composition of the microbiota and, subsequently, metatranscriptomics lists the transcribed genes. However, to better understand the relationship between microbiota and health, protein-based studies are being applied. Proteomics enables the functional study of proteins as they are expressed by microbial communities. Metaproteomics exploits the power of mass spectrometry to identify broad protein profiles in complex samples, such as gut microbiota. The lastest technological advances in the field of mass spectrometry have opened the field of large-scale characterization of microbial proteins. Despite these hardware improvements, bioinformatics analysis remains a primary challenge. Herein, we describe the state-of-the-art concerning specific sample preparation and powerful shotgun analysis techniques. We also review several scientific studies of the human gut microbiota. Moreover, we discuss the advantages and limitations encountered in this research area, concerning new methods of sample preparation and innovative bioinformatic tools. Finally, prospects are addressed regarding the application of metaproteomic in the field of clinical microbiology and its integration with other meta-Omics.
