Efficacy of nasal irrigation and oral rinse with sodium bicarbonate solution on virus clearance for COVID-19 patients.

Background: Recent studies have shown that the infectivity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is reduced under alkaline conditions. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of nasal irrigation and oral rinse with sodium bicarbonate solution on virus clearance among COVID-19 patients. Materials and methods: COVID-19 patients were recruited and randomly divided into two group, i.e., the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group received regular care plus nasal irrigation and oral rinse with 5% sodium bicarbonate solution, while the control group only received regular care. Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples were collected daily for reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays. The negative conversion time and hospitalization time of the patients were recorded, and the results were statistically analyzed. Results: A total of 55 COVID-19 patients with mild or moderate symptoms were included in our study. There was no significant difference in gender, age and health status between the two groups. The average negative conversion time was 1.63 days after treatment with sodium bicarbonate, and the average hospitalization time of the control group and the experimental group were 12.53 and 7.7 days, respectively. Conclusions: Nasal irrigation and oral rinse with 5% sodium bicarbonate solution is effective in virus clearance for COVID-19 patients.

Dynamic expression of proteins associated with adventitial remodeling in adventitial fibroblasts from spontaneously hypertensive rats.

AIM: To identify proteins that could potentially be involved in adventitial remodeling in vascular adventitial fibroblasts (AFs) from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). METHODS: AFs were isolated from thoracic aortas of 4-, 8-, 16-, and 24-week-old male SHR and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and cultured to passage 4. Proteomic differential expression profiles between SHR-AFs and WKY-AFs were investigated using 2-D electrophoresis (2-DE), whereas gel image analysis was processed using Image Master 2D Platinum. Protein spots were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). Expression levels of annexin A1 in AFs and aortas from SHR and WKY rats were detected with Western blotting and immunofluorescence techniques. RESULTS: In 4-, 8-, 16-, and 24-week-old SHR-AFs, 49, 59, 54, and 69 protein spots were found to have significant differences from the age-matched WKY-AFs. Fourteen spots with the same changes in patterns were analyzed in 4-, 8-, 16-, and 24-week-old SHR-AFs with mass spectrometry. Except for cytoskeleton proteins such as tubulin beta 5, it was found that annexin A1, translation elongation factor Tu, endoplasmic reticulum protein 29 and calcium-binding protein 1 were expressed in vascular AFs and their levels changed significantly in SHR-AFs compared with those in WKY-AFs. A decrease in annexin A1 in SHR-AFs was confirmed with Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining at the cell and tissue levels. CONCLUSION: The application of proteomic techniques revealed a number of novel proteins involved in adventitial remodeling of AFs from SHR, which provide new mechanisms responsible for the occurrence and development of hypertension and potential targets for influencing vascular remodeling in hypertension.