Quick guideline for diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus Omicron variant infection / 中华临床感染病杂志

Novel coronavirus Omicron variant infection can cause severe illness and even death in certain populations. Omicron variant infection may lead to systemic inflammatory response, coagulation disorder, multi-organ dysfunction and other pathophysiological changes, which are different from other Novel coronavirus variants to a certain extent, so therapeutic strategies should not be the same. The National Medical Center for Major Public Health Events invited experts in fields of infectious diseases, respiratory medicine, intensive care, pediatrics and fever clinic to develop this quick guideline based on the current best evidence and extensive clinical practices. This quick guideline aims to standardize the diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus Omicron infection, and to improve the disease management abilities of clinicians.

Expert consensus on diagnosis and treatment of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome / 中华临床感染病杂志

Since 2010, the incidence of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) has been increased. Owing the progress in diagnosis and treatment, the overall mortality of SFTS in China has decreased, while the mortality in critical SFTS patients is still high. In order to provide guidance and working procedures for clinicians to diagnose and treat critical SFTS, the National Medical Center for Major Public Health Events invited experts to discuss and formulate this consensus based on their experience and up-to-date knowledge on SFTS.

Clinical and immunologic features in severe and moderate forms of Coronavirus Disease 2019

BackgroundSince late December, 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia cases caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in Wuhan, and continued to spread throughout China and across the globe. To date, few data on immunologic features of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been reported. MethodsIn this single-centre retrospective study, a total of 21 patients with pneumonia who were laboratory-confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan Tongji hospital were included from Dec 19, 2019 to Jan 27, 2020. The immunologic characteristics as well as their clinical, laboratory, radiological features were compared between 11 severe cases and 10 moderate cases. ResultsOf the 21 patients with COVID-19, only 4 (19%) had a history of exposure to the Huanan seafood market. 7 (33.3%) patients had underlying conditions. The average age of severe and moderate cases was 63.9 and 51.4 years, 10 (90.9%) severe cases and 7 (70.0%) moderate cases were male. Common clinical manifestations including fever (100%, 100%), cough (70%, 90%), fatigue (100%, 70%) and myalgia (50%, 30%) in severe cases and moderate cases. PaO2/FiO2 ratio was significantly lower in severe cases (122.9) than moderate cases (366.2). Lymphocyte counts were significantly lower in severe cases (0.7 x 10{square}/L) than moderate cases (1.1 x 10{square}/L). Alanine aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase levels, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and ferritin were significantly higher in severe cases (41.4 U/L, 567.2 U/L, 135.2 mg/L and 1734.4 ug/L) than moderate cases (17.6 U/L, 234.4 U/L, 51.4 mg/L and 880.2 ug /L). IL-2R, TNF- and IL-10 concentrations on admission were significantly higher in severe cases (1202.4 pg/mL, 10.9 pg/mL and 10.9 pg/mL) than moderate cases (441.7 pg/mL, 7.5 pg/mL and 6.6 pg/mL). Absolute number of total T lymphocytes, CD4+T cells and CD8+T cells decreased in nearly all the patients, and were significantly lower in severe cases (332.5, 185.6 and 124.3 x 106/L) than moderate cases (676.5, 359.2 and 272.0 x 106/L). The expressions of IFN-{gamma} by CD4+T cells tended to be lower in severe cases (14.6%) than moderate cases (23.6%). ConclusionThe SARS-CoV-2 infection may affect primarily T lymphocytes, particularly CD4+T cells, resulting in significant decrease in number as well as IFN-{gamma} production, which may be associated with disease severity. Together with clinical characteristics, early immunologic indicators including diminished T lymphocytes and elevated cytokines may serve as potential markers for prognosis in COVID-19.

Management and clinical thinking of Coronavirus Disease 2019 / 中华肝脏病杂志

In December 2019, the 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP, officially named Coronavirus Disease 2019(COVID-19) by the World Health Organization) broke out in Wuhan, Hubei, and it quickly spread to the whole country and abroad. The situation was at stake. The sudden and serious COVID-19 epidemic has brought us a lot of urgent problems. How to effectively control the spread of COVID-19? When does the population infection rate rise to its peak? What will eventually be the number of infected patients? How to make early diagnosis? What effective antiviral drugs are available? How to effectively treat with existing drugs? Can it successfully improve the survival rate of critically patients? In response to the above questions, we put forward corresponding suggestions and reflections from the perspective of the infectious clinician.

Relationship between the suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 expression and antiviral efficacy of nucleos(t)ide and interferon alpha therapy for chronic hepatitis B / 中华肝脏病杂志

Objective@#To investigate the molecular mechanism of poor response of nucleoside and interferon therapy in some patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and the negative regulatory factor of suppressor of cytokine signaling 3 (SOCS3) expression in the interferon-signaling pathway. Also, study the clinical relationship between SOCS3 and antiviral efficacy of nucleoside and interferon.@*Methods@#Peripheral blood and matched liver tissue samples from 54 CHB patients who participated in the OSST study were selected. HBsAg was measured at different time points (baseline and weeks 12, 24, 36, and 48) to observe the antiviral efficacy. Meanwhile, quantitative real-time PCR, and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression levels of SOCS3 mRNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and matched liver tissues (baseline and 48 weeks). At the end of the 48-week treatment, patients with HBsAg negative or HBeAg seroconversion were defined as response group, and vice versa. Paired t-tests were used to compare normal distribution variables and the Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the median differences between groups of non-normally distributed variables.@*Results@#After 48 weeks of treatment, serum HBsAg levels in the Peg-IFN group continued to decline (average decrease of 1.14 log10 IU / ml at week 48; P = 0.001 compared with baseline), while the entecavir group remained almost unchanged during treatment (average decrease was 0.05 log10 IU / ml at week 48; compared with baseline P = 0.12). The expression of SOCS3 mRNA (Messenger RNA, mRNA) in peripheral blood and liver tissues of non-responder group was significantly higher than the response group in the course of Peg-IFNα2a treatment. The immunohistochemical results of liver tissue showed that the expression of SOCS3 in the non-responder group was significantly higher than that in the response group at baseline (P = 0.027). After 48 weeks of treatment with Peg-IFNα2a, the expression of SOCS3 in the non-responder group was significantly higher than that in the baseline and response groups (P = 0.003, P = 0.012, respectively).@*Conclusion@#The expression of SOCS3 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and liver tissues of non-responding CHB patients was significantly higher than that of responding CHB patients during interferon and nucleoside antiviral therapy. We speculated that SOCS3 might affect the antiviral efficacy through negative regulation of JAK-STAT signaling pathway, and partly expose the mechanism of interferon resistance.

Construction of plasmids expressing Sars-CoV encoding proteins and their effects on transcription of hfgl2 prothrombinase / 华中科技大学学报（医学）（英德文版）

SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is the etiologic agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome. The aim of this study was to construct Sars-CoV membrane (M), nucleocapsid (N) and spike 2 (S2) gene eukaryotic expression plasmids, and identify their expression in vitro. Gene fragments encoding N protein, M protein and S2 protein of SARS-CoV were amplified by PCR using cDNA obtained from lung samples of SARS patients as template, and subcloned into pcDNA3.1 vector to form eukaryotic expression plasmids. SARS-CoV protein eukaryotic expression plasmids were transfected respectively into CHO cells. Immunohistochemistry was employed to detect the expression of the structural proteins of SARS-CoV in transfected cells. SARS-CoV protein eukaryotic expression plasmids were successfully constructed by identification with digestion of restriction enzymes and sequencing. M, N and S2 proteins of SARS-CoV were detected in the cytoplasm of transfected CHO cells. It was concluded that these recombinant eukaryotic expression plasmids were constructed successfully, and SARS-CoV encoding proteins could activate transcription and expression of hfgl2 gene.