COVID-19 vaccinations: The unknowns, challenges, and hopes.

The entire world has been suffering from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic since March 11, 2020. More than a year later, the COVID-19 vaccination brought hope to control this viral pandemic. Here, we review the unknowns of the COVID-19 vaccination, such as its longevity, asymptomatic spread, long-term side effects, and its efficacy on immunocompromised patients. In addition, we discuss challenges associated with the COVID-19 vaccination, such as the global access and distribution of vaccine doses, adherence to hygiene guidelines after vaccination, the emergence of novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, and vaccine resistance. Despite all these challenges and the fact that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unclear, vaccines have brought great hope for the world, with several reports indicating a significant decline in the risk of COVID19-related infection and hospitalizations.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in children.

BACKGROUND: Several individual studies from specific countries have reported rising numbers of pediatric COVID-19 cases with inconsistent reports on the clinical symptoms including respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms as well as diverse reports on the mean age and household exposure in children. The epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in children are not fully understood, hence, comprehensive meta-analyses are needed to provide a better understanding of these characteristics. METHODS: This review was conducted in Medline, Scopus, Cochrane library, Embase, Web of Science, and published reports on COVID-19 in children. Data were extracted by two independent researchers and a third researcher resolved disputes. STATA software and the random-effect model were used in the synthesis of our data. For each model, the heterogeneity between studies was estimated using the Q Cochrane test. Heterogeneity and publication bias were calculated using the I2 statistic and Egger's/Begg's tests. RESULTS: The qualitative systematic review was performed on 32 articles. Furthermore, the meta-analysis estimated an overall rate of involvement at 12% (95% CI: 9-15%) among children, with an I2 of 98.36%. The proportion of household exposure was calculated to be 50.99% (95% CI: 20.80%-80.80%) and the proportion of admitted cases was calculated to be 45% (95% CI: 24%-67%). Additionally, the prevalence of cough, fatigue, fever and dyspnea was calculated to be 25% (95% CI: 0.16-0.36), 9% (95% CI: 0.03-0.18), 33% (95% CI: 0.21-0.47) and 9% (95% CI: 0.04-0.15), respectively. It is estimated that 4% (95% CI: 1-8%) of cases required intensive care unit admission. CONCLUSIONS: The pediatric clinical picture of COVID-19 is not simply a classic respiratory infection, but unusual presentations have been reported. Given the high incidence of household transmission and atypical clinical presentation in children, we strongly recommend their inclusion in research and population-based preventive measures like vaccination as well as clinical trials to ensure efficacy, safety, and tolerability in this age group.

A Borderless Solution Is Needed for A Borderless Complexity, Like COVID-19, the Universal Invader.

This chapter briefly describes the universal intricacies caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, from the ineffectiveness of distance measures, the massive economic impacts, and the severe mental health challenges to the failure of finding a vaccine, a therapeutic agent or even accurately diagnosing the infection. The entire world is suffering, but every country is trying to combat this pandemic individually, and this deed is the main barrier that prevents reaching a peaceful end.

The Role of Ketogenic Diet in the Treatment of Neuroblastoma.

The ketogenic diet (KD) was initially used in 1920 for drug-resistant epileptic patients. From this point onward, ketogenic diets became a pivotal part of nutritional therapy research. To date, KD has shown therapeutic potential in many pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, autism, brain cancers, and multiple sclerosis. Although KD is now an adjuvant therapy for certain diseases, its effectiveness as an antitumor nutritional therapy is still an ongoing debate, especially in Neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is the most common extra-cranial solid tumor in children and is metastatic at initial presentation in more than half of the cases. Although Neuroblastoma can be managed by surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy, its 5-year survival rate in children remains below 40%. Earlier studies have proposed the ketogenic diet as a possible adjuvant therapy for patients undergoing treatment for Neuroblastoma. In this study, we seek to review the possible roles of KD in the treatment of Neuroblastoma.

Health workforce retention in low-income settings: an application of the Root Stem Model.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes a critical shortage of health workers as a growing global crisis. The shortage persists despite local and global efforts to recruit health workers ethically. Unequal migration of healthcare professionals, most often from low to high-resource countries, overwhelmingly defeats the objective of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). If not addressed, especially given emerging global pandemics like COVID-19, the critical shortage of health workers could decimate vulnerable public health systems. This Viewpoint describes the Root-Stem Model, a six-stage process of strategic factors affecting work life that could help policymakers address the challenge of brain-drain among healthcare workers in low-income countries.

New frontiers of tendon augmentation technology in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: a concise literature review.

Tissue banking programs fail to meet the demand for human organs and tissues for transplantation into patients with congenital defects, injuries, chronic diseases, and end-stage organ failure. Tendons and ligaments are among the most frequently ruptured and/or worn-out body tissues owing to their frequent use, especially in athletes and the elderly population. Surgical repair has remained the mainstay management approach, regardless of scarring and adhesion formation during healing, which then compromises the gliding motion of the joint and reduces the quality of life for patients. Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine approaches, such as tendon augmentation, are promising as they may provide superior outcomes by inducing host-tissue ingrowth and tendon regeneration during degradation, thereby decreasing failure rates and morbidity. However, to date, tendon tissue engineering and regeneration research has been limited and lacks the much-needed human clinical evidence to translate most laboratory augmentation approaches to therapeutics. This narrative review summarizes the current treatment options for various tendon pathologies, future of tendon augmentation, cell therapy, gene therapy, 3D/4D bioprinting, scaffolding, and cell signals.

Exploring the application of immunotherapy against HIV infection in the setting of malignancy: A detailed review article.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), as of 2019, approximately 42.2 million people have died from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has significantly reduced mortality, morbidity, and incidence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS-defining cancers, taming once-dreaded disease into a benign chronic infection. Although the treatment has prolonged the patients' survival, general HIV prevalence has increased and this increase has dovetailed with an increasing incidence of Non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs) among people living with HIV (PLWH). This is happening when new promising approaches in both oncology and HIV infection are being developed. This review focuses on recent progress witnessed in immunotherapy approaches against HIV-related, Non-AIDS-defining cancers (NADCs), and HIV infection.

Determining the accuracy of preoperative total hip replacement 2D templating using the mediCAD® software.

BACKGROUND: Templating is a preoperative planning procedure that improves the efficiency of the surgical process and reduces postoperative complications of total hip arthroplasty (THA) by improving the precision of prediction of prosthetic implant size. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of the preoperative cup and stem size digital 2D templating of THA with mediCAD® software and find the factors that influence the accuracy, such as indication for surgery, patients' demographics, implant brand, and the assessors' grade of education. METHODS: We retrospectively retrieved 420 patient template images of all patients who underwent THA between March 2018 and March 2021. Templating of all included images was processed using mediCAD® software a day before surgery by a newcomer physician to hip arthroplasty course (PGY-2 orthopedic resident or hip surgery fellow). Preoperative templating cup and stem sizes were compared with the actual inserted implant sizes. RESULT: After excluding ineligible patients, this study included 391 patients, 193 (49.4%) males and 198 (50.6%) females with a mean age of 43.3 ± 14.9. The average cup sizes predicted before and after surgery were 52.12 ± 14.28 and 52.21 ± 15.05 respectively, and the mean delta cup size (before and after surgery) was 2.79 ± 2.94. The delta stem size before and after surgery has a mean value of 1.53 ± 1.49. The acetabular cup components, measured within ± 0, ± 1, and ± 2 sizes, were 28.9%, 63.9%, 83.1% accurate, respectively. The femoral stem design component measured within ± 0, ± 1, and ± 2 sizes were 27.2%, 61.0%, 78.6% accurate, respectively. Wagner Cone® stem brand, DDH patients, and females showed significantly higher accuracy of stem size templating. Revision THA has the lowest accuracy in terms of cup size templating. The compression of accuracy rate between resident and fellow revealed no significant differences. Also, no significant difference was detected between the accuracy of templating performed in the first months with the second months of the arthroplasty course period. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that under mentioned condition, templating using mediCAD® has acceptable accuracy in predicting the sizes of femoral and acetabular components in THA patients. Digital software like mediCAD® remains favorable because of the short learning curve, user-friendly features, and low-cost maintenance, leading to level-up patient care and THA efficacy. Further studies are necessary for clarifying the role of the assessor's experience and expertise in THA preoperative templating. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III (retrospective observational study).

Oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19: opportunities and challenges.

The use of antiviral COVID-19 medications can successfully inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication and prevent disease progression to a more severe form. However, the timing of antiviral treatment plays a crucial role in this regard. Oral antiviral drugs provide an opportunity to manage SARS-CoV-2 infection without a need for hospital admission, easing the general burden that COVID-19 can have on the healthcare system. This review paper (i) presents the potential pharmaceutical antiviral targets, including various host-based targets and viral-based targets, (ii) characterizes the first-generation anti-SARS-CoV-2 oral drugs (nirmatrelvir/ritonavir and molnupiravir), (iii) summarizes the clinical progress of other oral antivirals for use in COVID-19, (iv) discusses ethical issues in such clinical trials and (v) presents challenges associated with the use of oral antivirals in clinical practice. Oral COVID-19 antivirals represent a part of the strategy to adapt to long-term co-existence with SARS-CoV-2 in a manner that prevents healthcare from being overwhelmed. It is pivotal to ensure equal and fair global access to the currently available oral antivirals and those authorized in the future.

Current and Future Perspectives of PD-1/PDL-1 Blockade in Cancer Immunotherapy.

Cancer immunotherapy, which reactivates weakened immune cells of cancer patients, has yielded great success in recent years. Among immunotherapeutic agents, immune checkpoint inhibitors have been of particular interest and have gained approval by the FDA for treatment of cancers. Immune checkpoint blockade through targeting programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) has demonstrated promising antitumor effects in cancer immunotherapy of many different solid and hematologic malignancies. However, despite promising results, a favorable response is observed only in a fraction of patients, and there is still lack of a single therapy modality with curative ability. In this paper, we review the current and future perspectives of PD-1/L1 blockade in cancer immunotherapy, with a particular focus on predictive biomarkers of response to therapy. We also discuss the adverse events associated with PD-1/L1/2 inhibitors, ranging from severe life-threatening conditions such as autoimmune myocarditis to mild and moderate reactions such as skin rashes, and explore the potential strategies for improving the efficacy of immunotherapy with PD-1/L1 checkpoint inhibitors.

International Efforts to Save Healthcare Personnel during COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a global challenge. Several governments of the world have decided to take drastic actions in order to combat the spread of the disease, including the closing of air, maritime and land borders, as an extreme measure of isolation of each country/region. However, such measures had not prevented the disease from spreading globally; as COVID-19 has already spread in almost all countries. This virus's main victims are the healthcare personnel (HCP), who are physically and psychologically affected. The HCP serves as the first line of defense against this pandemic, what if we faced a significant loss in their number? And what if our HCP was going through a deep dark depression? The condition would be terrifying not only for now but also in the future. This raises the need for an intensified International collaboration, that mainly supports the HCP. We are throwing by challenging moments, and it is clear that social distancing, cooperation, hygiene awareness and abide by the recommendation and help of all governments, as well as obtaining the support of international organizations could be an excellent tool for preventing an increase in the number of cases, principally in countries and regions were COVID-19 is in the early stage of the epidemic. However, this is not the final solution for the current pandemic. An intensified global program, which mainly supports the HCP, then considers the other aspects of the COVID19 pandemic might bring this pandemic to a peaceful end.