Developments in COVID-19 Diagnosis, Prevention and Treatment

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Recent articles in Experimental Biology and Medicine highlight new advances in COVID-19 biology and treatment. In an effort to provide the scientific community with important information on COVID-19, at the rapid pace required to protect our global health care workers and bring useful therapies to end the pandemic, manuscripts are being handled at an accelerated rate. To accomplish this, our EBM Editor-in-Chief is handling all COVID-19 manuscripts to make sure they receive a thorough but accelerated review. The Publisher of EBM, SAGE, is making sure that accepted COVID-19 manuscripts are processed rapidly, immediately available via On-line First, and are open access. EBM will continue to inform the scientific community and the public of these published articles through press releases.

EBM has recently published a research article describing a new assay that can distinguish between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses (Mayuramart et al, in press). Another article reviews the direct and indirect effects of SARS-CoV-2 on younger individuals (Manivannan et al, in press). We have also recently published important commentaries regarding periodontal disease (Kara et al, 2020) and pre-diabetes (Sosibo and Khathi, in press) as SARS-CoV-2 risk factors, as well as the contribution of immune activation to disease severity (Hakim et al, in press).   

The corresponding authors of these articles had the following comments on the importance of their contribution. Dr. Sunchai Payungporn in the Department of Biochemistry and Research Unit of Systems Microbiology at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok (Thailand), speaking of his article 'Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and influenza viruses based on CRISPR-Cas12a (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370220963793)', said "Patients' symptoms between COVID-19 and influenza-like illness are similar, and this method can discriminate between the SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses with high sensitivity and specificity, which would be practical and attractive for screening patients in areas with limited resources. This detection method may be useful for any other infectious diseases in the future."

 Dr. Prakash Gangadaran in the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Biomedical Science at Kyungpook National University in Daegu (Republic of Korea), discussing his article 'A mini-review on the effects of COVID-19 on younger individuals (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370220975118)', said "younger individuals are indirectly affected by COVID-19 even though they have a relatively lower risk of contracting and easily clear COVID- 19 when compared to adults and the elderly. This review paper provides details about the recovery, mortality, psychological effects, and education in younger individuals affected by COVID-19."

Dr. Johnson Liu in the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine at the Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME (USA), speaking of his article 'Secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis versus cytokine release syndrome in severe COVID-19 patients (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370220962043) ' said, "In severe cases, the patient's own immune system becomes abnormally activated and leads to release of inflammatory cytokines and damage to multiple organs of the body. Our paper suggests this "cytokine storm", if severe enough, can be linked to a rare disorder called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, in which the body makes too many activated immune cells: macrophages and lymphocytes. A number of drugs to combat this process are being tested in severe COVID-19 patients."   

Mr. Aubrey Mbulelo Sosibo, a PhD candidate in the College of Health Sciences at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Westville (South Africa) talking about the article entitled 'Pre-diabetes and COVID-19, could we be missing the silent killer? (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370220973451)', said "the paucity of literature reporting on the association of COVID-19 and pre-diabetes/intermediate hyperglycemia is worrying. This commentary is an alert about how pre-existing pre-diabetes in COVID-19 infected patients could be worse than we thought."

Dr. Cankat Kara in the Department of Peridontology at Ordu University in Ordu (Turkey) discussing his article entitled 'Is periodontal disease a risk factor for developing Kw Covid-19 infection? The potential role of Galectin-3 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1535370220953771) ', said." We want to emphasize the importance of keeping periodontal diseases under control and the importance of maintaining rigorous oral hygiene during this troubled Covid-19 pandemic period. We would also point out the possibility of periodontal disease presence as a predisposition to the negative consequences associated with COVID-19. Therefore, it should be kept in mind that good oral hygiene can play a role in reducing the risks of complications due to coronavirus."

 Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, said "EBM will continue to inform the scientific community and the public of our published COVID-19 articles through Press Releases. To optimally benefit the Global Community, researchers need rapid dissemination of COVID-19 studies and the sharing of ideas from the worldwide scientific community. Science is unstoppable when we work together towards common goals. There is ample evidence for this with the rapid preparation and testing, in compelling clinical trials, of the now available COVID-19 vaccines."

Experimental Biology and Medicine is a journal dedicated to the publication of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the biomedical sciences. The journal was first established in 1903. Experimental Biology and Medicine is the journal of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. To learn about the benefits of society membership visit www.sebm.org. If you are interested in publishing in the journal, please visit http://ebm.sagepub.com/.

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SOURCE Experimental Biology and Medicine