A Medical Knowledge Hub for Doctors and Health Care Professionals

The SARS-CoV-2 virus enters the cells by binding to Dipeptidyl peptidase-4. The dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors have shown benefits in decreasing the mortality and severity associated with SARS–CoV-2 infection. DPP-4 has the potential to block the host CD26 receptor and modulate the DPP4/CD26 activity consequently restricting SARS–CoV-2 from entering the T cells. DPP-4 inhibitors including Gliptins, sDPP4 (soluble form), and AntiDPP4 vaccine is extensively used for

A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the possible effect of SAR-CoV-2 infection on thyroid function. The study included 45 COVID-19 patients and 45 apparently healthy uninfected controls. The mean age of COVID-19 patients was 35.31±12.44 years, while uninfected controls had a mean age of 38.38 ± 8.08 years. 75.6% were males and 24.4% were females in the COVID-19 infected group, while the corresponding uninfected controls comprised 71.1% males and 28.9% females. P

Both Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and SARS-CoV-2 can cause liver damage and hence it is important to understand the impact of HBV on SARS-CoV-2 infected patients. A large-scale, population-based, nationwide cohort study was conducted to measure the potential associations between CHB and the use of antiviral therapy with SARS-CoV-2 infection rates. A total of 204,418 patients were included with 7,723 SARS-CoV-2 test positive patients (case-patients) and 46,231 with negative SARS-Co

There is an association between low zinc levels and the severity of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 people. Artificial nutrition such as parenteral nutrition (PN) or enteral nutrition may be needed to avoid malnutrition. Low serum zinc and copper levels have been observed among ICU patients, whereas patients with high serum concentrations have significantly low mortality rates. A retrospective study was conducted on thirty-five COVID-19 patients on PN f

Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is a serious and potentially life-threatening illness exhibited in COVID-19 children. It affects the majority of male children and occurs 2-4 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patients with MIS-C have elevated biomarkers associated with vascular inflammation and damage. 70-90% of children with MIS-C show symptoms like fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Hematologic abnormalities are also observed. 50% of childre

An observational study with a case-control design was conducted to analyze the prevalence of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) in adenovirus vector-based COVID19 vaccine recipients. All published cases and case series between March 01 and April 30, 2021, were screened, and specific reports from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Medicines Agency providing patient-level data were assessed. 77 cases of CVT were identified. Patients’ age

Low dose radiation is effective against viral pneumonia and hypothetically found to suppress the cytokine release syndrome. Low-dose radiation has several advantages as compared to the current drugs and medicines for COVID-19. Several studies were proposed and conducted to study the impact of Low dose radiation therapy (LDRT) with a dose of 300 mGy or less on systemic immune function and anti-inflammation to treat COVID-19. The reports cover a wide range of patient condition

Multiple studies are carried out to explore the benefits of antiviral drugs, especially hepatitis C virus direct-acting antivirals (HCV DAAs) to treat COVID-19. This study was conducted to evaluate the anti-SARS-CoV-2 effects of asunaprevir (a protease inhibitor), daclatasvir (an NS5A inhibitor) and sofosbuvir (an RNA polymerase inhibitor). Vero E6, Calu-3, Huh7.5, and HEK293T cell lines were used for testing the antiviral activity of the drugs against SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. As

Higher levels of ACE2 association in certain comorbidities explain its association with the severity of COVID-19. It has been demonstrated that ACE2 is highly expressed in the esophagus of patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and that the acidic pH associated with this condition is a key inducer of ACE2 expression. In-vitro analyses have depicted that in primary monocyte culture, ACE2 expression was significantly high at pH 6 and 6.5 when compared to pH 7. The reduction of

Clarithromycin (CAM) has diverse effects like immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive effects, autophagy inhibition, steroid spanning effect, reversibility of drug resistance, antineoplastic and antiviral effects. Recently it has been proven that CAM successfully suppresses inflammatory cytokines responsible for cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and possesses an anti-SARS-CoV-2 effect. CAM leads to the suppression of the RdRp gene, resulting in the inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 repli

Neopterin is released by macrophages during inflammatory responses leading to cytokine storms, a hall-mark of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Hence, a case-control design study was conducted to analyze the association of serum neopterin levels with COVID-19. A total of 610 individuals participated of which 374 were hospitalized COVID-19 patients and 256 were healthy donors. Hospitalized COVID-19 patients were all symptomatic and displayed a large spectrum of comorbidities. The patients

Hypopituitarism might have a bidirectional relationship with COVID-19 due to its frequent association with metabolic comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, arterial hypertension, and vertebral fractures. In a large population matched cohort study, hospitalized patients with hypopituitarism were highly vulnerable for acute medical conditions with increased risk of mortality and adverse clinical outcomes. Recently, COVID-19 has been highlighted as a probable risk factor for pitu

A systematic retrospective study was performed on 175 children of age 0 to 18 years who were presented to the emergency department and diagnosed with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Prior neurological disorder was reported in 12% of the patients. It was observed that 6% of the patients were presented with seizures. Nine patients presented with generalized tonic-clonic seizures. One patient with prior history of uncontrolled epilepsy with multiple seizure types had a focal tonic s

Treatment of COVID-19 pediatric patients entails supportive and symptomatic management. Unfortunately, no RCTs have included pediatric patients, to date. The available evidence is obtained from adult studies. Remdesivir is the only USFDA-approved anti-COVID-19 medication indicated in the majority of symptomatic patients with moderate to severe disease. According to the USFDA, remdesivir is recommended in hospitalized children aged 12 years and above, and weighing at least 40

Coronavirus vaccination has emerged as one of the primary keys to leveraging life in this pandemic. Be it any vaccine you get, the take-home message is to get vaccinated, and keep following appropriate norms to maximise immune protection. As with the vaccination itself, there are some do’s and don’ts that experts recommend to minimize side effects and keep the vaccine doing its job well. While some of the basic rules dictate to not stress the body out before or after the vacc

The prevalence of sudden loss of smell in COVID-19 patients is approximately 40% to 75%. Some individuals recover from acute smell loss, only to subsequently report other olfactory dysfunctions, such as parosmia (smell distortions) and phantosmia (phantom smells or olfactory hallucinations). A longitudinal survey was conducted to characterize the smell function post-COVID-19. The smelling ability was initially measured during COVID-19 infection and then during subsequent foll

Glycyrrhizic acid (GA), the main active compound in licorice, has been proven effective in combating SARS-CoV-2 infection. GA has adjuvant immune activity and anti-inflammatory properties. GA promotes the proliferation of T cells and has Th1 immunological adjuvant activity, thus enhancing the immune system’s resistance to SARS-CoV-2. When SARS-CoV-2 infects T lymphocytes, it remains latent in the infected host cells for 12–36 h. It has been reported that GA could induce apop

A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted to understand the prevalence of fibromyalgia after an episode of symptomatic COVID-19 infection. From the data obtained from 616 patients, it was observed that fibromyalgia is common in COVID-19 recovered patients. 30.7% patients reported the presence of fibromyalgia. Although it is known that fibromyalgia is a female predominant disorder, the study showed a higher prevalence of fibromyalgia among the males. 43% of the males re

A novel inactivated whole virion vaccine, QazCovid-in is developed to combat COVID-19. It is inactivated by formaldehyde, and adjuvanted with aluminum hydroxide. The total protein concentration is 5ug per dose of the vaccine. To analyze the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, the vaccine was administered in a one- or two-dose regimen on day 1 and day 21 in healthy individuals above 18 years without any COVID-19 history or contact. The participants were monitored for 6 months.

SARS-CoV-2 and poliovirus have single stranded RNA and use RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) for genomic replication. It was proven using ELISA that poliovirus RdRp antigens were recognized by SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. This indicates that the poliovirus vaccine (IPV) has the ability to induce immune responses against SARS-COV-2. Serum samples from 204 individuals were analysed, of which 119 has not been recently immunized with the poliovirus vaccine (IPV) and termed as “pre-im