Summary Background Obesity increases the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 illness in adults. The role of obesity in short‐term complications and post‐acute sequelae in children is not well defined. Objective To evaluate the relationship between obesity and short‐term complications and post‐acute sequelae of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection in hospitalized paediatric patients. Methods An observational study was conducted in three tertiary hospitals, including paediatric hospitalized patients with a confirmatory SARS‐CoV‐2 RT‐PCR from March 2020 to December 2021. Obesity was defined according to WHO 2006 (0–2 years) and CDC 2000 (2–20 years) growth references. Short‐term outcomes were intensive care unit admission, ventilatory support, superinfections, acute kidney injury, and mortality. Neurological, respiratory, and cardiological symptoms and/or delayed or long‐term complications beyond 4 weeks from the onset of symptoms were considered as post‐acute sequalae. Adjusted linear, logistic regression and generalized estimating equations models were performed. Results A total of 216 individuals were included, and 67 (31.02%) of them had obesity. Obesity was associated with intensive care unit admission (aOR = 5.63, CI95% 2.90–10.94), oxygen requirement (aOR = 2.77, CI95% 1.36–5.63), non‐invasive ventilatory support (aOR = 6.81, CI95% 2.11–22.04), overall superinfections (aOR = 3.02 CI95% 1.45–6.31), and suspected bacterial pneumonia (aOR = 3.00 CI95% 1.44–6.23). For post‐acute sequalae, obesity was associated with dyspnea (aOR = 9.91 CI95% 1.92–51.10) and muscle weakness (aOR = 20.04 CI95% 2.50–160.65). Conclusions In paediatric hospitalized patients with COVID‐19, severe short‐term outcomes and post‐acute sequelae are associated with obesity. Recognizing obesity as a key comorbidity is essential to develop targeted strategies for prevention of COVID‐19 complications in children.
The presence of supermassive black holes at redshift z > 6 raises some questions about their formation and growth in the early universe. Due to the construction of new telescopes like the ELT to observe and detect SMBHs, it will be useful to derive theoretical estimates for the population and to compare observations and model predictions in the future. In consequence our main goal is to estimate the population of SMBHs using a semi-analytic code known as Galacticus which is a code for the formation and evolution of galaxies where we are about to include different scenarios for SMBHs formation indicating the initial mass of the black hole seed, its formation conditions and recipes for the evolution of the components of the galaxies. We found that the principal mechanism of growing SMBHs is is via galaxy mergers and accretion of matter. For the comparison of our results with observations, we calculate the radius of influence of the black hole to estimate which part of the population could be detected, leading to relations similar to the observed ones.
Since the first report of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans, the virus has mutated to develop new viral variants with higher infection rates and more resistance to neutralization by antibodies elicited after natural SARS-CoV-2 infection or by vaccines. Therefore, rapid identification of viral variants circulating in the population is crucial for epidemiological assessment and efforts to contain the resurgence of the pandemic. Between January and November 2021, we performed a large variant RT-qPCR-based screening of mutations in the spike protein of 1851 SARS-CoV-2-positive samples derived from outpatients from the UC-Christus Health Network in Chile. In a portion of samples (n = 636), we validated our RT-qPCR-pipeline by WGS, obtaining a 99.2% concordance. Our results indicate that from January to March 2021 there was a dominance of non-identifiable variants by the RT-qPCR-based screening; however, throughout WGS we were able to identify the Lambda (C.37) variant of interest (VOI). From March to July, we observed the rapid emergence of mutations associated with the Gamma variant (P.1), which was quickly replaced by the appearance of a combination of samples harboring mutations associated with the Delta variant (B.1.617.2), which predominated until the end of the study. Our results highlight the applicability of cost-effective RT-qPCR-based screening of mutations associated with known variants of concern (VOC), VOI and variants under monitoring (VUM) of SARS-CoV-2, being a rapid and reliable tool that complements WGS-based surveillance.
The durability of circulating neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and their boosting by vaccination remains to be defined. We show that outpatient and hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 seropositive individuals mount a robust neutralizing antibody (nAb) response that peaks at days 23 and 27 post-symptom onset, respectively. Although nAb titers remained higher in hospitalized patients, both study groups showed long-lasting nAb responses that can persist for up to 12 months after natural infection. These nAb responses in previously seropositive individuals can be significantly boosted through immunization with two doses of the CoronaVac (Sinovac) or one dose of the BNT162b2 (BioNTech/Pfizer) vaccines, suggesting a substantial induction of B cell memory responses. Noteworthy, three obese previously seropositive individuals failed to mount a booster response upon vaccination, warranting further studies in this population. Immunization of naïve individuals with two doses of the CoronaVac vaccine or one dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine elicited similar levels of nAbs compared to seropositive individuals 4.2 to 13.3 months post-infection with SARS-CoV-2. Thus, this preliminary evidence suggests that both, seropositive and naïve individuals, require two doses of CoronaVac to ensure the induction of robust nAb titers.
En este repositorio se encuentran los documentos para el práctico de NGS que tiene como objetivo descubrir los genes diferencialmente expresados en las células NHBE, cuando ellas son infectadas con el virus SARS-Cov-2. Se desea comparar células infectadas versus no infectadas (mock). Cada grupo cuenta con 3 réplicas. Este práctico está basado en datos reales (GEO GSE147507), pero que han sido modificados y escalados para este práctico.
During alcoholic fermentation, Saccharomyces cerevisiae is exposed to continuously changing environmental conditions, such as decreasing sugar and increasing ethanol concentrations. Oxygen, a critical nutrient to avoid stuck and sluggish fermentations, is only discretely available throughout the process after pump-over operation. In this work, we studied the physiological response of the wine yeast S. cerevisiae strain EC1118 to a sudden increase in dissolved oxygen, simulating pump-over operation. With this aim, an impulse of dissolved oxygen was added to carbon-sufficient, nitrogen-limited anaerobic continuous cultures. Results showed that genes related to mitochondrial respiration, ergosterol biosynthesis, and oxidative stress, among other metabolic pathways, were induced after the oxygen impulse. On the other hand, mannoprotein coding genes were repressed. The changes in the expression of these genes are coordinated responses that share common elements at the level of transcriptional regulation. Beneficial and detrimental effects of these physiological processes on wine quality highlight the dual role of oxygen in 'making or breaking wines'. These findings will facilitate the development of oxygen addition strategies to optimize yeast performance in industrial fermentations.
H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIV) emerged in wild birds in Chile in December 2022 and spilled over into poultry, marine mammals, and one human. Between December 9, 2022 - March 14, 2023, a coordinated government/academic response detected HPAIV by real-time RT-PCR in 8.5% (412/4735) of samples from 23 avian and 3 mammal orders. Whole-genome sequences obtained from 77 birds and 8 marine mammals revealed that all Chilean H5N1 viruses belong to lineage 2.3.4.4b and cluster monophyletically with viruses from Peru, indicating a single introduction from North America into Peru/Chile. Mammalian adaptations were identified in the PB2 segment: D701N in two sea lions, one human, and one shorebird, and Q591K in the human and one sea lion. Minor variant analysis revealed that D701N was present in 52.9 - 70.9% of sequence reads, indicating the presence of both genotypes within hosts. Further surveillance of spillover events is warranted to assess the emergence and potential onward transmission of mammalian adapted H5N1 HPAIV in South America.
Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been detected in domestic and wild cats. However, little is known about natural viral infections of domestic cats, although their importance for modeling disease spread, informing strategies for managing positive human-animal relationships and disease prevention. Here, we describe the SARS-CoV-2 infection in a household of two human adults and sibling cats (one male and two females) using real-time RT-PCR, an ELISA test, viral sequencing, and virus isolation. On May 2020, the cat- owners tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Two days later, the male cat showed mild respiratory symptoms and tested positive. Four days after the male cat, the two female cats became positive, asymptomatically. Also, one human and one cat showed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. All cats excreted detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA for a shorter duration than humans and viral sequences analysis confirmed human-to-cat transmission. We could not determine if cat-to-cat transmission also occurred. Article Summary Line SARS-CoV-2 in naturally infected cats present a shorter shedding pattern compared to their owners.
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