Volume 222, Issue 2, 15 July 2020

Serological tests could be a powerful approach for the early diagnosis of COVID-19. Combining nuclear acid tests and antibody tests can, to some extent, track disease progression.

A peptide-based magnetic chemiluminescence enzyme immunoassay for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was developed; 71.4% (197 of 276) and 57.2% (158 of 276) of the COVID-19 inpatients were positive for IgG and IgM against SARS-CoV-2.

We report a case series of 6 patients with COVID-19. The complaints and symptoms experienced by the patients varied. It would be difficult to triage patients with COVID-19 based on typical symptoms, although polymerase chain reaction and computed tomography are definitive in diagnosis.

Our results demonstrated that significantly decreased T-cell subset counts were related to the severity and prognosis of COVID-19. Consequently, the counts of CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T cells can be used as diagnostic markers of COVID-19 and predictors of disease severity.

An immunoprecipitation assay detected antibody to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 nucleocapsid protein with high sensitivity and specificity even after heat inactivation of plasma. This assay was more sensitive than detection of antibody to the spike protein.

This study provides the first evidence that sunlight may rapidly inactivate SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces, suggesting that persistence, and subsequently exposure risk, may vary significantly between indoor and outdoor environments.

A genotyping method based on the extended ORF8 gene is established, which shows potential use in distinguishing the SARS-related coronaviruses from different hosts and geographic areas. This special region is also used to explore the possible origin and evolution of SARS-CoV-2.

Despite successful immune reconstitution after antiretroviral therapy, virus-specific CD4⁺ T-cell memory and antiviral antibody responses after childhood smallpox vaccination were found to be preferentially lost among women with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection compared with matched HIV-uninfected controls.

T-cell alterations, including memory CD4⁺ T-cell expansion, are associated with diabetes in both persons with HIV and HIV-negative individuals, suggesting that changes to the T-cell compartment is related to or possibly mediates diabetes in persons with HIV.

Quantitative calcaneal ultrasonography and urinary retinol-binding protein showed a moderate correlation with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry–measured bone mineral density in people with human immunodeficiency virus receiving long-term antiretroviral therapy in Uganda: longitudinal studies are needed for evaluating whether fragility fractures may be predicted and avoided.

Antibody responses to influenza vaccines are often diminished in individuals who are repeatedly vaccinated. Here, we discovered that requisite CD4 T-cell responses are similarly reduced, suggesting that early events in vaccine-induced immunity are blunted in repeatedly vaccinated subjects.

In this investigation of the relative vaccine effectiveness of influenza vaccines among Medicare beneficiaries ages >65 years during the 2018–19 season, we found that the egg-based adjuvanted and high-dose vaccines were slightly more effective than the egg-based quadrivalent vaccines.

We describe use of whole-genome sequencing to identify viral genetic features associated with an increased number and severity of respiratory syncytial virus cases among children and adults in Minnesota.

In a prospective study of respiratory infections, children with higher respiratory syncytial virus load had significantly longer durations of rhinitis, cough, fever, and any symptoms than those with lower viral load.

Concurrent ileocolic intussusception and primary wild-type varicella-zoster virus (VZV) infection occurred in an infant. Detection of VZV in the gut, in both lymph nodes and the enteric nervous system (ENS), suggests that lymphadenopathy and/or ENS dysfunction contributed to the disease.

Individual-level data on infants enrolled in 9 rotavirus vaccine clinical trials from 16 countries were pooled. We found that postvaccination serum antirotavirus immunoglobulin A is an imperfect but informative measure of an infant’s risk of rotavirus gastroenteritis following vaccination.

We designed an RT-PCR assay that targets antisense Zika virus RNA. In semen samples of 19 men diagnosed with Zika virus infection, the antisense RT-PCR had higher sensitivity than virus isolation for detecting the presence of replication competent virus.

Human rhinoviruses and human enteroviruses are associated with acute otitis media (AOM) in young children and may contribute to the development of AOM in a relatively large proportion of cases.