Clinical, Radiological, and Molecular Findings of Acute Encephalitis in a COVID-19 Patient: A Rare Case Report.

We report a case of encephalitis in a young male patient with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who initially presented with typical symptoms of fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath but later on developed acute respiratory distress syndrome and required mechanical ventilation. Two days post-extubation, the patient developed new-onset generalized tonic-clonic seizures and confusion. MRI of the brain was done and it showed an abnormal signal in the bilateral medial cortical frontal region. His cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) analysis revealed a characteristic picture of a viral infection with a high white blood cell count and normal glucose and protein levels. After ruling out all common causes of viral encephalitis such as herpes simplex virus (HSV) and based on the review of available literature regarding the neurological manifestations of COVID-19, this case was labeled as acute viral encephalitis secondary to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection

A Comparative Analysis on the Innate Immune Responses of <i>Cirrhinus mrigala</i> Challenged with <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Fusarium oxysporum</i>

Microbes are the most significant ubiquitous pathogens that cause serious infections in freshwater fish, leading to tremendous economic losses. The present study was designed to investigate the extent of changes in cytokine expression, hemato-biochemical parameters, and tissue histology of Cirrhinus mrigala (C. mrigala) challenged with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) and Fusarium oxysporum (F. oxysporum). Fish were divided into three major groups: control, P. aeruginosa-challenged, and F. oxysporum-challenged. The infection in both challenge assays was allowed to progress until 7 days post infection. Upregulated expression of TNF-α and IL-1β was found in blood, gills, livers, and kidneys of the challenged fish. Significant differences were noted in hematological parameters of challenged fish. Alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline aminotransferase levels also showed significant differences in infected and control groups. An increase in serum albumin and globulin and a decrease in total protein were noted in infected groups as compared to the control group. Severe histological alterations were noted in gill, liver, and kidney tissues of the infected groups as compared to control. The order of histological alteration index for P. aeruginosa challenge was liver &gt; kidney &gt; gills, and for F. oxysporum challenge it was kidney &gt; liver &gt; gills. These changes in fish infected by P. aeruginosa and F. oxysporum can be used as an effective and subtle index to monitor the physiological and pathological conditions of fish

COVID-19 Induced Myocarditis: A Rare Cause of Heart Failure.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing lung injury has been well documented in the literature recently. They do so primarily by binding to the membrane-bound form of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) receptors. However, since these receptors are also expressed in the heart and blood vessels, coronavirus can also cause damage to these organs by binding to the ACE-2 receptors. A typical case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) usually presents with respiratory symptoms like cough and shortness of breath accompanied by fever. The literature regarding this pandemic has been growing and now we know very well that the effect of this deadly virus is not restricted to the lungs alone. It can, unfortunately, cause various other complications ranging from neurological damage to even myocardial injury in rare cases. We present an interesting case of a 40-year-old male patient who presented to us with shortness of breath. When further investigated, the patient was found to have a new onset of heart failure secondary to COVID-19 induced myocarditis

Efficiency of biologically and locally manufactured silver nanoparticles from Aspergillus niger in preventing Aspergillus flavus to produce aflatoxin B1 on the stored maize grains

This study was conducted in the mycotoxins laboratory, College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad, Iraq to evaluate the efficiency of silver nanoparticles manufactured locally and biologically by Aspergillus niger in preventing A. flavus to produce aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). The results of laboratory isolation showed that the companion of fungi genera were Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillum spp. and Rhizopus spp. at rates of 5.66, 14.91, 21.18 and 38.86% respectively. The highest frequency of A. flavus was 19.32%. The results of the TLC test showed that all isolates produced AFB1 in varying rates (%), and the Baghdad / Al-Youssifia isolate was the most productive of AFB1, since it has a largest spot area and most intense fluorescence under the chromatographic plate, hence given a symbolic name AFBY7. The results of HPLC showed that the toxin concentration in the AFBY7 isolate was 124.167 ppb. Also, the results showed the high efficiency of A. niger in the manufacture of silver nanoparticles, as the colour of solution changed from yellow to dark brown. On the other hand, the results of using locally and biologically manufactured silver nanoparticles in the storage experiment to prevent the fungus from producing toxin showed superiority of treatments (T) 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 mg L-1, since AFB1 was 0.0 ppb compared to T0.2 (3.990 ppb). In addition, the results showed the efficiency of locally and biologically manufactured silver nanoparticles used in reducing AFB1 in the storage experiment of maize grains stored. So that, T0.6 and T0.8 were superior in reducing the AFB1 to 0.0, compared to T0.2 and T0.4, leading AFB1 to reach 10.230 and 5.180 ppb respectively

Monitoring of traffic using unmanned aerial vehicle in Malaysia landscape perspective

The theoretical investigation has been performed on the implementation of optical Mobius shape in add-drop microring resonator. The modified add-drop Mobius configuration is used to investigate the optical bistability and the spectral transmission. The optical bright soliton pulse is used as the input source of the resonator system. The pulses propagation of the resonator system is modelled using the iterative programming based on the transfer matrix analysis equations. The enhancement of nonlinear effect of the resonator system is achieved by the add-drop Mobius resonator configuration. The system has been modelled for a variation of coupling coefficient for increase the bistable signal properties. The Add-drop Mobius MRR generated a bistable signal with 6.01 mW hysteresis width, and 9.47 mW output switch power with optimized radius of 5 µm outer and 4.5 m inner ring parts with 50 mW controlled power and input power. Mobius configuration is found as the better shape of resonator cavity that capable of optical switching application

Locked-in Syndrome in a Young Patient Due to SARS-CoV-2: A Case Report

© Copyright © 2020 Sattar, Iqbal, Haider, Zia, Niazi, Hanif, Ali and Khan. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), apart from commonly involving the respiratory system, has its impact on the central nervous system, with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations ranging from headaches to ischemic strokes. The ongoing research regarding this novel disease has found that there is a very high prevalence of thrombotic episodes especially in critically ill patients when compared to severe presentation of other viral illnesses. This COVID-19-associated coagulopathy has a very complex etiology with the ability to form thrombus in arteries, veins, and microvasculatures of different organs. We present a unique case of a young woman with underlying COVID-19 who unfortunately developed locked-in syndrome due to bilateral pontine infarction during the course of her illness

Future COVID19 surges prediction based on SARS-CoV-2 mutations surveillance

COVID19 has aptly revealed that airborne viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 with the ability to rapidly mutate, combined with high rates of transmission and fatality can cause a deadly world-wide pandemic in a matter of weeks.1 Apart from vaccines and post-infection treatment options, strategies for preparedness will be vital in responding to the current and future pandemics. Therefore, there is wide interest in approaches that allow predictions of increase in infections ('surges') before they occur. We describe here real time genomic surveillance particularly based on mutation analysis, of viral proteins as a methodology for a priori determination of surge in number of infection cases. The full results are available for SARS-CoV-2 at http://pandemics.okstate.edu/covid19/, and are updated daily as new virus sequences become available. This approach is generic and will also be applicable to other pathogens