Cross-sectional study evaluating the impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on Long COVID outcomes in UK hospital survivors

OBJECTIVES: COVID-19 studies report on hospital admission outcomes across SARS-CoV-2 waves of infection but knowledge of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 variants on the development of Long COVID in hospital survivors is limited. We sought to investigate Long COVID outcomes, aiming to compare outcomes in adult hospitalised survivors with known variants of concern during our first and second UK COVID-19 waves, prior to widespread vaccination. DESIGN: Prospective observational cross-sectional study. SETTING: Secondary care tertiary hospital in the UK. PARTICIPANTS: This study investigated Long COVID in 673 adults with laboratory-positive SARS-CoV-2 infection or clinically suspected COVID-19, 6 weeks after hospital discharge. We compared adults with wave 1 (wildtype variant, admitted from February to April 2020) and wave 2 patients (confirmed Alpha variant on viral sequencing (B.1.1.7), admitted from December 2020 to February 2021). OUTCOME MEASURES: Associations of Long COVID presence (one or more of 14 symptoms) and total number of Long COVID symptoms with SARS-CoV-2 variant were analysed using multiple logistic and Poisson regression, respectively. RESULTS: 322/400 (wave 1) and 248/273 (wave 2) patients completed follow-up. Predictors of increased total number of Long COVID symptoms included: pre-existing lung disease (adjusted count ratio (aCR)=1.26, 95% CI 1.07, 1.48) and more COVID-19 admission symptoms (aCR=1.07, 95% CI 1.02, 1.12). Weaker associations included increased length of inpatient stay (aCR=1.02, 95% CI 1.00, 1.03) and later review after discharge (aCR=1.00, 95% CI 1.00, 1.01). SARS-CoV-2 variant was not associated with Long COVID presence (OR=0.99, 95% CI 0.24, 4.20) or total number of symptoms (aCR=1.09, 95% CI 0.82, 1.44). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with chronic lung disease or greater COVID-19 admission symptoms have higher Long COVID risk. SARS-CoV-2 variant was not predictive of Long COVID though in wave 2 we identified fewer admission symptoms, improved clinical trajectory and outcomes. Addressing modifiable factors such as length of stay and timepoint of clinical review following discharge may enable clinicians to move from Long COVID risk stratification towards improving its outcome

The BIOPEP database - a tool for the in silico method of classification of food proteins as the source of peptides with antihypertensive activity

A database of potentially biologically active peptide sequences, named BIOPEP (http://www.uwm.edu.pl/biochemia), has been developed and applied for classification of numerous food proteins as potential sources of peptides with antihypertensive activity. More than one hundred proteins included in the BIOPEP database were analyzed and classified according to the frequency of the occurrence of antihypertensive fragments. As the example of detailed profile of potential biological activity, the bovine beta-globulin A is presented. It was found that apart from the dominant antihypertensive activity, other effects (opioid, dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitory, immunomodulative, antioxidative) may be present. It can be concluded that this method may be a useful tool in this field. The antihypertensive activity was the most dominant because fragments with such activity were present in all of the examined proteins. It encouraged us to classify proteins into families, which may be better or the worse source of antihypertensive fragments. We found statistically significant differences between the values of parameter A (P<0.001) among the all five families we obtained. We found that in silico analysis can be useful in the analysis of the large quantities of data in the field of proteins as the source of biologically active peptides

Bioinformatic-aided prediction for release possibilities of bioactive peptides from plant proteins

Proteins apart from their basic functions may be the precursors of peptides with opioid, antihypertensive, immunomodulating, dipeptidyl peptidase inhibitors, antiamnestic, antithrombotic and other activities. Biopeptides as components of food with desired features become an interesting issue for scientific research. The bioinformatic-aided analysis of the distribution of biologically active fragments and bonds, which are predicted to be susceptible to the action of endopeptidases of known specificity, hydropathy index and prediction of secondary structures has been carried out. The results indicated that wheat gliadins were the most susceptible for bioactive peptides release. These peptides showed antihypertensive, inhibitor of dipeptidyl peptidase opioid and antioxidative effect, and were released by chymotrypsin, elastase, ficin and pepsin. The bioactive fragments predicted to be released by proteolytic enzymes as well as surroundings of such fragments were hydrophilic. The most frequently occurring structure of bioactive peptides from plant proteins was random coil. These findings suggested that the distribution of bioactive fragments could favour their release by proteinases

Public-private partnership in Poland. A cosmological journey

A language barrier prevents us from understanding how other cultures look at public administration, as "semantic fields" differ between languages. These differences can never be fully grasped, but what we can do is study what happens when a particular concept crosses the border. In this article we select a concept, public-private partnership, that in recent times migrated from one administrative order, the United States, to another, Poland. We follow this concept on its migration to see how it changes and to find out what these shifts in meaning tell us about the differences between the two social realities involved. © 2010 SAGE Publications