Unpaired sex chromosomes in metaphase I human spermatocytes locally modify autosomal bivalents positioning

Altres ajuts: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (CF-180034

Prospective individual patient data meta-analysis of two randomized trials on convalescent plasma for COVID-19 outpatients

Data on convalescent plasma (CP) treatment in COVID-19 outpatients are scarce. We aimed to assess whether CP administered during the first week of symptoms reduced the disease progression or risk of hospitalization of outpatients. Two multicenter, double-blind randomized trials (NCT04621123, NCT04589949) were merged with data pooling starting when = 50 years and symptomatic for <= 7days were included. The intervention consisted of 200-300mL of CP with a predefined minimum level of antibodies. Primary endpoints were a 5-point disease severity scale and a composite of hospitalization or death by 28 days. Amongst the 797 patients included, 390 received CP and 392 placebo; they had a median age of 58 years, 1 comorbidity, 5 days symptoms and 93% had negative IgG antibody-test. Seventy-four patients were hospitalized, 6 required mechanical ventilation and 3 died. The odds ratio (OR) of CP for improved disease severity scale was 0.936 (credible interval (CI) 0.667-1.311); OR for hospitalization or death was 0.919 (CI 0.592-1.416). CP effect on hospital admission or death was largest in patients with <= 5 days of symptoms (OR 0.658, 95%CI 0.394-1.085). CP did not decrease the time to full symptom resolution

Hydroxychloroquine for Early Treatment of Adults With Mild Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

No effective treatments for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) exist. We aimed to determine whether early treatment with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) would be efficacious for outpatients with COVID-19.The authors thank Gerard Carot-Sans, PhD, for providing medical writing support during the revisions of the subsequent drafts of the manuscript; the personnel from the Fights Aids and Infectious Diseases Foundation for their support in administration, human resources and supply chain management; Eric Ubals (Pierce AB) and Òscar Palao (Opentic) for website and database management; Óscar Camps and OpenArms nongovernmental organization for nursing home operations; and Anna Valentí and the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol Human Resources Department for telephone monitoring. We thank Consorci Sanitari del Maresme, Centre Sociosanitari El Carme, l'Hospital General de Granollers and occupational hazards department of Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol for their contribution with patient enrollment. We are very grateful to Marc Clotet and Natalia Sánchez who coordinated the JoEmCorono crowd-funding campaign. We thank the Hospital Germans Trias Pujol Institutional Review Board and the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices for their prompt action for consideration and approvals to the protocol. Financial support. This work was mainly supported by the crowd-funding campaign JoEmCorono (https://www.yomecorono.com/) with contributions from more than 72 000 citizens and corporations. The study also received financial support from Laboratorios Rubió, Laboratorios Gebro Pharma, Zurich Seguros, SYNLAB Barcelona, and Generalitat de Catalunya. Laboratorios Rubió also contributed to the study with the required doses of hydroxychloroquine (Dolquine®). Foundation Dorneur partly funded lab equipment at Irsi-Caixa.Peer reviewe

PhDAY 2020 -FOO (Facultad de Óptica y Optometría)

Por cuarto año consecutivo los doctorandos de la Facultad de Óptica y Optometría de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid cuentan con un congreso propio organizado por y para ellos, el 4º PhDAY- FOO. Se trata de un congreso gratuito abierto en la que estos jóvenes científicos podrán presentar sus investigaciones al resto de sus compañeros predoctorales y a toda la comunidad universitaria que quiera disfrutar de este evento. Apunta en tu agenda: el 15 de octubre de 2020. En esta ocasión será un Congreso On-line para evitar que la incertidumbre asociada a la pandemia Covid-19 pudiera condicionar su celebración

Hydroxychloroquine Alone or in Combination with Cobicistat-Boosted Darunavir for Treatment of Mild COVID-19: A Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: No therapeutics have yet been proven effective for the treatment of mild-illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. We assessed the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) alone or in combination with cobicistat-boosted darunavir (DRVc) for treating patients with mild Covid-19. Methods: We conducted a randomized, prospective, controlled, open-label trial in three health regions of Catalonia. After confirmation of a case of Covid-19 disease, we enumerated on a list a ring of the case and all their contacts and randomly assigned the ring to either control or intervention arm on a 1:1 ratio. Here we present the methods concerning eligible index cases, which involved non-hospitalized adult patients with recently confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and less than seven days of symptoms. Patients were assigned to receive HCQ (800 mg on day 1, followed by 400 mg once daily for six days) in combination with DRVc (800 mg/150 mg tablets, once daily for seven days) or no antiviral treatment. The protocol was adapted during the course of the trial to use HCQ alone after findings of no benefit of the protease inhibitor lopinavir-ritonavir. Study outcomes were the reduction of viral RNA load in nasopharyngeal swabs and time to clinical improvement within 28 days of follow-up in the per-protocol population. Adverse events were assessed up to 28 days. Findings: Between Mar 17 and Apr 28, 2020, 353 Covid-19 patients met the criteria for the per-protocol analysis: 165 in the control arm and 142 in the intervention arm. The median time from symptom onset to treatment start was 3 days (IQR 2–4). The per-protocol analysis revealed no significant differences in the mean reduction of viral load in nasopharyngeal swabs at day-3 compared to baseline between the control group (-1·28 Log 10 copies/mL, SD 1·68) and the intervention group (-1·47, SD 1·50); difference -0·18 [95% CI -0.59 to 0·22]. The same pattern was observed at day-7 and -14 after treatment. Time to complete alleviation of symptoms was similar in both groups (22 vs. 20·5 days, p = 0·37). Adverse events included self-limited nausea and diarrhea. Twenty patients required hospitalization, all due to Covid-19 progression. No patients died during the study. Interpretation: In patients with mild Covid-19, no benefit was observed with HCQ alone or in combination with DRVc beyond the usual care. Future testing of other agents in randomized trials may help to identify other drugs that provide a treatment benefit.Crowdfunding campaign YoMeCorono (https://www.yomecorono.com/), Laboratorios Rubió, Laboratorios Gebro Pharma, Zurich Seguros, SYNLAB Barcelona, and Generalitat de Catalunya. Laboratorios Rubió also contributed to the study with the required doses of hydroxychloroquine (Dolquine®).N

A Cluster-Randomized Trial of Hydroxychloroquine as Prevention of Covid-19 Transmission and Disease

Background Current strategies for preventing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections are limited to non-pharmacological interventions. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been proposed as a postexposure therapy to prevent Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) but definitive evidence is lacking. Methods We conducted an open-label, cluster-randomized trial including asymptomatic contacts exposed to a PCR-positive Covid-19 case in Catalonia, Spain. Clusters were randomized to receive no specific therapy (control arm) or HCQ 800mg once, followed by 400mg daily for 6 days (intervention arm). The primary outcome was PCR-confirmed symptomatic Covid-19 within 14 days. The secondary outcome was SARS-CoV-2 infection, either symptomatically compatible or a PCR-positive result regardless of symptoms. Adverse events (AEs) were assessed up to 28 days. Results The analysis included 2,314 healthy contacts of 672 Covid-19 index cases identified between Mar 17 and Apr 28, 2020. A total of 1,198 were randomly allocated to usual care and 1,116 to HCQ therapy. There was no significant difference in the primary outcome of PCR-confirmed, symptomatic Covid-19 disease (6.2% usual care vs. 5.7% HCQ; risk ratio 0.89 [95% confidence interval 0.54-1.46]), nor evidence of beneficial effects on prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission (17.8% usual care vs. 18.7% HCQ). The incidence of AEs was higher in the intervention arm than in the control arm (5.9% usual care vs 51.6% HCQ), but no treatment-related serious AEs were reported. Conclusions Postexposure therapy with HCQ did not prevent SARS-CoV-2 disease and infection in healthy individuals exposed to a PCR-positive case. Our findings do not support HCQ as postexposure prophylaxis for Covid-19.This study was mainly supported by the crowdfunding campaign JoEmCorono (https://www.yomecorono.com/) with the contribution of over 72,000 citizens and corporations. The study also received financial support from Laboratorios Rubió, Gebro Pharma, Zurich Seguros, SYNLAB Barcelona, and Generalitat de Catalunya. Laboratorios Rubió also contributed to the study with the required doses of hydroxychloroquine (Dolquine®).N