COVID-19: An Overview of Current progress and prospects in the frantic race to develop upcoming safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine Candidates

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an emerging infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It quickly spread around the world after its first emergence in Wuhan in December 2019 to become a global pandemic with millions of infections worldwide. As of 1 November 2020, nearly 46 million cases have been reported globally and 1.2 million patients succumbed to the viral disease. Due to the lack of efficient and specific therapeutic and prophylactic options available and the need to contain the epidemic, and its economic, political, cultural, demographic and societal consequences, there is a strong consensus globally only the development of a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19 is the best way to control and ultimately end the pandemic. Faced with the urgency imposed by the speed of expansion of covid-19, scientists are led to launch themselves into a race against the clock to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by next year. Once the vaccine has been developed, strong international coordination and cooperation between all stakeholders in the vaccine productionprocess will be needed to ensure equitable availability of the vaccine to the global population

How is the SARS-cov-2 virus transmitted ?

Since December 2019, the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has continued to spread drastically around the world. To date, no approved drug or vaccine is available to treat or prevent this new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection.Unprecedented global effort has been made by researchers to understand the various routes of SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission in order to effectively preventthe contamination. In this review, we discuss the updated literature regarding the different modes of SARS-CoV-2 transmission

Prevalence of Thyroid Autoimmunity among Type 2 Diabetes Moroccan subjects: A Retrospective study

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a growing concern in the general Moroccan population and often associated with common endocrine disorders particularly thyroid dysfunction. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of T2D and the thyroid autoimmunity (TDI) in Moroccan subjects.A retrospective study was conducted between January 2012 and December 2018. We collected data from 52 diabetic patients and 71 non-diabetic subjects (controls). Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxin (FT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb), and thyroglobulin antibodies (TGAb) levels were measured using Chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay. Fasting blood glucose (FBG), triglyceride (TG), and total cholesterol (CT) concentrations were determined using dry chemistry method. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was evaluated using high performance liquid chromatography principle.   Among 52 diabetic subjects, 23 (44.2.8%) were positives for thyroid antibodies.  The TPOAb mean did not differ significantly between diabetic and control individuals  (24.51 ± 8.22 vs. 13.27 ± 3.72, p=0.167). However, regarding the TgAb level a significant difference was observed in T2D (20.32 ± 4.94 vs. 8.51 ± 2.59, p = 0.004) compared to subjects without diabetes. Hypothyroidism was reported in 52 diabetic patients (44.23%) and (50.7%) in non-diabetic subjects. The analysis of multiple logistic regressions indicated that high risk of TDI in diabetic patients   was not related to diabetes, sex, age, or status of dyslipidemia.Our data revealed no significant association between T2D and TDI disorders in Moroccan subjects. However, further studies on a large sample are needed to confirm these findings

COVID-19 severityin patients with diabetes and cardiovascular diseases: A Short Review

A novel Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been become a global health hazard and declared as a pandemic disease by WHO. Patients with Covid-19 and pre-existing medical conditions like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus and hypertension have an increased risk of severe disease and death. Furthermore, the increased expression of Angiotensin -converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2) in patients with diabetes or cardiovascular diseases could increase the risk of severe infection with SARS-CoV-2

SARS-CoV-2 virus genome structure and evolution

Late December 2019, a new virus outbreak was detected in Wuhan, Hubei province China and later spread all over the world.The virus is a new strain of the β-Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) with a single strand positive sense RNA, and a genome size of 29,890 kb that codes for 9744 amino acids. Not many mutations are depicted in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, However, most of them are detected in the ORF8 regionand the spike. The latter exhibits higher affinity with the Human ACE2 receptor than the SARS-CoV.Alignment of SARS-CoV-2 genome with other Corona viruses shows a high similarity to the Bat-CoV,but this latter was not enough to conclude that the Bat is the origin of the Human SARS-CoV-2. This review aimed to provide an overview of the viral genome structure and its origin

Therapies in the fight against Covid-19

SARS-Cov-2 Coronavirus is a new emerging virus causing the COVID-19, a respiratory disease outbreak that started in China in December 2019. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization has declared this to be a public health emergency of international concern. By September 2020, COVID-19 has affected more than 33 millionin 210 countries and territories worldwide. In this review, we present an overview of the drugs and medicines to combat COVID-19 currently in the clinical trial. We summarize the challenges facing, and opportunities for the discovery of new therapies in this emergency situation

The impact of serum glucose, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels on Breast Cancer risk: A retrospective study

Introduction:  This study aims is to explore the relationship of serum glucose, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels and breast cancer (BC).Methods: We analyzed data in 100 women with confirmed BC and in the same number of age-matched disease-free controls. Cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels were estimated using chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay technology. Glucose, triglyceride and total cholesterol levels were evaluated using dry chemistry method.Results: In this study no significant differences were found comparing glucose and total cholesterol levels in BC cases and controls. The adjusted ORs were 0.84 (95% CI: 0.48-1.49) and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.28-1.37) respectively. However, a significant inverse association between BC risk and increasing levels of triglycerides was observed, particularly at postmenopausal stage (OR= 0.32, 95%CI: 0.14-0.77). Based on CEA and CA15-3 levels measurement and BC duration, we showed that diabetes and lipid status did not influence the course of the malignancy.Conclusion:  Our study highlights the absence of the effect of diabetes and dyslipidemia on the risk and progression of BC. Further prospective investigations are required to confirm this important issue

In Silico Analysis of High-Risk Missense Variants in Human ACE2 Gene and Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses for entry to human host cells a SARS-CoV receptor of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE2) that catalyzes the conversion of angiotensin II into angiotensin (1-7). To understand the effect of ACE2 missense variants on protein structure, stability, and function, various bioinformatics tools were used including SIFT, PANTHER, PROVEAN, PolyPhen2.0, I. Mutant Suite, MUpro, SWISS-MODEL, Project HOPE, ModPred, QMEAN, ConSurf, and STRING. All twelve ACE2 nsSNPs were analyzed. Six ACE2 high-risk pathogenic nsSNPs (D427Y, R514G, R708W, R710C, R716C, and R768W) were found to be the most damaging by at least six software tools (cumulative score between 6 and 7) and exert deleterious effect on the ACE2 protein structure and likely function. Additionally, they revealed high conservation, less stability, and having a role in posttranslation modifications such a proteolytic cleavage or ADP-ribosylation. This in silico analysis provides information about functional nucleotide variants that have an impact on the ACE2 protein structure and function and therefore susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2