Protective potential of expectorants against COVID-19.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Esam Z
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7229712 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Similar Datasets
Project description:ObjectivesBased on protection motivation theory, we investigate how indicators of threat perception (perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, and fear arousal) and coping appraisal (hope) are associated with older people's motivation to engage in protective behavior after the outbreak of COVID-19.MethodsWe use multivariate regression analyses with a sample of 40,282 individuals from 26 countries participating in the SHARE Corona Survey.ResultsWe find that 15% of all respondents stayed home completely-mainly the oldest and vulnerable people with prior health risk conditions. On average, older Europeans responded strongly to the recommended protective behavior measures (6 out of 7 measures adopted). Among the threat perception indicators, fear arousal is the main motivator for protective behavior, whereas the coping appraisal indicator hope shows an equally strong association.DiscussionGiven the negative health effects of fear, our findings may help evaluate and revise governmental policy responses and communication strategies.
| S-EPMC9207583 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundNovel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic, and over 80 million cases and over 1.8 million deaths were reported in 2020. This highly contagious virus is spread primarily via respiratory droplets from face-to-face contact and contaminated surfaces as well as potential aerosol spread. Over half of transmissions occur from presymptomatic and asymptomatic carriers. Although several vaccines are currently available for emergency use, there are uncertainties regarding the duration of protection and the efficacy of preventing asymptomatic spread. Thus, personal protective health behaviour and measures against COVID-19 are still widely recommended after immunization. This study aimed to clarify the efficacy of these measures, and the results may provide valuable guidance to policymakers to educate the general public about how to reduce the individual-level risk of COVID-19 infection.MethodsThis case-control study enrolled 24 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients from Centro Hospitalar Conde de São Januário (C.H.C.S.J.), which was the only hospital designated to manage COVID-19 patients in Macao SAR, China, and 1113 control participants who completed a 14-day mandatory quarantine in 12 designated hotels due to returning from high-risk countries between 17 March and 15 April 2020. A questionnaire was developed to extract demographic information, contact history, and personal health behaviour.ResultsParticipants primarily came from the United Kingdom (33.2%), followed by the United States (10.5%) and Portugal (10.2%). Independent factors for COVID-19 infection were having physical contact with confirmed/suspected COVID-19 patients (adjusted OR, 12.108 [95% CI, 3.380-43.376], P < 0.005), participating in high-risk gathering activities (adjusted OR, 1.129 [95% CI, 1.048-1.216], P < 0.005), handwashing after outdoor activity (adjusted OR, 0.021 [95% CI, 0.003-0.134], P < 0.005), handwashing before touching the mouth and nose area (adjusted OR, 0.303 [95% CI, 0.114-0.808], P < 0.05), and wearing a mask whenever outdoors (adjusted OR, 0.307 [95% CI, 0.109-0.867], P < 0.05). The daily count of handwashing remained similar between groups. Only 31.6% of participants had a sufficient 20-s handwashing duration.ConclusionsParticipating in high-risk gatherings, wearing a mask whenever outdoors, and practising hand hygiene at key times should be advocated to the public to mitigate COVID-19 infection.
| S-EPMC8082215 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively influenced families across the world and contributed to the likelihood of increased parental burnout and decreased parental psychological well-being. However, not all parents experienced parental burnout during the pandemic. In the current study, we focused on protective factors that buffered the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on parents and supported parents' quality of life. Based on previous literature, we hypothesized optimism, humor, and resilience will be associated with lower levels of parental burnout. Two hundred and eighty-one Israeli parents participated in the study, completing questionnaires during the government-mandated lockdown. Questionnaires examined information pertaining to both participants' personal characteristics (optimism and pessimism, self-enhancing humor, resilience, parental stress, and perceptions of the youngest child's functioning) and background characteristics (parental age, gender, health condition, socioeconomic status, employment status, and youngest child's age) to examine the relationship between these variables and parental burnout. Findings indicate that resilience, optimism, and humor facilitated reduced parental burnout and enhanced parental well-being during the pandemic. However, these variables were not associated with parents' stress perception. This study sheds light on the importance of having an optimistic perspective, positive sense of humor, and resilience at times of prolonged stress. Implications for interventions targeting optimistic attitudes and humor are suggested.
| S-EPMC11621680 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The coronavirus disease pandemic caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which emerged in the United States in late 2019 to early 2020 and quickly escalated into a national public health crisis. Research has identified psychiatric conditions as possible risk factors associated with COVID-19 infection and symptom severity. This study aims to determine whether specific classes of psychiatric medications could reduce the likelihood of infection and alleviate the severity of the disease. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between neuropsychiatric medication usage and COVID-19 outcomes before the widespread utilization of COVID-19 vaccines. This cross-sectional study used Optum's de-identified Clinformatics Data Mart Database to identify patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020 and their psychiatric medication prescriptions in the United States. Ordered logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of a higher COVID-19 severity level for long-term and new users. Results were adjusted for demographic characteristics and medical and psychiatric comorbidities. Most users were classified into the long-term user analysis group. Long-term users were 9% less likely to have a higher severity score (CI: 0.89-0.93, p-value < 0.001) than non-users. SSRI antidepressant users, both long-term (OR: 1.09; CI: 1.06-1.12) and short-term (OR: 1.17; CI: 1.07-1.27) were significantly more likely to have a lower severity score. However, the results varied across long-term and short-term users for all medication classes. Results of the current study suggest that psychopharmacological agents are associated with reduced COVID-19 severity levels and that antidepressant medications may have a protective role against COVID-19.
| S-EPMC11849848 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Despite the progressions in COVID-19 understanding, the optimization of patient-specific therapies remains a challenge. Statins, the most widely prescribed lipid-lowering drugs, received considerable attention due to their pleiotropic effects, encompassing lipid metabolism control and immunomodulatory and anti-thrombotic effects. In COVID-19 patients, statins improve clinical outcomes, reducing Intensive Care Unit admission, the onset of ARDS, and in-hospital death. However, the safety of statins in COVID-19 patients has been debated, mainly for statins' ability to induce the expression of the ACE2 receptor, the main entry route of SARS-CoV-2. Unfortunately, the dynamic of statins' mechanism in COVID-19 disease and prevention remains elusive. Using different in vitro models expressing different levels of ACE2 receptor, we investigated the role of lipophilic and hydrophilic statins on ACE2 receptor expression and subcellular localization. We demonstrated that the statin-mediated increase of ACE2 receptor expression does not necessarily coincide with its localization in lipid rafts domains, particularly after treatments with the lipophilic atorvastatin that disrupt lipid rafts' integrity. Through a proteomic array, we analyzed the cytokine patterns demonstrating that statins inhibit the release of cytokines and factors involved in mild to severe COVID-19 cases. The results obtained provide additional information to dissect the mechanism underlying the protective effects of statin use in COVID-19.
| S-EPMC9495908 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC8441822 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Understanding Covid-19 pathophysiology is crucial for a better understanding of the disease and development of more effective treatments. Alpha-1-antitrypsin (A1AT) is a constitutive tissue protector with antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties. A1AT inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection and two of the most important proteases in the pathophysiology of Covid-19: the transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) and the disintegrin and metalloproteinase 17 (ADAM17). It also inhibits the activity of inflammatory molecules, such as IL-8, TNF-α, and neutrophil elastase (NE). TMPRSS2 is essential for SARS-CoV-2-S protein priming and viral infection. ADAM17 mediates ACE2, IL-6R, and TNF-α shedding. ACE2 is the SARS-CoV-2 entry receptor and a key component for the balance of the renin-angiotensin system, inflammation, vascular permeability, and pulmonary homeostasis. In addition, clinical findings indicate that A1AT levels might be important in defining Covid-19 outcomes, potentially partially explaining associations with air pollution and with diabetes. In this review, we focused on the interplay between A1AT with TMPRSS2, ADAM17 and immune molecules, and the role of A1AT in the pathophysiology of Covid-19, opening new avenues for investigating effective treatments.
| S-EPMC7461031 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is an emerging situation with high rates of morbidity and mortality, in the pathophysiology of which inflammation and thrombosis are implicated. The disease is directly connected to the nutritional status of patients and a well-balanced diet is recommended by official sources. Recently, the role of platelet activating factor (PAF) was suggested in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. In the present review several micronutrients (vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin D, selenium, omega-3 fatty acids, and minerals), phytochemicals and Mediterranean diet compounds with potential anti-COVID activity are presented. We further underline that the well-known anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic actions of the investigated nutrients and/or holistic dietary schemes, such as the Mediterranean diet, are also mediated through PAF. In conclusion, there is no single food to prevent coronavirus Although the relationship between PAF and COVID-19 is not robust, a healthy diet containing PAF inhibitors may target both inflammation and thrombosis and prevent the deleterious effects of COVID-19. The next step is the experimental confirmation or not of the PAF-COVID-19 hypothesis.
| S-EPMC7911163 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveDespite strong evidence on the safety and tolerability of the COVID-19 vaccine, data on vaccination in children with epilepsy, particular younger children with specific epilepsy syndromes, are limited. The protective effects of vaccination against seizure increase upon COVID-19 infection also remain to be elucidated.MethodsQuestionnaire surveys were distributed online via an established WeChat group for patient management as well as in our outpatient clinic. The data collected included demographics and clinical information related to COVID-19 vaccination and infection. Detailed information related to epilepsy diagnosis and treatment was also collected from our patient database. Logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the factors associated with non-vaccination. The characteristics of seizures following COVID-19 infection were described.ResultsIn total, 354 suitable questionnaires were included in the study. The median age at survey was 6 years (interquartile range 4, 9). The most common epilepsy syndrome was self-limited epilepsy (n = 153, 43.2%), followed by developmental and/or epileptic encephalopathy (D/EE, n = 81, 22.9%) and genetic generalized epilepsy (n = 59, 16.7%). The vaccine uptake rate was 43.8% (n = 155), and all related side-effects (n = 11, 7.1%) remitted spontaneously. Younger age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.877, P = 0.001), D/EE (OR = 5.096, P = 0.008), and less than six months seizure-freedom before vaccination (OR = 3.026, P = 0.005) were associated with unwillingness to be vaccinated. There were no significant differences in the rate of COVID-19 infection (33.7% vs 32.7%, P = 0.879) and resultant increased seizure activity following infection between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups after propensity score matching (9.1% vs 15.6%, P = 0.428).Three unvaccinated cases of Dravet syndrome developed status epilepticus following COVID-19 infection.SignificanceVaccination against COVID-19 is safe and well tolerated in children, even in younger patients with D/EE. Although the risk of worsening seizures following COVID-19 infection may not be reduced by immunization, education focused on increased vaccination in pediatric epilepsy is still warranted.
| S-EPMC10472363 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC7177061 | biostudies-literature