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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes virus-induced-senescence. There is an association between shorter telomere length (TL) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients and hospitalization, severity, or even death. However, it remains unknown whether virus-induced-senescence is reversible. We aim to evaluate the dynamics of TL in COVID-19 patients 1 year after recovery from intensive care units (ICU). Longitudinal study enrolling 49 patients admitted to ICU due to COVID-19 (August 2020 to April 2021). Relative telomere length (RTL) quantification was carried out in whole blood by monochromatic multiplex real-time quantitative PCR (MMqPCR) assay at hospitalization (baseline) and 1 year after discharge (1-year visit). The association between RTL and ICU length of stay (LOS), invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), prone position, and pulmonary fibrosis development at 1-year visit was evaluated. The median age was 60 years, 71.4% were males, median ICU-LOS was 12 days, 73.5% required IMV, and 38.8% required a prone position. Patients with longer ICU-LOS or who required IMV showed greater RTL shortening during follow-up. Patients who required pronation had a greater RTL shortening during follow-up. IMV patients who developed pulmonary fibrosis showed greater RTL reduction and shorter RTL at the 1-year visit. Patients with longer ICU-LOS and those who required IMV had a shorter RTL in peripheral blood, as observed 1 year after hospital discharge. Additionally, patients who required IMV and developed pulmonary fibrosis had greater telomere shortening, showing shorter telomeres at the 1-year visit. These patients may be more prone to develop cellular senescence and lung-related complications; therefore, closer monitoring may be needed., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Increasing age is associated with severity and higher mortality of COVID-19. Telomere shortening is associated with higher risk of infections and may be used to identify those patients who are more likely to die. We evaluated the association between relative telomere length (RTL) and COVID-19 mortality. RTL was measured in patients hospitalized because of COVID-19. We used Kaplan-Meier method to analyze survival probabilities, and Cox regression to investigate the association between RTL and mortality (30 and 90 days). Six hundred and eight patients were included in the analysis (mean age =72.5 years, 41.1% women, and 53.8% Caucasic). During the study period, 75 people died from COVID-19 and 533 survived. Lower RTL was associated with a higher risk of death in women either at 30 (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] (aHR) = 3.33; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.05-10.00; p = 0.040) and at 90 days (aHR = 3.57; 95%CI = 1.23-11.11; p = 0.019). Lower RTL was associated with a higher risk of dying of COVID-19 in women. This finding suggests that RTL has an essential role in the prognosis of this subset of the population., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Medical Virology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have a crucial role in regulating immune response against infectious diseases, showing changes early in disease onset and before the detection of the pathogen. Thus, we aimed to analyze the plasma miRNA profile at COVID-19 onset to identify miRNAs as early prognostic biomarkers of severity and survival., Methods and Results: Plasma miRNome of 96 COVID-19 patients that developed asymptomatic/mild, moderate and severe disease was sequenced together with a group of healthy controls. Plasma immune-related biomarkers were also assessed. COVID-19 patients showed 200 significant differentially expressed (SDE) miRNAs concerning healthy controls, with upregulated putative targets of SARS-CoV-2, and inflammatory miRNAs. Among COVID-19 patients, 75 SDE miRNAs were observed in asymptomatic/mild compared to symptomatic patients, which were involved in platelet aggregation and cytokine pathways, among others. Moreover, 137 SDE miRNAs were identified between severe and moderate patients, where miRNAs targeting the SARS CoV-2 genome were the most strongly disrupted. Finally, we constructed a mortality predictive risk score (miRNA-MRS) with ten miRNAs. Patients with higher values had a higher risk of 90-days mortality (hazard ratio = 4.60; p -value < 0.001). Besides, the discriminant power of miRNA-MRS was significantly higher than the observed for age and gender (AUROC = 0.970 vs. 0.881; p  = 0.042)., Conclusions: SARS-CoV-2 infection deeply disturbs the plasma miRNome from an early stage of COVID-19, making miRNAs highly valuable as early predictors of severity and mortality.

Background: metabolic changes through SARS-CoV-2 infection has been reported but not fully comprehended. This metabolic dysregulation affects multiple organs during COVID-19 and its early detection can be used as a prognosis marker of severity. Therefore, we aimed to characterize metabolic and cytokine profile at COVID-19 onset and its relationship with disease severity to identify metabolic profiles predicting disease progression., Material and Methods: we performed a retrospective cross-sectional study in 123 COVID-19 patients which were stratified as asymptomatic/mild, moderate and severe according to the highest COVID-19 severity status, and a group of healthy controls. We performed an untargeted plasma metabolic profiling (gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (GC and CE-MS)) and cytokine evaluation., Results: After data filtering and identification we observed 105 metabolites dysregulated (66 GC-MS and 40 CE-MS) which shown different expression patterns for each COVID-19 severity status. These metabolites belonged to different metabolic pathways including amino acid, energy, and nitrogen metabolism among others. Severity-specific metabolic dysregulation was observed, as an increased transformation of L-tryptophan into L-kynurenine. Thus, metabolic profiling at hospital admission differentiate between severe and moderate patients in the later phase of worse evolution. Several plasma pro-inflammatory biomarkers showed significant correlation with deregulated metabolites, specially with L-kynurenine and L-tryptophan. Finally, we describe a strong sex-related dysregulation of metabolites, cytokines and chemokines between severe and moderate patients. In conclusion, metabolic profiling of COVID-19 patients at disease onset is a powerful tool to unravel the SARS-CoV-2 molecular pathogenesis., Conclusions: This technique makes it possible to identify metabolic phenoconversion that predicts disease progression and explains the pronounced pathogenesis differences between sexes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Ceballos, Virseda-Berdices, Resino, Ryan, Martínez-González, Peréz-García, Martin-Vicente, Brochado-Kith, Blancas, Bartolome-Sánchez, Vidal-Alcántara, Albóniga-Díez, Cuadros-González, Blanca-López, Martínez, Martinez-Acitores, Barbas, Fernández-Rodríguez and Jiménez-Sousa.)

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The following research article aims to study and publicize the crossing of information from seismic and transmission areas by COVID-19 for the implementation of management, coordination and attention in case of two events of such dimensions at the same time, which are directly related to the geography and geomorphology of the area, In this case, in Mexico City (CDMX), the COVID-19 pandemic, commonly known as Coronavirus, which affected the entire world and was considered a global emergency, is the central point regarding the neglect or lack of attention that the Mexican government and the general population have to these telluric episodes for attending to moments of pandemics; In past years, these natural phenomena have affected the Mexican Republic, deriving great affectations, such as the most recent and devastating seismic event for the CDMX that occurred on September 19, 2017, with a magnitude of 7.1 on the Richter scale, it is important to point out that in the midst of the pandemic in Mexico, on June 23, 2020, a phenomenon with greater characteristics than that of September 19 occurred, whose magnitude was 7.5 on the Richter scale, but fortunately much less devastating. Based on the methodology used according to research articles, theories, state of the art, newspapers, official sources, informal interviews, photointerpretation and analysis based on obtaining cartography with an adequate level to understand the problems addressed in this article regarding the geographical totality of the CDMX, areas were located based on geographical characteristics in general, taking into account the high degree of contamination by COVID-19, These were analyzed to show evidence and results of the areas that are most vulnerable in case of collapse of architectural structures by earthquakes and areas of infection based on a precise and well-founded mapping, as a preliminary conclusion alert the Mexican government and general population to take real preventive measures and not just corrective, so that the population is aware at all times of possible environmental vulnerability in which they are living to two problems that occurred at the same time as they could be earthquakes and areas of infection by COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educación y Humanismo is the property of Universidad Simon Bolivar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)