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Introduction: Allergic rhinitis (AR) in children is associated with various comorbidities, posing challenges for treatment and management. There have been few investigations of these multimorbidities in Chinese children with AR. Here, we investigated the prevalence of multimorbidities in children with moderate to severe AR and analyzed the influencing factors using real-world data. Methods: In total, 600 children who visited the outpatient clinic of our hospital and were diagnosed with moderate-severe AR were prospectively enrolled. All children underwent allergen detection and electronic nasopharyngoscopy. Parents or guardians completed a questionnaire that included age, sex, mode of delivery, feeding pattern, and familial history of allergy. The multimorbidities investigated included atopic dermatitis (AD), asthma, allergic conjunctivitis (AC), chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), adenoid hypertrophy (AH), tonsil hypertrophy (TH), recurrent epistaxis, and recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTIs). Results: The AR multimorbidities reported in children were as follows: recurrent epistaxis (46.5%), AC (46.3%), AD (40.7%), asthma (22.5%), RRIs (21.3%), CRS (20.5%), AH (19.7%), and TH (12.5%). In univariate logistic regression analysis, age (<6 years), birth mode, familial history of allergy, and single dust mite allergy were associated with AR multimorbidity (p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that a familial history of allergy was an independent risk factor for AC (odds ratio [OR] = 1.539, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.104–2.145) and AH (OR = 1.506, 95% CI: 1.000–2.267) (p < 0.05). Age (<6 years) was independently associated with the risk of AD (OR = 1.405, 95% CI: 1.003–1.969) and RRTIs (OR = 1.869, 95% CI: 1.250–2.793) (p < 0.05), cesarean section with AR and CRS risk (OR = 1.678, 95% CI: 1.100–2.561), and single dust mite allergy with asthma (OR = 1.590, 95% CI: 1.040–2.432) and CRS (OR = 1.600, 95% CI: 1.018–2.515) risk (p < 0.05). Further, non-dust mite allergy was independently associated with AR and CRS (OR = 2.056, 95% CI: 1.084–3.899). Conclusion: AR was found to be accompanied by different comorbidities, including both allergic and non-allergic comorbidities, complicating disease treatment. These findings demonstrated that age (<6 years), familial history of allergy, types of allergens, and cesarean section were risk factors for different multimorbidities associated with AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background For pediatric pneumonia, the meteorological and air pollution indicators have been frequently investigated for their association with viral circulation but not for their impact on disease severity. Methods We performed a 10-year prospective, observational study in 1 hospital in Chongqing, China, to recruit children with pneumonia. Eight commonly seen respiratory viruses were tested. Autoregressive distributed lag (ADL) and random forest (RF) models were used to fit monthly detection rates of each virus at the population level and to predict the possibility of severe pneumonia at the individual level, respectively. Results Between 2009 and 2018, 6611 pediatric pneumonia patients were included, and 4846 (73.3%) tested positive for at least 1 respiratory virus. The patient median age was 9 months (interquartile range, 4‒20). ADL models demonstrated a decent fitting of detection rates of R2 > 0.7 for respiratory syncytial virus, human rhinovirus, parainfluenza virus, and human metapneumovirus. Based on the RF models, the area under the curve for host-related factors alone was 0.88 (95% confidence interval [CI],.87‒.89) and 0.86 (95% CI,.85‒.88) for meteorological and air pollution indicators alone and 0.62 (95% CI,.60‒.63) for viral infections alone. The final model indicated that 9 weather and air pollution indicators were important determinants of severe pneumonia, with a relative contribution of 62.53%, which is significantly higher than respiratory viral infections (7.36%). Conclusions Meteorological and air pollution predictors contributed more to severe pneumonia in children than did respiratory viruses. These meteorological data could help predict times when children would be at increased risk for severe pneumonia and when interventions, such as reducing outdoor activities, may be warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To the Editor: Mimivirus (Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus), which was initially identified as a gram-positive parasitic bacterium, is the first member of the virus family Mimiviridae (1, 2). Although mimivirus was [...]

The article presents a retrospective study which estimated the prevalence of the gram-positive parasitic bacterium Mimivirus, Acanthamoeba polyphaga mimivirus in hospitals in Chongqing and Beijing, China. It is concluded that the cases of mimivirus in Chinese patients are not associated with respiratory infections. A case of a 72-year-old female patient with a history of hospital-acquired pneumonia and who acquired mimivirus is cited.

Viral infection is clinically common and some viral diseases, such as the ongoing global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), have high morbidity and mortality. However, most viral infections are currently lacking in specific therapeutic agents and effective prophylactic vaccines, due to inadequate response, increased rate of drug resistance and severe adverse side effects. Therefore, it is urgent to find new specific therapeutic targets for antiviral defense among which "peptide-based therapeutics" is an emerging field. Peptides may be promising antiviral drugs because of their high efficacy and low toxic side effects. Vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) is a prospective antiviral peptide. Since its successful isolation in 1970, VIP has been reported to be involved in infections of SARS-CoV-2, human immune deficiency virus (HIV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), Zika virus (ZIKV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV). Additionally, given that viral attacks sometimes cause severe complications due to overaction of inflammatory and immune responses, the potent anti-inflammatory and immunoregulator properties of VIP facilitate it to be a powerful and promising candidate. This review summarizes the role and mechanisms of VIP in all reported viral infections and suggests its clinical potential as an antiviral therapeutic target.