Three New Articles Focus on COVID-19: Diagnosis and Risk Factors
WASHINGTON, December 16, 2021 (Newswire.com) - Experimental Biology and Medicine (EBM), a multidisciplinary biomedical research journal, is working to advance our understanding of COVID-19. The Editor-in-Chief is currently handling manuscripts which focus on COVID to ensure that each paper undergoes a rapid yet thorough review. EBM's publisher, SAGE, is committed to assisting in spreading our research on COVID by ensuring all accepted manuscripts covering the virus are processed and published online as quickly as possible and are available via open access.
Experimental Biology and Medicine recently published three articles focused on COVID-19. Reisner et al. (in press) examine the utility of osteopontin as a biomarker for COVID-19 severity in children. Puigmulé et al. (in press) report a new rapid test for detecting COVID-19 infections. Finally, Khalangot et al (in press) analyze the risk of death in COVID-19 patients with diabetes and obesity.
Dr. Andrew Reisner, in the Pediatric Neurotrauma Program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), and corresponding author for "Osteopontin as a biomarker for COVID-19 severity and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children: A pilot study", said, "The surge in Delta variant of SARS-Cov-2 has (unfortunately) highlighted the fact that children are significantly impacted by this pandemic. Further, children appear especially prone to a potentially lethal, post-infectious, hyperinflammatory response known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). Thus, there is an urgent need for a reliable biomarker that can facilitate risk stratification of these children and guide management, including an assessment of therapeutic intervention/s. Although preliminary, this data should serve as the impetus for the initiation of larger prospective studies that evaluate the utility of Osteopontin as a putative biomarker for COVID-19 in children."
Dr. Marta Puigmulé in the Cardiovascular Genetics Center at the Institut d'Investigacio Biomedica de Girona Dr. Josep Trueta (IdIBGi) in Girona (Spain) highlighted the importance of their article "High-quality RNA improves sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 detection by colorimetric RT-LAMP" by saying, "The rapid spread of COVID-19 greatly enhances the need for novel and rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2. The RT-LAMP protocol has high sensitivity in fresh RNA extracts and can detect positive samples with Ct values between 8 and 35 similar to those obtained by RT-qPCR. This technique could be extended to rapidly and efficiently detect other pathogens as well."
Finally, Dr. Mykola Khalangot in the Department of Endocrinology at the Shupyk National Healthcare University of Ukraine in Kyiv (Ukraine) and corresponding author for "Relationship between hyperglycemia, waist circumference, and the course of COVID-19: Mortality risk assessment" said, "Our study, based on a hospital cohort of 367 COVID-19 patients, found that their risk of death is associated with categories of abdominal obesity, measured by waist circumference (> 105 cm) rather than diabetes. Such a result can simply stratify COVID-19 patients who have a more serious prognosis and need additional attention."
Dr. Steven R. Goodman, Editor-in-Chief of Experimental Biology and Medicine, added, "Our journal takes seriously our responsibility to bring the scientific and lay community articles that help enlighten us all on the detection and impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In these three recent EBM articles, Puigmulé et al demonstrate the importance of using freshly isolated RNA in RT-LAMP detection of the virus; Resiner et al provide evidence that osteopontin is a candidate biomarker for COVID-19 and COVID-19 severity and multisystem inflammatory condition in children (MIS-C) in children; and Khalangot et al show that waist circumference is a clear indicator of COVID-19 severity in adults."
Experimental Biology and Medicine, first established in 1903, is the journal of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine and is dedicated to the publication of multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary research in the biomedical sciences. To learn more about the Society and how to become a member, visit www.sebm.org. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript for consideration or viewing other articles published in the journal, please visit http://ebm.sagepub.com.
For more information, please contact ebm@sebm.org.
Source: Experimental Biology and Medicine
