Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and its associated symptoms, named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), have rapidly spread worldwide, resulting in the declaration of a pandemic. When several countries began enacting quarantine and lockdown policies, the pandemic as it is now known truly began. While most patients have minimal symptoms, approximately 20% of verified subjects are suffering from serious medical consequences. Co-existing diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and others, have been shown to make patients more vulnerable to severe outcomes from COVID-19 by modulating host–viral interactions and immune responses, causing severe infection and mortality. In this review, we outline the putative signaling pathways at the interface of COVID-19 and several diseases, emphasizing the clinical and molecular implications of concurring diseases in COVID-19 clinical outcomes. As evidence is limited on co-existing diseases and COVID-19, most findings are preliminary, and further research is required for optimal management of patients with comorbidities.

Historically, Hungary has witnessed numerous waves of drought episodes, causing significant agro-economic loss. Over the recent decades, the intensity, severity and frequency of drought occurrence have dramatically shifted, with undisputable upward tendencies across many areas. Thus, the main aim of this study was to characterize drought trends, intensity and duration over Hungary during 1961-2010. To attain the study goals, the present analyses utilized climate datasets obtained from Climate of the Carpathian region project-CARPATCLIM for 1045 gridded points covering entire Hungary. Meanwhile, a well-known drought index, namely; standardized precipitation index (SPI) and the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at 12-month timescales were employed for drought characterization. Furthermore, the sub-set regions of drought in Hungary were identified using S-mode of the principal component analysis. The Mann-Kendall trend test analysis showed a significant negative SPI-12 trend (P \ 0.05) in 11.5% of the total points over the western part of Hungary. In comparison, 43.2% of the total numbers of the SPEI-12 time series gridded points showed a significant negative trend (P \ 0.05) over the similar locale. However, both indices' trends highlighted the fact that the northeastern region is less sensitive to drought despite experiencing the highest of total drought duration. Results also suggested that the SPI-12 indicates that no significant change can be detected from 1961 to 2010 over Hungary. In contrast, the SPEI-12 exhibits that the drought waves that hit Hungary were more pronounced, with a significant positive (P \ 0.05) trend of ? 1.4% per decade being detected for the area affected by very extreme drought. All in all, this study is one of the primary steps toward a better understanding of drought vulnerability assessment in Hungary.

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Due to their inexpensive and eco-friendly nature, and existence of manganese in various oxidation states and their natural abundance have attained significant attention for the formation of Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles (Mn 3 O 4 NPs). Herein, we report the preparation of Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles using manganese nitrate as a precursor material by utilization of a precipitation technique. The as-prepared Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles (Mn 3 O 4 NPs) were characterized by using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), High-Resolution Transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The antimicrobial properties of the as-synthesized Mn 3 O 4 nanoparticles were investigated against numerous bacterial and fungal strains including S. aureus, E. coli , B. subtilis, P. aeruginosa, A. flavus and C. albicans . The Mn 3 O 4 NPs inhibited the growth of S. aureus with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 40 μg/ml and C. albicans with a MIC of 15 μg/ml. Furthermore, the Mn 3 O 4 NPs anti-cancer activity was examined using MTT essay against A549 lung and MCF-7 breast cancer cell lines. The Mn 3 O 4 NPs revealed significant activity against the examined cancer cell lines A549 and MCF-7. The IC 50 values of Mn 3 O 4 NPs with A549 cell line was found at concentration of 98 µg/mL and MCF-7 cell line was found at concentration of 25 µg/mL.

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