Background: Relative telomere length (RTL), the biological chronometer, varies considerably among individuals under the influence of multiple risk factors such as socioeconomic status (SES). It is anticipated that during fetal life, telomeres undergo reprogramming. The purpose of this study is to find the association between SES and telomere length of mother-newborn and genetic remodeling that occurs during fetal life. Results: The mean telomere/single gene copy (T/S) ratio and RTL (base pairs) among 250 mother-newborn dyads were higher in cord blood of newborns (1.18 ± 0.23) (6765 ± 1350 bp) (95% confidence level) compared to maternal blood (1.13 ± 0.18) (6432 ± 1350 bp) of all SES of the Pakistani population. A positive association (r = 0.396, p < 0.05) (F (2,238) = 9.229, p < 0.05) was found between maternal and newborn telomere length by using Spearman's correlation and regression analyses. Calculated RTL by Kruskal Wallis was found significant in low SES maternal and cord blood (5916 ± 754-6214 ± 596) compared to high SES maternal and cord blood (6818 ± 1248-7471 ± 1851). Conclusion: Significantly longer RTL in cord blood than maternal blood was observed in the targeted Pakistani population, including the low socioeconomic group highlighting fetal telomere reprogramming. High education appears to have a strong determining factor for longer RTL.

Background: The COVID-19 virus, in terms of pathogenesis and disease spectrum, resembles its predecessor viral strains which caused outbreaks of SARS and MERs. Due to unavailability of approved treatment protocols, healthcare workers initiated treatment of COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma therapy. Objective: To appraise similarities between the three Coronaviruses and deduce the effectiveness of CP therapy based on exploration of its efficacy in the SARS and MERS outbreaks. Analysis: A narrative review of case reports, randomised controlled trials and meta-analysis studies, on use of CP therapy in SARs and MERS, was conducted. Studies evaluated for the purpose of this review were added through search engines of PubMed Central and Google Scholar. Results: We concluded that CP therapy had been able to play pivotal roles in treating critically-ill SARS and MERS patients. The risks of unintended immunological responses among other factors, hindering CP Therapy’s approval from drug administration authorities, were weighed against favourable chanisms, such as hypercoagulability, that support its use in COVID-19 patients. Conclusion: Findings collected from these studies steered our path to theorize the possibility of reducing mortality with convalescent plasma therapy and support our rallying efforts for enlisting this in the official treatment protocol of COVID-19. Doi: 10.28991/SciMedJ-2020-0204-6 Full Text: PDF

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