No abstract

et al. (2020). Co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 with multiple common respiratory pathogens in infected patients. Sci China Life Sci 63, 606-609. https://doi.

19The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has killed over twenty-one thousand and sickened over four 20 hundred thousand people worldwide, posing a great challenge to global public health. A sensitive and 21 accurate diagnosis method will substantially help to control disease expansion. Here, we developed a 22 chemiluminescence-immunoassay method based on the recombinant nucleocapsid antigen and the 23 magnetic beads for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections and surveillance of antibody changing pattern. : medRxiv preprint Serums from 29 healthy individuals, 51 tuberculosis patients, and 79 SARS-CoV-2 confirmed patients 25 were employed to evaluate the performance of this approach. Compared to the IgM testing, the IgG 26 testing was more reliable in which it identified 65 SARS-CoV-2 infections from the 79 confirmed 27 patients and only two false-positive cases from the 80 control group with a sensitivity and specificity 28 reaching 82.28% and 97.5%, respectively. However, only a slight difference (not statistically 29 significant) in the detected cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections was observed between the IgM and IgG 30 testing manner in patients at a different time of onset of disease. A performance comparison 31 between an ELISA kit using the same nucleocapsid antigen and our chemiluminescence method was 32 undertaken. The same false-positive cases were seen in both methods from the paired control group, 33 while ELISA kit can only detect half of the SARS-CoV-2 infections from paired SARS-CoV-2 confirmed 34 patients group than that of the chemiluminescence method, indicating a higher performance for the 35 chemiluminescence-immunoassay approach. Together, our studies provide a useful and valuable 36 serological testing tool for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the community.37

We developed a chemiluminescence immunoassay method based on the recombinant nucleocapsid antigen and assessed its performance for the clinical diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2 infections by detecting SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in patients. Full-length recombinant nucleocapsid antigen and tosyl magnetic beads were used to develop the chemiluminescence immunoassay approach. Plasmas from 29 healthy cohorts, 51 tuberculosis patients, and 79 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 patients were employed to evaluate the chemiluminescence immunoassay method performance for the clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infections. A commercial ELISA kit (Darui Biotech, China) using the same nucleocapsid antigen was used for the in-parallel comparison with our chemiluminescence immunoassay method. The IgM and IgG manner of testing in the chemiluminescence immunoassay method showed a sensitivity and specificity of 60.76% (95% CI 49.1 to 71.6) and 92.25% (95% CI 83.4 to 97.2) and 82.28% (95% CI 72.1 to 90.0) and 97.5% (95% CI 91.3 to 99.7), respectively. Higher sensitivity and specificity were observed in the chemiluminescence immunoassay method compared with the Darui Biotech ELISA kit. The developed high sensitivity and specificity chemiluminescence immunoassay IgG testing method combined with the RT-PCR approach can improve the clinical diagnosis for SARS-CoV-2 infections and thus contribute to the control of COVID-19 expansion.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The host-directed therapy is a promising strategy for TB treatment that synergize with anti-TB treatment drugs. In this study, we found that the anti-chronic lymphocytic leukemia drug, ibrutinib, inhibited the growth of intracellular Mtb in human macrophages. Mechanisms studies showed that ibrutinib treatment significantly decreased p62 and increased LC3b proteins in Mtb infected macrophages. In addition, ibrutinib increased LC3b colocalization with intracellular Mtb and auto-lysosome fusion. Furthermore, inhibition of autophagy by using siRNA targeting ATG7 abolished the effect of ibrutinib-mediated suppression of intracellular Mtb. Next, we found that ibrutinib induced autophagy was through inhibition of BTK/Akt/mTOR pathway. Finally, we confirmed that ibrutinib treatment significantly reduced Mtb load in mediastinal node and spleen of Mtb infected mice. In conclusion, our data suggest that ibrutinib is a potential host-directed therapy candidate against TB.