The worldwide pandemic of COVID-19 has become a global public health crisis. Various clinical diagnosis methods have been developed to distinguish COVID-19–infected patients from healthy people. The nucleic acid test is the golden standard for virus detection as it is suitable for early diagnosis. However, due to the low amount of viral nucleic acid in the respiratory tract, the sensitivity of nucleic acid detection is unsatisfactory. As a result, serological screening began to be widely used with the merits of simple procedures, lower cost, and shorter detection time. Serological tests currently include the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA), and chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA). This review describes various serological methods, discusses the performance and diagnostic effects of different methods, and points out the problems and the direction of optimization, to improve the efficiency of clinical diagnosis. These increasingly sophisticated and diverse serological diagnostic technologies will help human beings to control the spread of COVID-19.

The spread of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulting in a global pandemic with around four million deaths. Although there are a variety of nucleic acid-based tests for detecting SARS-CoV-2, these methods have a relatively high cost and require expensive supporting equipment. To overcome these limitations and improve the efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis, we developed a microfluidic platform that collected serum by a pulling-force spinning top and paper-based microfluidic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for quantitative IgA/IgM/IgG measurements in an instrument-free way. We further validated the paper-based microfluidic ELISA analysis of SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD)-specific IgA/IgM/IgG antibodies from human blood samples as a good measurement with higher sensitivity compared with traditional IgM/IgG detection (99.7% vs 95.6%) for early illness onset patients. In conclusion, we provide an alternative solution for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 in a portable manner by this smart integration of pulling-force spinning top and paper-based microfluidic immunoassay.

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The cross talk between immune and non-immune cells in the tumor microenvironment leads to immunosuppression, which promotes tumor growth and survival. Immunotherapy is an advanced treatment that boosts humoral and cellular immunity rather than using chemotherapy or radiation-based strategy associated with non-specific targets and toxic effects on normal cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors and T cell-based immunotherapy have already exhibited significant effects against solid tumors and leukemia. Tumor cells that escape immune surveillance create a major obstacle to acquiring an effective immune response in cancer patients. Tremendous progress had been made in recent years on a wide range of innate and adaptive immune checkpoints which play a significant role to prevent tumorigenesis, and might therefore be potential targets to suppress tumor cells growth. This review aimed to summarize the underlying molecular mechanisms of existing immunotherapy approaches including T cell and NK-derived immune checkpoint therapy, as well as other intrinsic and phagocytosis checkpoints. Together, these insights will pave the way for new innate and adaptive immunomodulatory targets for the development of highly effective new therapy in the future.

This study investigates the feasibility of collaborative use of recycled carbon fiber reinforced polymer (RCFRP) fibers and recycled aggregate (RA) in concrete, which is called RCFRP fiber reinforced RA concrete (RFRAC). The mechanical properties of the composite were studied through experimental investigation, considering different RCFRP fiber contents (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% by volume) and different RA replacement rates (0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% by volume). Specifically, ten different mixes were designed to explore the flowability and compressive and flexural strengths of the proposed composite. Experimental results indicated that the addition of RCFRP fibers and RA had a relatively small influence on the compressive strength of concrete (less than 5%). Moreover, the addition of RA slightly decreased the flexural strength of concrete, while the addition of RCFRP fibers could significantly improve the flexural performance. For example, the flexural strength of RA concrete with 1.5% RCFRP fiber addition increased by 32.7%. Considering the good flexural properties of the composite and its potential in reducing waste CFRP and construction solid waste, the proposed RFRAC is promising for use in civil concrete structures with high flexural performance requirements.

Buildings in coastal cities are susceptible to chloride ion attack and the seismic performance of these buildings can be impaired due to corrosion of reinforcements. In this study, a regional seismic damage simulation method that considers the influence of corrosion-induced seismic performance degradation is proposed. Firstly, the framework of the method is introduced, and the simulation process is presented. Secondly, experimental data of corroded reinforced concrete (RC) components are collected to obtain the reduction rules of component level backbone curve parameters (i.e., initial stiffness, peak carrying capacity, peak displacement, and ultimate carrying capacity). Afterwards, pushover analyses of typical RC frames in different corrosion conditions (i.e., degree of corrosion of components and proportion of corroded components) are conducted to acquire the reduction rules of interstory backbone curve parameters of corroded RC frame structures. Finally, RC frame structures, in Shenzhen city, are simulated using different corrosion scenarios. Simulated results indicate that some buildings along the coastline are affected by airborne chloride-induced corrosion and severe seismic damage can be observed. Moreover, some buildings that are far from the coastline can also experience severe seismic damage due to irregular use of sea sand as constructional material. The proposed method can be used to simulate the seismic performance of corroded RC structures and the outcomes of this study are expected to provide a useful reference for the seismic risk management of coastal cities.