Background
This study summarizes the characteristics of children screened for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and reports the case of 1 child who was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center and the cases of his family members.
Material/Methods
The medical records of 159 children who were admitted to our hospital from January 23 to March 20, 2020, were retrospectively analyzed. Samples from pharyngeal or/and anal swabs were subjected to reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 within 12 h of patient admission; a second RT-PCR test was done 24 h after the first test.
Results
Of the 159 patients, 151 patients had epidemiological histories, 14 patients had cluster onset, and 8 patients had no epidemiological history but had symptoms similar to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The most common symptom was fever (n=125), followed by respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms. A 7-year-old boy in a cluster family from Wuhan was confirmed with asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection with ground-glass opacity shadows on his lung computed tomography scan, and his swab RT-PCR test had not turned negative until day 19 of his hospitalization. In patients who did not test positive for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, and adenovirus were observed. A total of 158 patients recovered, were discharged, and experienced no abnormalities during follow-up.
Conclusions
For SARS-CoV-2 nosocomial infections, taking a “standard prevention & contact isolation & droplet isolation & air isolation” strategy can prevent infection effectively. Children with clustered disease need close monitoring.
Objective: Angiostrongylus cantonensis (A. cantonensis) is an important parasite, which causes neurological infection in children, and is generally difficult to diagnose. We analyzed the significance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in diagnosing A. cantonensis encephalitis/meningitis in children to provide a reference for clinical diagnosis. Methods: The case collection of A. cantonensis encephalitis/meningitis was from July 2018 to August 2020.The patients' clinical characteristics and pathogen were described, and diagnostic sensitivity methods for A. cantonensis encephalitis/meningitis were compared and analyzed, including parasite antibody detection and metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) detection in different samples. Results: Eleven cases were diagnosed with A. cantonensis encephalitis/meningitis, including six males (54.5%) and five females (45.5%), and the age ranged from 1 to 13 years with a median of 21 months (IQR: 15.6, 96). All patients were undiagnosed upon admission, of which ten cases had neurological symptoms or signs, six cases (54.5%) had a history of definite or suspicious exposure to parasites, and eight cases (72.7%) had abnormal changes in cranial MRI. The results of A. cantonensis antibodies in the peripheral blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were compared with CSF's metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS). The antibody-positive rate of peripheral blood was 54.5%,
Little is known about the particular changes of N6-methyladenosine (m6A) RNA methylation in enterovirus (EV) infection among children with neurologic symptoms. Here, we determined the characterization of EV associated m6A RNA methylation in this population. A prospective cohort study was conducted from 2018/2 to 2019/12 at the Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center. We included EV infected children with and without neurological symptoms. High-throughput m(6)A-RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing (MeRIP-seq) and RNA-seq analysis were used to evaluate the m6A RNA methylation and transcript expression of cerebrospinal fluid samples. The functional annotation and pathways of differentially methylated m6A genes with synchronously differential expression were analyzed by Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). Seven patients were enrolled in the control group, and 13 cases were in the neurological symptoms (NS) group. A total of 3472 differentially expressed genes and 957 m6A modified genes were identified. A conjoint analysis of MeRIP-seq and RNA-seq data found 1064 genes with significant changes in both the m6A modifications and mRNA levels. The different m6A RNA methylation was increased in the transcriptome’s CDS regions but decreased in both the 3′UTRs and stop codon among the NS group. Functional annotation like the “oxidative phosphorylation” gene pathway, “Parkinson’s disease” and GO terms like “respiratory electron transport chain,” “cellular metabolic process,” and “oxidation-reduction process” was enriched in symptomatic patients. Our study elucidated the changes of RNA m6A methylation patterns and related cellular functions and signaling pathways in EV patients with neurologic symptoms.
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