Applications of laboratory findings in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of COVID-19

Abstract

The worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presents us with a serious public health crisis. To combat the virus and slow its spread, wider testing is essential. There is a need for more sensitive, specific, and convenient detection methods of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Advanced detection can greatly improve the ability and accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of COVID-19, which is conducive to the early suitable treatment and supports precise prophylaxis. In this article, we combine and present the latest laboratory diagnostic technologies and methods for SARS-CoV-2 to identify the technical characteristics, considerations, biosafety requirements, common problems with testing and interpretation of results, and coping strategies of commonly used testing methods. We highlight the gaps in current diagnostic capacity and propose potential solutions to provide cutting-edge technical support to achieve a more precise diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of COVID-19 and to overcome the difficulties with the normalization of epidemic prevention and control.

The Musculoskeletal Involvement After Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Infection

“…Furthermore, the different and somewhat discrepant symptoms of COVID-19, including the musculoskeletal ones, difficult the prognostic of the disease, and SARS-CoV-2 viral infection versus musculoskeletal symptomatology is still a subject poorly investigated and a challenge to the researchers in the Muscle Physiology field. Interestingly, some studies highlighted that laboratory findings (elevated levels of CK, LDH, C-reactive protein, creatinine, D-dimer and cytokines; lymphopenia and leukocytosis) and imaging tools (computed tomography—CT scan; magnetic resonance imaging—MRI; positron emission tomography—PET; ultrasound; radiography) can play a crucial role in the prognosis, diagnosis and evaluation of the manifestations of COVID-19, supporting a better treatment of the patients ( Feng et al, 2020 ; Ghayda et al, 2020 ; Orsucci, 2020 ; Ponti et al, 2020 ; Revzin et al, 2020 ; Afshar-Oromieh et al, 2021 ; Akbar et al, 2021 ; Capaccione et al, 2021 ; Chopra et al, 2021 ; Khamis et al, 2021 ; Meng et al, 2021 ; Ramani et al, 2021 ; Xie et al, 2021 ). Unfortunately, the majority of the laboratory and imaging techniques focus on the respiratory, cardiac, gastrointestinal and neurologic systems, and few findings are related to the musculoskeletal apparatus.…”

Understanding viruses and viral infections by biophotonic methods

“…Although, numerous clinical trials including various vaccines developed and authorized in the meantime, there is still a lack of answers to relevant questions, such as the timepoint for re-administration of the vaccine maintaining an individually efficient immune response or its efficiency against new SARS-CoV-2 mutants [209]. Monitoring the body's immune response to both current and prior infection is therefore mandatory and can be accomplished by serological testing, also known as antibody testing [210,211]. It mainly targets the detection and quantification of pathogen-specific immunoglobulins expressed by B cells, namely IgM, IgA and IgG, which are also referred to as neutralizing antibodies [211,212].…”

“…Monitoring the body's immune response to both current and prior infection is therefore mandatory and can be accomplished by serological testing, also known as antibody testing [210,211]. It mainly targets the detection and quantification of pathogen-specific immunoglobulins expressed by B cells, namely IgM, IgA and IgG, which are also referred to as neutralizing antibodies [211,212]. The former two types of antibodies are produced within the first 6 to 10 days after SARS-CoV-2 infection, while their concentration starts to decline rapidly after 4 to 5 weeks [213].…”

A Programmable Electrochemical Y‐Shaped DNA Scaffold Sensor for the Single‐Step Detection of Antibodies and Proteins in Untreated Biological Fluids

“…The development of a sensing platform capable of supporting the single-step detection of clinically relevant antibodies and proteins would strongly impact the current diagnostic approaches through high-frequency tests. [1,2] This, for example, would point-of-care testing could have a significant impact on current diagnostics.…”

“…The development of a sensing platform capable of supporting the single‐step detection of clinically relevant antibodies and proteins would strongly impact the current diagnostic approaches through high‐frequency tests. [ 1,2 ] This, for example, would enable mass serological screening directly from untreated clinical samples, thereby reducing the time lag between the diagnosis and the treatment (e.g., from infective to autoimmune diseases), [ 3,4 ] enabling easier global health monitoring and surveillance (i.e., monitoring vaccination statuses). [ 5–7 ] This new diagnostic technology needs not only to be rapid (i.e., taking <10 min), quantitative, highly specific, and adaptable to a wide range of diseases, but also to have a high‐throughput (i.e., capable of precisely analyzing hundreds of samples in a short time) and be easy to use so that even non‐trained personnel would be able to perform the tests properly.…”