Investigating the Synergistic Role of Heavy Metals in Arsenic-Induced Skin Lesions in West Bengal, India

SARS-CoV-2 origin, classification and transmission: a mini-review

“…On January 25 th , Human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 was confirmed by the WHO [12,30], and it is now apparent that the current novel coronavirus has an accelerated rate of human-tohuman transmission than SARS and MERS CoVs [26], but it also appears that it is less pathogenic than its predecessors [2] according to the case and immunological backgrounds, notably whom with multiple underlying disorders and varied demographics like sex and environmental conditions [17].…”

“…Until now, no mammals other than bats were documented to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 except pangolins [4,24]. According to several studies, pangolins may have provided a partial spike gene to SARS-CoV-2, due to the compatibility in critical functional sites of the novel virus and the virus isolated from pangolins [25]; in addition to that, there is a high amino-acid sequence similarity of 97.4% in the receptorbinding domain (RBD) of Guangdong pangolin coronaviruses, and this leads to the hypothesis that a selectively-mediated convergent evolution might have been more probable rather than evolution through recombination [26]. This also suggests that the pangolin species may be longterm reservoir hosts for these viruses, which is plastic, stainless steel, copper, and cardboard) [8], resulted in the viability of the virus 3 hours in aerosols, with a reduction in its infectious titer from 10^3,5 to 10^2,7 TCID50 per liter of air [TCID = tissue-culture infectious dose].…”

“…Although being a respiratory virus, its transmission occurs predominantly through close, direct contact with an infected person's secretions, droplets released via speaking, coughing and sneezing, and also indirectly through transmissibility via fomites and surfaces [8,26,32].…”

“…Chest Computed Tomography (CT) scan has also been used in guiding the diagnosis, and detecting minor lung lesions in patients at an early stage of disease [45,51]. Early manifestation of bilateral, multifocal, and peripheral posterior distribution and ground glass opacities (GGO) mainly in the lower lung on a chest CT scan might be a sign of the novel coronavirus infection [26,51]; less commonly, septal thickening, bronchiectasis, pleural thickening and sub-pleural involvement have been reported. As disease progression occurs, CT scan may show multifocal consolidations with a paving pattern [7].…”

“…In most cases, blood reports show normal/low white blood cells (WBC), low platelet count whereas pro-calcitonin are mostly normal. Most consistently, C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin levels are elevated and similarly Creatine phosphokinase (CPK0), D-dimer, Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Alkaline phosphatase (ALK-phos)/Transaminase (AST-ALT) levels are also high [26,53].…”