RESUMEN
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic continues to impact the medical, economic, social, and political areas worldwide. Although it has been claimed that children are the most responsible for the outbreaks as of September 2021, the statistics showed controversary. Although it showed no difference in viral load and Ct values between symptomatic children and symptomatic adults, or between asymptomatic children and asymptomatic adults, the molecular mechanism remains unclear. Here, we aimed to investigate the effects of different strains on infection by comparing viral load levels in pediatric patients aged 12-18 years, infected with different variants of SARS-CoV-2, and vaccinated with full-dose BNT162b2. In this retrospective study, a total of 200 patients aged 12-18 years, who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in our hospital, and vaccinated with full-dose BNT162b2, were analyzed according to their gender, age, viral load, and cycle threshold values. Viral RNA levels were evaluated using Ct values, a semi-quantitative proxy of viral load. While the findings did not show a significant difference between gender and age (P = 0.886 and P = 0.897, respectively), a significant difference was found between the Ct and viral load (P < 0.0001). In conclusion, SARS-CoV-2 viral load was higher in cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant than SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (mean Ct = 23.05 ± 4.06, viral load = 7.8 × 105 copies/ml and mean Ct = 28.04 ± 3.02, viral load = 7.8 × 103 copies/ml, respectively). These findings indicated that the Delta variant had high viral load and our result could be one of the causes the Delta variant was more effective in the pandemic severity than the other variants in the October-December periods when the Delta variant was dominant in Northern Cyprus. During the same period, the severity of the disease was higher, with higher hospitalization and death rates.
Asunto(s)
COVID-19 , SARS-CoV-2 , Adulto , Humanos , Niño , Carga Viral , SARS-CoV-2/genética , Vacuna BNT162 , Estudios Retrospectivos , COVID-19/epidemiología , COVID-19/prevención & controlRESUMEN
Recent UNAIDS reports (December 2019) indicate that 37.9 million people have been affected by HIV infection around the globe in 2018, of which 1.7 million are cited as new infections. Human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) requires both the CD4 receptor, as the primary receptor, and a chemokine co-receptor to gain entry into the cell. In addition to the WT allele for C-C motif chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5-wt), there is another allele with a 32 bp deletion in the protein coding region (CCR5-Δ32). Individuals who are homozygous for the mutant allele are resistant towards M-tropic HIV infections. In the current study, we aimed to determine the CCR5-Δ32 allele frequency in the Turkish Cypriot population with 326 subjects, 141 men (43.1%) and 185 (56.9%) women. The region of the CCR5 gene containing the Δ32 deletion was amplified using flanking primers. The CCR5 gene Δ32 allele frequency was calculated at 3% and only observed in heterozygous individuals. We hope that our current publication could be a point of dialog between the physicians, the government officials and the public set up a more modern and well-structured HIV screening program in an effort to control and hopefully eliminate HIV from the Turkish Cypriot population.