Purpose: To quantify the number of SARS-CoV-2 infections in students and teachers in 14 Secondary schools in eastern Saxony, Germany. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in study population. Number of undetected cases. - Methods: Serial seroprevalence study. - Results: The role of educational settings in the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic is still controversial. Seroprevalence increases from 0.8 to 5.9% from October to December when schools remained open and to 12.2% in March/April during a strict lockdown with closed schools. The ratio of undetected to detected cases decreased from 0.76 to 0.44 during the study period. - Conclusion: During the second and third wave of the pandemic in Germany, students and teachers are not overrepresented in SARS-CoV-2 infections. The percentage of undetected cases is moderate and decreases over time. The risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 within the household is higher than contracting it in educational settings making school closures rather ineffective in terms of pandemic control measures or individual risk reduction in children and adolescents. - Trial registration: DRKS00022455 (July 23rd, 2020).

The outbreak of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019 in Wuhan challenges pediatric oncologists in an unexpected way. We provide a comprehensive overview, which systematically summarizes and grades evidence (QoE) on SARS-CoV-2 infections in pediatric cancer patients at 1.5 years of pandemic. A systematic literature search in PubMed combined with an additional exploratory literature review in other international databases was conducted to identify studies on children (aged < 18 years) with a malignant disease and COVID-19 infections. In total, 45 reports on 1003 pediatric cancer patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections were identified out of 1397 reports analyzed. The clinical course of COVID-19 was reported mild or moderate in 358 patients (41.7%), whereas 11.1% of patients showed severe COVID-19. In 12.7% of patients, chemotherapy was postponed, whereas 19% of patients with different underlying malignancies received chemotherapy during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Twenty-five patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections died, potentially related to COVID-19. Conclusion: Despite a favorable COVID-19 outcome in most pediatric cancer patients, the morbidity is reported higher than in children without comorbidities. However, no severe COVID-19 complications were associated to the continuation of chemotherapy in some cohort studies and reports on two patients. Therefore, the risk of cancer progress or relapse due to interruption of chemotherapy has carefully to be weighed against the risk of severe COVID-19 disease with potentially fatal outcome.

Prostaglandins (PG) are ubiquitous lipid mediators that play key roles in pathophysiological responses to infections. They are considered to have both pro and anti-inflammatory roles depending upon the time of inflammation, the receptors that they bind to and the tissues that they act upon. Hence given their pleiotropic effects, a perfect balance between the pro and anti-inflammatory functions of PGs are required to ensure that a controlled timely immune response is elicited to mediate protection and to avoid immunopathology. PGD2 is one such PG that was reported to increase with age in the lungs of mice and to mediate an anti-inflammatory effect thereby blunting the immune response following Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Increase in PGD2 with age incapacitates respiratory dendritic cells (rDC) to migrate from lungs to the draining lymph node following SARS-CoV infection due to down regulation of CCR7 (a receptor for chemokines CCL19/21). Migration of rDCs to draining lymph nodes requires high expression of CCR7 and it's binding to CCL19/21, a chemokine that mediates migration of dendritic cells along its gradient. Although increase in levels of PGD2 might prove beneficial in high inflammatory conditions, it should be noted that high levels of such a potent anti-inflammatory mediator during the initiation of an immune response could prove detrimental. In chapter II of this thesis I show that age-related increases in oxidative stress result in the upregulation of a single phospholipase (PLA2) group II D (G2D) (PLA2G2D) with anti-inflammatory roles. PLA2G2D functions by releasing Arachidonic acid (AA) from the lipid membrane, which will be further metabolized to other pro-resolving/ anti-inflammatory lipid mediators including PGD2. I show that inducing oxidative stress in young mice as well as in human peripheral blood macrophages, results in the upregulation of PLA2G2D (probably as a counter mechanism against oxidative stress). Also increase in the expression levels of this gene during the course of SARS-CoV infection results in the upregulation of PGD2, which is completely abrogated in Pla2g2d-/- mice. I also show Pla2g2d/- middle-aged mice have low levels of PGD2 and that they are capable of mounting a strong immune response and survive the otherwise lethal SARS-CoV infection. PGD2 is also a major PG in the brain and its role has been investigated in many non-infectious setting such as stroke and Alzheimer' disease. The PGD2 binding to one of its receptors DP1 has been shown to have primarily a neuro-protective role. In chapter III, I show that PGD2/DP1 signaling has beneficial effects in the brain of mice infected with a neurotropic strain of murine hepatitis virus (MHV) (rj2.2). In agreement with the neuro-protective role of PGD2, at least 60% of DP1-/- mice succumb to a sublethal dose of rj2.2. rj2.2 infection in these mice is characterized by a delay in the induction of IFN I response and lower activation status of microglia and macrophages in the brain. I also show that abrogation of DP1 signaling results in global defects in the immune system response to infection. Notably, a genome wide expression analysis using microarray, shows that a gene, Pydc3 with putative inflammasome inhibiting function is upregulated in WT mice compared to DP1-/- mice in the CD11b population of cells which primarily comprises microglia and macrophages. In line with the predicted function of Pydc3, DP1-/- mice have higher frequency and number of IL-1β+ producing microglia in the brain. Studies are underway to determine the exact role of DP1 signaling in Pydc3 expression as well as the role of this gene in inflammasome function. Overall these studies emphasize the immuno-modulatory roles of PGs in the context of a viral infection. Thus, altering the levels of these lipid mediators at appropriate times during the course of infection might prove useful as an effective therapeutic strategy to decide the fate of an infection.

År 2020 slog coronapandemin till mot världen med full kraft, orsakad avviruset SARS-CoV-2. Nyheter och information om pandemins utvecklingpräglade informationsflödet tillsammans med åtskilliga visuella elementmed informativa syften. Antal insjuknade i sjukdomen COVID-19 samtett snabbt växande antal dödsfall i kombination med nyheter om ensjukvård nära bristningsgränsen rapporterades kontinuerligt i olikainformationskanaler. En bild som ofta förekom tillsammans medinformation om pandemin var en 3D-gestaltning gjord av två grafiskaformgivare på uppdrag av amerikanska Centers for Disease Control andPrevention (CDC). Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hurett urval mottagare upplevde CDC´s 3D-gestaltning av viruset SARS-CoV-2. Metod: Metoden som användes för studien var semiotiskbildanalys där den denotativa nivån undersöktes objektivt med hjälp avanpassade frågor och den konnotativa nivån byggde på intervjuer medelva respondenter. Resultat: Ur intervjuerna framkom både ikoniska- ochsymboliska tecken som främst indexerade negativa upplevelser hosrespondenterna, kopplade till både personliga- och samhälleligaperspektiv.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 25 de Mayo de 2020.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 22 de Mayo de 2020.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 26 de Mayo de 2020.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 29 de Mayo de 2020.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 21 de Mayo de 2020.

Boletín que incluye información científica sobre el COVID-19, incluye artículos científicos y artículos preprint actualizados al 08 de Junio de 2020.