Betacoronavirus ; COVID-19 ; Coronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections/therapy* ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral/therapy* ; SARS-CoV-2

Betacoronavirus ; COVID-19 ; Consensus ; Coronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections/therapy* ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral/therapy* ; SARS-CoV-2

Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has raised global public health concerns. The recent outbreak of MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection has led to 1 338 laboratory-confirmed cases in 26 countries worldwide as reported till 19 June, 2015. MERS-CoV may be considered a zoonotic virus that has crossed the species barrier to humans, but the pathogenesis and the routes of transmission are not completely understood. Most MERS-CoV cases reported thus far have a history of residence in or travel to the Middle East. Human-to-human transmission though was observed on some occasions in Korea, it is documented as non-sustainable event. The envelope spike glycoprotein on the surface of MERS-CoV which mediates receptor binding, membrane fusion and viral entry is thought to be involved in the mechanism of MERS-CoV.No specific and effective treatment for MERS-CoV is currently recommended, although supportive treatment has played an important role. Prophylactic strategies are necessary to prevent MERS-CoV infection.
Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; therapy ; Humans ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; pathogenicity ; physiology ; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ; metabolism ; Virus Internalization

Recently a COVID-19 pneumonia pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV has broken out over the world. In order to better control the spread of the pandemic, there's an urgent need to extensively study the virus' origin and the mechanisms for its infectivity and pathogenicity. Spike protein is a special structural protein on the surface of coronavirus. It contains important information about the evolution of the virus and plays critical roles in the processes of cellular recognition and entry. In the past decades, spike protein has always been one of the most important objects in research works on coronaviruses closely related to human life. In this review we introduce these research works related to spike proteins, hoping it will provide reasonable ideas for the control of the current pandemic, as well as for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19.
Betacoronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Evolution, Molecular ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; diagnosis ; therapy ; Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus ; analysis

Betacoronavirus ; COVID-19 ; Coronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections/drug therapy* ; Glucocorticoids/therapeutic use* ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral/drug therapy* ; SARS-CoV-2

On the base of the idea of traditional Chinese medicine as "disease prevention", the mode and the protocol of the moxibustion intervention for the group under quarantine after close contact with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were explored. The group under quarantine after close contact with COVID-19 was taken as the subjects. By the non-contact physician-patient communication network platform co-developed by China Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Hunan Provincial Association of Acupuncture-Moxibustion, Data Center of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and Yuge Medicine Company, an exploratory randomized controlled trial was designed. A total of 100 cases were included and randomized into a moxibustion group and a conventional intervention group, 50 cases in each one. In the moxibustion group, moxibustion intervention was used. In the conventional intervention group, the conventional observation was adopted without moxibusiton intervention applied. The outcomes included the symptoms changes, e.g. anxiety, emotional disturbance, fatigue, headache and diarrhea, as well as whether quarantine release and the case confirmed or not, etc. The results were evaluated before intervention, in 14 days of intervention and 2 weeks after intervention separately. In this research, on the base of internet plus technology and with the internet communication platform adopted, through mobile phone WeChat App, it was to implement the subject screen, the random allocation and the instruction of moxibustion intervention as well as the quality control of patient's diary and data collection. It is anticipated that the significance and the implementation mode of moxibustion intervention can be assessed preliminarily for the group under quarantine after close contact with COVID-19.
Acupuncture Therapy ; methods ; Betacoronavirus ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; therapy ; Humans ; Moxibustion ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; therapy ; Quarantine

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has caused outbreaks of SARS-like disease with 35% case-fatality rate, mainly in the Middle East. A more severe outbreak of MERS occurred recently in the Republic of Korea, where 186 people contracted the infections, causing great concern worldwide. So far, there has been no clinically available drug for the treatment of MERS-CoV infection. The potential drugs against MERS-CoV mainly consist of monoclonal antibodies, peptides and small molecular agents. Small molecular agents have an advantage of easier synthesis, lower cost in production and relatively higher stability. There is better chance for those candidates to gain a quick development. This article reviews the progress of developing small molecular MERS-CoV agents.
Antibodies, Monoclonal ; pharmacology ; Antiviral Agents ; pharmacology ; Coronavirus Infections ; drug therapy ; Drug Design ; Humans ; Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus ; drug effects

On May 15, 2020, the Lancet published an article titled Use of Herbal Drugs to Treat COVID-19 Should be with Caution. While this is true of all drugs, herbal and otherwise, the data may be biased and deserve a scientific response. We believe these types of reports will unfairly and negatively impact the field of integrative medicine as a whole, and must be answered with facts and statistics that more accurately represent the current situation.
Betacoronavirus ; Bias ; COVID-19 ; Coronavirus ; Coronavirus Infections/drug therapy* ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; SARS-CoV-2

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early December 2019, 81 174 confirmed cases and 3242 deaths have been reported in China as of March 19, 2020. The Chinese people and government have contributed huge efforts to combat this disease, resulting in significant improvement of the situation, with 58 new cases (34 were imported cases) and 11 new deaths reported on March 19, 2020. However, as of March 19, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to develop in 167 countries/territories outside of China, and 128 665 confirmed cases and 5536 deaths have been reported, with 16 498 new cases and 817 new deaths occurring in last 24 hours. Therefore, the world should work together to fight against this pandemic. Here, we review the recent advances in COVID-19, including the insights in the virus, the responses of the host cells, the cytokine release syndrome, and the therapeutic approaches to inhibit the virus and alleviate the cytokine storm. By sharing knowledge and deepening our understanding of the virus and the disease pathogenesis, we believe that the community can efficiently develop effective vaccines and drugs, and the mankind will eventually win this battle against this pandemic.
Betacoronavirus ; China ; epidemiology ; Coronavirus Infections ; epidemiology ; therapy ; Humans ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; epidemiology ; therapy

In December 2019, an outbreak of viral pneumonia began in Wuhan, Hubei Province, which caused the spread of infectious pneumonia to a certain extent in China and neighboring countries and regions, and triggered the epidemic crisis. The coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease listed as a B infectious disease, which is managed according to standards for A infectious disease. Traditional Chinese medicine and integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine have played an active role in the prevention and control of this epidemic. China's ethnomedicine has recognized infectious diseases since ancient times, and formed a medical system including theory, therapies, formula and herbal medicines for such diseases. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Chuxiong Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan, Qiandongnan Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou have issued the prevention and control programs for COVID-19 using Tibetan, Mongolian, Uygur, Yi and Miao medicines. These programs reflect the wisdom of ethnomedicine in preventing and treating diseases, which have successfully extracted prescriptions and preventive measures for the outbreak of the epidemic from their own medical theories and traditional experiences. In this paper, we summarized and explained the prescriptions and medicinal materials of ethnomedicine in these programs, and the origin of Tibetan medicine prescriptions and Mongolian medicine prescriptions in ancient books were studied. These become the common characteristics of medical prevention and treatment programs for ethnomedicine to formulate therapeutic programs under the guidance of traditional medicine theories, recommend prescriptions and prevention and treatment methods with characteristics of ethnomedicine, and focus on the conve-nience and standardization. However, strengthening the support of science and technology and the popularization to the public, and improving the participation of ethnomedicine in national public health services and the capacity-building to deal with sudden and critical diseases are key contents in the development of ethnomedicine in the future.
Betacoronavirus ; China ; Coronavirus Infections ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Medicine, Traditional ; Pandemics ; Pneumonia, Viral ; drug therapy ; Tibet