Objective: Foodborne parasitic diseases, although with a declining overall incidence rate, are still endangering local public safety. This review aims to describe the current situation and epidemiological trends of foodborne parasitic diseases in China in order to explore possible reasons contributors to its high prevalence in some areas, and propose strategies for prevention and control accordingly. Methods: A scoping review was conducted by searching PubMed, CNKI, Wanfang, CQVIP, Embase, and the Cochrane Library using search formula “foodborne parasitic diseases (or foodborne parasites)” AND “China”. Studies on foodborne parasitic diseases in China were considered, but only articles in English or Chinese published between January 1980 and June 2020 were retrieved. Included studies were screened according to the eligibility criteria: 1) diseases consistent with the WHO definition of foodborne parasitic diseases; 2) the food carriers were included in the WHO food classification; 3) data related to epidemiology, pathogenicity, and prevention and control; 4) Foodborne parasitic diseases cases or outbreaks in China. Results: A total of 111 out of 665 records were included and summarized. The prevalence of clonorchiasis, angiostrongyliasis, echinococcosis, trichinellosis and cysticercosis was still increasing although the infection rate of soil-transmitted nematodes has substantially decreased in recent years. Diverse eating habits, close contact with animals, and urbanization were contributing factors to the increase. Conclusions: Foodborne parasitic diseases remain an important public health issue in China with the progress of economic globalization and food diversification. We should manage to raise public awareness about the prevention and control of foodborne parasitic diseases, improve health and safety inspections, as well as public health practice.

Humans ; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease/drug therapy* ; Hypoglycemic Agents/therapeutic use* ; Liver Cirrhosis/pathology* ; Biopsy ; Patients ; Liver/pathology* ; Fibrosis

The global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has infected over 109 million people, leading to over 2 million deaths up to date and still lacking of effective drugs for patient treatment. Here, we screened about 1.8 million small molecules against the main protease (M^pro) and papain like protease (PL^pro), two major proteases in severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 genome, and identified 1851M^pro inhibitors and 205 PL^pro inhibitors with low nmol/l activity of the best hits. Among these inhibitors, eight small molecules showed dual inhibition effects on both M^pro and PL^pro, exhibiting potential as better candidates for COVID-19 treatment. The best inhibitors of each protease were tested in antiviral assay, with over 40% of M^pro inhibitors and over 20% of PL^pro inhibitors showing high potency in viral inhibition with low cytotoxicity. The X-ray crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 M^pro in complex with its potent inhibitor 4a was determined at 1.8 Å resolution. Together with docking assays, our results provide a comprehensive resource for future research on anti-SARS-CoV-2 drug development.
Humans ; Antiviral Agents/chemistry* ; COVID-19 ; COVID-19 Drug Treatment ; High-Throughput Screening Assays ; Molecular Docking Simulation ; Protease Inhibitors/chemistry* ; SARS-CoV-2/enzymology* ; Viral Nonstructural Proteins