TMPRSS2 Polymorphism and Its Correlation with SARS-CoV-2 Susceptibility - A Secondary Publication

Background:Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2(SARS-CoV-2)virus affected more people than SARS-CoV-1 and related coronaviruses.Human genetic factors,besides respiratory droplets and direct exposure to the virus,are found highly responsible for transmitting SARS-CoV-2 infection.Aim:The objective of this study was to determine the plasma levels of the TMPRSS2 gene and its role in SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility.Methodology:A total of 100 patients,i.e.50 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients as the case group and 50 SARS-CoV-2 negative samples as the control group,were selected randomly and included in this case-control study to determine the association between TMPRSS2 gene and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and severity of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19).The TMPRSS2 levels of case and control samples were measured through an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).Following the genomic DNA extraction,a set of reverse and forward primers of human TMPRSS2 gene primers were used for the amplification of the TMPRSS2 gene.Results:In the control group,the ratio of men to women was more or less the same while in the case group 62%of the population were women.The TMPRSS2 level was found to be 4.70±7.7 ng/ml in case samples while it was 4.73±5.7 ng/ml in control samples.Conclusion:The levels of TMPRSS2 in plasma samples of both controls and cases were found to be the same indicating that the entry of SARS-CoV-2 is not dependent on the plasma levels of this protein.

Antibody Pattern: Correlation of Age and Gender in ANA and Anti-ds-DNA Prevalence

The study was designed to find the prevalence of ANA antibodies and anti-dsDNA antibodies in samples tested at AFIP Rawalpindi and their correlation with age and gender and to find positive and negative predictive values of ANA antibodies.For this purpose,twelve thousand nine hundred sixty-seven(12,967)patients were analyzed for ANA with four hundred sixty-eight(468)healthy samples tested as control and four thousand seven hundred three(4,703)patients tested for ds-DNA antibodies.Retrospective data of all samples tested by indirect immunofluorescence(IF)for ANA antibodies and dsDNA antibodies was collected.To address positive and negative predictive values another control group(autoimmunity not suspected)of serum samples was taken from the healthy population.For the first group,age,gender,ANA antibodies and ds-DNA antibodies results(both tests performed by IIF)data was collected from a computer record cell;for the second control group,ANA antibodies were performed by IIF.12,967 and 4,703 samples(Group 1)were tested for ANA antibodies and dsDNA antibodies,respectively,during this period.1,119(9%)and 99(2%)were found positive for ANA antibodies and ds DNA antibodies.Among these positive samples,850(76%)and 73(74%)were females respectively.Gender predisposition towards autoimmunity(ANA)was found significant with a P value of(P=0.001).Relation of age was also found significant with anti-ANA antibodies with a P value of(P=0.001).This study shows a negative correlation between age(P=0.025)and gender(P=0.001)with anti-dsDNA which is also significant.High prevalence was found below the mean age of 38 years(SD±16.635)for ANA antibodies and the mean age of 35 years(SD±15.066)for ds-DNA antibodies.The age of ANA antibodies and dsDNA antibodies positive patients ranged from 1 year old to 98 years old and 2 years old to 95 years old respectively.In the second(autoimmunity-free)control group,a total of 468 samples were tested for ANA antibodies and 9(2%)were found positive.Positive predictive value(PPV)was 8.6%and negative predictive value(NPV)was 98%.ANA is a sensitive test for autoimmunity and it is significantly related to female gender and increasing age.The low prevalence of ANA antibodies among clinically suspected cases suggests that rationalization of test prescriptions is needed.Anti-ds-DNA is also a sensitive test for diagnosis of SLE and it is significantly related to female gender and increasing age.

Innovative COVID-19 Screening: RT-LAMP Assay for Spike and NSP1 Proteins

Coronavirus disease(COVID-19)is a serious respiratory disease that spreads through the coronavirus globally.It soon became a pandemic after its appearance in 2019 and demanded new techniques for its identification and detection.Owing to this situation,RT-LAMP appears to be a novel method for the identification of COVID-19 because of its vast applications,including cost-effectiveness and time-saving.This research highlights the use of RT-LAMP,a more sensitive test than RT-PCR,for the assessment of SARS-CoV-2,the severe acute respiratory illness.To identify the spike(S)and NSP1 protein using RT-LAMP,170 total samples of coronavirus-suspected patients were served in this research.Health certifications and bioethical considerations were taken into consideration.After the sample was extracted from the patient's swabs,RNA was isolated,extracted,and purified.The response was then run on the RT-LAMP at the ideal temperature,and the outcomes could be observed with the unaided eye as they changed from pink to yellow.It is a simple method of determining if the test is positive or negative.For this purpose,both RT-LAMP and RT-PCR tests are used during these procedures.Genes linked with COVID-19 testing including S,nspl,and ORF are suited to coronavirus testing;they have 100%specificity and low sensitivity,but S has more specificity and sensitivity than nspl and ORF,respectively.Out of the 95 positive samples,89(93.68%)samples yielded favorable outcomes utilizing RT-LAMP,while 55 negative samples yielded 100%positive results.The present research demonstrates that RT-LAMP is less sensitive yet more selective for coronavirus detection.

Pre-Processing Images of Public Signage for OCR Conversion

In this paper, we propose a novel method to enhance the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) readability of public signboards captured by smart-phone cameras—both outdoors and indoors, and subject to various lighting conditions. A distinct feature of our technique is the detection of these signs in the HSV (Hue, Saturation and Value) color space, done in order to filter out the signboard from the background, and correctly interpret the textual details of each signboard. This is then binarized using a thresholding technique that is optimized for text printed on contrasting backgrounds, and passed through the Tesseract engine to detect individual characters. We test out our technique on a dataset of over 200 images taken in and around the campus of our college, and are successful in attaining better OCR results in comparison to traditional methods. Further, we suggest the utilization of a method to automatically assign ROIs (Regions Of Interest) to detected signboards, for better recognition of textual information.