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By Christian Hoffmann &
Bernd S. Kamps

14 September

Lost and Found, or “The Zebra Fish Collection”

Crazy times – we are approaching 50,000 COVID-19 citations on PubMed. These days publishing must go fast, sometimes even faster, sometimes too fast. Here we present 10 examples:

 

Song W, Li J, Zou N, Guan W, Pan J, Xu W. Clinical features of pediatric patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19). J Clin Virol. 2020 Jun;127:104377. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32361323. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104377

In asymptomatic children, the “median time to SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test (NAT)” positivity once exposed to a family member with confirmed infection was 15.5 days.” Which primers did they use?

 

Sri Santosh T, Parmar R, Anand H, Srikanth K, Saritha M. A Review of Salivary Diagnostics and Its Potential Implication in Detection of Covid-19. Cureus. 2020 Apr 17;12(4):e7708. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32313785. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.7708

“The coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic is the biggest challenge and global health crisis for the world since World War Two.” A strong statement for a review on salivary swabs.

 

Bompard F, Monnier H, Saab I, et al. Pulmonary embolism in patients with Covid-19 pneumonia. Eur Respir J. 2020 May 12:2001365. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32398297. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.01365-2020

Abstract: “We report an overall 24% (95% CI; 17–32%) cumulative incidence of pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, 50% (30–70%) in ICU and 18% (12–27%) in other patients.”

Well, that’s it. At this point, the abstract was truncated for the conflict of interest statement. This reads as follows: “Conflict of interest: Dr. BOMPARD has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. MONNIER has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. SAAB has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. TORDJMAN has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. ABDOUL has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. FOURNIER reports personal fees from GENERAL ELECTRIC, non-financial support from GUERBET, personal fees from JANSSEN, from NOVARTIS, outside the submitted work;. Conflict of interest: Dr. SANCHEZ reports personal fees and non-financial support from BTG, grants and personal fees from BOSTON SCIENTIFIC, grants, personal fees and non-financial support from BAYER, grants, personal fees and non-financial support from BMS, personal fees from SANOFI AVENTIS, grants from DAIICHI SANKYO, during the conduct of the study; grants, personal fees and non-financial support from MSD, grants from BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM, outside the submitted work;. Conflict of interest: Dr. LORUT reports non-financial support from Covidien AG, non-financial support from NOVATECH SA, non-financial support from PROXILIO, outside the submitted work;. Conflict of interest: Dr. CHASSAGNON has nothing to disclose. Conflict of interest: Dr. REVEL reports personal fees from MSD FRANCE, non-financial support from GUERBET, outside the submitted work.”

Yes, transparency is important. But didn’t we want the data?

 

Coleman JJ, Manavi K, Marson EJ, Botkai AH, Sapey E. COVID-19: to be or not to be; that is the diagnostic question. Postgrad Med J. 2020 Jul;96(1137):392-398. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32522844. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-137979

Yawn. To employ or not to employ a Top 10 quotation (gnawed to the bone), that is the question. Sometimes, it may be better “not to”.

 

Lu QB, Jiang WL, Zhang X, et al. Comorbidities for fatal outcome among the COVID-19 patients: A hospital-based case-control study. J Infect. 2020 Jul 27:S0163-4453(20)30507-7. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32731000. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.07.026

Six comorbidities showed significant associations with the disease outcome, with malignancy exhibiting the highest risk of death, followed by CKD, CVD, hypertension, CHD, and DM. So many abbreviations that “the comorbidities significantly affected the outcome of OCVID-19 (sic)”. [OVID?]

 

Chandra A, Rao N, Srivastava D. Dialysis in Northern India during COVD-19 pandemic: trying to maintain a balance. Int Urol Nephrol. 2020 Jun 1:1-2. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32488757. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11255-020-02524-9

The journal International Urology and Nephrology (impact 2018: 1.598) publishes original papers on a broad range of topics in urology, nephrology and andrology. “100% of authors who answered a survey reported that they would definitely publish or probably publish in the journal again”. 100%! Including these authors and editors (who obviously skipped the proof editing phase) and report striking new findings on a hitherto unknown phenomenon: The COVD-19 (sic) pandemic?

 

Liao M, Liu Y, Yuan J, et al. Single-cell landscape of bronchoalveolar immune cells in patients with COVID-19. Nat Med. 2020 May 12. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32398875. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0901-9

Dear folks from Nature Medicine: We love you. We love your brilliant articles, papers, stories. But why did it take more than ten years to publish an abstract that “proinflammatory monocyte-derived macrophages were abundant in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from patients with severe COVID-9 (sic)”? Just asking.

 

Khalil MI, Salih MA, Mustafa AA. Broad beans (Vicia faba) and the potential to protect from COVID-19 coronavirus infection. Sudan J Paediatr. 2020;20(1):10-12. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32528195. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.24911/SJP.106-1585398078

Broad beans (Vicia faba), grown in Northern Sudan, proved to incorporate a high content of unsaturated fatty acids and in particular linoleic acid (46.41%). It forms a traditional meal in Sudan and in several Middle East countries. Hence, it is here recommended to be taken as the main meal in combination with sesame oil, as it is commonly practiced in Sudan. Theoretically, it has the potential to protect from COVID-19 coronavirus infections. According to the authors, their “proposal needs to be confirmed by further experimental and clinical research”. We agree.

 

Zhao A, Li Z, Ke Y, et al. Dietary Diversity among Chinese Residents during the COVID-19 Outbreak and Its Associated Factors. Nutrients. 2020 Jun 6;12(6):E1699. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32517210. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061699

This study explored the dietary diversity during lockdown in China. Important finding: “Online ordering and delivery services were popular and could serve as a feasible method to obtain and purchase food”. We agree (however, no doubt that controlled studies are needed).

 

Neff EP. COVID-19 Q&A: Collaborating and coordinating keeps a zebrafish facility going. Lab Anim (NY). 2020 May;49(5):136-137. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/32296170. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-020-0534-0

No, please, last but not least, do not forget the zebrafish in this crisis.