Highlight of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 vaccine development against COVID-19 pandemic

Knowledge and willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine: a survey from Anhui Province, China

OBJECTIVES

Vaccinations can prevent COVID-19 and control its spread quickly and efficiently. This study aimed to investigate knowledge and willingness of geriatric care facility staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, and to provide a basis for the government to promote the COVID-19 vaccine and guide people to get vaccinated.

STUDY DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

Data on characteristics of the participants, knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccine, and willingness to get vaccinated for COVID-19 were collected through an online survey from May 19 to June 18, 2021. Statistical analyses were conducted with ANOVA, chi-square, logistic regression.

RESULTS

The survey illustrated that the highest score of COVID-19 vaccine knowledge was 50, the lowest 20, and the average 44.22. It also demonstrated that 91.3% of the participants had a good knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine, and that 97.3% participants were willing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The results showed that geriatric care facility staff had varied level of the COVID-19 vaccine knowledge depending upon their age, educational background, and other factors, and correspondingly, their willingness to receive COVID-19 vaccine was affected by their knowledge level of COVID-19 vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS

In general, the participants, the staff of geriatric care facilities in Anhui Province, had good mastery of the COVID-19 vaccine, and they were willing to get vaccinated. However, there still existed a few participants with poor knowledge, who were unwilling to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Government can guide people to accept vaccination by enhancing publicity about the effects and adverse reactions of COVID-19 vaccines.

Ultramicronized Palmitoylethanolamide Inhibits NLRP3 Inflammasome Expression and Pro-Inflammatory Response Activated by SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein in Cultured Murine Alveolar Macrophages

Despite its possible therapeutic potential against COVID-19, the exact mechanism(s) by which palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) exerts its beneficial activity is still unclear. PEA has demonstrated analgesic, anti-allergic, and anti-inflammatory activities. Most of the anti-inflammatory properties of PEA arise from its ability to antagonize nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) signalling pathway via the selective activation of the PPARα receptors. Acting at this site, PEA can downstream several genes involved in the inflammatory response, including cytokines (TNF-α, Il-1β) and other signal mediators, such as inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and COX2. To shed light on this, we tested the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity of ultramicronized(um)-PEA, both alone and in the presence of specific peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α) antagonist MK886, in primary cultures of murine alveolar macrophages exposed to SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (SP). SP challenge caused a significant concentration-dependent increase in proinflammatory markers (TLR4, p-p38 MAPK, NF-κB) paralleled to a marked upregulation of inflammasome-dependent inflammatory pathways (NLRP3, Caspase-1) with IL-6, IL-1β, TNF-α over-release, compared to vehicle group. We also observed a significant concentration-dependent increase in angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE-2) following SP challenge. um-PEA concentration-dependently reduced all the analyzed proinflammatory markers fostering a parallel downregulation of ACE-2. Our data show for the first time that um-PEA, via PPAR-α, markedly inhibits the SP induced NLRP3 signalling pathway outlining a novel mechanism of action of this lipid against COVID-19.