Coronavirus: An insight into global research until outbreak of COVID-19 and its implications for the future

Global mpox research in the light of the current outbreak: demands, drivers, and obstacles

Following the current outbreak, the mpox virus (formerly: monkeypox virus) is a highly threatening pathogen with public health significance, although mpox is still considered a neglected disease. Previously confined mainly to Africa, the virus spread globally in 2022. However, knowledge about mpox is limited, causing a distorted perception of the disease. Therefore, this study aimed to collect all information on scientific mpox publishing and to analyse them according to their chronological, geographical, and epidemiological patterns. It was not until the global outbreak that the relatively small number of publications was replaced by the immense increase in annual publication numbers. The most important player is the USA with a central role in international networking. They collaborated mainly with the Democratic Republic of Congo, a primary endemic country where the first viral clades were determined. Nigeria and other African countries were also represented, although mainly in the form of co-authorships. The fact that few of the first authors are from low- or middle-economic countries demonstrates the need to promote equitable networking at the global level and their support for surveillance and targeted immunization programmes.

Computational Insights on Allosteric Effect and Dynamic Structural Feature of SARS-COV-2 Spike Protein

COVID-19 caused by SARS-COV-2 is currently continuing to surge globally. The spike (S) protein is the key protein of SARS-COV-2 that recognizes and binds to the host target ACE2. In this study, molecular dynamics simulation was used to elucidate the allosteric effect of S protein. The binding of ACE2 caused a centripetal movement of the receptor-binding domain of the S protein. The dihedral changes of Phe329 and Phe515 played a key role in this process. Two potential cleavage sites S1/S2 and S2' were exposed on the surface after the binding of ACE2. The binding affinity of SARS-COV-2 S protein and ACE2 was significantly higher than that of SARS-COV. This was mainly due to the mutation of Asp480 in SARS-COV to Ser494 in SARS-COV-2, which greatly weakened the electrostatic repulsion. The result provides theoretical basis for the SARS-COV-2 infection and aids the development of biosensors and detection reagents.

Bibliometric Analysis and Systematic Review of Global Coronavirus Research Trends Before COVID-19: Prospects and Implications for COVID-19 Research

Coronaviruses (CoV) cause respiratory and intestinal infections. We conducted this bibliometric analysis and systematical review to explore the CoV-related research trends from before COVID-19. We systematically searched the Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, and Web of Science (WOS) databases for published bibliometric analyses of CoV from database inception to January 24, 2021. The WOS Collection was searched from inception to January 31, 2020, to acquire the CoV-related publications before COVID-19. One-Way ANOVA and Bonferroni multiple-comparison tests were used to compare differences. Visualization mapping and keyword cluster graphs were made to illustrate the research topics and hotpots. We included 14,141 CoV-related publications for the bibliometric analysis and 16 (12 articles) CoV-related bibliometric analyses for the systematic review. Both the systematic review and bibliometric analysis showed (1) the number of publications showed two steep upward trajectories in 2003-2004 and in 2012-2014; (2) the research hotpots mainly focused on the mechanism, pathology, epidemiology, clinical diagnosis, and treatment of the coronavirus in MERS-CoV and SARS-Cov; (3) the USA, and China; the University of Hong Kong; and Yuen KY, came from the University of Hong Kong contributed most; (4) the Journal of Virology had the largest number of CoV related studies. More studies should focus on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment in the future.

The pandemic year 2020: A world map of Coronavirus research

Background

SARS-CoV-2 is one of the most threatening pandemics in human history. As of the date of this analysis, it had claimed about 2 million lives worldwide, and the number is rising sharply. Governments, societies, and scientists are equally challenged under this burden.

Objective

This study aimed to map global coronavirus research in 2020 according to various influencing factors to highlight incentives or necessities for further research.

Methods

The application of established and advanced bibliometric methods combined with the visualization technique of density-equalizing mapping provided a global picture of incentives and efforts on coronavirus research in 2020. Countries’ funding patterns and their epidemiological and socioeconomic characteristics as well as their publication performance data were included.

Results

Research output exploded in 2020 with momentum, including citation and networking parameters. China and the United States were the countries with the highest publication performance. Globally, however, publication output correlated significantly with COVID-19 cases. Research funding has also increased immensely.

Conclusions

Nonetheless, the abrupt decline in publication efforts following previous coronavirus epidemics should demonstrate to global researchers that they should not lose interest even after containment, as the next epidemiological challenge is certain to come. Validated reporting worldwide and the inclusion of low-income countries are additionally important for a successful future research strategy.

Current global research landscape on COVID-19 and depressive disorders: Bibliometric and visualization analysis

BACKGROUND

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected daily life globally dramatically over the last year. The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on mental health is expected to be immense and likely to be long-lasting, raising a range of global problems that need to be addressed accordingly.

AIM

To analyze the Scopus-based depression research and COVID-19, explain the advancement of research nowadays, and comment on the possible hotspots of depression research and COVID-19 to obtain a more global perspective.

METHODS

In this report, bibliometric analysis and visualization are used to explain COVID-19's global research status on depression and provide researchers with a guide to identify future research directions. Relevant studies on depression and COVID-19 were retrieved from the Scopus database. Visualization maps were produced using the VOSviewer software, including research collaboration.

RESULTS

At the time of data collection (November 18, 2020), 77217 documents were released by Scopus to COVID-19 in all areas of research. By limiting the search to depression and COVID-19 (January 2020 up until November 18, 2020), there are 1274 published articles on depression and COVID-19 in the Scopus. The great majority of which are original articles (n = 1049, 82.34%), followed by 118 review articles (9.26%), 66 letters (5.18%). The United States had the highest number of publications at 282 (22.14%), followed by China (19.07%) at 243 and Italy at 121 (9.5%). The major two clusters are signified by mental health outcomes among the general population and mental health outcomes among health care workers.

CONCLUSION

The evidence from this study found that many articles focused on mental health outcomes among the general population and health care workers. With adequate psychological support offered by the government or community agencies, mental health in various communities should be put within the local and global public health agenda. This changing situation involves the scientific community's collaborative efforts to contribute to population monitoring during quarantine and COVID-19 outbreaks and to examine the short- and long-term adverse effects on psychological well-being.

The Arab region's contribution to global COVID-19 research: Bibliometric and visualization analysis

BACKGROUND

At the global level and in the Arab world, particularly in low-income countries, COVID-19 remains a major public health issue. As demonstrated by an incredible number of COVID-19-related publications, the research science community responded rapidly. Therefore, this study was intended to assess the growing contribution of the Arab world to global research on COVID-19.

METHODS

For the period between December 2019 and March 2021, the search for publications was conducted via the Scopus database using terms linked to COVID-19. VOSviewer 1.6.16 software was applied to generate a network map to assess hot topics in this area and determine the collaboration patterns between different countries. Furthermore, the research output of Arab countries was adjusted in relation to population size and gross domestic product (GDP).

RESULTS

A total of 143,975 publications reflecting the global overall COVID-19 research output were retrieved. By restricting analysis to the publications published by the Arab countries, the research production was 6131 documents, representing 4.26% of the global research output regarding COVID-19. Of all these publications, 3990 (65.08%) were original journal articles, 980 (15.98%) were review articles, 514 (8.38%) were letters and 647 (10.55%) were others, such as editorials or notes. The highest number of COVID-19 publications was published by Saudi Arabia (n = 2186, 35.65%), followed by Egypt (n = 1281, 20.78%) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), (n = 719, 11.73%). After standardization by population size and GDP, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon had the highest publication productivity. The collaborations were mostly with researchers from the United States (n = 968), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 661). The main research lines identified in COVID-19 from the Arab world are related to: public health and epidemiology; immunological and pharmaceutical research; signs, symptoms and clinical diagnosis; and virus detection.

CONCLUSIONS

A novel analysis of the latest Arab COVID-19-related studies is discussed in the current study and how these findings are connected to global production. Continuing and improving future collaboration between developing and developed countries will also help to facilitate the sharing of responsibilities for COVID-19 in research results and the implementation of policies for COVID-19.

"Rehabilitation Research Framework for Patients With COVID-19" Defined by Cochrane Rehabilitation and the World Health Organization Rehabilitation Programme

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in a surge of research activity. Since its outset, efforts have been made to guide the rapid generation of research in medicine. There are gaps in some areas of rehabilitation research for patients with COVID-19. The development of a specific research framework might serve to help monitor the status of research (mapping), shape and strengthen research by pointing to under-investigated areas, and promote rehabilitation research in this context. This article introduces and discusses the COVID-19 Rehabilitation Research Framework (CRRF) and presents the methodology used for its development. The questions have been developed among the World Health Organization (WHO) Rehabilitation Programme, Cochrane Rehabilitation, and the experts of its Rehabilitation-COVID-19 Evidence-based Response Action International Multiprofessional Steering Committee. The framework is divided into 2 parts and includes 20 questions organized in 4 groups: epidemiology, and evidence at the micro- (individual), meso- (health services), and macro- (health systems) levels. The CRRF offers a comprehensive view of the research areas relevant to COVID-19 and rehabilitation that are necessary to inform best practice and ensure rehabilitation services and health systems can best serve the population with COVID-19. The collaboration between Cochrane Rehabilitation and the WHO Rehabilitation Programme in establishing the CRRF brought together perspectives from the health systems, health management, and clinical evidence. The authors encourage researchers to use the CRRF when planning studies on rehabilitation in the context of COVID-19.