• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.9-15
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• 2022

The angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor (ACE2) appears to be widely expressed in cells in the testes, predominantly in spermatogonia, Sertoli cells, and Leydig cells, and its co-expression with transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) is essential for the entry of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). For this reason, the male reproductive system could be considered a potential target for SARS-CoV-2, as well as a possible reservoir of infection. However, to date, there is very little evidence about the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in semen and testicular samples. The aim of this paper was to review the current evidence regarding the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on male fertility and sexual health, with a particular focus on reproductive hormones, the presence of the virus in seminal fluid and testis, and its impact on fertility parameters. We found very limited evidence reporting the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in semen and testicular samples, and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on reproductive hormones and fertility parameters is unclear. The quality of the examined studies was poor due to the small sample size and several selection biases, precluding definitive conclusions. Hence, future well-designed prospective studies are needed to assess the real impact of SARS-CoV-2 on male reproductive function.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.161-165
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• 2021

Objectives: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads heterogeneously, disproportionately impacting poor and minority communities. The relationship between poverty and race is complex, with a diverse set of structural and systemic factors driving higher rates of poverty among minority populations. The factors that specifically contribute to the disproportionate rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection, however, are not clearly understood. Methods: We evaluated SARS-CoV-2 test results from community-based testing sites in Los Angeles, California, between June and December, 2020. We used tester zip code data to link those results with United States Census report data on average annual household income, rates of healthcare coverage, and employment status by zip code. Results: We analyzed 2 141 127 SARS-CoV-2 test results, of which 245 154 (11.4%) were positive. Multivariable modeling showed a higher likelihood of SARS-CoV-2 test positivity among Hispanic communities than among other races. We found an increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 positivity among individuals from zip codes with an average annual household income

• Journal of Veterinary Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.12.1-12.11
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• 2021

Background: Bats have been considered natural reservoirs for several pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) in the last two decades. Recently, a bat CoV was detected in the Republic of Korea; its entire genome was sequenced and reported to be genetically similar to that of the severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV (SARS-CoV). Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the genetic sequences of SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and the two Korean bat CoV strains 16BO133 and B15-21, to estimate the likelihood of an interaction between the Korean bat CoVs and the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor. Methods: The phylogenetic analysis was conducted with the maximum-likelihood (ML) method using MEGA 7 software. The Korean bat CoVs receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein was analyzed by comparative homology modeling using the SWISS-MODEL server. The binding energies of the complexes were calculated using PRODIGY and MM/GBGA. Results: Phylogenetic analyses of the entire RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, spike regions, and the complete genome revealed that the Korean CoVs, along with SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, belong to the subgenus Sarbecovirus, within BetaCoVs. However, the two Korean CoVs were distinct from SARS-CoV-2. Specifically, the spike gene of the Korean CoVs, which is involved in host infection, differed from that of SARS-CoV-2, showing only 66.8%-67.0% nucleotide homology and presented deletions within the RBD, particularly within regions critical for cross-species transmission and that mediate interaction with ACE2. Binding free energy calculation revealed that the binding affinity of Korean bat CoV RBD to hACE2 was drastically lower than that of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. Conclusions: These results suggest that Korean bat CoVs are unlikely to bind to the human ACE2 receptor.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.273-281
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• 2021

Severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Signaling pathways that are essential for virus production have potential as therapeutic targets against COVID-19. In this study, we investigated cellular responses in two cell lines, Vero and Calu-3, upon SARS-CoV-2 infection and evaluated the effects of pathway-specific inhibitors on virus production. SARS-CoV-2 infection induced dephosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3, high virus production, and apoptosis in Vero cells. However, in Calu-3 cells, SARS-CoV-2 infection induced long-lasting phosphorylation of STAT1 and STAT3, low virus production, and no prominent apoptosis. Inhibitors that target STAT3 phosphorylation and dimerization reduced SARS-CoV-2 production in Calu-3 cells, but not in Vero cells. These results suggest a necessity to evaluate cellular consequences upon SARS-CoV-2 infection using various model cell lines to find out more appropriate cells recapitulating relevant responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection in vitro.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.465-474
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• 2021

Corona-19, a disease caused by 'Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)', was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020, and a real-time polymerase chain reaction test is performed as a diagnostic test for screening and confirmation in most countries. However, not only the target genes and protocols differ by countries, but also the procedures for reading the diagnosis results are diverse, so the criteria for confirmed patients differ by country. Therefore, in this review, we discussed the target genes, test techniques, and diagnostic criteria for each country notified by WHO. And the specificity and sensitivity, limits of detection, positive and negative controls, false positive bacteria candidates, and specimens, and the specifics of the control setting were also described. In addition, the characteristics of Korea's test were compared to each country's one. Finally, in order to obtain the same diagnosis result for SARS-CoV-2 in the future, standardized diagnosis methods and result interpretations for Corona-19 diagnosis were proposed.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Service
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.163-168
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• 2021

The rapid and reliable detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) plays a key role in isolating infected patients and preventing further viral transmission. In this study, we evaluated the clinical diagnostic performances of a commercial real-time reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RRT-LAMP) assay (Isopollo^® COVID-2 assay, M-monitor, Daegu, Korea) using eighty COVID-19 suspected clinical samples and compared these with the results of a commercial real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay (Allplex^TM 2019-nCoV rRT-QPCR Assay, SeeGene, Seoul, Korea). The results of the RRT-LAMP assay targeting the N or RdRp gene of SARS-CoV-2 showed perfect agreement with the RT-qPCR assay results in terms of detection. Furthermore, the RRT-LAMP assay was completed in just within a 20-min reaction time, which is significantly faster than about the 2 h currently required for the RT-qPCR assay, thus enabling prompt decision making regarding the isolation of infected patients. The RRT-LAMP assay will be a valuable tool for rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of SARS-CoV-2 in human or unexpected animal clinical cases.

• Biomolecules & Therapeutics
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.249-262
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• 2021

The most effective way to control newly emerging infectious disease, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, is to strengthen preventative or therapeutic public health strategies before the infection spreads worldwide. However, global health systems remain at the early stages in anticipating effective therapeutics or vaccines to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. While maintaining social distance is the most crucial metric to avoid spreading the virus, symptomatic therapy given to patients on the clinical manifestations helps save lives. The molecular properties of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been quickly elucidated, paving the way to therapeutics, vaccine development, and other medical interventions. Despite this progress, the detailed biomolecular mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains elusive. Given virus invasion of cells is a determining factor for virulence, understanding the viral entry process can be a mainstay in controlling newly emerged viruses. Since viral entry is mediated by selective cellular proteases or proteins associated with receptors, identification and functional analysis of these proteins could provide a way to disrupt virus propagation. This review comprehensively discusses cellular machinery necessary for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Understanding multifactorial traits of the virus entry will provide a substantial guide to facilitate antiviral drug development.

• Genomics & Informatics
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.49.1-49.11
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• 2021

Nowadays, Genomic data constitutes one of the fastest growing datasets in the world. As of 2025, it is supposed to become the fourth largest source of Big Data, and thus mandating adequate high-performance computing (HPC) platform for processing. With the latest unprecedented and unpredictable mutations in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the research community is in crucial need for ICT tools to process SARS-CoV-2 RNA data, e.g., by classifying it (i.e., clustering) and thus assisting in tracking virus mutations and predict future ones. In this paper, we are presenting an HPC-based SARS-CoV-2 RNAs clustering tool. We are adopting a data science approach, from data collection, through analysis, to visualization. In the analysis step, we present how our clustering approach leverages on HPC and the longest common subsequence (LCS) algorithm. The approach uses the Hadoop MapReduce programming paradigm and adapts the LCS algorithm in order to efficiently compute the length of the LCS for each pair of SARS-CoV-2 RNA sequences. The latter are extracted from the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Virus repository. The computed LCS lengths are used to measure the dissimilarities between RNA sequences in order to work out existing clusters. In addition to that, we present a comparative study of the LCS algorithm performance based on variable workloads and different numbers of Hadoop worker nodes.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2022

Corona Virus Disease 19 pandemic (COVID-19) causes many deaths worldwide, and has enormous impacts on society and economy. The COVID-19 was caused by a new type of coronavirus (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Cornonavirus 2; SARS-CoV-2), which has been found that these viruses can be effectively inactivated by ultraviolet (UV) radiation of 290~315 nm. In this study, 90% inactivation time of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was analyzed using ground observation data from Brewer spectrophotometer at Yonsei University, Seoul and simulation data from UVSPEC for the period of 2015~2017 and 2020. Based on 12:00-13:00 noon time, the shortest virus inactivation time were estimated as 13.5 minutes in June and 4.8 minutes in July/August, respectively, under all sky and clear sky conditions. In the diurnal and seasonal variations, SARS-CoV-2 could be inactivated by 90% when exposed to UV radiation within 60 minutes from 10:00 to 14:00, for the period of spring to autumn. However, in winter season, the natural prevention effect was meaningless because the intensity of UV radiation weakened, and the time required for virus inactivation increased. The spread of infectious diseases such as COVID-19 is related to various and complex interactions of several variables, but the natural inactivation of viruses by UV radiation presented in this study, especially seasonal differences, need to be considered as major variables.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2022.05a
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• pp.392-392
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• 2022

세계적 규모의 팬데믹 감염병의 출현은 전 세계적으로 경제적, 문화적, 사회적 파급효과가 매우 강력하며 전 인류를 위협하고 있다. 최근에 발병한 중증급성 호흡기질환 코로나바이러스 2(Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2)는 2019년 12월 중국 우한에서 첫 보고 되었고 2022년 현재까지 종식되지 않고 있으며 바이러스의 전파력과 치명률이 높고 무증상 감염상태일 때에도 전염이 가능하여 현재 역학조사의 사후적 대응에 대한 한계가 있어 선제적 대응을 위한 수단이 필수 불가결해지고 있는 실정이다. 하수기반역학(Waste Based Epidemiology, WBE)이란 하수처리장으로 유입되기 전의 하수를 분석하여 하수 집수구역 내 도시민의 생활상을 예측하는 것으로 하수로 배출된 감염자의 분비물 및 배설물 속 바이러스를 하수관로에서 신속하게 검출함으로써 특정지역의 감염성 질환 전파 정도와 유행하는 타입(변이)등을 분석하고 기존 역학조사의 문제점을 극복할 수 있으며 선제적인 대응이 가능하다. 현재 COVID-19의 대유행과 관련하여 WBE를 기반으로 한 다양한 연구가 진행되고 있으며 실제 환자의 발생과 상관관계가 있음이 확인되고 있고 백신 접종과 새롭게 발생한 변이바이러스의 관계 속에서 발생하는 변수를 고려한 모델이 없다는 점을 들어 새로운 감염병 확산 예측 모델에 대한 필요성 또한 커지고 있다. 본 연구에서는 병원에서부터 하수처리장까지의 하수관거와 하수처리장에서의 SARS-CoV-2 검출농도 및 거동을 파악하는 것을 목적으로 하고 있으며 COVID-19의 감염규모 확산에 관한 방법론에서 수학적모델 (Euler Method, RK4 Method, Gillespie Algorithm)과 딥러닝 기반의 Nowcasting model과 Fore casting model을 살펴보고자 한다.