Ricerc@Sapienza

Therapeutic options in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are urgently needed. A keyword in these worldwide effortsis ‘repurposing’ – the development of approved antiviral drugs as candidates for COVID-19. Chloroquine (CQ) and its hydroxyl analog hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) are showing preliminary inhibitory effects against COVID-19 and apparent efficacy in clinical studies. We propose a variant of the repurposing strategy: developing single enantiomers of these old racemic drugs. We call for urgently pursuing the chiral switches of HCQ and/or CQ for the treatment of COVID-19.

Epidemiological evidences show that SARS-CoV-2 infection in children is less frequent and severe than adults. Age-related ACE2 receptor expression, lymphocyte count and trained immunity might be the keystone to reveal children's secret.

Pneumonia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children. We described viral aetiologies, with particular interest in detecting SARS-CoV-2, in hospitalized pneumonia children. Human rhinovirus was the most frequently detected agent. No children tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Our findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection is rare in children and it was not circulating in Rome before COVID-19 outbreak.

The Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) pandemic is rapidly spreading across the world,
representing an unparalleled challenge for health care systems. There are differences in the
estimated fatality rates, which cannot be explained easily. In Italy, the estimated case fatality rate
was 12.7% in mid-April, while Germany remained at 1.8%. Moreover, it is to be noted that different
areas of Italy have very different lethality rates. Due to the complexity of Covid-19 patient

Italy was one of the most affected nations by coronavirus disease 2019 outside China. The infections, initially limited to Northern Italy, spread to all other Italian regions. This study aims to provide a snapshot of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemiology based on a single-center laboratory experience in Rome. The study retrospectively included 6565 subjects tested for SARS-CoV-2 at the Laboratory of Virology of Sapienza University Hospital in Rome from 6 March to 4 May.

Background: A rapidly expanding pandemic of the new coronavirus has become the focus of global scientific attention. Data are lacking on the impact of the pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 on health-related quality of life among patients affected by primary antibody deficiencies (PADs). Objective: To identify factors impacting the health-related-quality of life (HRQOL) among Italian patients affected by PADs switched to remote assistance at the time of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

COVID-19 had a mild clinical course in patients with Agammaglobulinemia lacking B lymphocytes,
whereas it developed aggressively in Common Variable Immune Deficiency. Our data offer mechanisms for
possible therapeutic targets.

Increased ferritin levels could be indicative of a strong inflammatory reaction in COVID-19 and recent studies suggest that increased levels of circulating ferritin levels play a critical role by contributing to the development of a cytokine storm. In this regard, ferritin evaluation could be an early, available and easy to use screening tool to assess the disease severity at the first admission in the emergency department. This test might be of crucial importance for the timely identification of patients at higher risk of an adverse outcome.

Great concerns have been raised on SARS-CoV-2 impact on men's andrological well-being and one of the critically unanswered questions is whether it is present or not in the seminal fluid of infected subjects. The expression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in the testis and in the male genital tract allows speculations about a possible testicular involvement during the infection, possibly mediated by local and/or systemic inflammation that might allow a high viral load to overcome the haemato-testicular barrier.

Introduction The recent appearance of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan in 2019 has started a pandemic which has involved over a million people worldwide. A matter of debate is the possible viral detection in different body fluids than respiratory droplets. Thus, we evaluated the possible presence of SARS-CoV-2 in semen and urine samples of a volunteer with confirmed COVID-19. Materials and methods A 31-year-old man with fever, myalgia, anosmia, and ageusia was tested and found positive for SARS-CoV-2 through a pharyngeal swab.