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Background: A novel coronavirus was identified at the end of 2019 in Wuhan City, China. Later, it was named as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and declared a pandemic in March 2020. Saudi and global health agencies have provided various COVID-19 knowledge tools and facts to the general public. Therefore, this study aims to assess COVID-19 knowledge among the general public in Saudi Arabia at the early stages of the pandemic. Participants and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in March 2020 in Saudi Arabia. The study included 1006 participants who responded to a random online COVID-19 public knowledge questionnaire that included five sections: demographic characteristics, general knowledge, prevention practices, home quarantine measures, and knowledge of governmental restrictions. Three levels of knowledge were established: excellent, intermediate, and poor. Differences in the percentages of participants with different knowledge levels by the demographic variables were analyzed using the chi-square test. Results: Regarding overall general knowledge of COVID-19, 75%, 24%, and 1% of the participants had excellent, intermediate, and poor knowledge levels, respectively. Knowledge levels were significantly different by nationality and age (P=0.027 and 0.008, respectively). Most participants (98.4%) reported excellent knowledge of prevention practices, with no statistically significant differences among groups (P> 0.005). Older age groups reported higher knowledge of home quarantine measures (86.6% and 86.4% of the 51– 60 and older than 60 age groups, respectively, P=0.001). Conclusion and Recommendations: High levels of knowledge about the virus, including prevention practices, are essential. The provision of COVID-19 facts and knowledge tools should be focused on younger generations to enhance compliance with the governmental restrictions required to stop the spread of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019 in Wuhan province, China, an outbreak of atypical pneumonia was reported with similar symptoms to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), an outbreak reported in 2003, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. This emerging disease was caused by a novel coronavirus "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2" (SARS-CoV-2) or also called COVID-19. Which causes severe respiratory problems and various extrapulmonary manifestations. At the moment, the high mortality of COVID-19 has been related to the male sex, older adults (>60 years), and preexisting comorbidities of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and heart problems. Diabetes is a disease characterized by insulin resistance and loss of ß cell function in the pancreas, with an impaired immune system due to chronic inflammation. In patients with severe COVID-19 infection, altered secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines has been observed, if this infection occurs in a diabetic patient who already has an inflammatory state per se, an exacerbated inflammation and multiorgan failure with fatal consequences can be triggered. Several authors hypothesis suggest that hyperglycemia increases the viral replication in patients "diabetic with COVID-19 infection" is necessary to keep adequate glycemic control. Treatments for COVID-19 had focused on decreasing symptoms, the use of antivirals, anti-inflammatory drugs, monoclonal antibodies and COVID-19 convalescent plasma has shown variable results. A vaccine is needed to control this viral infection, at the moment more than 150 candidates have been developed with efficiency ranges from 70 to 95%, however, the long-term immunity in vaccinated people is still unknown. This review focus on the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the immune response in diabetic patients facing COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In humans, coronaviruses can cause infections of the respiratory system, with damage of varying severity depending on the virus examined: ranging from mild-to-moderate upper respiratory tract diseases, such as the common cold, pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure, and even death. Human coronaviruses known to date, common throughout the world, are seven. The most common—and least harmful—ones were discovered in the 1960s and cause a common cold. Others, more dangerous, identified in the early 2000s and cause more severe respiratory tract infections. Among these the SARS-CoV, isolated in 2003 and responsible for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (the so-called SARS), which appeared in China in November 2002, the coronavirus 2012 (2012-nCoV) cause of the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) from coronavirus, which exploded in June 2012 in Saudi Arabia, and actually SARS-CoV-2. On December 31, 2019, a new coronavirus strain was reported in Wuhan, China, identified as a new coronavirus beta strain ß-CoV from group 2B, with a genetic similarity of approximately 70% to SARS-CoV, the virus responsible of SARS. In the first half of February, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), in charge of the designation and naming of the viruses (i.e., species, genus, family, etc.), thus definitively named the new coronavirus as SARS-CoV-2. This article highlights the main knowledge we have about the biomolecular and pathophysiologic mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lately, there was an outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, a city of province Hubei, China. The infectious and transferrable virus originated in bats, seafood and animals. COVID-19 belongs to Coronviradae family. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) also belong to this family and their outbreak occurred in China and Saudi Arabia back in 2003 and 2012. The mortality rate of COVID-19 is much greater than that of SARS and MERS. The clinical symptoms of infected individuals from virus are almost the same but diagnostically they are different from one another. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) laboratory technique is a standard test for evaluation and confirmation of COVID-19 disease. In early stages, imaging modalities can be used for screening purposes. X-Ray is used to identify the gross changes within the chest region while Computed Tomography scan chest is used for detailed modification which occurs due to coronavirus. CT scan evaluates the different characteristics in the individuals infected from COVID-19 such as presence of bilateral ground glass opacities, presence of diffuse consolidation, presence of nodules with halo sign, enlarge thoracic lymph nodes, presence of thicken inter-lobar septa, presence of bronchiectasis and pleural effusion. Each lung lobe was assigned different score on the basis of lobe area involvement. A lobe having no involvement is of score 0, minimal involvement lobe score is 1, mild involvement lobe score is 2, moderate involvement lobe score is 3, and severe involvement lobe score is 4. The lobes are assessed for different degree of involvement and then are divided as none (0%), minimal (1% to 25%), mild (26% to 50%), moderate (51% to 75%) and severe 76% to above level. These all techniques are very effective and responsible for the exact location of the area involved and also show the extension of pathology that can only be possible on CT scan. CT scan not only evaluates the disease but it also provides the assessment of the disease severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unusual cases of pneumonia outbreak were reported from Wuhan city in late December 2019. Serological testing provides a powerful tool for the identification of prior infection and for epidemiological studies. Pseudotype virus neutralization assays are widely used for many viruses and applications in the fields of serology. The accuracy of pseudotype neutralizing assay allows for its use in low biosafety lab and provides a safe and effective alternative to the use of wild-type viruses. In this study, we evaluated the performance of this assay compared to the standard microneutralization assay as a reference. The lentiviral pseudotype particles were generated harboring the Spike gene of SARS-CoV-2. The generated pseudotype particles assay was used to evaluate the activity of neutralizing antibodies in 300 human serum samples from a COVID-19 sero-epidemiological study. Testing of these samples resulted in 55 positive samples and 245 negative samples by pseudotype viral particles assay while microneutralization assay resulted in 64 positive and 236 negative by MN assay. Compared to the MN, the pseudotyped viral particles assay showed a sensitivity of 85.94% and a specificity of 100%. Based on the data generated from this study, the pseudotype-based neutralization assay showed a reliable performance for the detection of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and can be used safely and efficiently as a diagnostic tool in a biosafety level 2 laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]