This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Unclaimed
Anwar M. Hashem
Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21859, Saudi Arabia

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

The user biography is not available.
Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 04 August 2021 in Vaccines
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The urgent need for effective, safe and equitably accessible vaccines to tackle the ongoing spread of COVID-19 led researchers to generate vaccine candidates targeting varieties of immunogens of SARS-CoV-2. Because of its crucial role in mediating binding and entry to host cell and its proven safety profile, the subunit 1 (S1) of the spike protein represents an attractive immunogen for vaccine development. Here, we developed and assessed the immunogenicity of a DNA vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 S1. Following in vitro confirmation and characterization, the humoral and cellular immune responses of our vaccine candidate (pVAX-S1) was evaluated in BALB/c mice using two different doses, 25 µg and 50 µg. Our data showed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies in mice immunized with three doses of pVAX-S1. Analysis of the induced IgG subclasses showed a Th1-polarized immune response, as demonstrated by the significant elevation of spike-specific IgG2a and IgG2b, compared to IgG1. Furthermore, we found that the immunization of mice with three doses of 50 µg of pVAX-S1 could elicit significant memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses. Taken together, our data indicate that pVAX-S1 is immunogenic and safe in mice and is worthy of further preclinical and clinical evaluation.

ACS Style

Khalid Alluhaybi; Rahaf Alharbi; Rowa Alhabbab; Najwa Aljehani; Sawsan Alamri; Mohammad Basabrain; Rehaf Alharbi; Wesam Abdulaal; Mohamed Alfaleh; Levi Tamming; Wanyue Zhang; Mazen Hassanain; Abdullah Algaissi; Adel Abuzenadah; Xuguang Li; Anwar Hashem. Cellular and Humoral Immunogenicity of a Candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1. Vaccines 2021, 9, 852 .

AMA Style

Khalid Alluhaybi, Rahaf Alharbi, Rowa Alhabbab, Najwa Aljehani, Sawsan Alamri, Mohammad Basabrain, Rehaf Alharbi, Wesam Abdulaal, Mohamed Alfaleh, Levi Tamming, Wanyue Zhang, Mazen Hassanain, Abdullah Algaissi, Adel Abuzenadah, Xuguang Li, Anwar Hashem. Cellular and Humoral Immunogenicity of a Candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1. Vaccines. 2021; 9 (8):852.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Khalid Alluhaybi; Rahaf Alharbi; Rowa Alhabbab; Najwa Aljehani; Sawsan Alamri; Mohammad Basabrain; Rehaf Alharbi; Wesam Abdulaal; Mohamed Alfaleh; Levi Tamming; Wanyue Zhang; Mazen Hassanain; Abdullah Algaissi; Adel Abuzenadah; Xuguang Li; Anwar Hashem. 2021. "Cellular and Humoral Immunogenicity of a Candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1." Vaccines 9, no. 8: 852.

Journal article
Published: 20 July 2021 in Viruses
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the general population. Here, we aimed to evaluate and characterize the SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity rate in randomly collected samples among HCWs from the largest referral hospitals and quarantine sites during the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic in the city of Jeddah, the second largest city in Saudi Arabia, using a cross-sectional analytic study design. Out of 693 participants recruited from 29 June to 10 August 2020, 223 (32.2%, 95% CI: 28.8–35.8) were found to be confirmed seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and among those 197 (88.3%) had never been diagnosed with COVID-19. Seropositivity was not significantly associated with participants reporting COVID-19 compatible symptoms as most seropositive HCW participants 140 (62.8%) were asymptomatic. The large proportion of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 cases detected in our study demands periodic testing as a general hospital policy.

ACS Style

Rowa Alhabbab; Ahdab Alsaieedi; Abdullah Algaissi; Sara Almahboub; Rajaa Al-Raddadi; Omaima Shabouni; Rahaf Alhabbab; Abdulelah Alfaraj; Sawsan Alamri; Najwa Aljehani; Rwaa Abdulal; Mohamed Alfaleh; Turki Abujamel; Almohanad Alkayyal; Ahmad Mahmoud; Adel Abuzenadah; Anwar Hashem. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Binding and Neutralizing Antibodies in Healthcare Workers during the Epidemic Peak in Referral Hospitals and Quarantine Sites: Saudi Arabia. Viruses 2021, 13, 1413 .

AMA Style

Rowa Alhabbab, Ahdab Alsaieedi, Abdullah Algaissi, Sara Almahboub, Rajaa Al-Raddadi, Omaima Shabouni, Rahaf Alhabbab, Abdulelah Alfaraj, Sawsan Alamri, Najwa Aljehani, Rwaa Abdulal, Mohamed Alfaleh, Turki Abujamel, Almohanad Alkayyal, Ahmad Mahmoud, Adel Abuzenadah, Anwar Hashem. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Binding and Neutralizing Antibodies in Healthcare Workers during the Epidemic Peak in Referral Hospitals and Quarantine Sites: Saudi Arabia. Viruses. 2021; 13 (7):1413.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Rowa Alhabbab; Ahdab Alsaieedi; Abdullah Algaissi; Sara Almahboub; Rajaa Al-Raddadi; Omaima Shabouni; Rahaf Alhabbab; Abdulelah Alfaraj; Sawsan Alamri; Najwa Aljehani; Rwaa Abdulal; Mohamed Alfaleh; Turki Abujamel; Almohanad Alkayyal; Ahmad Mahmoud; Adel Abuzenadah; Anwar Hashem. 2021. "Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Binding and Neutralizing Antibodies in Healthcare Workers during the Epidemic Peak in Referral Hospitals and Quarantine Sites: Saudi Arabia." Viruses 13, no. 7: 1413.

Preprint
Published: 28 June 2021
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The urgent need for effective, safe and equitably accessible vaccines to tackle the ongoing spread of COVID-19 led researchers to generate vaccine candidates targeting varieties of immunogens of SARS-CoV-2. Because of its crucial role in mediating binding and entry to host cell and its proven safety profile, the subunit 1 (S1) of the spike protein represents an attractive immunogen for vaccine development. Here, we developed and assessed the immunogenicity of a DNA vaccine encoding the SARS-CoV-2 S1. Following in vitro confirmation and characterization, the humoral and cellular immune responses of our vaccine candidate (pVAX-S1) was evaluated in BALB/c mice using two different doses, 25 µg and 50 µg. Our data showed high levels of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies in mice immunized with three doses of pVAX-S1. Analysis of the induced IgG subclasses showed a Th1-polarized immune response as demonstrated by the significant elevation of spike-specific IgG2a and IgG2b compared to IgG1. Furthermore, we found that immunization of mice with three doses of 50 µg of pVAX-S1 could elicit significant memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses. Taken together, our data indicates that pVAX-S1 is immunogenic and safe in mice and is worthy of further preclinical and clinical evaluation.

ACS Style

Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Rahaf H. Alharbi; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Najwa D Aljehani; Sawsan S. Alamri; Mohammad Basabrain; Rehaf Alharbi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Levi Tamming; Wanyue Zhang; Mazen Hassanain; Abdullah Algaissi; Adel M. Abuzenadah; Xuguang Li; Anwar M Hashem. Cellular and humoral immunogenicity of a candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1. 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Khalid A. Alluhaybi, Rahaf H. Alharbi, Rowa Y. Alhabbab, Najwa D Aljehani, Sawsan S. Alamri, Mohammad Basabrain, Rehaf Alharbi, Wesam H. Abdulaal, Mohamed A. Alfaleh, Levi Tamming, Wanyue Zhang, Mazen Hassanain, Abdullah Algaissi, Adel M. Abuzenadah, Xuguang Li, Anwar M Hashem. Cellular and humoral immunogenicity of a candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1. . 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Rahaf H. Alharbi; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Najwa D Aljehani; Sawsan S. Alamri; Mohammad Basabrain; Rehaf Alharbi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Levi Tamming; Wanyue Zhang; Mazen Hassanain; Abdullah Algaissi; Adel M. Abuzenadah; Xuguang Li; Anwar M Hashem. 2021. "Cellular and humoral immunogenicity of a candidate DNA Vaccine Expressing SARS-CoV-2 Spike Subunit 1." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 01 June 2021 in Med
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Strategies for monitoring the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection are crucial for combating the pandemic. Detection and mutation surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses require separate and complex workflows that rely on highly-specialized facilities, personnel, and reagents. To date, no method can rapidly diagnose multiple viral infections and determine variants in a high-throughput manner. We describe a method for multiplex isothermal amplification-based sequencing and real-time analysis of multiple viral genomes, termed NIRVANA. It can simultaneously detect SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, human adenovirus, and human coronavirus, and monitor mutations for up to 96 samples in real-time. NIRVANA showed high sensitivity and specificity for SARS-CoV-2 in 70 clinical samples with a detection limit of 20 viral RNA copies per μl of extracted nucleic acid. It also detected the influenza A co-infection in two samples. The variant analysis results of SARS-CoV-2 positive samples mirror the epidemiology of COVID-19. Additionally, NIRVANA could simultaneously detect SARS-CoV-2 and PMMoV (an omnipresent virus and water quality indicator) in municipal wastewater samples. NIRVANA provides high-confidence detection of both SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses and mutation surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 on the fly. We expect it to offer a promising solution for rapid field-deployable detection and mutational surveillance of pandemic viruses. M.L. is supported by KAUST Office of Sponsored Research (BAS/1/1080-01). This work is supported by KAUST Competitive Research Grant (URF/1/3412-01-01, M.L. and J.C.I.B.) and Universidad Catolica San Antonio de Murcia (J.C.I.B.). A.M.H. is supported by Saudi Ministry of Education (project 436).

ACS Style

Chongwei Bi; Gerardo Ramos-Mandujano; Yeteng Tian; Sharif Hala; Jinna Xu; Sara Mfarrej; Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban; Estrella Nuñez Delicado; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim Khogeer; Anwar M. Hashem; Naif A.M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte; Mo Li. Simultaneous detection and mutation surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and multiple respiratory viruses by rapid field-deployable sequencing. Med 2021, 2, 689 -700.e4.

AMA Style

Chongwei Bi, Gerardo Ramos-Mandujano, Yeteng Tian, Sharif Hala, Jinna Xu, Sara Mfarrej, Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban, Estrella Nuñez Delicado, Fadwa S. Alofi, Asim Khogeer, Anwar M. Hashem, Naif A.M. Almontashiri, Arnab Pain, Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, Mo Li. Simultaneous detection and mutation surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and multiple respiratory viruses by rapid field-deployable sequencing. Med. 2021; 2 (6):689-700.e4.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Chongwei Bi; Gerardo Ramos-Mandujano; Yeteng Tian; Sharif Hala; Jinna Xu; Sara Mfarrej; Concepcion Rodriguez Esteban; Estrella Nuñez Delicado; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim Khogeer; Anwar M. Hashem; Naif A.M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte; Mo Li. 2021. "Simultaneous detection and mutation surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and multiple respiratory viruses by rapid field-deployable sequencing." Med 2, no. 6: 689-700.e4.

Preprint content
Published: 01 February 2021
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The ongoing global pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) calls for an urgent development of effective and safe prophylactic and therapeutic measures. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) glycoprotein is a major immunogenic and protective protein, and plays a crucial role in viral pathogenesis. In this study, we successfully constructed a synthetic codon-optimized DNA-based vaccine as a countermeasure against SARS-CoV-2; denoted as VIU-1005. The design was based on the synthesis of codon-optimized coding sequence for optimal mammalian expression of a consensus full-length S glycoprotein. The successful construction of the vaccine was confirmed by restriction digestion and sequencing, and the protein expression of the S protein was confirmed by western blot and immunofluorescence staining in mammalian cells. The immunogenicity of the vaccine was tested in two mouse models (BALB/c and C57BL/6J). Th1-skewed systemic S-specific IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) were significantly induced in both models four weeks post three injections with 100 μg of the VIU-1005 vaccine via intramuscular needle injection but not intradermal or subcutaneous routes. Importantly, such immunization induced long-lasting IgG response in mice that lasted for at least 6 months. Interestingly, using a needle-free system, we showed an enhanced immunogenicity of VIU-1005 in which lower doses such as 25-50 μg or less number of doses were able to elicit significantly high levels of Th1-biased systemic S-specific IgG antibodies and nAbs via intramuscular immunization compared to needle immunization. Compared to the intradermal needle injection which failed to induce any significant immune response, intradermal needle-free immunization elicited robust Th1-biased humoral response similar to that observed with intramuscular immunization. Furthermore, immunization with VIU-1005 induced potent S-specific cellular response as demonstrated by the significantly high levels of IFN-γ, TNF and IL-2 cytokines production in memory CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in BALB/c mice. Together, our results demonstrate that the synthetic VIU-1005 candidate DNA vaccine is highly immunogenic and capable of inducing long-lasting and Th1-skewed immune response in mice. Furthermore, we show that the use of needle-free system could enhance the immunogenicity and minimize doses needed to induce protective immunity in mice, supporting further preclinical and clinical testing of this candidate vaccine.

ACS Style

Sawsan S Alamri; Khalid A Alluhaybi; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah Almahboub; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Turki S Abujamel; Wesam Abdulaal; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Rahaf Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar M Hashem. Enhanced immunogenicity of a synthetic DNA vaccine expressing consensus SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein using needle-free immunization. 2021, 1 .

AMA Style

Sawsan S Alamri, Khalid A Alluhaybi, Rowa Y Alhabbab, Abdullah Algaissi, Sarah Almahboub, Mohamed A Alfaleh, Turki S Abujamel, Wesam Abdulaal, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Rahaf Alharbi, Mazen Hassanain, Anwar M Hashem. Enhanced immunogenicity of a synthetic DNA vaccine expressing consensus SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein using needle-free immunization. . 2021; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sawsan S Alamri; Khalid A Alluhaybi; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah Almahboub; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Turki S Abujamel; Wesam Abdulaal; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Rahaf Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar M Hashem. 2021. "Enhanced immunogenicity of a synthetic DNA vaccine expressing consensus SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein using needle-free immunization." , no. : 1.

Brief report
Published: 19 December 2020 in Pathogens
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread globally. Although several rapid commercial serological assays have been developed, little is known about their performance and accuracy in detecting SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies in COVID-19 patient samples. Here, we have evaluated the performance of seven commercially available rapid lateral flow immunoassays (LFIA) obtained from different manufacturers, and compared them to in-house developed and validated ELISA assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients. While all evaluated LFIA assays showed high specificity, our data showed a significant variation in sensitivity of these assays, which ranged from 0% to 54% for samples collected early during infection (3–7 days post symptoms onset) and from 54% to 88% for samples collected at later time points during infection (8–27 days post symptoms onset). Therefore, we recommend prior evaluation and validation of these assays before being routinely used to detect IgM and IgG in COVID-19 patients. Moreover, our findings suggest the use of LFIA assays in combination with other standard methods, and not as an alternative.

ACS Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain. Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies. Pathogens 2020, 9, 1067 .

AMA Style

Anwar M. Hashem, Rowa Y. Alhabbab, Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A. AlFaleh, Sharif Hala, Turki S. Abujamel, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Afrah A. Al-Somali, Fadwa S. Alofi, Asim A. Khogeer, Almohanad A. Alkayyal, Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud, Naif A. M. Almontashiri, Arnab Pain. Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies. Pathogens. 2020; 9 (12):1067.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain. 2020. "Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies." Pathogens 9, no. 12: 1067.

Journal article
Published: 04 December 2020 in Viruses
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread globally with significantly high morbidity and mortality rates. Antigen-specific responses are of unquestionable value for clinical management of COVID-19 patients. Here, we investigated the kinetics of IgM, IgG against the spike (S) and nucleoproteins (N) proteins and their neutralizing capabilities in hospitalized COVID-19 patients with different disease presentations (i.e., mild, moderate or severe), need for intensive care units (ICU) admission or outcomes (i.e., survival vs death). We show that SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG, IgM and neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) were readily detectable in almost all COVID-19 patients with various clinical presentations. Interestingly, significantly higher levels of nAbs as well as anti-S1 and -N IgG and IgM antibodies were found in patients with more severe symptoms, patients requiring admission to ICU or those with fatal outcomes. More importantly, early after symptoms onset, we found that the levels of anti-N antibodies correlated strongly with disease severity. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the kinetics of antibody responses in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity.

ACS Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah A. Almahboub; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Rahaf H. AlHarbi; Reem M. Alsulaiman; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Sharif Hala; Naif K. Alharbi; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Abdullah Bukhari; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Arnab Pain; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Xuguang Li. Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients. Viruses 2020, 12, 1390 .

AMA Style

Anwar M. Hashem, Abdullah Algaissi, Sarah A. Almahboub, Mohamed A. Alfaleh, Turki S. Abujamel, Sawsan S. Alamri, Khalid A. Alluhaybi, Haya I. Hobani, Rahaf H. AlHarbi, Reem M. Alsulaiman, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Sharif Hala, Naif K. Alharbi, Rowa Y. Alhabbab, Ahdab A. AlSaieedi, Wesam H. Abdulaal, Abdullah Bukhari, Afrah A. Al-Somali, Fadwa S. Alofi, Asim A. Khogeer, Arnab Pain, Almohanad A. Alkayyal, Naif A. M. Almontashiri, Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud, Xuguang Li. Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients. Viruses. 2020; 12 (12):1390.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah A. Almahboub; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Rahaf H. AlHarbi; Reem M. Alsulaiman; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Sharif Hala; Naif K. Alharbi; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Abdullah Bukhari; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Arnab Pain; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Xuguang Li. 2020. "Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients." Viruses 12, no. 12: 1390.

Comparative study
Published: 20 November 2020 in Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Healthcare workers (HCWs) stand at the frontline for fighting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This puts them at higher risk of acquiring the infection than other individuals in the community. Defining immunity status among health care workers is therefore of interest since it helps to mitigate the exposure risk. This study was conducted between May 20th and 30th, 2020. Eighty-five hospitals across Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were divided into 2 groups: COVID-19 referral hospitals are those to which RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 patients were admitted or referred for management (Case-hospitals). COVID-19 nonaffected hospitals where no COVID-19 patients had been admitted or managed and no HCW outbreak (Control hospitals). Next, seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 among HCWs was evaluated; there were 12,621 HCWs from the 85 hospitals. There were 61 case-hospitals with 9379 (74.3%) observations, and 24 control-hospitals with 3242 (25.7%) observations. The overall positivity rate by the immunoassay was 299 (2.36%) with a significant difference between the case-hospital (2.9%) and the control-group (0.8%) (P value <0.001). There was a wide variation in the positivity rate between regions and/or cities in Saudi Arabia, ranging from 0% to 6.31%. Of the serology positive samples, 100 samples were further tested using the SAS2pp neutralization assay; 92 (92%) samples showed neutralization activity. The seropositivity rate in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is low and varies across different regions with higher positivity in case-hospitals than control-hospitals. The lack of neutralizing antibodies (NAb) in 8% of the tested samples could mean that assay is a more sensitive assay or that neutralization assay has a lower detection limits; or possibly that some samples had cross-reaction to spike protein of other coronaviruses in the assay, but these were not specific to neutralize severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

ACS Style

Haleema Ali Alserehi; Ada Mohammed Alqunaibet; Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Abeer Nizar Alshukairi; Khalid Hamdan Alanazi; Ghada Mohammed Bin Saleh; Amer Mohammed Alshehri; Abdulrahman Almasoud; Anwar M. Hashem; Amaal Rabie Alruwaily; Rehab Habeeb Alaswad; Hind Mohammed Al-Mutlaq; Abdulllah Ali Almudaiheem; Fatmah Mahmoud Othman; Sumyah Abdullah Aldakeel; Mouath Rashid Abu Ghararah; Hani Abdulaziz Jokhdar; Abdullah Rshoud Algwizani; Sami Saeed Almudarra; Ahmed Mohammed Albarrag. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia: comparing case and control hospitals. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 2020, 99, 115273 -115273.

AMA Style

Haleema Ali Alserehi, Ada Mohammed Alqunaibet, Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq, Naif Khalaf Alharbi, Abeer Nizar Alshukairi, Khalid Hamdan Alanazi, Ghada Mohammed Bin Saleh, Amer Mohammed Alshehri, Abdulrahman Almasoud, Anwar M. Hashem, Amaal Rabie Alruwaily, Rehab Habeeb Alaswad, Hind Mohammed Al-Mutlaq, Abdulllah Ali Almudaiheem, Fatmah Mahmoud Othman, Sumyah Abdullah Aldakeel, Mouath Rashid Abu Ghararah, Hani Abdulaziz Jokhdar, Abdullah Rshoud Algwizani, Sami Saeed Almudarra, Ahmed Mohammed Albarrag. Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia: comparing case and control hospitals. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease. 2020; 99 (3):115273-115273.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Haleema Ali Alserehi; Ada Mohammed Alqunaibet; Jaffar A. Al-Tawfiq; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Abeer Nizar Alshukairi; Khalid Hamdan Alanazi; Ghada Mohammed Bin Saleh; Amer Mohammed Alshehri; Abdulrahman Almasoud; Anwar M. Hashem; Amaal Rabie Alruwaily; Rehab Habeeb Alaswad; Hind Mohammed Al-Mutlaq; Abdulllah Ali Almudaiheem; Fatmah Mahmoud Othman; Sumyah Abdullah Aldakeel; Mouath Rashid Abu Ghararah; Hani Abdulaziz Jokhdar; Abdullah Rshoud Algwizani; Sami Saeed Almudarra; Ahmed Mohammed Albarrag. 2020. "Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia: comparing case and control hospitals." Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease 99, no. 3: 115273-115273.

Journal article
Published: 06 October 2020 in Scientific Reports
Reads 0
Downloads 0

As the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread rapidly around the world, there is a need for well validated serological assays that allow the detection of viral specific antibody responses in COVID-19 patients or recovered individuals. In this study, we established and used multiple indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)-based serological assays to study the antibody response in COVID-19 patients. In order to validate the assays we determined the cut off values, sensitivity and specificity of the assays using sera collected from pre-pandemic healthy controls, COVID-19 patients at different time points after disease-onset, and seropositive sera to other human coronaviruses (CoVs). The developed SARS-CoV-2 S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein and nucleocapsid (N)-based ELISAs not only showed high specificity and sensitivity but also did not show any cross-reactivity with other CoVs. We also show that all RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients tested in our study developed both virus specific IgM and IgG antibodies as early as week one after disease onset. Our data also suggest that the inclusion of both S1 and N in serological testing would capture as many potential SARS-CoV-2 positive cases as possible than using any of them alone. This is specifically important for tracing contacts and cases and conducting large-scale epidemiological studies to understand the true extent of virus spread in populations.

ACS Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Sarah A. Almahboub; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Reem M. Alsulaiman; Rahaf H. AlHarbi; M.-Z.Aki ElAssouli; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Anwar M. Hashem. SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-based serological assays reveal rapid seroconversion and induction of specific antibody response in COVID-19 patients. Scientific Reports 2020, 10, 1 -10.

AMA Style

Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A. Alfaleh, Sharif Hala, Turki S. Abujamel, Sawsan S. Alamri, Sarah A. Almahboub, Khalid A. Alluhaybi, Haya I. Hobani, Reem M. Alsulaiman, Rahaf H. AlHarbi, M.-Z.Aki ElAssouli, Rowa Y. Alhabbab, Ahdab A. AlSaieedi, Wesam H. Abdulaal, Afrah A. Al-Somali, Fadwa S. Alofi, Asim A. Khogeer, Almohanad A. Alkayyal, Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud, Naif A. M. Almontashiri, Arnab Pain, Anwar M. Hashem. SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-based serological assays reveal rapid seroconversion and induction of specific antibody response in COVID-19 patients. Scientific Reports. 2020; 10 (1):1-10.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. Alfaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Sarah A. Almahboub; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Reem M. Alsulaiman; Rahaf H. AlHarbi; M.-Z.Aki ElAssouli; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Almohanad A. Alkayyal; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Naif A. M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-based serological assays reveal rapid seroconversion and induction of specific antibody response in COVID-19 patients." Scientific Reports 10, no. 1: 1-10.

Other
Published: 23 September 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread globally with significantly high morbidity and mortality rates. Immunological surrogate markers, in particular antigen-specific responses, are of unquestionable value for clinical management of patients with COVID-19. Here, we investigated the kinetics of IgM, IgG against the spike (S) and nucleoproteins (N) proteins and their neutralizing capabilities in hospitalized patients with RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 infection. Our data show that SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG, IgM and neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) were readily detectable in almost all COVID-19 patients with various clinical presentations. Notably, anti-S and -N IgG, peaked 20-40 day after disease onset, and were still detectable for at least up to 70 days, with nAbs observed during the same time period. Moreover, nAbs titers were strongly correlated with IgG antibodies. Significantly higher levels of nAbs as well as anti-S1 and N IgG and IgM antibodies were found in patients with more severe clinical presentations, patients requiring admission to intensive care units (ICU) or those with fatal outcomes. Interestingly, lower levels of antibodies, particularly anti-N IgG and IgM in the first 15 days after symptoms onset, were found in survivors and those with mild clinical presentations. Collectively, these findings provide new insights into the characteristics and kinetics of antibody responses in COVID-19 patients with different disease severity.

ACS Style

Anwar M Hashem; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah A Almahboub; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Turki S Abujamel; Sawsan S Alamri; Khalid A Alluhaybi; Haya I Hobani; Rahaf H AlHarbi; Reem M Alsulaiman; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Sharif Hala; Naif K Alharbi; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Ahdab A AlSaieedi; Wesam H Abdulaal; Abdullah Bukhari; Afrah A Al-Somali; Fadwa S Alofi; Asim A Khogeer; Arnab Pain; Almohanad A Alkayyal; Naif Am Almontashiri; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Xuguang Li. Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Anwar M Hashem, Abdullah Algaissi, Sarah A Almahboub, Mohamed A Alfaleh, Turki S Abujamel, Sawsan S Alamri, Khalid A Alluhaybi, Haya I Hobani, Rahaf H AlHarbi, Reem M Alsulaiman, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Sharif Hala, Naif K Alharbi, Rowa Y Alhabbab, Ahdab A AlSaieedi, Wesam H Abdulaal, Abdullah Bukhari, Afrah A Al-Somali, Fadwa S Alofi, Asim A Khogeer, Arnab Pain, Almohanad A Alkayyal, Naif Am Almontashiri, Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud, Xuguang Li. Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anwar M Hashem; Abdullah Algaissi; Sarah A Almahboub; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Turki S Abujamel; Sawsan S Alamri; Khalid A Alluhaybi; Haya I Hobani; Rahaf H AlHarbi; Reem M Alsulaiman; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Sharif Hala; Naif K Alharbi; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Ahdab A AlSaieedi; Wesam H Abdulaal; Abdullah Bukhari; Afrah A Al-Somali; Fadwa S Alofi; Asim A Khogeer; Arnab Pain; Almohanad A Alkayyal; Naif Am Almontashiri; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Xuguang Li. 2020. "Early Humoral Response Correlates with Disease Severity and Outcomes in COVID-19 Patients." , no. : 1.

Microbiology
Published: 04 September 2020 in Frontiers in Microbiology
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Emerging highly pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) represent a serious ongoing threat to the public health worldwide. The spike (S) proteins of CoVs are surface glycoproteins that facilitate viral entry into host cells via attachment to their respective cellular receptors. The S protein is believed to be a major immunogenic component of CoVs and a target for neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and most candidate vaccines. Development of a safe and convenient assay is thus urgently needed to determine the prevalence of CoVs nAbs in the population, to study immune response in infected individuals, and to aid in vaccines and viral entry inhibitor evaluation. While live virus-based neutralization assays are used as gold standard serological methods to detect and measure nAbs, handling of highly pathogenic live CoVs requires strict bio-containment conditions in biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories. On the other hand, use of replication-incompetent pseudoviruses bearing CoVs S proteins could represent a safe and useful method to detect nAbs in serum samples under biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) conditions. Here, we describe a detailed protocol of a safe and convenient assay to generate vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based pseudoviruses to evaluate and measure nAbs against highly pathogenic CoVs. The protocol covers methods to produce VSV pseudovirus bearing the S protein of the Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV) and the severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2), pseudovirus titration, and pseudovirus neutralization assay. Such assay could be adapted by different laboratories and researchers working on highly pathogenic CoVs without the need to handle live viruses in the BSL-3 environment.

ACS Style

Sarah A. Almahboub; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Anwar M. Hashem. Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Pseudovirus-Based Assay. Frontiers in Microbiology 2020, 11, 1 .

AMA Style

Sarah A. Almahboub, Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A. AlFaleh, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Anwar M. Hashem. Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Pseudovirus-Based Assay. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2020; 11 ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sarah A. Almahboub; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Pseudovirus-Based Assay." Frontiers in Microbiology 11, no. : 1.

Preprint content
Published: 10 July 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Background: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to spread globally. Although several commercial SARS-CoV-2 rapid serological assays have been developed, little is known about their performance and accuracy in detecting SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies in COVID-19 patient samples. Method: We have evaluated the performance of seven commercially available rapid lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) serological assays obtained from different manufacturers, and compared them to in-house developed and validated ELISA assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific IgG and IgM antibodies in COVID-19 patients. Results: While all evaluated LFIA assays showed high specificity, our data showed a significant variation in sensitivity of these assays in which it ranged from 0 to 54% for samples collected early during infection (3-7 days post symptoms onset) and from 54 to 88% for samples collected at later time points during infection (8-27 days post symptoms onset). Conclusion: Commercially available LFIA assays for detection of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies may be specific and show high degree of variation in their sensitivity. Further evaluations and validation of rapid serological assays is needed before being routinely used in detecting IgM and IgG in COVID-19 patients.

ACS Style

Anwar M Hashem; Rowa Y Y Rowa Y Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S Abujamel; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Afrah A Al-Somali; Fadwa S Alofi; Asim A Khogeerk; Almohanad A Alkayyall; Ahmad B Mahmoud; Naif Am Almontashiri; Arnab Pain. Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for The Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Anwar M Hashem, Rowa Y Y Rowa Y Alhabbab, Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A Alfaleh, Sharif Hala, Turki S Abujamel, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Afrah A Al-Somali, Fadwa S Alofi, Asim A Khogeerk, Almohanad A Alkayyall, Ahmad B Mahmoud, Naif Am Almontashiri, Arnab Pain. Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for The Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anwar M Hashem; Rowa Y Y Rowa Y Alhabbab; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A Alfaleh; Sharif Hala; Turki S Abujamel; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Afrah A Al-Somali; Fadwa S Alofi; Asim A Khogeerk; Almohanad A Alkayyall; Ahmad B Mahmoud; Naif Am Almontashiri; Arnab Pain. 2020. "Performance of Commercially Available Rapid Serological Assays for The Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies." , no. : 1.

Preprint
Published: 02 July 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by the novel SARS-CoV-2, continues to spread rapidly around the world, there is a need for well validated serological assays that allow the detection of viral specific antibody responses in COVID-19 patients or recovered individuals. In this study, we established and used multiple indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)-based serological assays to study the antibody response in COVID-19 patients. In order to validate the assays we determined the cut off values, sensitivity and specificity of the assays using sera collected from pre-pandemic healthy controls, COVID-19 patients at different time points after disease-onset, and seropositive sera to other human coronaviruses. The developed SARS-CoV-2 S1 subunit of the spike glycoprotein and nucleocapsid (N)-based ELISAs not only showed high specificity and sensitivity but also did not show any cross-reactivity with other CoVs. We also show that all RT-PCR confirmed COVID-19 patients tested in our study developed both virus specific IgM and IgG antibodies as early as week one after disease onset. Our data also suggest that the inclusion of both S1 and N in serological testing would capture as many potential SARS-CoV-2 positive cases as possible than using any of them alone. This is specifically important for tracing contacts and cases and conducting large-scale epidemiological studies to understand the true extent of virus spread in populations.

ACS Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; Sherif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Sarah A Almahboub; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Reem M. Alsulaiman; Rahaf H. Alharbi; M-Zaki El-Assouli; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Almohanad A Alkayyal; Naif A.M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Anwar M. Hashem. SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-Based Serological Assays Reveal Rapid Seroconversion and Induction of Specific Antibody Response in COVID-19 Patients. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A. AlFaleh, Sherif Hala, Turki S. Abujamel, Sawsan S. Alamri, Sarah A Almahboub, Khalid A. Alluhaybi, Haya I. Hobani, Reem M. Alsulaiman, Rahaf H. Alharbi, M-Zaki El-Assouli, Rowa Y Alhabbab, Ahdab A. AlSaieedi, Wesam H. Abdulaal, Afrah A. Al-Somali, Fadwa S. Alofi, Asim A. Khogeer, Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud, Almohanad A Alkayyal, Naif A.M. Almontashiri, Arnab Pain, Anwar M. Hashem. SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-Based Serological Assays Reveal Rapid Seroconversion and Induction of Specific Antibody Response in COVID-19 Patients. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; Sherif Hala; Turki S. Abujamel; Sawsan S. Alamri; Sarah A Almahboub; Khalid A. Alluhaybi; Haya I. Hobani; Reem M. Alsulaiman; Rahaf H. Alharbi; M-Zaki El-Assouli; Rowa Y Alhabbab; Ahdab A. AlSaieedi; Wesam H. Abdulaal; Afrah A. Al-Somali; Fadwa S. Alofi; Asim A. Khogeer; Ahmad Bakur Mahmoud; Almohanad A Alkayyal; Naif A.M. Almontashiri; Arnab Pain; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "SARS-CoV-2 S1 and N-Based Serological Assays Reveal Rapid Seroconversion and Induction of Specific Antibody Response in COVID-19 Patients." , no. : 1.

Research article
Published: 26 May 2020 in PLOS ONE
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is an endemic virus in dromedaries. Annually, Saudi Arabia imports thousands of camels from the Horn of Africa, yet the epidemiology of MERS-CoV in these animals is largely unknown. Here, MERS-CoV prevalence was compared in imported African camels and their local counterparts. A total of 1399 paired sera and nasal swabs were collected from camels between 2016 and 2018. Imported animals from Sudan (n = 829) and Djibouti (n = 328) were sampled on incoming ships at Jeddah Islamic seaport before unloading, and local camels were sampled from Jeddah (n = 242). Samples were screened for neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and MERS-CoV viral RNA. The overall seroprevalence was 92.7% and RNA detection rate was 17.2%. Imported camels had higher seroprevalence compared to resident herds (93.8% vs 87.6%, p 87% of the RNA positive animals, increased with age and was sex-dependent. Importantly, reduced viral RNA load was positively correlated with nAb titers. Our data confirm the widespread of MERS-CoV in imported and domestic camels in Saudi Arabia and highlight the need for continuous active surveillance and better prevention measures. Further studies are also warranted to understand camels correlates of protection for proper vaccine development.

ACS Style

Ahmed M. Tolah; Saad B. Al Masaudi; Sherif A. El-Kafrawy; Ahmed A. Mirza; Steve M. Harakeh; Ahmed M. Hassan; Mohammed A. Alsaadi; Abdulrahman A. Alzahrani; Ghaleb A. Alsaaidi; Nabil M. S. Amor; Abdulaziz Alagaili; Anwar M. Hashem; Esam I. Azhar. Cross-sectional prevalence study of MERS-CoV in local and imported dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia, 2016-2018. PLOS ONE 2020, 15, e0232790 .

AMA Style

Ahmed M. Tolah, Saad B. Al Masaudi, Sherif A. El-Kafrawy, Ahmed A. Mirza, Steve M. Harakeh, Ahmed M. Hassan, Mohammed A. Alsaadi, Abdulrahman A. Alzahrani, Ghaleb A. Alsaaidi, Nabil M. S. Amor, Abdulaziz Alagaili, Anwar M. Hashem, Esam I. Azhar. Cross-sectional prevalence study of MERS-CoV in local and imported dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia, 2016-2018. PLOS ONE. 2020; 15 (5):e0232790.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ahmed M. Tolah; Saad B. Al Masaudi; Sherif A. El-Kafrawy; Ahmed A. Mirza; Steve M. Harakeh; Ahmed M. Hassan; Mohammed A. Alsaadi; Abdulrahman A. Alzahrani; Ghaleb A. Alsaaidi; Nabil M. S. Amor; Abdulaziz Alagaili; Anwar M. Hashem; Esam I. Azhar. 2020. "Cross-sectional prevalence study of MERS-CoV in local and imported dromedary camels in Saudi Arabia, 2016-2018." PLOS ONE 15, no. 5: e0232790.

Preprint
Published: 23 May 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Emerging highly pathogenic human coronaviruses (CoVs) represent a serious ongoing threat to the public health worldwide. The spike (S) proteins of CoVs are surface glycoproteins that facilitate viral entry into host cells via attachment to their respective cellular receptors. The S protein is believed to be a major immunogenic component of CoVs and a target for neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) and most candidate vaccines. Development of a safe and convenient assay is thus urgently needed to determine the prevalence of CoVs nAbs in the population, to study immune response in infected individuals, and to aid in vaccines and viral entry inhibitors evaluation. While live virus-based neutralization assays are used as gold standard serological methods to detect and measure nAbs, handling of highly pathogenic live CoVs requires strict bio-containment conditions in biosafety level-3 laboratories. On the other hand, use of replication-incompetent pseudoviruses bearing CoVs S proteins could represent a safe and useful method to detect nAbs in serum samples under biosafety level-2 conditions. Here, we describe a detailed protocol of a safe and convenient assay to generate vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-based pseudoviruses to evaluate and measure nAbs against highly pathogenic CoVs. The protocol covers methods to produce VSV pseudovirus bearing the S protein of the Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV) and the severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2), pseudovirus titration, and pseudovirus neutralizing assay. Such assay could be adapted by different laboratories and researchers working on highly pathogenic CoVs without the need to handle live viruses in biosafety level-3 environment.

ACS Style

Sarah A. Almahboub; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Anwar M. Hashem. Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (Vsv) Pseudovirus-Based Assay. 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Sarah A. Almahboub, Abdullah Algaissi, Mohamed A. AlFaleh, M-Zaki ElAssouli, Anwar M. Hashem. Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (Vsv) Pseudovirus-Based Assay. . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Sarah A. Almahboub; Abdullah Algaissi; Mohamed A. AlFaleh; M-Zaki ElAssouli; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies against Highly Pathogenic Coronaviruses: A Detailed Protocol for a Rapid Evaluation of Neutralizing Antibodies Using Vesicular Stomatitis Virus (Vsv) Pseudovirus-Based Assay." , no. : 1.

Review
Published: 17 May 2020 in International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The current Coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic has infected over two million people and resulted in the death of over one hundred thousand people at the time of writing this review. The disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Even though multiple vaccines and treatments are under development so far, the disease is only slowing down under extreme social distancing measures that are difficult to maintain. SARS-COV-2 is an enveloped virus that is surrounded by a lipid bilayer. Lipids are fundamental cell components that play various biological roles ranging from being a structural building block to a signaling molecule as well as a central energy store. The role lipids play in viral infection involves the fusion of the viral membrane to the host cell, viral replication, and viral endocytosis and exocytosis. Since lipids play a crucial function in the viral life cycle, we asked whether drugs targeting lipid metabolism, such as statins, can be utilized against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. In this review, we discuss the role of lipid metabolism in viral infection as well as the possibility of targeting lipid metabolism to interfere with the viral life cycle.

ACS Style

Mohamed Abu-Farha; Thangavel Alphonse Thanaraj; Mohammad G. Qaddoumi; Anwar Hashem; Jehad Abubaker; Fahd Al-Mulla. The Role of Lipid Metabolism in COVID-19 Virus Infection and as a Drug Target. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2020, 21, 3544 .

AMA Style

Mohamed Abu-Farha, Thangavel Alphonse Thanaraj, Mohammad G. Qaddoumi, Anwar Hashem, Jehad Abubaker, Fahd Al-Mulla. The Role of Lipid Metabolism in COVID-19 Virus Infection and as a Drug Target. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2020; 21 (10):3544.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Mohamed Abu-Farha; Thangavel Alphonse Thanaraj; Mohammad G. Qaddoumi; Anwar Hashem; Jehad Abubaker; Fahd Al-Mulla. 2020. "The Role of Lipid Metabolism in COVID-19 Virus Infection and as a Drug Target." International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21, no. 10: 3544.

Review article
Published: 11 May 2020 in Journal of Infection and Public Health
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Nearly four months have passed since the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which caused the rapidly spreading Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To date, there have been more than 2.3 million confirmed cases and more than 160,000 deaths globally caused by COVID-19. Chinese health authorities, where the virus emerged, have taken prompt strict public health measures to control and prevent the spread of the outbreak. In Saudi Arabia, unprecedented precautionary strict measures were applied to prevent virus entry to the country or to mitigate its impact when it arrives. Here, we review the response of Saudi Arabia to COVID-19 pandemic and how did the experience learned from the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic since 2012 has helped the country to be better prepared for the current COVID-19 pandemic. We also discuss the country readiness, improvement in research and development, and the unprecedented rapid precautionary measures that have been taken by the Saudi government thus far.

ACS Style

Abdullah A. Algaissi; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar M. Hashem. Preparedness and response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Building on MERS experience. Journal of Infection and Public Health 2020, 13, 834 -838.

AMA Style

Abdullah A. Algaissi, Naif Khalaf Alharbi, Mazen Hassanain, Anwar M. Hashem. Preparedness and response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Building on MERS experience. Journal of Infection and Public Health. 2020; 13 (6):834-838.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Abdullah A. Algaissi; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "Preparedness and response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Building on MERS experience." Journal of Infection and Public Health 13, no. 6: 834-838.

Review article
Published: 06 May 2020 in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The rapidly spreading Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), represents an unprecedented serious challenge to the global public health community. The extremely rapid international spread of the disease with significant morbidity and mortality made finding possible therapeutic interventions a global priority. While approved specific antiviral drugs against SARS-CoV-2 are still lacking, a large number of existing drugs are being explored as a possible treatment for COVID-19 infected patients. Recent publications have re-examined the use of Chloroquine (CQ) and/or Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a potential therapeutic option for these patients. In an attempt to explore the evidence that supports their use in COVID-19 patients, we comprehensively reviewed the previous studies which used CQ or HCQ as an antiviral treatment. Both CQ and HCQ demonstrated promising in vitro results, however, such data have not yet been translated into meaningful in vivo studies. While few clinical trials have suggested some beneficial effects of CQ and HCQ in COVID-19 patients, most of the reported data are still preliminary. Given the current uncertainty, it is worth being mindful of the potential risks and strictly rationalise the use of these drugs in COVID-19 patients until further high quality randomized clinical trials are available to clarify their role in the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.

ACS Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Badrah S. Alghamdi; Abdullah A. Algaissi; Fahad S. Alshehri; Abdullah Bukhari; Mohamed Alfaleh; Ziad A. Memish. Therapeutic use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and other viral infections: A narrative review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease 2020, 35, 101735 -101735.

AMA Style

Anwar M. Hashem, Badrah S. Alghamdi, Abdullah A. Algaissi, Fahad S. Alshehri, Abdullah Bukhari, Mohamed Alfaleh, Ziad A. Memish. Therapeutic use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and other viral infections: A narrative review. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. 2020; 35 ():101735-101735.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Anwar M. Hashem; Badrah S. Alghamdi; Abdullah A. Algaissi; Fahad S. Alshehri; Abdullah Bukhari; Mohamed Alfaleh; Ziad A. Memish. 2020. "Therapeutic use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 and other viral infections: A narrative review." Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease 35, no. : 101735-101735.

Preprint
Published: 02 April 2020
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Nearly three months have passed since the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which caused the rapidly spreading Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To date, there have been more than 550,000 confirmed cases and more than 25,000 deaths globally caused by COVID-19. Chinese health authorities, where the virus emerged, have taken prompt strict public health measures to control and prevent the spread of the outbreak. In the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, unprecedented precautionary strict measures were applied to slow virus entry and to mitigate the risk of the outbreak. Here, we review the experience learned during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic in Saudi Arabia, which has been in the country since 2012, and is expected to have helped the country to be well prepared for the current COVID-19 pandemic. We also discuss the country readiness, improvement in research and development, and the unprecedented rapid precautionary measures that have been taken by the Saudi government thus far.

ACS Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Naif Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar Hashem. Preparedness and Response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Lessons Learned from MERS-CoV . 2020, 1 .

AMA Style

Abdullah Algaissi, Naif Alharbi, Mazen Hassanain, Anwar Hashem. Preparedness and Response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Lessons Learned from MERS-CoV . . 2020; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Abdullah Algaissi; Naif Alharbi; Mazen Hassanain; Anwar Hashem. 2020. "Preparedness and Response to COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Lessons Learned from MERS-CoV ." , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 28 January 2020 in Journal of Infection and Public Health
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a newly recognized zoonotic coronavirus. Current evidence confirms the role of dromedaries in primary human infections but does not explain the sporadic community cases. However, asymptomatic or subclinical cases could represent a possible source of infection in the community. Archived human sera (7461) collected between 2011 and 2016 from healthy adult blood donors from 50 different nationalities in the western part of Saudi Arabia were obtained for MERS-CoV seroprevalence investigation. Samples were tested for MERS-CoV S1-specific antibodies (Abs) by ELISA and confirmed by testing for neutralizing Abs (nAbs) using both pseudotyped and live virus neutralization assays. Out of 7461 samples, 174 sera from individuals with 18 different nationalities were ELISA positive (2.3%, 95% CI 2.0–2.7). Presence of nAbs was confirmed in 17 samples (0.23%, 95% CI 0.1–0.4) of which one sample exhibited positivity in both neutralization assays. Confirmed seropositivity was identified in young (15–44 years) men and women from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan, and India without significant preference. An increasing trend of MERS-CoV seroprevalence was observed in the general population in western Saudi Arabia, suggesting that asymptomatic or mild infections might exist and act as an unrecognized source of infection. Seropositivity of individuals from different nationalities underscores the potential MERS exportation outside of the Arabian Peninsula. Thus, enhanced and continuous surveillance is highly warranted.

ACS Style

Afnan A. Degnah; Sawsan S. Al-Amri; Ahmed M. Hassan; Abdulrahman S. Almasoud; Manar Mousa; Sarah A. Almahboub; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahmed A. Mirza; Salwa I. Hindawi; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Esam I. Azhar; Anwar M. Hashem. Seroprevalence of MERS-CoV in healthy adults in western Saudi Arabia, 2011–2016. Journal of Infection and Public Health 2020, 13, 697 -703.

AMA Style

Afnan A. Degnah, Sawsan S. Al-Amri, Ahmed M. Hassan, Abdulrahman S. Almasoud, Manar Mousa, Sarah A. Almahboub, Rowa Y. Alhabbab, Ahmed A. Mirza, Salwa I. Hindawi, Naif Khalaf Alharbi, Esam I. Azhar, Anwar M. Hashem. Seroprevalence of MERS-CoV in healthy adults in western Saudi Arabia, 2011–2016. Journal of Infection and Public Health. 2020; 13 (5):697-703.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Afnan A. Degnah; Sawsan S. Al-Amri; Ahmed M. Hassan; Abdulrahman S. Almasoud; Manar Mousa; Sarah A. Almahboub; Rowa Y. Alhabbab; Ahmed A. Mirza; Salwa I. Hindawi; Naif Khalaf Alharbi; Esam I. Azhar; Anwar M. Hashem. 2020. "Seroprevalence of MERS-CoV in healthy adults in western Saudi Arabia, 2011–2016." Journal of Infection and Public Health 13, no. 5: 697-703.