None.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) leads to a various clinical and laboratory findings in affected patients. Similar to the previous outbreak, patients with SARS-CoV-2 showed elevated levels of D-dimer, thrombocytopenia, and prolonged prothrombin time and the activated partial thromboplastin time. Meanwhile two lethal coagulation disorders of disseminated intravascular coagulation and pulmonary embolism have already been reported in patients with SARS-CoV-2. Although further cohort studies are needed to document long-term complications, considering the similar pathogenicity of SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2, the same chronic cardiovascular impairments could be expected.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan (China). It soon became widespread so that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic crisis. This disease has caused significant morbidity and mortality in the world. Clinical studies reported that there is a significant correlation between genders, immunogenetic variants, serum levels of some circulating factors, blood groups, and different races with severity and mortality of COVID-19 patients. Hence, some studies have investigated the role of individual genetic background in the susceptibility and vulnerability to COVID-19 infection. It is proposed that host genetic polymorphisms affect the onset and progression of COVID-19 infection and could dramatically impact the virus life cycle. This paper aims to review the state-of-the-art researches on the roles of genetic variants in host cell membrane proteins and blood circulation factors in the prognosis of patients with COVID-19.

Background/objectives: Studies have shown that immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines are impaired in dialysis patients which may affect immunity to vaccines. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate SARS-COV-2 neutralizing antibodies in hemodialysis patients for 2 and 6 weeks after receiving inactivated Sinopharm vaccine.

Methods: In this study, 172 people were divided into two groups. The first group included 108 hemodialysis patients, while the second group included 64 health workers as a control group. In order to evaluate SARS-COV-2 neutralizing antibodies titers, the peripheral blood samples were collected from all participants 2 and 6 weeks after receiving the second dose of Sinopharm vaccine. Samples were centrifuged and the neutralizing antibody against receptor-binding domain (RBD) was determined using the indirect ELISA technique.

Results: Hemodialysis patients had lower titers of IgG neutralizing antibodies compared to the control group (P <0.001). The titers of SARS-COV-2 neutralizing antibodies were not significantly different at 2 weeks in comparison with 6 weeks after vaccination (P=0.9204). Our findings showed a significant increase in titers of IgG neutralizing antibodies after vaccination in people with a history of COVID-19 (P=0.002). The seropositivity rate for neutralizing antibodies against RBD was significantly different between seropositive (immune) and seronegative (non-immune) patients 6 weeks after vaccination (P=0.022).

Conclusions: The titers of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-COV-2 were lower in hemodialysis patients than in healthy individuals. This is probably due to the poor immune system. However, patients who received two doses of inactivated Sinopharm vaccine showed a higher antibody titer 6 weeks after vaccination.

Not applicable.