Gal-3BP in Viral Infections: An Emerging Role in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
, Stefano Iacobelli 3, Valentina Iacobelli 3 and Giovanni Antonini 1,2,*
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is interesting and well structured. I just have minor comments and suggestions:
-I strongly suggest authors to better stress the clinical utility of Gal-3BP measured in human biofluids to face SarsCov2.
-A summary table with Gal-3BP biomarker diagnostic performance such as specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, NPV and PPV should be included in the manuscript.
Author Response
Point 1: I strongly suggest authors to better stress the clinical utility of Gal-3BP measured in human biofluids to face SarsCov2."
Response 1: According to the Reviewer’s suggestion, we improved the manuscript by discussing the clinical utility of Gal-3BP measured in human biofluids in the paragraph 3.2, that was added to the manuscript.
Point 2: A summary table with Gal-3BP biomarker diagnostic performance such as specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, NPV and PPV should be included in the manuscript.
Response 2: We thank the Reviewer for this suggestion. Unfortunately, there is not yet enough data to answer your request. Although increased levels of Gal-3BP have been observed in all the pathologies reported in the manuscript, the diagnostic performance of Gal-3BP has been evaluated only in COVID-19 disease, but the currently available data are still not sufficient to assess specificity, sensitivity and the other performance parameters.
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
Gallo and colleagues discussed the Gal-3BP and its role in viral infections in this article. To this end, they have prepared a review article gathering all related articles. They have used PubMed to collect data and evaluate them. The article is nice, and it discusses the topic well. There are some recommendations to improve the article.
It is recommended that authors prepare a schematic figure for the introductory part of the manuscript, especially where they are introducing the Gal-3BP, like page 1, lines 35 to 37.
On page 2, line 73, the word 39. Should be eliminated.
To count the number of articles published online, the authors used the PubMed database. However, it is not enough, and authors are encouraged to search for other websites like Scopus or google scholar with other keywords.
Is there any correlation between the Gal-3BP level in patients with COVID-19 disease and patients with COVID-19 + HIV or any other infections? How will this be correlated?
Is there any relation or data between the severity of disease and the level of Gal-3BP?
It would be great if the authors mention some future works in this space. How other investigators can further enhance the field, and what new studies should be initiated.
Author Response
Point 1: It is recommended that authors prepare a schematic figure for the introductory part of the manuscript, especially where they are introducing the Gal-3BP, like page 1, lines 35 to 37.
Response 1: According to the Reviewer’s request, we added a figure in the manuscript (Figure 1), with a schematic representation of Gal-3BP’s structure.
Point 2: On page 2, line 73, the word 39. Should be eliminated.
Response 2: We eliminated the word 39.
Point 3: To count the number of articles published online, the authors used the PubMed database. However, it is not enough, and authors are encouraged to search for other websites like Scopus or google scholar with other keywords.
Response 3: As suggested, we implemented the search to other databases as Scopus and google scholar. However, using or adding different keywords as “galectin 3 binding protein” introduces a bias due to the significant number of unrelated articles that are considered by the different search engines. For this reason, we considered the following keywords: “(90K OR LGALS3BP) AND Virus” and “GAL3BP and Virus”.
Point 4: Is there any correlation between the Gal-3BP level in patients with COVID-19 disease and patients with COVID-19 + HIV or any other infections? How will this be correlated?
Response 4: We thank the Reviewer for this comment that can be an interesting stimulus for future investigation. However, the interplay between COVID-19 and HIV or other virus infections is still poorly understood and the literature regarding Gal-3BP in this context, to our knowledge, is still lacking. Thus, we have not enough data to answer this question.
Point 5: Is there any relation or data between the severity of disease and the level of Gal-3BP?
Response 5: Yes, there is. Apart from demonstrating that Gal-3BP is upregulated in patients infected by SARS-CoV-2, studies also report that Gal-3BP plasma levels correlate with COVID-19 severity. We added a sentence in paragraph 3 to better stress this.
Point 6: It would be great if the authors mention some future works in this space. How other investigators can further enhance the field, and what new studies should be initiated.
Response 6: According to the Reviewer’s suggestion, we provided the conclusion section of the manuscript with the future studies that we believe being useful to enhance this field.
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
