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<title>12 May, 2022</title>
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<title>Covid-19 Sentry</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="covid-19-sentry">Covid-19 Sentry</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-preprints">From Preprints</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-pubmed">From PubMed</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-patent-search">From Patent Search</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
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<li><strong>Emotional Support Among Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Couples During the COVID-19 Pandemic</strong> -
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<div>
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Emotional support, particularly support from family and close friends, is essential to mental health outcomes especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community. The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the important role of emotional support especially for marginalized communities. Although emotional support is recognized as a critical resource, to date no research has examined access to support during the pandemic for gender and sexual diverse populations. I draw on a new population-based data source of 3,642 respondents, the National Couples’ Health and Time Use Study (NCHAT), which oversampled sexual and gender diverse populations during the pandemic (September 2020-April 2021). I focus on two sources of emotional support: family members and friends. Respondents who identified as exclusively heterosexual relied more on emotional support from family than respondents who identified as exclusively gay/lesbian, bisexual including pan, omni, and queer, and those reporting another sexual identity or multiple sexual identities. However, respondents who did not identify as heterosexual relied more on emotional support from friends compared to exclusively heterosexual respondents. There were no significant differences among respondents who identity as sexual minorities in regard to family or friend support. This work contributes to understanding of the social climate and resources available to sexual and diverse populations during a major public health crisis.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/4bnt7/" target="_blank">Emotional Support Among Sexual Minority and Heterosexual Couples During the COVID-19 Pandemic</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>COVID-19 Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection and hospitalization in Belgium, July 2021-April 2022</strong> -
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Belgium aimed to reduce disease spread and severity. We quantified the observed vaccine effectiveness (VE) against symptomatic infection (VEi) and hospitalization (VEh). Exhaustive data on testing and vaccination was combined with a clinical hospital survey. We estimated VEi using a test negative design and VEh using a proportional hazard analysis. We controlled for prior infection, age, sex, province of residence and calendar week of sampling. Variant of concern specific VE-estimates were obtained by time since vaccination from July 2021 to April 2022. We included 1,433,135 persons. VEi against Delta waned from an initial estimate of 81% (95%CI 80-82) to 56% (95%CI 56-57) 100-150 days after primary-vaccination. Booster-vaccination increased initial VEi to 84% (95%CI 83-85). Against Omicron, an initial VEi of 37% (95%CI 34-40) waned to 18% (95%CI 17-20) 100-150 days after primary- vaccination. Booster-vaccination increased VEi to 52% (95%CI 51-53) and waned to 25% (95%CI 24-27) 100-150 days after vaccination. Hybrid immunity conferred by prior infection and booster-vaccination outperformed booster-vaccination only even if the infection was over one year ago, 67% (95%CI 66-68). Initial VEh for booster-vaccination decreased from 93% (95%CI 93-94) against Delta to 87% (95%CI 85-89) against Omicron. VEh for Omicron waned to 66% (95%CI 63-70) 100-150 days after booster-vaccination. In conclusion, we report significant immune-escape by Omicron. VEh was less affected than VEi and immune-escape was attenuated by booster-vaccination. Waning further reduced VEi- and VEh-estimates. Infection-acquired immunity offered additional protection against symptomatic infection in vaccinated persons which lasted at least one year.
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</p>
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</div>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.09.22274623v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 Vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection and hospitalization in Belgium, July 2021-April 2022</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Early detection of fraudulent COVID-19 products from Twitter chatter</strong> -
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<div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Social media have served as lucrative platforms for misinformation and for promoting fraudulent products for the treatment, testing and prevention of COVID-19. This has resulted in the issuance of many warning letters by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). While social media continue to serve as the primary platform for the promotion of such fraudulent products, they also present the opportunity to identify these products early by employing effective social media mining methods. In this study, we employ natural language processing and time series anomaly detection methods for automatically detecting fraudulent COVID-19 products early from Twitter. Our approach is based on the intuition that increases in the popularity of fraudulent products lead to corresponding anomalous increases in the volume of chatter regarding them. We utilized an anomaly detection method on streaming COVID-19-related Twitter data to detect potentially anomalous increases in mentions of fraudulent products. Our unsupervised approach detected 34/44 (77.3%) signals about fraudulent products earlier than the FDA letter issuance dates, and an additional 6/44 (13.6%) within a week following the corresponding FDA letters. Our proposed method is simple, effective and easy to deploy, and do not require high performance computing machinery unlike deep neural network-based methods.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.09.22274776v1" target="_blank">Early detection of fraudulent COVID-19 products from Twitter chatter</a>
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</div></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy: views and vaccination uptake rates in pregnancy, a mixed methods analysis from the Born In Wales study</strong> -
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<div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Background: Vaccine hesitancy amongst pregnant women has been found to be a concern during past epidemics. Objectives: The aims of this study were to 1) estimate COVID-19 vaccination rates among pregnant women in Wales and their association with age, ethnicity, and area of deprivation, using electronic health records (EHR) linkage, and 2) explore pregnant womens views on receiving the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy using data from a survey recruiting via social media (Facebook, Twitter), through midwives, and posters in hospitals (Born in Wales Cohort). Design: A mixed methods study utilising routinely collected linked data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) (Objective</p></div></li>
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<li>and the Born In Wales Birth Cohort participants (Objective 2). SAIL combines data from general practice, hospital admissions, the national community child health dataset, maternal indicators dataset, and COVID-19 vaccination databases. Setting and participants: Objective 1) All women documented as being pregnant on or after 13th April 2021, aged 18 years or older, and eligible for COVID-19 vaccination were identified in routine health care. They were linked to the vaccination data up to and including 31st December 2021. Objective 2) Separately, a cross-section of pregnant women in Wales were invited to complete an online survey via social media advertising. The survey asked what their views were on having the COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, and if they had already received, or intended to receive, the COVID-19 vaccination during their pregnancies. They were also asked to give reasons for their decisions. Outcomes: 1 (a). Rate of vaccination uptake per month during pregnancy among women eligible for vaccination. 1 (b). Survival analysis was utilised to examine and compare the length of time to vaccination uptake in pregnancy, and variation in uptake by; age, ethnicity, and deprivation area was examined using hazard ratios (HR) from Cox regression. 2.Expectant mothers views of the COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy. Results: Population-level data linkage (objective 1): Within the population cohort, 32.7% (n = 8,203) were vaccinated (at least one dose of the vaccine) during pregnancy, 34.1% (n = 8,572) remained unvaccinated throughout follow-up period, and 33.2% (n = 8,336) received the vaccine postpartum. Younger women (<30 years) were less likely to have the vaccine and those living in areas of high deprivation were also less likely to have the vaccine (HR=0.88, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.95). Asian and other ethnic groups were 1.12 and 1.18 times more likely to have the vaccine in pregnancy compared to women of White ethnicity (HR=1.12, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.25) and (HR=1.18, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.37) respectively. Survey responses (objective 2): 69% of participants stated that they would be happy to have the vaccine during pregnancy (n = 207). The remainder, 31%, indicated that they would not have the vaccine during pregnancy (n = 94). Reasons for having the vaccine related to protecting self and baby, perceived risk level, and receipt of sufficient evidence and advice. Reasons for vaccine refusal included lack of research about long-term outcomes for the baby, anxiety about vaccines, inconsistent advice/information, and preference to wait until after the pregnancy. Conclusion: Potentially only 1 in 3 pregnant women would have the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy, even though 2 in 3 reported they would have the vaccination, thus it is critical to develop tailored strategies to increase its acceptance rate and to decrease vaccine hesitancy. A targeted approach to vaccinations may be required for groups such as younger people and those living in higher deprivation level areas.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.09.22274769v1" target="_blank">COVID-19 vaccination in pregnancy: views and vaccination uptake rates in pregnancy, a mixed methods analysis from the Born In Wales study</a>
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</div></li>
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</ol>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Biosynthetic proteins targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike as anti-virals</strong> -
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<div>
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The binding of the SARS-CoV-2 spike to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) promotes virus entry into the cell. Targeting this interaction represents a promising strategy to generate antivirals. By screening a phage-display library of biosynthetic protein sequences build on a rigid alpha-helicoidal HEAT-like scaffold (named alphaReps), we selected candidates recognizing the spike receptor binding domain (RBD). Two of them (F9 and C2) bind the RBD with affinities in the nM range, displaying neutralisation activity in vitro and recognizing distinct sites, F9 overlapping the ACE2 binding motif. The F9-C2 fusion protein and a trivalent alphaRep form (C2-foldon) display 0.1 nM affinities and EC50 of 8-18 nM for neutralization of SARS-CoV-2. In hamsters, F9-C2 instillation in the nasal cavity before or during infections effectively reduced the replication of a SARS-CoV-2 strain harbouring the D614G mutation in the nasal epithelium. Furthermore, F9-C2 and/or C2-foldon effectively neutralized SARS-CoV-2 variants (including delta and omicron variants) with EC50 values ranging from 13 to 32 nM. With their high stability and their high potency against SARS- CoV-2 variants, alphaReps provide a promising tool for SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics to target the nasal cavity and mitigate virus dissemination in the proximal environment.
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</div>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.491295v1" target="_blank">Biosynthetic proteins targeting the SARS-CoV-2 spike as anti-virals</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Three-dose vaccination-induced immune responses protect against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-BA.2</strong> -
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The ongoing outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 infections in Hong Kong, the world model city of universal masking, has resulted in a major public health crisis. In this study, we investigate public servants who had been vaccinated with two dose (82.7%) or three dose (14%) of either CoronaVac (CorV) or BNT162b2 (BNT). During the BA.2 outbreak, 29.3% vaccinees were infected. Three-dose vaccination provided protection with lower incidence rates of breakthrough infections (2xBNT 49.2% vs 3xBNT 16.6%, p<0.0001; 2xCorV 48.6% vs 3xCoV 20.6%, p=0.003). The third heterologous vaccination showed the lowest incidence (2xCorV+1xBNT 6.3%). Although BA.2 conferred the highest neutralization resistance compared with variants of concern tested, the third dose vaccination-activated spike-specific memory B and Omicron cross-reactive T cell responses contributed to reduced frequencies of breakthrough infection and disease severity. Our results have implications to timely boost vaccination and immune responses likely required for vaccine- mediated protection against Omicron BA.2 pandemic.
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.09.491254v1" target="_blank">Three-dose vaccination-induced immune responses protect against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-BA.2</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Investigating the evolutionary origins of the first three SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern</strong> -
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<div>
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The emergence of Variants of Concern (VOCs) of SARS-CoV-2 with increased transmissibility, immune evasion properties, and virulence poses a great challenge to public health. Despite unprecedented efforts to increase genomic surveillance, fundamental facts about the evolutionary origins of VOCs remain largely unknown. One major uncertainty is whether the VOCs evolved during transmission chains of many acute infections or during long-term infections within single individuals. We test the consistency of these two possible paths with the observed dynamics, focusing on the clustered emergence of the first three VOCs, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, in late 2020, following a period of relative evolutionary stasis. We consider a range of possible fitness landscapes, in which the VOC phenotypes could be the result of single mutations, multiple mutations that each contribute additively to increasing viral fitness, or epistatic interactions among multiple mutations that do not individually increase viral fitness–a “fitness plateau”. Our results suggest that the timing and dynamics of the VOC emergence, together with the observed number of mutations in VOC lineages, are in best agreement with the VOC phenotype requiring multiple mutations and VOCs having evolved within single individuals with long-term infections.
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</div>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.09.491227v1" target="_blank">Investigating the evolutionary origins of the first three SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Anti-PEG antibodies boosted in humans by SARS-CoV-2 lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccine</strong> -
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Humans commonly have low level antibodies to poly(ethylene) glycol (PEG) due to environmental exposure. Lipid nanoparticle (LNP) mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 contain small amounts of PEG but it is not known whether PEG antibodies are enhanced by vaccination and what their impact is on particle-immune cell interactions in human blood. We studied plasma from 130 adults receiving either the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) or mRNA-1273 (Moderna) mRNA vaccines, or no SARS- CoV-2 vaccine for PEG-specific antibodies. Anti-PEG IgG was commonly detected prior to vaccination and was significantly boosted a mean of 13.1-fold (range 1.0 to 70.9) following mRNA-1273 vaccination and a mean of 1.78-fold (range 0.68 to 16.6) following BNT162b2 vaccination. Anti-PEG IgM increased 68.5-fold (range 0.9 to 377.1) and 2.64-fold (0.76 to 12.84) following mRNA-1273 and BNT162b2 vaccination, respectively. The rise in PEG-specific antibodies following mRNA-1273 vaccination was associated with a significant increase in the association of clinically relevant PEGylated LNPs with blood phagocytes ex vivo. PEG antibodies did not impact the SARS-CoV-2 specific neutralizing antibody response to vaccination. However, the elevated levels of vaccine-induced anti-PEG antibodies correlated with increased systemic reactogenicity following two doses of vaccination. We conclude that PEG-specific antibodies can be boosted by LNP mRNA- vaccination and that the rise in PEG-specific antibodies is associated with systemic reactogenicity and an increase of PEG particle-leukocyte association in human blood. The longer-term clinical impact of the increase in PEG-specific antibodies induced by lipid nanoparticle mRNA-vaccines should be monitored.
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</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.08.22268953v2" target="_blank">Anti-PEG antibodies boosted in humans by SARS-CoV-2 lipid nanoparticle mRNA vaccine</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>What innovations (including return to practice) would help attract, recruit, or retain NHS clinical staff? A rapid evidence map</strong> -
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National Health Service (NHS) waiting times have significantly increased over the past couple of years, particularly since the emergence of COVID-19. The NHS is currently experiencing an acute workforce shortage, which hampers the ability to deal with increasing waiting times and clearing the backlog resulting from the pandemic. Plans to increase the workforce, by recruiting new staff, retaining the existing NHS clinical workforce, and making return to clinical practice more attractive will require a number of approaches. This Rapid Evidence Map aimed to describe the extent and nature of the available evidence base for innovations (including return to practice) that could help attract, recruit, or retain NHS clinical staff, in order to identify the priorities and actions for a rapid review. Three options were proposed for a subsequent focused Rapid Review and discussed with stakeholders: (1) review of primary studies that have evaluated return to practice schemes; (2) review of reviews of factors that influence retention; (3) review of reviews of interventions for supporting recruitment and retention. A decision was made that option 3 would be useful to inform practice and a rapid review will be undertaken.
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</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.10.22274894v2" target="_blank">What innovations (including return to practice) would help attract, recruit, or retain NHS clinical staff? A rapid evidence map</a>
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<li><strong>Clinical and Virological Features of patients hospitalized with different types of COVID-19 vaccination in Mexico City</strong> -
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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines are very effective at protecting against severe disease and death. However, the impact of the vaccine used, viral variants, and host factors on disease severity remain poorly understood. Here we compared COVID-19 clinical presentations and outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients in Mexico City. From March to September 2021, clinical and demographic characteristics were obtained from 1,014 individuals with a documented SARS-CoV-2 infection, and viral variants were identified in a subset of 386 patients. We compared unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, and fully vaccinated patients, stratifying by age groups. We fitted multivariate statistical models to evaluate the impact of vaccination status, SARS-CoV-2 lineages, vaccine types, and clinical parameters. Most hospitalized patients were unvaccinated. In patients over 61 years old, mortality was significantly higher in unvaccinated compared to fully vaccinated individuals. In patients aged 31 to 60 years, vaccinated patients were more likely to be outpatients (46%) than unvaccinated individuals (6.1%). We found immune disease and age above 61 years old as risk factors. While fully vaccination was found as the most protective factor against in-hospital death. This study suggests that vaccination is essential to reduce mortality in a comorbid population such as that of Mexico.
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</p>
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<div class="article-link article-html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.05.06.22274772v2" target="_blank">Clinical and Virological Features of patients hospitalized with different types of COVID-19 vaccination in Mexico City</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Analysis of anti-Omicron neutralizing antibody titers in plasma from pre-Omicron convalescents and vaccinees.</strong> -
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The novel SARS-CoV-2 Omicron, with its antigenic escape from unboosted vaccines and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, demonstrates the continued relevance of COVID19 convalescent plasma (CCP) therapies. Lessons learnt from previous usage of CCP suggests focusing on outpatients and immunocompromised recipients, with high nAb-titer units. In this analysis we systematically reviewed Omicron neutralizing plasma activity data from 31 publications, and found that approximately 50% (426/841) of CCP from unvaccinated donors neutralizes Omicron with very low mean neutralization titers (about 30), representing a more than 30-fold reduction from paired WA-1 neutralization. Two doses of mRNA vaccines had a similar 50% percent neutralization with more than doubling of Omicron neutralization mean titer (about 60). However, CCP from vaccinees recovered from previous variants of concern or third-dose uninfected vaccinees was nearly 100% neutralizing with mean Omicron neutralizing titers over 1000, a 30-fold Omicron neutralizing antibody increase compared to non-boosted vaccinees or unvaccinated convalescents. These findings have implications for both CCP stocks collected in prior pandemic periods and plans to restart CCP collections. Plasma from either boosted vaccinees or vaccination after pre-Omicron COVID-19 has nearly 100% neutralizing activity with Omicron neutralizing levels similar to matched convalescent plasma to variant neutralizing activity. Thus, CCP provides an effective tool to combat the emergence of variants that defeat therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.
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</p>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.21268317v3" target="_blank">Analysis of anti- Omicron neutralizing antibody titers in plasma from pre-Omicron convalescents and vaccinees.</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Evidence for a long-range RNA-RNA interaction between ORF8 and Spike of SARS-CoV-2</strong> -
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<div>
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SARS-CoV-2 has affected people worldwide as the causative agent of COVID-19. The virus is related to the highly lethal SARS-CoV responsible for the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak in Asia. Research is ongoing to understand why both viruses have different spreading capacities and mortality rates. Like other beta coronaviruses, RNA-RNA interactions occur between different parts of the viral genomic RNA, resulting in discontinuous transcription and production of various sub-genomic RNAs. These sub-genomic RNAs are then translated into other viral proteins. In this work, we performed a comparative analysis for novel long-range RNA-RNA interactions that may involve the Spike region. Comparing predictions between reference sequences of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 revealed several predictions amongst which a thermodynamically stable long-range RNA-RNA interaction between (23660-23703 Spike) and (28025-28060 ORF8) unique to SARS-CoV-2 was observed. Using data gathered worldwide, sequence variation patterns observed in the population support the in-silico RNA-RNA base-pairing predictions within these regions, suggesting further evidence for the interaction. The predicted interactions can potentially be related to the regulation of sub-genomic RNA production rates in SARS-CoV-2 and their subsequent accessibility to the host transcriptome.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.09.467911v2" target="_blank">Evidence for a long-range RNA-RNA interaction between ORF8 and Spike of SARS-CoV-2</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Probing effects of the SARS-CoV-2 E protein on membrane curvature and intracellular calcium</strong> -
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SARS-CoV-2 contains four structural proteins in its genome. These proteins aid in the assembly and budding of new virions at the ER-Golgi intermediate compartment (ERGIC). Current fundamental research efforts largely focus on one of these proteins, the spike (S) protein. Since successful antiviral therapies are likely to target multiple viral components, there is considerable interest in understanding the biophysical role of its other structural proteins, in particular structural membrane proteins. Here, we have focused our efforts on the characterization of the full-length envelope (E) protein from SARS-CoV-2, combining experimental and computational approaches. Recombinant expression of the full-length E protein from SARS-CoV-2 reveals that this membrane protein is capable of independent multimerization, possibly as a tetrameric or smaller species. Fluorescence microscopy shows that the protein localizes intracellularly, and coarse-grained MD simulations indicate it causes bending of the surrounding lipid bilayer, corroborating a potential role for the E protein in viral budding. Although we did not find robust electrophysiological evidence of ion-channel activity, cells transfected with the E protein exhibited reduced intracellular Ca2+, which may further promote viral replication. However, our atomistic MD simulations revealed that previous NMR structures are relatively unstable, and result in models incapable of ion conduction. Our study highlights the importance of using high-resolution structural data obtained from a full-length protein to gain detailed molecular insights, and eventually permitting virtual drug screening.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.28.446179v4" target="_blank">Probing effects of the SARS-CoV-2 E protein on membrane curvature and intracellular calcium</a>
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<li><strong>A gateway conspiracy? Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories prospectively predicts greater conspiracist ideation</strong> -
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A primary focus of research on conspiracy theories has been understanding the psychological characteristics that predict people’s level of conspiracist ideation. However, the dynamics of conspiracist ideation—i.e., how such tendencies change over time—are not well understood. To help fill this gap in the literature, we used data from longitudinal studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that greater belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories at baseline predicts both greater endorsement of a novel real-world conspiracy theory involving voter fraud in the 2020 American Presidential election (Study 1) and increases in generic conspiracist beliefs over a period of several months (Studies 1 and 2). Thus, engaging with real-world conspiracy theories appears to act as a gateway, leading to more general increases in conspiracist ideation. Beyond enhancing our knowledge of conspiracist ideation, this work highlights the importance of fighting the spread of conspiracy theories.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://psyarxiv.com/q4gct/" target="_blank">A gateway conspiracy? Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories prospectively predicts greater conspiracist ideation</a>
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<li><strong>COV-DOCK server: A web server for COVID-19 ligand-target docking</strong> -
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Motivation Despite mass level vaccinations and the launch of several repurposed drugs, the emergence of COVID-19 reinfection has posed a key challenge in front of health authorities across the world. There is an urgent need to find new drugs and the understanding of the COVID-19 target–ligand interactions will play an important role in this direction. Here, we present COV-Dock Server, a web server that predicts the binding modes between COVID-19 targets and the small drug molecules. Results We collected experimentally solved structures of proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Further, we used the predicted structure of experimentally unsolved proteins that were also collected. These structures were prepared for the docking. Next, 257 candidate drugs were docked against these targets using the meta-platform to understand the binding energy distributions. This server provides a free and interactive tool for the prediction of COVID-19 target–ligand interactions and enables drug discovery for COVID-19.
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</div>
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<div class="article-link article- html-link">
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/x2ky5/" target="_blank">COV-DOCK server: A web server for COVID-19 ligand-target docking</a>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Role of Glutathione Deficiency and MSIDS Variables in Long COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Dietary Supplement: NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) , Alpha lipoic acid (ALA), liposomal glutathione (GSH)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: University of California, Irvine; Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study to Evaluate the Safety and Immunogenicity of Omicron COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated in Population 18 Years Old of Age and Above</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Biological: Omicron COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell), Inactivated<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: China National Biotec Group Company Limited; Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd.; Shulan (Hangzhou) Hospital<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Neuro-inflammation and Post-infectious Fatigue in Individuals With and Without COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Radiation: [18F]DPA-714 positron emission tomography (PET) scan<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Amsterdam UMC, location VUmc; ZonMw: The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development<br/><b>Enrolling by invitation</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase II Safety Single-arm Study of CDK4/6 Inhibition With Palbociclib in Hospitalized, Moderate COVID-19 Cases to Prevent Thromboinflammation</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Drug: Palbociclib<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: biotx.ai GmbH<br/><b>Active, not recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (SYS6006) in Chinese Healthy Older Adults.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: 20 μg dose of SYS6006; Biological: 30 μg dose of SYS6006; Biological: 50 μg dose of SYS6006; Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
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CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>THEMBA II T-Cell Vaccine: A Phase 1/2 Study of Vaccination With saRNA COVID-19 Vaccines</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: AAHI-SC2 Vaccine; Biological: AAHI- SC3 Vaccine; Biological: EUA or approved vaccine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: ImmunityBio, Inc.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A Study of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine (SYS6006) in Chinese Healthy Adults Aged 18 -59 Years.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: 20 μg dose of SYS6006; Biological: 30 μg dose of SYS6006; Biological: 50 μg dose of SYS6006; Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
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CSPC ZhongQi Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity Study of a Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: A Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine; Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Use of Chinese Herbal Medicine and Vitamin C by Hospital Care Workers in HK to Prevent COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Drug: Chinese herbal medicine<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
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Hong Kong Baptist University<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To Evaluate SSD8432/ Ritonavir in Adults With COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19 Patients<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: SSD8432 dose 1/Ritonavir; Drug: SSD8432 dose 2<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Jiangsu Simcere Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Safety, Reactogenicity, and Immunogenicity Study of a Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: A Lyophilized COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine; Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Wuhan Recogen Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Home-based Exercise Program in Patients With the Post-COVID-19 Condition</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: Long COVID; Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Other: Home- based physical training<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: University of Sao Paulo<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kesuting Syrup in the Treatment of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia; Cough<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Kesuting syrup; Drug: LianHuaQingWen Granules<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Guizhou Bailing Group Pharmaceutical Co Ltd<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immune Function in Elderly Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19 on Hemodialysis</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; Hemodiafiltration<br/><b>Interventions</b>: <br/>
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Dietary Supplement: Oral nutritional supplement; Behavioral: Nutrition consultation<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
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Ruijin Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 2b/3 Trial of NuSepin® in COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19 Pneumonia<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: NuSepin® 0.2 mg/kg; Drug: NuSepin® 0.4 mg/kg; Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Shaperon<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IL-1 Mediates Tissue-Specific Inflammation and Severe Respiratory Failure in COVID-19</strong> - Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 has been associated with catastrophic inflammation. We present measurements in humans and a new animal model implicating a role in danger-associated molecular patterns. Calprotectin (S100A8/A9) and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) were measured in patients without/with ARDS, and admission calprotectin was associated with soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR). An animal model was developed by intravenous injection of…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Factors Associated With Serological Response to SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis Treated With Rituximab</strong> - CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: This cohort study found that for an optimal vaccine response from tozinameran, rituximab- treated patients with multiple sclerosis may be vaccinated as soon as possible, with rituximab treatment delayed until B-cell counts have reached at least 40/μL. An additional vaccination with tozinameran should be considered at that point.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern Hijack IFITM2 for Efficient Replication in Human Lung Cells</strong> - It has recently been shown that an early SARS-CoV-2 isolate (NL-02-2020) hijacks interferon-induced transmembrane proteins (IFITMs) for efficient replication in human lung cells, cardiomyocytes, and gut organoids. To date, several “variants of concern” (VOCs) showing increased infectivity and resistance to neutralization have emerged and globally replaced the early viral strains. Here, we determined whether the five current SARS-CoV-2 VOCs (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron) maintained the…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Low molecular weight chitooligosaccharide inhibits infection of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro</strong> - CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the chitooligosaccharide, a candidate for natural treatment, has antiviral effects against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in vitro.</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Known data on CoVid-19 infection linked to type-2 diabetes</strong> - It is of interest to document the known data on CoVid-19 infection linked to type-2 diabetes. Hyperglycemia, inhibition of neutrophil chemotaxis, altered cytokine synthesis, phagocytic cell dysfunction, impaired T cell-mediated immune responses, and inadequate microbia were all seen in people with Diabetes. Individuals with diabetes have also been shown to elevate levels of the proinflammatory cytokine, especially IL-1, IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), and different markers…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A review of the characteristic properties of selected tobacco chemicals and their associated etiological risks</strong> - OBJECTIVES: Despite the quantum of research findings on tobacco epidemic, a review on the formation characteristics of nicotine, aldehydes and phenols, and their associated etiological risks is still limited in literature. Accordingly, knowledge on the chemical properties and free radical formation during tobacco burning is an important subject towards unravelling the relationship between smoking behaviour and disease. This review investigates how scientific efforts have been advanced towards…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Molecular dynamic simulations reveal anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of mitocurcumin by potentially blocking innate immune evasion proteins NSP3 and NSP16</strong> - The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is affecting human life in an unprecedented manner and has become a global public health emergency. Identification of novel inhibitors of viral infection/replication is the utmost priority to curtail COVID-19 progression. A pre-requisite for such inhibitors is good bioavailability, non-toxicity and serum stability. Computational studies have shown that curcumin can be a candidate…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Multivalent 9-O-Acetylated-sialic acid glycoclusters as potent inhibitors for SARS-CoV-2 infection</strong> - The recent emergence of highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants illustrates the urgent need to better understand the molecular details of the virus binding to its host cell and to develop anti-viral strategies. While many studies focused on the role of the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor in the infection, others suggest the important role of cell attachment factors such as glycans. Here, we use atomic force microscopy to study these early binding events with the focus on the role of…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>VMP1 and TMEM41B are essential for DMV formation during β-coronavirus infection</strong> - β-coronaviruses reshape host cell endomembranes to form double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) for genome replication and transcription. Ectopically expressed viral nonstructural proteins nsp3 and nsp4 interact to zipper and bend the ER for DMV biogenesis. Genome-wide screens revealed the autophagy proteins VMP1 and TMEM41B as important host factors for SARS- CoV-2 infection. Here, we demonstrated that DMV biogenesis, induced by virus infection or expression of nsp3/4, is impaired in the VMP1 KO or…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A glucose-like metabolite deficient in diabetes inhibits cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2</strong> - The severity and mortality of COVID-19 are associated with pre-existing medical comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus. However, the underlying causes for increased susceptibility to viral infection in patients with diabetes is not fully understood. Here we identify several small-molecule metabolites from human blood with effective antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, one of which, 1,5-anhydro-D-glucitol (1,5-AG), is associated with diabetes mellitus. The serum 1,5-AG level is significantly…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunobiology of tubercle bacilli and prospects of immunomodulatory drugs to tackle tuberculosis (TB) and other non- tubercular mycobacterial infections</strong> - The COVID-19 pandemic has set back progress made on antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Without urgent re-focus, we risk slowing down drug discovery and providing treatment for drug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Unique in its immune evasion, dormancy and resuscitation, the causal pathogens of tuberculosis (TB) have demonstrated resistance to antibiotics with efflux pumps and the ability to form biofilms. Repurposing drugs is a prospective avenue for finding new anti-TB drugs. There are many…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant Decreases Nanobody Binding and ACE2 Blocking Effectivity</strong> - The Delta variant spreads more rapidly than previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. This variant comprises several mutations on the receptor-binding domain (RBD(Delta)) of its spike glycoprotein, which binds to the peptidase domain (PD) of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in host cells. The RBD-PD interaction has been targeted by antibodies and nanobodies to prevent viral infection, but their effectiveness against the Delta variant remains unclear. Here, we investigated RBD(Delta)-PD…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Serine Protease Inhibitors Restrict Host Susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Infections</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019, COVID-19, is a complex disease with a wide range of symptoms from asymptomatic infections to severe acute respiratory syndrome with lethal outcome. Individual factors such as age, sex, and comorbidities increase the risk for severe infections, but other aspects, such as genetic variations, are also likely to affect the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease severity. Here, we used a human 3D lung cell model based on primary cells derived from multiple…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Plant-derived active compounds as a potential nucleocapsid protein inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2: an <em>in-silico</em> study</strong> - The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by SARS-CoV-2. This virus has a high mismatch repair proofreading ability due to its unique exonuclease activity, making it knotty to treat. The nucleocapsid protein can serve as a potential antiviral drug target, as this protein is responsible for multiple captious functions during the viral life cycle. Herein, we have investigated the potential to repurpose active antiviral compounds of plant origins for treating the SARS-CoV-2 infection. In…</p></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using <em>Anoectochilus elatus</em>, and their biomedical applications</strong> - Zinc and its derivatives requirement increased to enhance human immunity against the different pandemics, including covid-19. Green synthesis is an emerging field of research. Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have been prepared from Anoectochilus elatus and characterized using absorption, vibrational and electron microscope analysis. They were carried for antibacterial, inflammatory control tendency, and potential antioxidant activities. The brine shrimp lethal assay tested the biologically…</p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
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