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<title>03 November, 2021</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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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-preprints">From Preprints</h1>
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<li><strong>Glycan-masking spike antigen in NTD and RBD elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants</strong> -
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Glycan-masking the vaccine antigen by mutating the undesired antigenic sites with an additional N-linked glycosylation motif can refocus B-cell responses to desired/undesired epitopes, without affecting the antigen overall- folded structure. This study examine the impact of glycan-masking mutants of the N-terminal domain (NTD) and receptor- binding domain (RBD) of SARS-CoV-2, and found that the antigenic design of the S protein increases the neutralizing antibody titers against the Wuhan-Hu-1 ancestral strain and the recently emerged SARS-CoV-2 variants Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), and Delta (B.1.617.2). Our results demonstrated that the use of glycan-masking Ad-S-R158N-Y160T in the NTD elicited a 2.8-fold, 6.5-fold, and 4.6-fold increase in the IC-50 NT titer against the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants, respectively. Glycan-masking of Ad-S-D428N in the RBD resulted in a 3.0-fold and 2.0-fold increase in the IC50 neutralization titer against the Alpha (B.1.1.7) and Beta (B.1.351) variants, respectively. The use of glycan-masking in Ad-S-R158N-Y160T and Ad-S-D428N antigen design may help develop universal COVID-19 vaccines against current and future emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.466834v1" target="_blank">Glycan- masking spike antigen in NTD and RBD elicits broadly neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants</a>
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</div></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Germinal centre-driven maturation of B cell response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</strong> -
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Germinal centres (GC) are lymphoid structures where vaccine-responding B cells acquire affinity-enhancing somatic hypermutations (SHM), with surviving clones differentiating into memory B cells (MBCs) and long-lived bone marrow plasma cells (BMPCs). Induction of the latter is a hallmark of durable immunity after vaccination. SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination induces a robust GC response in humans, but the maturation dynamics of GC B cells and propagation of their progeny throughout the B cell diaspora have not been elucidated. Here we show that anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike (S)-binding GC B cells were detectable in draining lymph nodes for at least six months in 10 out of 15 individuals who had received two doses of BNT162b2, a SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. Six months after vaccination, circulating S-binding MBCs were detected in all participants (n=42) and S-specific IgG-secreting BMPCs were detected in 9 out of 11 participants. Using a combined approach of single-cell RNA sequencing of responding blood and lymph node B cells from eight participants and expression of the corresponding monoclonal antibodies, we tracked the evolution of 1540 S-specific B cell clones. SHM accumulated along the B cell differentiation trajectory, with early blood plasmablasts showing the lowest frequencies, followed by MBCs and lymph node plasma cells whose SHM largely overlapped with GC B cells. By three months after vaccination, the frequency of SHM within GC B cells had doubled. Strikingly, S+ BMPCs detected six months after vaccination accumulated the highest level of SHM, corresponding with significantly enhanced anti-S polyclonal antibody avidity in blood at that time point. This study documents the induction of affinity-matured BMPCs after two doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination in humans, providing a foundation for the sustained high efficacy observed with these vaccines.
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</div></li>
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</ul>
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.31.466651v1" target="_blank">Germinal centre-driven maturation of B cell response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination</a>
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</div>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on protected area management and conservation outcomes in Mexico</strong> -
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Protected areas (PAs) are under immense pressure to safeguard much of the world’s remaining biodiversity and can be strained by unpredicted events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the extent of the pandemic on PA inputs, mechanisms, and conservation outcomes is critical for recovery and future planning to buffer against these types of events. We use survey and focus group data to quantify the impact of the pandemic on Mexico’s PA network and outline the pathways that led to conservation outcomes. On average, across 62 PAs, we find substantial changes in management capacity, monitoring, and tourism, and a slight increase in non-compliant activities. Our findings highlight the need to increase short-term relief efforts and long-term livelihood diversification initiatives for communities dependent on tourism, who were most vulnerable during the pandemic. Increased management support, including technical capacity and financial resources, could also better sustain management activities in future shocks.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://ecoevorxiv.org/vcs6r/" target="_blank">Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on protected area management and conservation outcomes in Mexico</a>
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</div></li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Informative Were Early SARS-CoV-2 Treatment and Prevention Trials? A longitudinal cohort analysis of trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov</strong> -
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<b>Background</b> Early in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, commentators warned that some COVID trials were inadequately conceived, designed and reported. Here, we retrospectively assess the prevalence of informative COVID trials launched in the first 6 months of the pandemic. <b>Methods</b> We created a cohort of SARS-CoV-2 treatment and prevention efficacy trials that were initiated from 2020-01-01 to 2020-06-30 using ClinicalTrials.gov registration records. We evaluated trials on 3 criteria of informativeness: potential redundancy, design quality and feasibility of patient- participant recruitment. The study protocol was prospectively registered with the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/fp726/). <b>Results</b> We included 500 trials in our cohort, 58% of which were Phase 2 and 84.8% were directed towards the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. Close to one third of trials met all three criteria and were deemed informative (29.9% (95% Confidence Interval 23.7-36.9)). The proportion of potentially redundant trials in our cohort was 4.1%. Over half of the trials in our cohort (56.2%) did not meet our criteria for high quality trial design. The proportion of trials with infeasible patient-participant recruitment was 22.6%. <b>Conclusions</b> Less than one third of COVID-19 trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov during the first six months met all three criteria for informativeness. Shortcomings in trial design, recruitment feasibility and redundancy reflect longstanding weaknesses in the clinical research enterprise that were likely amplified by the exceptional circumstances of a pandemic.
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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/10.1101/2021.08.25.21262155v2" target="_blank">How Informative Were Early SARS- CoV-2 Treatment and Prevention Trials? A longitudinal cohort analysis of trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov</a>
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</div>
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<li><strong>The Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA): Development of a New Adapted Assessment Measure for Remote Telehealth Administration through COVID-19 and Beyond</strong> -
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Interest in telehealth assessment for autism has increased due to COVID-19 and subsequent expansion of remote psychological services, though options that are easy for clinicians to adopt and available through the lifespan are limited. The Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA) provides a social context with standardized materials and activities that can be coded by clinicians trained in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). The current project examined psychometric properties to determine optimal use for each BOSA version. Three hundred and seven participants with 453 BOSAs were included to determine best performing items for algorithms, validity, sensitivity, specificity, recommended cut-offs, and proposed ranges of concern. While preliminary, the BOSA provides a promising new option for telehealth-administered assessment for autism.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265761v1" target="_blank">The Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA): Development of a New Adapted Assessment Measure for Remote Telehealth Administration through COVID-19 and Beyond</a>
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<li><strong>Using portable air purifiers to reduce airborne transmission of infectious respiratory viruses - a computational fluid dynamics study</strong> -
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Aerosols and droplets generated from expiratory events play a critical role in the transmission of infectious respiratory viruses. Increasingly robust evidence has suggested the crucial role of fine aerosols in airborne transmission of respiratory diseases, which is now widely regarded as an important transmission path of COVID-19. In this report, we used CFD modelling to investigate the efficiency of using portable air purifiers containing HEPA filters to reduce airborne aerosols in hospitals and serve as a potential retrofit mitigation strategy. We used a consulting room to set up our simulations because currently the clearance time between consultations is the controlling factor that limits the patient turnover rate. The results suggest the inlet/suction of the air purifier unit should be lifted above the floor to achieve better clearance efficiency, with up to 40% improvement possible. If multiple air purifiers are used, the combined efficiency can increase to 62%. This work provides practical guidance on a mitigation strategy that can be easily implemented in an expedient, cost-effective and rapid manner, and paves the way for developing more science-informed strategies to mitigate the airborne transmission of respiratory infections in hospitals.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265775v1" target="_blank">Using portable air purifiers to reduce airborne transmission of infectious respiratory viruses - a computational fluid dynamics study</a>
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</div></li>
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<li><strong>Emergence and spread of a sub-lineage of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant B.1.1.7 in Europe, and with further evolution of spike mutation accumulations shared with the Beta and Gamma variants</strong> -
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SARS-CoV-2 evolution plays a significant role in shaping the dynamics of the COVD-19 pandemic. To monitor the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants, through international collaborations, we performed genomic epidemiology analyses on a weekly basis with SARS-CoV-2 samples collected from a border region between Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic in a global background. For identified virus mutant variants, active viruses were isolated and functional evaluations were performed to test their replication fitness and neutralization sensitivity against vaccine elicited serum neutralizing antibodies. Thereby we identified a new B.1.1.7 sub-lineage carrying additional mutations of nucleoprotein G204P and open-reading-frame-8 K68stop. Of note, this B.1.1.7 sub-lineage is the predominant B.1.1.7 variant in several European countries, such as Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia. The earliest samples belonging to this sub-lineage were detected in November 2020 in a few countries in the European continent, but not in the UK. We have also detected its further evolution with extra spike mutations D138Y and A701V, which are signature mutations shared with the Beta and Gamma variants, respectively. Antibody neutralization assay of virus variant isolations has revealed that the variant with extra spike mutations is 3.2-fold less sensitive to vaccine-elicited antibodies as compared to other B.1.1.7 variants tested, indicating potential for immune evasion, but it also exhibited reduced replication fitness. The wide spread of this B.1.1.7 sub-lineage was related to the pandemic waves in early 2021 in various European countries. These findings about the emergence, spread, evolution, infection and transmission abilities of this B.1.1.7 sub-lineage add to our understanding about the pandemic development in Europe, and could possibly help to prevent similar scenarios in future.
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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/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265749v1" target="_blank">Emergence and spread of a sub- lineage of SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant B.1.1.7 in Europe, and with further evolution of spike mutation accumulations shared with the Beta and Gamma variants</a>
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<li><strong>Internet Addiction, Leisure Boredom and Relationship Satisfaction Among Young Adults</strong> -
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In the 21st century, where every other individual has access to the Internet, the chances of spending too much time surfing it becomes higher. In recent times, the Covid-19 virus has taken a toll on our mental health, and the Internet has become our only source of communication with the outside world. Through the present study, we aimed at understanding the relationship between internet addiction and leisure time and how it impacts our social relationships. Three scales were used to form a survey questionnaire that assessed respective aspects. The sample consisted of 120 participants (60 males and 60 females), and the data was collected using the Snowball Sampling technique. Internet addiction affects our mental health and can result in physical problems like problems in vision, headaches, weight gain/weight loss, and body aches. In contrast, mental issues like depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal can also take place. The research would further find and analyze more aspects where Internet Addiction plays a role.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://osf.io/n8raq/" target="_blank">Internet Addiction, Leisure Boredom and Relationship Satisfaction Among Young Adults</a>
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<li><strong>Examining the Unit Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery in Kenya</strong> -
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Background: Vaccines are considered the path out of the COVID-19 pandemic. The government of Kenya is implementing a phased strategy to vaccinate the Kenyan population, initially targeting populations at high risk of severe disease and infection. We estimated the financial and economic unit costs of procuring and delivering the COVID-19 vaccine in Kenya across various vaccination strategies. Methods: We used an activity-based costing approach to estimate the incremental costs of COVID-19 vaccine delivery, from a health systems perspective. Document reviews and key informant interviews (n=12) with stakeholders involved in the vaccine delivery and administration at a national level and in two counties were done to inform the activities, assumptions and the resources required. Unit prices were derived from document reviews or from market prices. Both financial and economic vaccine procurement costs per person vaccinated with two doses, and the vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with two doses were estimated and reported in 2021 USD. Results: The financial costs of vaccine procurement per person vaccinated with two doses ranged from $2.89 to $13.09 in the 30% and 100% coverage levels respectively. The economic costs of vaccine procurement per person vaccinated with two doses was $17.34 across all strategies. With regard to unit vaccine delivery costs per person vaccinated with two doses, the financial costs ranged from $4.28 to $3.29 in the 30% and 100% coverage strategies: While the economic delivery costs were two to three times higher than the financial costs. The total procurement and delivery costs per person vaccinated with 2-doses ranged from $7.34 to $16.47 for the financial costs and $29.7 to $24.68 for the economic costs for the 30% and 100% coverage respectively. With the exception of procurement costs, the main cost driver of financial and economic delivery costs was supply chain costs (47-59%) and advocacy, communication and social mobilization (29-35%) respectively. Conclusion: This analysis presents cost estimates that can be used to inform local policy and may further inform parameters used in cost-effectiveness models. The results could potentially be adapted and adjusted to country-specific assumptions to enhance applicability in similar low-and middle-income settings.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265742v1" target="_blank">Examining the Unit Costs of COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery in Kenya</a>
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<li><strong>Estimating the relationship between mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and COVID-19 transmission in Ghana</strong> -
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Governments around the world have implemented non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), e.g. physical distancing and travel restrictions, to limit the transmission of COVID-19. While lockdowns and physical distancing have proven effective for reducing COVID-19 transmission, there is still limited understanding of the degree to which these interventions impact disease transmission, and how they are reflected in measures of human behaviour. Further, there is a lack of understanding about how new sources of data can be used to monitor NPIs, where these data have the potential to augment existing disease surveillance and modelling efforts. In this study, we assess the relationship between indicators of human mobility, NPIs, and estimates of Rt, a real-time measure of the intensity of COVID-19 transmission in subnational districts of Ghana using a multilevel generalised linear mixed model. We demonstrate a relationship between reductions in human mobility and decreases in Rt during the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic in Ghana, and show how reductions in human mobility relate to increasing stringency of NPIs. We demonstrate the utility of combining local disease surveillance data with large scale human mobility data to augment existing surveillance capacity to estimate and monitor the effect of NPI policies.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265660v1" target="_blank">Estimating the relationship between mobility, non-pharmaceutical interventions, and COVID-19 transmission in Ghana</a>
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<li><strong>Highly-Sensitive Lineage Discrimination of SARS-CoV-2 Variants through Allele-Specific Probe Polymerase Chain Reaction</strong> -
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Introduction: Tools to detect SARS-Coronavirus-2 variants of concern and track the ongoing evolution of the virus are necessary to support ongoing public health efforts and the design and evaluation of novel COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines. Although next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been adopted as the gold standard method for discriminating SARS-CoV-2 lineages, alternative methods may be required when processing samples with low viral loads or low RNA quality. Methods: An allele-specific probe polymerase chain reaction (ASP-PCR) targeting lineage-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was developed and used to screen 1,082 samples from two clinical trials in the United Kingdom and Brazil. Probit regression models were developed to compare ASP-PCR performance against 1,771 NGS results for the same cohorts. Results: Individual SNPs were shown to readily identify specific variants of concern. ASP-PCR was shown to discriminate SARS-CoV-2 lineages with a higher likelihood than NGS over a wide range of viral loads. Comparative advantage for ASP-PCR over NGS was most pronounced in samples with Ct values between 26-30 and in samples that showed evidence of degradation. Results for samples screened by ASP-PCR and NGS showed 99% concordant results. Discussion: ASP-PCR is well-suited to augment but not replace NGS. The method can differentiate SARS-COV-2 lineages with high accuracy and would be best deployed to screen samples with lower viral loads or that may suffer from degradation. Future work should investigate further destabilization from primer:target base mismatch through altered oligonucleotide chemistry or chemical additives.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265384v1" target="_blank">Highly-Sensitive Lineage Discrimination of SARS-CoV-2 Variants through Allele-Specific Probe Polymerase Chain Reaction</a>
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<li><strong>Factors driving extensive spatial and temporal fluctuations in COVID-19 fatality rates in Brazilian hospitals</strong> -
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The SARS-CoV-2 Gamma variant spread rapidly across Brazil, causing substantial infection and death waves. We use individual-level patient records following hospitalisation with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to document the extensive shocks in hospital fatality rates that followed Gamma9s spread across 14 state capitals, and in which more than half of hospitalised patients died over sustained time periods. We show that extensive fluctuations in COVID-19 in- hospital fatality rates also existed prior to Gamma9s detection, and were largely transient after Gamma9s detection, subsiding with hospital demand. Using a Bayesian fatality rate model, we find that the geographic and temporal fluctuations in Brazil9s COVID-19 in-hospital fatality rates are primarily associated with geographic inequities and shortages in healthcare capacity. We project that approximately half of Brazil9s COVID-19 deaths in hospitals could have been avoided without pre-pandemic geographic inequities and without pandemic healthcare pressure. Our results suggest that investments in healthcare resources, healthcare optimization, and pandemic preparedness are critical to minimize population wide mortality and morbidity caused by highly transmissible and deadly pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265731v1" target="_blank">Factors driving extensive spatial and temporal fluctuations in COVID-19 fatality rates in Brazilian hospitals</a>
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<li><strong>The UK COVID-19 furlough scheme and associations with smoking, alcohol consumption and vaping: evidence from 8 UK longitudinal population surveys.</strong> -
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Background: Disruptions to employment status can impact smoking and alcohol consumption. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK implemented a furlough scheme to prevent job loss. We examine how furlough was associated with participants smoking, vaping and alcohol consumption behaviours in the early stages of the pandemic. Methods: Data were from 27,841 participants in eight UK adult longitudinal surveys. Participants self-reported employment status and current smoking, current vaping and drinking alcohol (>4 days/week or 5+ drinks per typical occasion) both before and during the pandemic (April-July 2020). Risk ratios were estimated within each study using modified Poisson regression, adjusting for a range of potential confounders, including pre-pandemic behaviour. Findings were synthesised using random effects meta-analysis. Sub-group analyses were used to identify whether associations differed by gender, age or education. Results: Compared to stable employment, neither furlough, no longer being employed, nor stable unemployment were associated with smoking, vaping or drinking, following adjustment for pre-pandemic characteristics. However, some sex differences in these associations were observed, with stable unemployment associated with smoking for women (ARR=1.35; 95% CI: 1.00-1.82; I2: 47%) but not men (0.84; 95% CI: 0.67-1.05; I2: 0%). No longer being employed was associated with vaping among women (ARR=2.74; 95% CI: 1.59-4.72; I2: 0%) but not men (ARR=1.25; 95% CI: 0.83-1.87; I2: 0%). There was little indication of associations with drinking differing by age, gender or education. Conclusions: We found no clear evidence of furlough or unemployment having adverse impacts on smoking, vaping or drinking behaviours during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, with differences in risk compared to those who remained employed largely explained by pre-pandemic characteristics.
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.28.21265593v1" target="_blank">The UK COVID-19 furlough scheme and associations with smoking, alcohol consumption and vaping: evidence from 8 UK longitudinal population surveys.</a>
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<li><strong>Effectiveness, Explainability and Reliability of Machine Meta-Learning Methods for Predicting Mortality in Patients with COVID-19: Results of the Brazilian COVID-19 Registry</strong> -
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Objective: To provide a thorough comparative study among state ofthe art machine learning methods and statistical methods for determining in-hospital mortality in COVID 19 patients using data upon hospital admission; to study the reliability of the predictions of the most effective methods by correlating the probability of the outcome and the accuracy of the methods; to investigate how explainable are the predictions produced by the most effective methods. Materials and Methods: De-identified data were obtained from COVID 19 positive patients in 36 participating hospitals, from March 1 to September 30, 2020. Demographic, comorbidity, clinical presentation and laboratory data were used as training data to develop COVID 19 mortality prediction models. Multiple machine learning and traditional statistics models were trained on this prediction task using a folded cross validation procedure, from which we assessed performance and interpretability metrics. Results: The Stacking of machine learning models improved over the previous state of the art results by more than 26% in predicting the class of interest (death), achieving 87.1% of AUROC and macroF1 of 73.9%. We also show that some machine learning models can be very interpretable and reliable, yielding more accurate predictions while providing a good explanation for the why. Conclusion: The best results were obtained using the meta learning ensemble model Stacking. State of the art explainability techniques such as SHAP values can be used to draw useful insights into the patterns learned by machine-learning algorithms. Machine learning models can be more explainable than traditional statistics models while also yielding highly reliable predictions. Key words: COVID-19; prognosis; prediction model; machine learning
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🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265527v1" target="_blank">Effectiveness, Explainability and Reliability of Machine Meta-Learning Methods for Predicting Mortality in Patients with COVID-19: Results of the Brazilian COVID-19 Registry</a>
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<li><strong>Interferon pathway lupus risk alleles modulate risk of death from acute COVID-19</strong> -
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Type I interferon (IFN) is critical in our defense against viral infections. Increased type I IFN pathway activation is a genetic risk factor for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and a number of common risk alleles contribute to the high IFN trait. We hypothesized that these common gain-of-function IFN pathway alleles may be associated with protection from mortality in acute COVID-19. We studied patients admitted with acute COVID-19 (751 European-American and 398 African-American ancestry). Ancestral backgrounds were analyzed separately, and mortality after acute COVID-19 was the primary outcome. In European-American ancestry, we found that a haplotype of interferon regulatory factor 5 (IRF5) and alleles of protein kinase cGMP-dependent 1 (PRKG1) were associated with mortality from COVID-19. Interestingly, these were much stronger risk factors in younger patients (OR=29.2 for PRKG1 in ages 45-54). Variants in the IRF7 and IRF8 genes were associated with mortality from COVID-19 in African-American subjects, and these genetic effects were more pronounced in older subjects. Combining genetic information with blood biomarker data such as C-reactive protein, troponin, and D-dimer resulted in significantly improved predictive capacity, and in both ancestral backgrounds the risk genotypes were most relevant in those with positive biomarkers (OR for death between 14 and 111 in high risk genetic/biomarker groups). This study confirms the critical role of the IFN pathway in defense against COVID-19 and viral infections, and supports the idea that some common SLE risk alleles exert protective effects in anti-viral immunity.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<div class="article-link article-html-link">
|
||
🖺 Full Text HTML: <a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.01.21265766v1" target="_blank">Interferon pathway lupus risk alleles modulate risk of death from acute COVID-19</a>
|
||
</div></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-clinical-trials">From Clinical Trials</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>COVID-19 Study of Pharmacokinetics, Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Intravenous Anti-Spike(s) SARS-CoV-2 Monoclonal Antibodies (Casirivimab+Imdevimab) for the Treatment of Pediatric Patients Hospitalized Due to COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Drug: casirivimab+imdevimab<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
|
||
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Immunogenicity and Safety of Heterologous and Homologous Boosting With ChAdOx1-S and CoronaVac or a Formulation of SCB-2019 (COVID-19)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: ChAdOx1-S COVID-19 Vaccine(Fiocruz/Oxford- AstraZeneca); Biological: CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech); Biological: Adjuvanted Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 TrimericS- protein Subunit Vaccine (SCB-2019 - Clover)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: D’Or Institute for Research and Education; Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Instituto Fernandes Figueira<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Efficacy and Safety of Pyramax in Mild to Moderate COVID-19 Patients (Phase3)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Pyramax; Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: <br/>
|
||
Shin Poong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>JINZHEN for Treatment of Mild to Moderate COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: JINZHEN Granules for Oral Solution; Drug: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Lianyungang Kanion Group, Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effectiveness of Using Interactive Consulting System to Enhance Decision Aids of COVID-19 Vaccination</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Device: Chatbot<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Sun Yat- sen University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy and Safety of Apixaban in COVID-19 Coagulopathy Patients With Respiratory Severity Under Critical Care</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Drug: Apixaban<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: <br/>
|
||
Scotmann Pharmaceuticals; Rawalpindi Medical College<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hypertonic Saline Nasal Irrigation and Gargling (HSNIG) for Suspected COVID-19 in Pakistan</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Other: Hypertonic Saline Nasal Irrigation and Gargles (HSNIG)<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The Allergy and Asthma Institute, Pakistan; University of Edinburgh<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Clinical Validation of Breath Analyser Tests for Diagnosis of COVID-19.</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Intervention</b>: Diagnostic Test: Breath Sample analysis<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Tera Group<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Efficacy, Safety, and Immunogenicity Study of the Recombinant Two-component COVID-19 Vaccine (CHO Cell)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Recombinant two-component COVID-19 vaccine (CHO cell); Biological: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Jiangsu Rec-Biotechnology Co., Ltd.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<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 Safety & Immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 DNA Vaccine Delivered Intramuscularly Followed by Electroporation for COVID-19</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Covid19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: SARS-CoV-2 DNA Vaccine; Biological: Matching placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: The University of Hong Kong; Immuno Cure 3 Limited<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Phase 1 Trial of ChAd68 and Ad5 Adenovirus COVID-19 Vaccines Delivered by Aerosol</strong> - <b>Conditions</b>: COVID-19; SARS-CoV2 Infection<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Ad5-triCoV/Mac; Biological: ChAd-triCoV/Mac<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: McMaster University; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Homeopathic Treatment of Post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Post-acute Covid-19 Syndrome<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Drug: Homeopathic Medication; Other: Placebo<br/><b>Sponsors</b>: Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine; Samueli Institute for Information Biology<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Effect of PBM on Functional Capacity and Fatigability in Post Covid-19 Elderly</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Post Covid-19 Elderly<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Radiation: photobiomodulation; Other: placebo intervention by photobiomodulation device<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Cairo University<br/><b>Recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Fusion Protein Vaccine (V-01) Booster Study</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: COVID-19 Pandemic<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Biological: Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Fusion Protein Vaccine (V-01); Biological: Blank Preparation of Recombinant SARS-CoV-2 Fusion Protein Vaccine (V-01)<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
<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 Brain Stimulation Treatment for Post-acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC)</strong> - <b>Condition</b>: Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19<br/><b>Interventions</b>: Device: Active tDCS; Device: Sham tDCS<br/><b>Sponsor</b>: Massachusetts General Hospital<br/><b>Not yet recruiting</b></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-pubmed">From PubMed</h1>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-patent-search">From Patent Search</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and uses thereof I</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU339290405">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and uses thereof II</strong> - - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=AU339290406">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>휴대용 자화 육각수물 발생기</strong> - 본인의 발명은, 사람의 신체에서 육각수물 생성에는 한계가 있으며, 동맥혈관, 정맥혈관 내부 혈액은 수분이 약 90% 이며, 건강한 성인이면, 육각수 물은 약 62% 이며, COVID-19 환자, 사고의 부상, 17만개의 질병, 질환으로 조직세포가 손상되면 자기 신체수복을 위해서 육각수 물을 평소보다 많이 흡수 하면서 동반 산소부족 상태가 되며, 육각수물 보충 없이 산소 호흡기를 사용하면 심각한 후유증이 발병 할 수 있다.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">육각수물 부족 상태를 해결하기 위해서, 객관적인 과학적으로 네오디뮴(원자번호 = 60) 3.000 가우스의 자기장을 이용하여서 육각수 물을 62% ~ 80% 이상, 상시 유지 시켜주는 제조 방법이며, 휴대용으로 항시 착용 가능하다. 결론은 COVID-19, 질병, 질환의 근본적인 원인은, 육각수물 부족 상태가 되면 동반 산소 부족 상태가 되면서, 염증 -> 통증 -> 극심한 통증 -> 석회화, 섬유화, 암 까지 발병 한다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR338655754">link</a></p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>휴대용 자화 육각수물 발생기</strong> - 본인의 발명은, 사람의 신체에서 육각수 생성에는 한계가 있으며, 동맥혈관, 정맥혈관 내부 혈액은 수분이 90% 이며, 육각수물은 약 62% 이며, COVID-19, 사고 부상, 질병, 질환으로 조직세포가 손상되면 자기 신체수복을 위해서 육각수물을 평소보다 많이 흡수하면서 산소부족 상태가 되며, 육각수 보충 없이 산소호흡기를 사용하면 심각한 후유증이 발병 할 수 있다 육각수물 부족 상태를 해결하기 위해서, 객관적인 과학적으로 네오디뮴(원자번호 = 60) 3.000 가우스의 자기장을 이용하여서 육각수물을 62% ~ 80% 상시 유지 시켜주는 제조 방법이며, 휴대용으로 항시 착용 가능하다. 결론은 COVID-19, 질병, 질환의 근본적인 원인은, 육각수물 부족 상태가 되면 동반 산소 부족 상태가 되면서, 염증 -> 통증 -> 극심한 통증 -> 석회화, 섬유화, 암 까지 발병 한다. - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=KR338650904">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>用于检测新冠病毒的配对抗体及其应用</strong> - 本发明涉及一种用于检测新冠病毒的配对抗体及其应用，其包括第一检测抗体和第二检测抗体；第一检测抗体具有如SEQ ID NO:1~3所示的轻链互补决定区，以及如SEQ ID NO:4~6所示的重链互补决定区，第二检测抗体具有如SEQ ID NO:7~9所示的轻链互补决定区，以及如SEQ ID NO:10~12所示的重链互补决定区。本发明筛选得到具有上述互补决定区序列的配对抗体，其识别N蛋白的不同表位，且由于两种抗体识别的是N蛋白非核酸结合区域，不会受核酸负电荷干扰，对核酸抗原表现出了兼容性，具有较好的稳定性，同时上述配对抗体具有较高的亲和力，病毒N蛋白检测灵敏度高。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN339127990">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>抗KL-6双特异性抗体及基因、重组载体、药物、试剂盒</strong> - 本发明公开了抗KL‑6双特异性抗体或其变体、或其功能性片段，所述抗KL‑6双特异性抗体或其变体、或其功能性片段包括抗PTS域和抗SEA域，所述抗PTS域的重链可变区的CDR1、CDR2和CDR3分别具有SEQ ID NO.1~3所示的氨基酸序列。本发明还提供了基因、重组载体、药物、试剂盒。本发明的抗KL‑6双特异性抗体或其变体、或其功能性片段用于与KL‑6蛋白特异性结合，基因、重组载体用于抗KL‑6双特异性抗体的制备，药物用于治疗KL‑6蛋白引起的相关疾病，试剂盒用于KL‑6蛋白的定量检测。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN338723529">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>基于决策树模型与逻辑回归模型组合的感染筛查方法</strong> - 本发明公开了一种基于决策树模型与逻辑回归模型组合的感染筛查方法，其检测操作方便，可提高感染筛查准确性，该方法基于生命体征监护仪实现，生命体征监护仪与远程数据服务平台通信连接，远程数据服务平台依据临床数据进行感染筛查，该方法包括：通过生命体征监护仪检测获取用户临床数据，将临床数据随机划分为训练集、测试集，将训练集均分为两份：训练集A、训练集B，基于训练集A构建决策树模型，同时，对训练集A进行特征选择，将关键特征向量作为已构建的决策树模型的输入，获取新构造特征向量，基于组合特征向量，构造逻辑回归模型，基于决策树模型和逻辑回归模型组合，对测试集进行预测分类，获取分类结果。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN339127711">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>病毒中和抗体与非中和抗体联合检测方法、检测卡及应用</strong> - 一种病毒中和抗体与非中和抗体联合检测方法、检测卡及其应用，通过病毒受体结合蛋白夹心法原理检测中和抗体，其为通过提前设置病毒受体结合蛋白和能阻断中和抗体与其结合的作为配体的蛋白所形成的复合物，将靶向受体蛋白的非中和抗体提前捕获，保证后续通过夹心法检测中和抗体的特异性。解决了现有技术中中和抗体检测灵敏度低、特异性差以及不能区分中和抗体与非中和抗体的问题，提供了一种简便、快速、灵敏度高、特异性高的病毒中和抗体与非中和抗体联合检测方法、检测卡及其应用。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN338613501">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>扩增△500-532的SARS-CoV-2 Nsp1基因的引物对及其检测方法</strong> - 本发明公开了一种扩增Δ500‑532的SARS‑CoV‑2 Nsp1基因的引物对及其检测方法。引物对的具体序列如SEQ ID NO.1和SEQ ID NO.2所示，其检测方法为：采用引物对对SARS‑CoV‑2 Nsp1基因进行PCR，对PCR产物进行变性退火后，加入T7EI内切酶孵育，再进行PCR扩增，并判断是否存在Δ500‑532的SARS‑CoV‑2 Nsp1基因。本发明可简便快捷的区分出SARS‑CoV‑2 Nsp1基因突变型和野生型。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN339334235">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>多肽及其在新型冠状病毒检测中的应用</strong> - 本发明涉及生物医学领域，具体而言，涉及一种多肽及其在新型冠状病毒检测中的应用。所述多肽包括如下部分：S——Linker——N——avi‑tag。通过经过优化的刚性linker序列把S蛋白和N蛋白串联起来，使得这两个蛋白即具备相对独立的空间构象，又增加了许多优势表位，很大程度上提高了灵敏度和信号值；此外，融合蛋白引入Avi‑tag，使得重组蛋白可以通过固定的位点被固相化，降低包被过程所带来的空间位阻的影响。由此，该多肽能够达到很高的灵敏度和特异性，并且不易发生漏检。 - <a href="https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=CN339334229">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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