Covid19-Sources

Evidence is growing there are changes to your immune system that may put you at risk of other infectious diseases.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is associated with mortality in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, however, its incidence, geographic distribution, and temporal trends since the start of the pandemic are understudied. Methods: Electronic health record data were obtained from 53 health systems in the United States (US) in the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C). We selected hospitalized adults diagnosed with COVID-19 between March 6th, 2020, and January 6th, 2022. AKI was determined with serum creatinine (SCr) and diagnosis codes. Time were divided into 16-weeks (P1-6) periods and geographical regions into Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. Multivariable models were used to analyze the risk factors for AKI or mortality. Results: Out of a total cohort of 306,061, 126,478 (41.0 %) patients had AKI. Among these, 17.9% lacked a diagnosis code but had AKI based on the change in SCr. Similar to patients coded for AKI, these patients had higher mortality compared to those without AKI. The incidence of AKI was highest in P1 (49.3%), reduced in P2 (40.6%), and relatively stable thereafter. Compared to the Midwest, the Northeast, South, and West had higher adjusted AKI incidence in P1, subsequently, the South and West regions continued to have the highest relative incidence. In multivariable models, AKI defined by either SCr or diagnostic code, and the severity of AKI was associated with mortality. Conclusions: Uncoded cases of COVID-19-associated AKI are common and associated with mortality. The incidence and distribution of COVID-19-associated AKI have changed since the first wave of the pandemic in the US.

India’s national COVID death totals remain undetermined. Using an independent nationally representative survey of 0.14 million (M) adults, we compared COVID mortality during the 2020 and 2021 viral waves to expected all-cause mortality. COVID constituted 29% (95% confidence interval, 28 to 31%) of deaths from June 2020 to July 2021, corresponding to 3.2 M (3.1 to 3.4) deaths, of which 2.7 M (2.6 to 2.9) occurred in April to July 2021 (when COVID doubled all-cause mortality). A subsurvey of 57,000 adults showed similar temporal increases in mortality, with COVID and non-COVID deaths peaking similarly. Two government data sources found that, when compared to prepandemic periods, all-cause mortality was 27% (23 to 32%) higher in 0.2 M health facilities and 26% (21 to 31%) higher in civil registration deaths in 10 states; both increases occurred mostly in 2021. The analyses find that India’s cumulative COVID deaths by September 2021 were six to seven times higher than reported officially.

Peer-reviewed finding is ‘the cherry on top’ for vaccines, which have already been shown to reduce infection and lower seriousness of illness, says researcher

Background: Emerging evidence suggests that worldwide, between 30% and 50% of those who are infected with COVID-19 experience long COVID (LC) symptoms. These symptoms create...

Eine aktuelle Auswertung des Wissenschaftlichen Instituts der AOK (WIdO) zeigt, dass seit Pandemiebeginn mehr als jeder Fünfte durchgängig erwerbstätige AOK-Versicherte im Zusammenhang mit einer akuten COVID-19-Erkankung ausgefallen ist. In der Folge waren 3,8 Prozent dieser Personen aufgrund einer Long-COVID- oder Post-COVID-Symptomatik arbeitsunfähig. Das entspricht etwa 0,9 Prozent aller erwerbstätigen AOK-Versicherten. Während eine akute COVID-19-Infektion mit durchschnittlich 9,5 krankheitsbedingten beruflichen Ausfalltagen verbunden war, sind es bei Beschäftigten mit einer anschließenden Long-COVID- oder Post-COVID-Symptomatik fast sieben Wochen. Detaillierte Auswertungen zeigen große Unterschiede hinsichtlich der verschiedenen Virusvarianten. So waren in der jüngsten, seit Frühjahr 2022 durch die Omikron-Variante geprägten Krankheitswelle nur 2,1 Prozent der Beschäftigten wegen Long-COVID oder Post-COVID krankgeschrieben, während es beim Vorherrschen der Delta-Variante noch 6,3 Prozent waren. „Damit gibt es aktuell zwar ein geringeres Risiko für eine mögliche anschließende Long-COVID bzw. Post-COVID-Symptomatik. Die erkrankten Beschäftigten waren aber auch in der Omikron-Welle noch schwer beeinträchtigt und fehlten durchschnittlich mehr als fünf Wochen am Arbeitsplatz. Da aktuell nur wenig über die COVID-bedingten Langzeitfolgen bekannt ist, sollte weiterhin gelten, sich und andere bestmöglich vor einer COVID-19-Infektion zu schützen“, so Helmut Schröder, stellvertretender Geschäftsführer des WIdO.

Full-term infants born to mothers with SARS-CoV-2 infection may be at increased risk for neurodevelopmental delays at 16 to 18 months of life. Infants born to the mothers with mild symptoms had no differences in outcomes during developmental screening than those born to asymptomatic mothers wi...

Group O has shown a consistent relationship with PCS, characterised by a more intense inflammatory burden than the other blood groups. Blood group O could be part of the immunological link between acute COVID-19 and PCS.

The results of the present study suggest that while the blood group A might have a role in increased susceptibility to the COVID-19 infection, the blood group O might be somewhat protective. However, once infected, blood group type does not seem to influence clinical outcome.

COVID-19 is being extensively studied, and much remains unknown regarding the long-term consequences of the disease on immune cells. The different arms of the immune system are interlinked, with humoral responses and the production of high-affinity antibodies being largely dependent on T cell immunity. Here, we longitudinally explored the effect COVID-19 has on T cell populations and the virus-specific T cells, as well as neutralizing antibody responses, for 6-7 months following hospitalization. The CD8+ TEMRA and exhausted CD57+ CD8+ T cells were markedly affected with elevated levels that lasted long into convalescence. Further, markers associated with T cell activation were upregulated at inclusion, and in the case of CD69+ CD4+ T cells this lasted all through the study duration. The levels of T cells expressing negative immune checkpoint molecules were increased in COVID-19 patients and sustained for a prolonged duration following recovery. Within 2-3 weeks after symptom onset, all COVID-19 patients developed anti-nucleocapsid IgG and spike-neutralizing IgG as well as SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses. In addition, we found alterations in follicular T helper (TFH) cell populations, such as enhanced TFH-TH2 following recovery from COVID-19. Our study revealed significant and long-term alterations in T cell populations and key events associated with COVID-19 pathogenesis.

The immune cells of patients who received hospital care for COVID-19 early in the pandemic were still affected six months later, shows a study conducted by researchers at Linköping University.

Survey indicates that getting reinfected worsens symptoms of Long COVID or triggers a recurrence of symptoms in people who have recovered.

Correspondence from The New England Journal of Medicine — Duration of Shedding of Culturable Virus in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) Infection

As of May 31, 2022, there were 6·9 million reported deaths and 17·2 million estimated deaths from COVID-19, as reported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; throughout the report, we rely on IHME estimates of infections and deaths; note that the IHME gives an estimated range, and we refer to the mean estimate). This staggering death toll is both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels. Too many governments have failed to adhere to basic norms of institutional rationality and transparency, too many people—often influenced by misinformation—have disrespected and protested against basic public health precautions, and the world's major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic.

npj Vaccines - Association between BNT162b2 vaccination and reported incidence of post-COVID-19 symptoms: cross-sectional study 2020-21, Israel

Abstract. We investigated Long Covid incidence by vaccination status in a random sample of UK adults from April 2020 to November 2021. Persistent symptoms were

The B.1.1.529 (omicron) variant has rapidly supplanted most other SARS-CoV-2 variants. Using microfluidics-based antibody affinity profiling (MAAP), w…

Schränkt das Tragen einer Maske die Leistungsfähigkeit ein? Sind wir schneller erschöpft, wenn wir bei sportlicher Aktivität eine Maske tragen?

Ten times (10x) as many children have died from COVID in 2022 than died from influenzaSo far pic.twitter.com/z6UvOsNNsc— Gregory Travis (@greg_travis) September 6, 2022

In 2020, prior to COVID-19 vaccine rollout, the Brighton Collaboration created a priority list, endorsed by the World Health Organization, of potential adverse events relevant to COVID-19 vaccines. We adapted the Brighton Collaboration list to evaluate ...

Mast cells are immune cells of the myeloid lineage and are present in connective tissues throughout the body. The activation and degranulation of mast cells significantly modu- lates many aspects of physiological and pathological conditions in various settings. With respect to normal physiological functions, mast cells are known to regulate vasodilation, vascular homeostasis, innate and adaptive immune responses, angiogenesis, and venom detoxification. On the other hand, mast cells have also been implicated in the pathophysiology of many diseases, including allergy, asthma, anaphylaxis, gastrointes- tinal disorders, many types of malignancies, and cardiovascular diseases. This review summarizes the current understanding of the role of mast cells in many pathophysiolog- ical conditions.

There is strong evidence of brain-related abnormalities in COVID-191–13 . However, it remains unknown whether the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection can be detected in milder cases, and whether this can reveal possible mechanisms contributing to brain pathology. Here we investigated brain changes in 785 participants of UK Biobank (aged 51–81 years) who were imaged twice using magnetic resonance imaging, including 401 cases who tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 between their two scans—with 141 days on average separating their diagnosis and the second scan— as well as 384 controls. The availability of pre-infection imaging data reduces the likelihood of pre-existing risk factors being misinterpreted as disease effects. We identified significant longitudinal effects when comparing the two groups, including (1) a greater reduction in grey matter thickness and tissue contrast in the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus; (2) greater changes in markers of tissue damage in regions that are functionally connected to the primary olfactory cortex; and (3) a greater reduction in global brain size in the SARS-CoV-2 cases. The participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 also showed on average a greater cognitive decline between the two time points. Importantly, these imaging and cognitive longitudinal effects were still observed after excluding the 15 patients who had been hospitalised. These mainly limbic brain imaging results may be the in vivo hallmarks of a degenerative spread of the disease through olfactory pathways, of neuroinflammatory events, or of the loss of sensory input due to anosmia. Whether this deleterious effect can be partially reversed, or whether these effects will persist in the long term, remains to be investigated with additional follow-up.

The ability of serum antibody to protect against pathogens arises from the interplay of antigen-specific B cell clones of different affinities and fine specificities. These cellular dynamics are ultimately responsible for serum-level phenomena such as antibody imprinting or “Original Antigenic Sin” (OAS), a proposed propensity of the immune system to rely repeatedly on the first cohort of B cells that responded to a stimulus upon exposure to related antigens. Imprinting/OAS is thought to pose a barrier to vaccination against rapidly evolving viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Precise measurement of the extent to which imprinting/OAS inhibits the recruitment of new B cell clones by boosting is challenging because cellular and temporal origins cannot readily be assigned to antibodies in circulation. Thus, the extent to which imprinting/OAS impacts the induction of new responses in various settings remains unclear. To address this, we developed a “molecular fate-mapping” approach in which serum antibodies derived from specific cohorts of B cells can be differentially detected. We show that, upon sequential homologous boosting, the serum antibody response strongly favors reuse of the first cohort of B cell clones over the recruitment of new, naÏve-derived B cells. This “primary addiction” decreases as a function of antigenic distance, allowing secondary immunization with divergent influenza virus or SARS-CoV-2 glycoproteins to overcome imprinting/OAS by targeting novel epitopes absent from the priming variant. Our findings have implications for the understanding of imprinting/OAS, and for the design and testing of vaccines aimed at eliciting antibodies to evolving antigens. ### Competing Interest Statement N.P. is named on a patent describing the use of nucleoside-modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles as a vaccine platform. He has disclosed those interests fully to the University of Pennsylvania and has an approved plan in place for managing any potential conflicts arising from the licensing of that patent. Paulo J.C. Lin and Ying K. Tam are employees of Acuitas Therapeutics, a company involved in the development of mRNA-LNP therapeutics. Ying K. Tam is named on patents that describe lipid nanoparticles for the delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics, including mRNA, and the use of modified mRNA in lipid nanoparticles as a vaccine platform. J.D.B. consults or has recently consulted for Apriori Bio, Oncorus, Merck, and Moderna on topics related to viruses, vaccines, and viral evolution. J.D.B, T.N.S., and A.J.G. are inventors on Fred Hutch licensed patents related to viral deep mutational scanning. P.D.B. has done consulting work in the area of COVID vaccines for Pfizer Inc..

The COVID-19 pandemic goes into its third year and the world population is longing for an end to the pandemic. Computer simulations of the future development of the pandemic have wide error margins and predictions on the evolution of new viral variants of SARS-CoV-2 are uncertain. It is thus tempting to look into the development of historical viral respiratory pandemics for insight into the dynamic of pandemics. The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 caused by the influenza virus H1N1 can here serve as a potential model case. Epidemiological observations on the shift of influenza mortality from very young and old subjects to high mortality in young adults delimitate the pandemic phase of the Spanish flu from 1918 to 1920. The identification and sequencing of the Spanish flu agent allowed following the H1N1 influenza virus after the acute pandemic phase. During the 1920s H1N1 influenza virus epidemics with substantial mortality were still observed. As late as 1951, H1N1 strains of high virulence evolved but remained geographically limited. Until 1957, the H1N1 virus evolved by accumulation of mutations (‘antigenic drift’) and some intratypic reassortment. H1N1 viruses were then replaced by the pandemic H2N2 influenza virus from 1957, which was in 1968 replaced by the pandemic H3N2 influenza virus; both viruses were descendants from the Spanish flu agent but showed the exchange of entire gene segments (‘antigenic shift’). In 1977, H1N1 reappeared from an unknown source but caused only mild disease. However, H1N1 achieved again circulation in the human population and is now together with the H3N2 influenza virus an agent of seasonal influenza winter epidemics.

Nature Medicine - In individuals with long-term cardiac symptoms after an initially mild course of COVID-19 illness, magnetic resonance imaging and measurement of cardiac injury biomarkers commonly...

The virus is mutating in new ways. Here’s what to expect.

A proportion of COVID-19 reconvalescent patients develop post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) including a subgroup fulfilling diagnostic criteria of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (PCS/CFS). Recently, endothelial dysfunction (ED) has been ...

The deeper science of a hidden challenge we may all be facing.