Dr. Boarhead’s Summary of Global Updates on the 2019 Novel Coronavirus: 22nd November 2020
1.
Tumori Journal
:
Researchers investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies in blood samples of 959 asymptomatic individuals enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening trial between Sep. 2019 and Mar. 2020 to track the date of onset, frequency, and temporal and geographic variations across the Italian regions. SARS-CoV-2 RBD-specific antibodies were detected in 111 individuals, starting from Sep. 2019 (14%), with a cluster of positive cases (>30%) in the second week of Feb. 2020 and the highest number (53.2%) in Lombardy.
<11 Nov.>
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SARS-CoV-2 antibodies have been detected unexpectedly in pre-pandemic Italy.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0300891620974755
2. medRxiv:
Scientists conducted a longitudinal study of sera from 308 RT-qPCR+ individuals with mild disease. They performed two anti-S and one anti-N serology assays and quantified neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). In the first month (M1), males >50 years of age or with a BMI >25 exhibited higher levels of antibodies. Antibody levels decreased over time. During M3–6, anti-S antibodies persisted in 99% of individuals while anti-N IgGs were measurable in only 59% of individuals. The decline in anti-S and NAbs was faster in males than in females.
<15 Nov.>
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Men may have more transient SARS-CoV-2 immunity than women.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.12.20230466v1
3. Business Wire:
Moderna announced that the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the phase 3 study of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19, informed the company that the trial had met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5%. The majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity. Grade 3 (severe) events greater than or equal to 2% in frequency after the first dose included injection site pain (2.7%) and included after the second dose fatigue (9.7%), myalgia (8.9%), arthralgia (5.2%), headache (4.5%), pain (4.1%), and erythema/redness at the injection site (2.0%).
<16 Nov.>
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mRNA-1273 is 94.5% effective with low rates of adverse events.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201116005608/en/Moderna%E2%80%99s-COVID-19-Vaccine-Candidate-Meets-its-Primary-Efficacy-Endpoint-in-the-First-Interim-Analysis-of-the-Phase-3-COVE-Study
4.
Cell
:
A liquid crystal-based diagnostic kit and a smartphone-based application have been designed to enable automatic detection of SARS-CoV-2 single-stranded RNA, which could be used for reliable self-test of SARS-CoV-2 at home without the need for complex equipment or procedures.
<16 Nov.>
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A new diagnostic kit may enable people to conduct SARS-CoV-2 tests at home.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-physical-science/fulltext/S2666-3864(20)30298-8
5.
Nature
:
The impact of 6,068 hierarchically coded non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) implemented in 79 territories was quantified on the effective reproduction number (Rt) of COVID-19. The results indicate that a suitable combination of NPIs is necessary to curb the spread of the virus. Less disruptive NPIs (e.g., risk-communication activities to inform and educate the public and government assistance to vulnerable populations) can be as effective as more intrusive, drastic ones (e.g., national lockdown).
<16 Nov.>
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Less disruptive measures are as effective as intrusive ones.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01009-0
6.
Lancet
:
In a phase 2 clinical trial of CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine candidate against COVID-19, healthy adults aged 18–59 years were recruited from Suining County, Jiangsu Province. The incidence of adverse reactions in day 0 and day 14 vaccination cohorts was 33% in the 3 μg group, 35% in the 6 μg group, and 22% in the placebo group. Seroconversion of neutralizing antibodies was seen for 92% in the 3 μg group, 98% in the 6 μg group, and 3% in the placebo group on day 14.
<17 Nov.>
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CoronaVac shows efficacy in a phase 2 trial.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30843-4/fulltext
7. Pfizer:
After conducting the final efficacy analysis in the ongoing phase 3 study, the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, met all of the study’s primary efficacy endpoints. Analysis of the data indicated a vaccine efficacy rate of 95% in participants without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Efficacy was consistent across age, gender, race, and ethnicity demographics. The observed efficacy in adults >65 years of age was over 94%.
<18 Nov.>
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BNT162b2 is 95% effective in preventing infections, even in older adults.
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine
8.
Lancet
:
560 participants were randomized and assigned to either intramuscular ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 or the control vaccine, MenACWY. Local and systemic reactions were more common in participants given ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 than in those given MenACWY and similar in nature to those previously reported (injection-site pain, feverish feeling, muscle ache, headache), but they were less common in old adults (≥56 years of age) than in younger ones.
<18 Nov.>
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ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 appears to be better tolerated in the elderly.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32466-1/fulltext
9.
Nature
:
RNA-sequencing analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells, single-cell bioinformatics analysis, and immunohistochemistry of lung autopsy samples revealed that myelomonocytic cells and endothelial cells expressed high levels of PTX3 in COVID-19 patients. Increased plasma concentrations of PTX3 were detected in the patients. PTX3 emerged as a strong independent predictor of 28-day mortality in multivariable analysis, better than conventional markers of inflammation in hospitalized patients.
<18 Nov.>
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PTX3 can serve as a strong COVID-19 marker, esp. in indicating mortality within 28 days.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-020-00832-x
10.
Nature
:
In a study, 26 (81%) of 31 COVID-19 patients had alterations in their heart rate, number of daily steps, or time asleep. Of the 25 cases with detected physiological alterations, 22 were detected before or at symptom onset, with four cases detected at least nine days earlier. With the use of retrospective smartwatch data, 63% of the cases could have been detected before symptom onset in real time via a two-tiered warning system based on the occurrence of extreme elevations in the resting heart rate.
<18 Nov.>
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Activity tracking and heart monitoring may be used for real-time detection.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-020-00640-6
11.
Nature
:
A deep learning algorithm trained with data from 1,170 patients and 19,685 manually labelled CT slices was built to predict COVID-19 morbidity outcomes (defined as the mild or regular form and the severe or critically ill form) and mortality outcomes. An independent validation cohort of 351 patients was used to evaluate this engineering framework of hybrid learning for unbiased prediction of COVID-19 patients. For predicting morbidity outcomes, different types of cases could be clearly distinguished. The deceased and cured cases could also be accurately separated.
<18 Nov.>
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A deep learning algorithm can be used to separate COVID-19 cases by severity.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-020-00633-5
This is issue forty-seven
, edited on the basis of information from the official websites including but not limited to those of
The World Health Organization,
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control,
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States of America, &
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy of the University of Minnesota
and from the forums of FluTrackers.com.
This issue is edited by Alex Sun, Fred Wong, Dorothy Fang, and Dora Zhang under the supervision of Dr. Jason Chu and Conch Zhang.
2020 © The Chung Kwong Wui
