New coronavirus variant found in travellers from Brazil: Japan govt

 A new coronavirus variant has been detected in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazonas state, Japan’s Health Ministry said on Sunday, in the latest instance the pandemic virus is evolving.

A ministry official said studies were underway into the efficacy of vaccines against the new variant, which differs from highly-infectious variants first found in Britain and South Africa that have driven a surge in cases.

“At the moment, there is no proof showing the new variant found in those from Brazil is high in infectiousness,” Takaji Wakita, head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, told a health ministry briefing.

Of the four travellers who arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Jan. 2, a man in his forties had a problem breathing, a woman in her thirties had a headache and sore throat and a man in his teens had a fever, while a woman in her teens showed no symptoms, the health ministry said.

After seeing a steep rise in coronavirus cases, Japan declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and three prefectures neighbouring the capital on Thursday.

Nationwide cases have totalled about 289,000, with 4,061 deaths, public broadcaster NHK said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan-variant/new-coronavirus-variant-found-in-travellers-from-brazil-japan-government-idUSKBN29F08R

U.S. Needs To Step Up Covid-19 Genome Sequencing

 The United Kingdom and South Africa discovered new SARS-CoV-2 variants in their domestic Covid-19 cases. The variants were found using genome sequencing techniques that analyze the structure of the virus and discern mutations. These genome sequencing techniques were regularly used worldwide at the start of the pandemic when we knew less about the virus, but they have since fallen by the wayside. The US and other countries should follow the UK and South Africa’s footsteps in terms of revamped genome sequencing regimes, as the next variant may be hiding in our backyard.

Genome sequencing is essentially determining the order of chemical “bases” of a DNA molecule. Scientists use these sequences to identify genes, regulatory instructions, or in the case of Covid-19, mutations to a virus. Sequencing efforts early on in the pandemic helped scientists determine the structure of the virus, as well as early mutations that helped the virus be transmissible enough to cause a massive pandemic.

More recently, genome sequencing was the key to identifying the more transmissible variant discovered in the UK. The Covid-19 Genomics Consortium has been tracking Covid-19’s genetic history for nearly a year, logging over 150,000 viral samples. Whereas most variants of the virus have one or two minor mutations from each other, the UK variant had 23 separate mutations. This discovery caused concern and further inspection by the Consortium, which determined the mutations led to an accelerated transmission process. The UK variant is thought to have fueled the massive influx of cases in the UK in recent weeks.

South Africa’s new SARS-CoV-2 variant was discovered under the same technique. The new strain was found in late November and was announced a month later after further research and analysis. Like the one found in the UK, this new strain was determined to be highly transmissible in comparison to the strains we have been working with for the majority of the pandemic. South Africa, which has weathered the Covid-19 storm relatively well, is now amid a surge in cases as the UK is.

In the United States, our sequencing efforts have waned over time. At the start of the pandemic, the global community was trying to figure out what this virus was, and at that time, many samples were genome sequenced in that effort. Today, only .3% of samples have been sequenced in the United States, which ranks 43rd according to the GISAID Initiative, a global genome sequencing database project.

Sequencing can aid in the fight against Covid-19 and the newly emerging variants. The UK and South Africa variants have already been detected in dozens of cases in the US. The transmissibility leads me to believe that cases involving these variants are already widespread, but our lack of genome sequencing allowed the variants to evade surveillance. In response to these new variants, the CDC announced a doubling of our sequencing effort.

A robust sequencing regime may find more than just additional cases of the UK and South Africa variants. The virus can mutate every time it transmits to a new host, and with tens of millions of recorded cases worldwide, there are likely variants hidden waiting to be discovered. In the United States alone, some estimates suggest that 15-20% of Americans have had Covid-19, which would make a new variant stemming from a case in the US quite possible. If a homegrown variant is out there, that may have aided in the recent surge in Covid-19 cases observed over the holiday season.

The prospect of a more contagious strain working its way through the US is scary enough, but there’s a chance that with enough mutations, a strain may be able to evade current vaccines. That is why efforts to find these strains must be bolstered. If a section of the population has a vaccine-resistant strain of Covid-19, national public health agencies must identify them and continue vaccine research from there. The hope is that these mutations haven’t occurred, but we don’t know for sure.

The vaccine may cover the new strains in the UK and South Africa, vaccine distribution will continue as planned in the coming months, and life will return to normal in the latter half of 2021. The opposite is also possible. Genome sequencing in the US and worldwide must be bolstered, and then new strains must be identified and isolated. Otherwise, we may be looking at a very long year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2021/01/08/genome-sequencing-in-the-united-states-or-lack-thereof/

Conn. 1st State to Give All Nursing Home Residents 1st Shot: Gov.

 Connecticut became the first state in the nation on Friday to vaccinate all nursing home residents in the state with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Gov. Ned Lamont.

The governor spoke outside LiveWell, a long-term care facility in Southington, on Friday afternoon.

LiveWell was the last facility in the state to receive its vaccinations. Lamont said it wasn't clear why LiveWell was the last.

A spokesperson for LiveWell said 100% of its residents have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. About 80-85% of the staff have received the shot, the spokesperson said.

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/coronavirus/covid-vaccine/gov-lamont-to-mark-significant-vaccine-distribution-milestone-this-afternoon/2399858/

Phase 3 of the German CureVac vaccine approved in Mexico

 CureVac is a biopharmaceutical company of German origin, Cofepris has already approved phase 3 tests for these doses.

Through his Twitter account, the Foreign Secretary announced that the federal agency of the Government of Mexico endorsed the final testing stage, phase 3 for the antidote to CureVac.

 Image: @m_ebrard via Twitter

Similarly, the president expressed his gratitude on behalf of the Government of the Republic for the support of TecSalud , especially Dr. Guillermo Torre , to bring phase 3 of the vaccine developed by CUREVAC in Germany to Mexico .

 Image: @m_ebrard via Twitter

What is known about the CureVac vaccine?

CureVac is a German biopharmaceutical company, according to information from the company that developed the vaccine , “thanks to the technology that we have generated mRNA , we can give the body the necessary information to fight and cure diseases . Driven by our passion, we want to use our technology to help patients and prolong people's lives . "

That said, it is based on messenger mRNA, as is the case with Pfizer and BioNTech .

It is worth mentioning that Bayer and CureVac are in collaboration in the development of the coronavirus vaccine. Both companies have an agreement to support the production and commercialization of a messenger RNA vaccine to "facilitate the supply."

 Image: @CureVacRNA

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/363032

Repurposing of CNS drugs to treat COVID-19 infection

 Hashimoto, K. 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-020-01231-x

PDF: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00406-020-01231-x.pdf

Abstract

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The escalating number of SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals has conferred the viral spread with the status of global pandemic. However, there are no prophylactic or therapeutic drugs available on the market to treat COVID-19, although several drugs have been approved. Recently, two articles using the comparative viral-human protein–protein interaction map revealed that the sigma-1 receptor in the endoplasmic reticulum plays an important role in SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells. Knockout and knockdown of SIGMAR1 (sigma-1 receptor, encoded by SIGMAR1) caused robust reductions in SARS-CoV-2 replication, which indicates that the sigma-1 receptor is a key therapeutic target for SARS-CoV-2 replication. Interestingly, a recent clinical trial demonstrated that treatment with the antidepressant fluvoxamine, which has a high affinity at the sigma-1 receptor, could prevent clinical deterioration in adult outpatients infected with SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we discuss the brief history of the sigma-1 receptor and its role in SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells. Here, we propose repurposing of traditional central nervous system (CNS) drugs that have a high affinity at the sigma-1 receptor (i.e., fluvoxamine, donepezil, ifenprodil) for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. Finally, we discussed the potential of other CNS candidates such as cutamesine and arketamine.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-020-01231-x

Engineered stem cells that evade immune detection could boost cell therapy and I-O

 Sana Biotechnology was founded in 2018 with a mission of solving some of the most difficult challenges in gene and cell therapy. Toward that end, the company is engineering “hypoimmune stem cells” that can evade detection and destruction by the immune system.

Now, some of Sana’s founders, who are scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), are describing how these engineered stem cells are able to shut down the immune system’s natural killer (NK) cells. They believe their findings could enhance the development of implantable cell therapies, as well as cancer immunotherapies, they reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The ability to evade NK cells could enhance a range of experimental treatments, including implants of insulin-producing cells for patients with diabetes and cardiac cells to repair heart damage. These cells are typically rejected by the immune system—a problem hypoimmune stem cells were designed to circumvent.

The UCSF team used gene modification technology to design the cells so they avoid the immune responses that are either built into the body’s defense system or learned. The researchers achieved that feat by engineering the cells to express the protein CD47, which shuts down innate immune cells by activating signal regulatory protein alpha, or SIRP-alpha.

The researchers were surprised to discover that the hypoimmune stem cells were able to escape NK cells, even though NK cells were not previously known to express SIRP-alpha. Rather than studying lab-grown cell lines, they took cells directly from patients. That’s where they found SIRP-alpha.

What’s more, the UCSF team discovered that NK cells begin to express SIRP-alpha after they are activated by cytokines that are typically abundant in inflammatory states.

To further prove out the utility of engineered stem cells, the UCSF researchers implanted cells with rhesus macaque CD47 into monkeys. They documented the activation of SIRP-alpha in NK cells. Those NK cells did not kill the transplanted cells.

A similar technique could be used, but in reverse, to implant pig cardiac cells into people, the UCSF team argued. If human CD47 were engineered into pig heart cells, they could be implanted into people without risking rejection by NK cells, they suggested.

Sana made waves in 2018 when it raised a whopping $700 million in a single venture round from the likes of Arch Venture Partners, Flagship Pioneering and Bezos Expeditions. “We believe that one of, if not the most, important thing happening in medicine over the next several decades is the ability to modulate genes, use cells as medicines, and engineer cells,” said Steve Harr, president and CEO of Sana, at the time.

Sana did not provide materials or funding for the new study, but it is now developing the hypoimmune stem cell technology for clinical testing.

The UCSF team believes their findings could also boost cancer immunotherapy. The engineered cells could help combat checkpoints that allow tumors to evade immune detection, they said.

"Many tumors have low levels of self-identifying MHC-I protein and some compensate by overexpressing CD47 to keep immune cells at bay," said Lewis Lanier, Ph.D., director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a statement. "This might be the sweet spot for antibody therapies that target CD47."

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/research/engineered-stem-cells-evade-immune-detection-could-boost-cell-therapy-and-i-o

LabCorp to help CDC track COVID-19 mutations

 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tapped LabCorp to help conduct a large-scale genomic study tracking new mutations in the COVID-19 virus—after a fast-spreading variant, first identified in the U.K., has recently surfaced on U.S. shores.

The public health agency plans to collect random samples from across the country, to provide a baseline that will enable national and state-level surveillance programs to hone in on emerging cases. 

With the addition of LabCorp’s facilities, the CDC said it aims to more than double the number of genomic samples sequenced per week.

“Better decision making starts with better data, and we are eager to help the CDC in its effort to improve the nation’s understanding of this virus and how to effectively fight it,” LabCorp Chief Scientific Officer Marcia Eisenberg, Ph.D., said. “This sequencing survey is a critical project to ensure our knowledge of COVID-19 improves even as the virus may mutate and change.”

The new strain of the virus, known as B117, was first spotted last September, and positive cases have quickly multiplied in the months since.

While it has not yet proven to be more deadly to the individual patient, its quick transmission speeds—making it about 50% more contagious—could allow it to infect more people and place a larger burden on the public health system.

On Dec. 25, the CDC issued an order requiring all inbound air passengers from the U.K. to be screened for COVID-19 before they board, including U.S. citizens. And this week, the agency said it expects the variant is already spreading among communities in several states, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, known as CIDRAP, counts at least 56 cases of B117 in eight states, with the most in California and Florida.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/labcorp-to-help-cdc-track-covid-19-mutations-as-new-strain-spreads-u-s