UK says COVID-19 booster and annual vaccinations very probable

 A COVID-19 booster in the autumn and then annual vaccinations are very probable, Britain’s vaccine deployment minister said on Sunday as countries race to administer injections in the face of new variants.

Britain has already provided nearly 11.5 million first doses of COVID-19 vaccines and is on track to meet a target to vaccinate everyone in the top most vulnerable groups by mid-February.

Among coronavirus variants currently most concerning for scientists and public health experts are the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants, which appear to spread more swiftly than others.

“We see very much probably an annual or a booster in the autumn and then an annual (vaccination), in the way we do with flu vaccinations where you look at what variant of virus is spreading around the world,” Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

AstraZeneca said on Saturday its vaccine developed with the University of Oxford appeared to offer only limited protection against mild disease caused by the South African variant of COVID-19, based on early data from a trial.

The success of the UK’s vaccine rollout is spurring debate about how soon the government can ease broader lockdown restrictions, amid plans to reopen schools in England in March.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-britain-vaccine-bo/uk-says-covid-19-booster-and-annual-vaccinations-very-probable-idUSKBN2A70A5

NYC’s COVID vax hubs are ghost towns as DOH mum on distribution

 The city’s 15 vaccination hubs were ghost towns last Saturday, and the city Department of Health is refusing to reveal just how bad distribution went.

One DOH staffer stationed at the Hillcrest High School hub in Queens on Jan. 30 said he did nothing all day.

“You cannot imagine how much nothing it was,” he said of the demoralizing day.

He said there were about 70 workers on hand — some earning overtime pay for 12-hour shifts — and about 10 people to vaccinate.

The worker said several appeals were made to DOH officials to be able to vaccinate people without appointments, and they were denied. He said the hubs had about 400 to 700 doses.

“We could have used that day to vaccinate thousands of people … and we just blew it,” he said

The issue of the empty sites was first brought to light by City Councilman Mark Treyger who tweeted a video of an empty hub at Coney Island’s Lincoln High School.

George Westinghouse Vocational High School in Brooklyn had a similar problem, Councilman Brad Lander tweeted.

A DOH spokesman said the hubs were open “to accommodate a limited number of rescheduled appointments from the prior week.”

But Treyger said he was told the city never updated its web site to reflect availability.

It was another set back for the vaccination program after the city had to close its hubs for four days, from Jan. 21 to 24, because it ran out of supply.

And hubs were also shuttered Monday and Tuesday because of the snowstorm that walloped the city.

The total number of vaccinations given out in the city on Jan. 30 fell by more than half from the previous day, according to the city’s vaccine tracker site.

The city Health Department said it would not allow walk-ins because “doses were in short supply and there were appointments the following day as well.” It insisted all doses were used by the end of the weekend.

The Lincoln High School hub did allow walk-ins after Treyger tweeted about the problem.

“It seemed as if they were planning on just letting the day go by with no one getting vaccinated whatsoever with vaccine doses in a refrigerator, which is unacceptable,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/06/hundreds-of-covid-vaccine-doses-unused-in-nyc-over-the-weekend/

Health & Life Sciences IPOs During the Week of February 1st, 2021

 

Health & Life Sciences IPOs During the Week of February 1st, 2021
Issuer Business	Deal Size	Market Cap at IPO	Price vs. Midpoint	First Day Return	Return at 02/05
Vor Biopharma (VOR)	$177M	$711M	6%	+108%	+108%
Preclinical biotech developing cell therapies for hematological diseases.
Immunocore (IMCR)	$258M	$1,121M	8%	+66%	+66%
Phase 3 biotech developing T cell therapies for cancer and other diseases.
Bolt Biotherapeutics (BOLT)	$230M	$757M	18%	+61%	+61%
Phase 1/2 biotech developing targeted therapies for solid tumors.
Sana Biotechnology (SANA)	$588M	$4,928M	16%	+40%	+56%
Preclinical biotech developing engineered cell therapies for multiple indications.
Lucira Health (LHDX)	$153M	$705M	6%	+47%	+47%
Developing single-use test kits for COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
Pharvaris (PHVS)	$165M	$668M	11%	+45%	+45%
Dutch Phase 1 biotech developing oral small molecule therapies for rare diseases.
Sensei Biotherapeutics (SNSE)	$133M	$591M	12%	-1%	+18%
Phase 2 biotech developing bacteriophage-based therapies for cancer.
Terns Pharmaceuticals (TERN)	$128M	$430M	6%	+8%	+8%
Phase 2 biotech developing small molecule therapies for NASH.
Ark Global Acquisition (ARKIU)	$300M	$375M	0%	+7%	+7%
Blank check company led by a former Groupon CEO and QIA fund manager targeting disruptive technology.
Angion Biomedica (ANGN)	$80M	$512M	7%	+6%	+6%
Phase 3 biotech developing small molecule therapies for acute organ injuries.
Compute Health Acq. (CPUH.U)	$750M	$938M	0%	+5%	+5%
Blank check company targeting the intersection of computation and healthcare.
HH&L Acquisition (HHLA.U)	$360M	$450M	0%	+5%	+5%
Blank check company targeting the healthcare sector in Asia.
Evaxion Biotech (EVAX)	$30M	$214M	-9%	-1%	-1%
Danish Phase 1/2 biotech using AI to develop immuno-oncology therapies.
Landos Biopharma (LABP)	$100M	$650M	0%	-25%	-31%
Phase 2 biotech developing oral small molecule therapies for autoimmune diseases. https://www.renaissancecapital.com/IPO-Center/News/76271/US-IPO-Weekly-Recap-Biotechs-flood-the-IPO-market-in-a-14-IPO-week

Exploring link between 'Alzheimer's gene' and COVID-19

 A City of Hope-led research team found that the same gene that increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease, ApoE4, can increase the susceptibility to and severity of COVID-19.

"Our study provides a causal link between the Alzheimer's disease risk factor ApoE4 and COVID-19 and explains why some (e.g., ApoE4 carriers) but not all COVID-19 patients exhibit neurological manifestations" said Yanhong Shi, Ph.D., director of the Division of Stem Cell Biology at City of Hope and co-corresponding author of the new study. "Understanding how risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases impact COVID-19 susceptibility and severity will help us to better cope with COVID-19 and its potential long-term effects in different patient populations."

At the beginning of the study, the team was interested in SARS-CoV-2's effects on the brain. Due to the fact that COVID-19 patients often lose their sense of taste and smell, the team theorized that the virus had an underlying neurological effect.

The team first created brain cells in the lab using pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are a kind of stem cell that can become virtually any type of cell. The newly created neurons and astrocytes, a type of helper cell, were then infected with SARS-CoV-2. They found that both cell types were susceptible to infection.

Next, the team used iPSCs to create brain organoids, which are 3D tissue models that mimic certain features of the human brain. They created one organiod model that contained astrocytes and one without them. They infected both brain organoid types with the virus, and discovered that those with astrocytes boosted SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The team went on to further study the effects of ApoE4 on susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2. They did this by generating neurons from iPSCs "reprogrammed" from the cells of an Alzheimer's patient that contained ApoE4. Using gene editing, the team modified some of the iPSCs-created ApoE4 cells so that they contained ApoE3, which is a gene type that is considered neutral. The ApoE3 and ApoE4 iPSCs were then used to generate neurons and astrocytes.

The results were published recently in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The ApoE4 neurons and astrocytes both showed a higher susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in comparison to the neutral ApoE3 neurons and astrocytes. Moreover, while the virus caused damage to both ApoE3 and ApoE4 neurons, it appeared to have a slightly more severe effect on ApoE4 neurons and a much more severe effect on ApoE4 astrocytes compared to ApoE3 neurons and astrocytes.

In the last part of the study, the researchers tested to see if the antiviral drug remdesivir inhibits virus infection in neurons and astrocytes. They discovered that the drug was able to successfully reduce the viral level in astrocytes and prevent cell death. It was also able to rescue neurons from neurodegeneration.

The team's next step is to continue studying the effects of the virus to better understand the role of ApoE4 in the neurological manifestations of COVID-19. Many people infected with COVID-19 have recovered, but long-term neurological effects such as severe headaches are still seen months after.

"COVID-19 is a complex disease, and we are beginning to understand the risk factors involved in the manifestation of the severe form of the disease" said Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami, Ph.D., a member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center and co-corresponding author. "Our cell-based study provides a possible explanation as to why individuals with Alzheimer's' disease are at increased risk of developing more severe COVID-19 symptoms."

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The research was supported by the Louise and Herbert Horvitz Charitable Foundation, the Sidell Kagan Foundation, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (TRAN1-08525, DISC2 12172), the National Institute of Aging of the National Institutes of Health (R01 AG056305, RF1 AG061794, R56 AG061171), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (R21AI129471).

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/coh-rel020321.php

City, University of London academic tracks COVID-19 dark web marketplace

 New research carried out by City, University of London data scientist, Dr Andrea Baronchelli, and colleagues into the dark web marketplace (DWM) trade in products related to COVID-19, has revealed the need for the continuous monitoring of dark web marketplaces (DWMs) especially in light of the current shortage and availability of coronavirus vaccines.

In their paper, Dark Web Marketplaces and COVID-19: before the vaccine published in the EPJ Data Science, Dr Baronchelli and his colleagues analysed 851,199 listings extracted from 30 DWMs between January 1, 2020 and November 16, 2020 before the advent of the availability of the coronavirus vaccine.

They identify 788 listings directly related to COVID-19 products and monitors the temporal evolution of product categories including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medicines (e.g., hydroxychloroquine), and medical fraud.

The authors compare trends in the temporal evolution of trade in these products with variations in public attention, as measured by Twitter posts and Wikipedia page visits.

Among their discoveries, the paper's authors highlight the importance of dark web players such as DarkBay/DBay - the 'eBay of the dark web':

"In our dataset, DarkBay/DBay is featured prominently among DWMs offering COVID-19 specific listings. Ranking in the top 100 sites in the entire dark web, DarkBay/DBay is regarded as the eBay of the dark web because it offers more listings categories than other DWMs. It was also frequently accessible during the period of time monitored during this research, with an uptime of 80%, higher from the 77% uptime of Empire, the largest global DWM at the time of writing".

Critically, the authors highlight the importance of the continuous monitoring of DWMs, especially given shortages in the availability and supply of COVID-19 vaccines in various regions of the world:

"Uninformed citizens exposed to waves of misinformation, such as the ones related to hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, and azithromycin, may be tempted to shop on DWMs thus exposing themselves to serious health risks. Moreover, the availability of regulated products currently in shortage in the traditional economy undermines anti-price gouging regulations and regulated businesses which sell the same products."

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/cul-cuo012921.php

Flu vaccine lessens COVID-19 symptoms in children

 Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have discovered that children who receive a seasonal flu shot are less likely to suffer symptoms from a COVID-19 infection. The finding comes from a review of more than 900 children diagnosed with COVID-19 in 2020.

"It is known that the growth of one virus can be inhibited by a previous viral infection," said Anjali Patwardhan, MD, professor of pediatric rheumatology and child health. "This phenomenon is called virus interference, and it can occur even when the first virus invader is an inactivated virus, such as the case with the flu vaccine."

Patwardhan reviewed records from 905 pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID-19 between February and August 2020 to determine each patient's influenza vaccination history. She discovered the COVID-19 positive children who received the influenza vaccine in the current flu season had lower odds of experiencing symptoms, respiratory problems or severe disease. She also found that children with COVID-19 who received the pneumococcal vaccine also had lower odds of experiencing symptomatic disease.

"Research on the pediatric population is critical because children play a significant role in influencing viral transmission," Patwardhan said. "Understanding the relationship and co-existence of other viruses alongside COVID-19 and knowing the vaccination status of the pediatric patient may help in deploying the right strategies to get the best outcomes."

Patwardhan said it will also be important to explore the connection between vaccinations and COVID-19 symptoms in a larger geographical-multiracial study.

"Based on these findings, we hypothesize that the higher incidence of COVID-19 in minority populations may also reflect their low vaccination rate apart from other health inequalities," Patwardhan said.

###

Patwardhan's co-author is MU School of Medicine colleague Adrienne Ohler, PhD, associate research professor. Their study, "The Flu Vaccination May Have a Protective Effect on The Course of COVID-19 in the Pediatric Population: When Does Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2) Meet Influenza," was recently published in the journal Cureus.

The authors declare they have received no financial support for this study and report no conflicts of interest.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uom-ssf020421.php

Peginterferon-lambda antiviral action can speed clearance of COVID-19

 A clinical study led by Dr. Jordan Feld, a liver specialist at Toronto Centre for Liver Disease, University Health Network (UHN), showed an experimental antiviral drug can significantly speed up recovery for COVID-19 outpatients - patients who do not need to be hospitalized.

This could become an important intervention to treat infected patients and help curb community spread, while COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out this year.

"This treatment has large therapeutic potential, especially at this moment as we see aggressive variants of the virus spreading around the globe which are less sensitive to both vaccines and treatment with antibodies," says Dr. Feld, who is also Co-Director of the Schwartz Reisman Liver Research Centre and the R. Phelan Chair in Translational Liver Research at UHN.

According to the study, published today in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, patients who received a single injection of peginterferon-lambda were over four times more likely to have cleared the infection within seven days, when compared to a group treated with placebo.

"People who were treated cleared the virus quickly, and the effect was most pronounced in those with the highest viral levels. We also saw a trend towards quicker improvement of respiratory symptoms in the treatment group," explains Dr. Feld - who translated his knowledge of peg-interferon lambda usage for viral hepatitis to research on COVID-19 treatment.

Participants with higher viral levels (above 1 million copies per mL) were much more likely to clear infection with treatment than placebo: 79% in the treatment arm compared to 38% in the placebo group; and virus levels decreased quickly in everyone in the treatment group.

Treatment benefits and public health impact

Rapid clearance has many benefits, particularly in those with high viral levels, as those cases are associated with more severe disease and a higher risk of transmission to others. Among the 60 patients followed in the study, five went to emergency rooms with deteriorating respiratory symptoms. Of those, four were in the placebo group, while only one was in the group which received the actual drug.

Bringing down the virus level quickly prevents people from getting worse and likely reduces the risk of spreading the disease to others. This may have important additional public health impact.

"If we can decrease the virus level quickly, people are less likely to spread the infection to others and we may even be able to shorten the time required for self-isolation," says Dr. Feld.

Interferon-lambda

Interferon-lambda is a protein produced by the body in response to viral infections. It has the ability to activate a number of cellular pathways to kill invading viruses.

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 prevents the body from producing interferons, which is one way it avoids being controlled by the body's immune system. Treatment with interferon-lambda activates those same virus-killing pathways in the cells.

Because interferon activates many virus-killing pathways, resistance due to 'new strains' of the virus, which could be an issue with some therapies, is not a concern with interferon-lambda.

Interferon-lambda is different from other interferons because it uses a receptor that is only present in some tissues in the body. It is very active in the lung, the liver and the intestine, all places where the COVID-19 virus is able to replicate, but it is not active in other places leading to a lot fewer side effects than other interferons. In the trial, those treated with interferon-lambda had similar side effects to those who received placebo.

Peginterferon-lambda (used in this study) is a long-acting version of the drug developed by Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, which can be given as a single injection under the skin with a tiny needle (like insulin).

Next steps

This was an investigator initiated phase 2, double-blind randomized study, done in Toronto, with a total of 60 participants - 30 who received the drug while 30 received placebo. The study was conducted from May to November 2020, with referrals from six outpatient assessment centres.

With these positive results, a large phase 3 trial is planned to start in the near future. Additional studies are ongoing at the University of Toronto, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University with peginterferon-lambda in hospitalized patients, and in settings where it can be used to prevent infection in those who have been exposed.

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Drs. Mia Biondi, nurse practitioner and researcher at UHN, Christopher Kandel, infectious disease specialist at Michael Garron Hospital, and Bettina Hansen, senior statistician at UHN, co-led this clinical trial.

Funding

This study was supported by Toronto General & Western Hospital Foundation, Toronto COVID-19 Action Initiative, University of Toronto and the Ontario First COVID-19 Rapid Research Fund. Medication was supplied by Eiger BioPharmaceuticals, Palo Alto, CA, USA.

Conflict of Interests (COI)

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-02/uhn-pss020421.php