Spotlight on Covid-19 Research Publications

Indica Labs / Spotlight on Covid-19 Research Publications

Identification of immune checkpoints in COVID-19

Researchers aiming to block excessive lung inflammation in COVID-19 patients found upregulated immune checkpoint biomarkers in patients with a range of COVID-19 symptoms (from paucisymptomatic to acute respiratory distress syndrome). In addition, Carvelli et al found increased expression of C5a, an inflammatory mediator, in serum and the C5aR1 receptor on myeloid cells in COVID-19 patients, which are known to initiate inflammatory responses by recruiting naeutrophils and monocytes to lungs. An In vitro neutrophil migration assay quantified with the CytoNuclear FL...

Baricitinib treatment resolves lower airway inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques

Hoang, T.N., Pino, M., Boddapati, A.K. et al.. Baricitinib treatment resolves lower airway inflammation and neutrophil recruitment in SARS-CoV-2-infected rhesus macaques. This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review, doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.16.300277 Effective therapeutics aimed at mitigating COVID-19 symptoms are urgently needed. SARS-CoV-2 induced hypercytokinemia and systemic inflammation are associated with disease severity. Baricitinib, a clinically approved JAK1/2 inhibitor with potent anti-inflammatory properties is currently being investigated in COVID-19 human clinical trials. Recent reports suggest that baricitinib...

ARDS and Cytokine Storm in SARS-CoV-2 Infected Caribbean Vervets

Blair, R.V., Vaccari, M., Doyle-Meyers, L.A.. et al. ARDS and Cytokine Storm in SARS-CoV-2 Infected Caribbean Vervets. This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.157933 SARS-CoV-2 induces a wide range of disease severity ranging from asymptomatic infection, to a life-threating illness, particularly in the elderly and persons with comorbid conditions. Up to now, SARS-CoV-2 has infected more than five million and led to more than 300,000 deaths worldwide. Among those persons with serious COVID-19...

Acute Respiratory Distress and Cytokine Storm in Aged, SARS-CoV-2 Infected African Green Monkeys, but not in Rhesus Macaques

Blair, R.V., Vaccari, M., Doyle-Meyers, L.A.. et al. Acute Respiratory Distress and Cytokine Storm in Aged, SARS-CoV-2 Infected African Green Monkeys, but not in Rhesus Macaques. This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.18.157933. SARS-CoV-2 induces a wide range of disease severity ranging from asymptomatic infection, to a life-threating illness, particularly in the elderly and persons with comorbid conditions. Among those persons with serious COVID-19 disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a...

Neuropathology and Virus in Brain of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Non-Human Primates

Rutkai, I., Mayer, M.G., Hellmers, L.M., et al. Neuropathology and Virus in Brain of SARS-CoV-2 Infected Non-Human Primates. This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-59871/v1 Neurological manifestations are a significant complication of coronavirus infection disease-19 (COVID-19). Understanding how COVID-19 contributes to neurological disease is needed for appropriate treatment of infected patients, as well as in initiating relevant follow-up care after recovery. Investigation of autopsied brain tissue has been key to advancing our understanding...

Lung Expression of Human ACE2 Sensitizes the Mouse to SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Han, K., Blair, R.V., Iwanaga ,N., et al. Lung Expression of Human ACE2 Sensitizes the Mouse to SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2020 Sep 29. Preclinical mouse models that recapitulate some characteristics of COVID-19 will facilitate focused study of pathogenesis and virus-host responses. Human angiotensin converting enzyme (hACE2) serves as an entry receptor for SARS-CoV-2 to infect people via binding to spike proteins. Herein we report development and characterization of a rapidly deployable COVID-19 mouse model. C57BL/6J (B6)...

Ad26 vaccine protects against SARS-CoV-2 severe clinical disease in hamsters

Lisa H Tostanoski, et al, Nature Medicine, 2020
In this study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, they report the first demonstration of prevention of severe clinical disease in a hamster model of SARS-CoV-2 that were provided with a single immunization of the adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vaccine. The Ad26 vaccine utilizes a stabilized spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 and in the United States this vaccine is commonly known as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. This study,...

Cellular events of acute, resolving or progressive COVID-19 in SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates

Fahlberg, M.D., Blair, R.V., Doyle-Meyers, L.A. et al. Cellular events of acute, resolving or progressive COVID-19 in SARS-CoV-2 infected non-human primates.  This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.21.213777.  We investigated the immune events following SARS-COV-2 infection, from the acute inflammatory state up to four weeks post infection, in non-human primates (NHP) with heterogeneous pulmonary pathology. The acute phase was characterized by a rapid migration of CD16+ monocytes from the blood and concomitant increase...

ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Expression in the Normal and COVID-19 Pancreas

Kusmartseva, I., Wu, W., Syed, F. et al. ACE2 and SARS-CoV-2 Expression in the Normal and COVID-19 Pancreas. This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review.  doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.31.270736 Diabetes is associated with increased mortality from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Given literature suggesting a potential association between SARS-CoV-2 infection and diabetes induction, we examined pancreatic expression of the key molecule for SARS-CoV-2 infection of cells, angiotensin-converting enzyme-2 (ACE2). Specifically, we analyzed five public scRNAseq pancreas...

Two distinct immunopathological profiles in autopsy lungs of COVID-19

Ronny Nienhold, et al, Nature Communications, 2020
An international consortium of researchers characterized lung tissue from patients with COVID-19 using transcriptomic, histologic, and cellular analyses. Nienhold and colleagues report two phenotypes associated with lethal COVID-19 disease. One showed high levels of interferon stimulated genes in the lungs as well as limited lung damage and high levels of cytokines and viral loads. The second phenotype included severe lung damage with low levels of interferon stimulated genes, low viral loads, and high levels...

Age-determined expression of priming protease TMPRSS2 and localization of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the lung epithelium

Bryce A. Schuler, A. Christian Habermann, Erin J. Plosa, Chase J. Taylor, Christopher Jetter, Meghan E. Kapp, John T. Benjamin, Peter Gulleman, David S. Nichols, Lior Z. Braunstein, Alice Hackett, View ORCID ProfileMichael Koval, Susan H. Guttentag, Timothy S. Blackwell, Vanderbilt COVID-19 Consortium Cohort, Steven A. Webber, Nicholas E. Banovich, View ORCID ProfileJonathan A. Kropski, Jennifer M. S. Sucre, HCA Lung Biological Network bioRxiv | Posted August 03, 2020 | This article is a preprint and has not been certified by...