Category: Covid-19

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Neurofilament light chain and glial fibrillary acid protein levels are elevated in post-mild COVID-19 or asymptomatic ... - Nature.com

Bonham and her collaborators wanted to better understand why this scarring occurs, determine if it is similar to progressive pulmonary fibrosis and see if there is a way to identify patients at risk.

Researchers followed 16 UVA Health patients who survived severe COVID-19, including 14 who were hospitalized and placed on a ventilator during treatment. All had trouble breathing and suffered fatigue and abnormal lung function at their first outpatient checkup.

After six months, researchers found that the patients could be divided into two groups. One groups lung health improved, prompting the researchers to label them early resolvers. The other group, dubbed late resolvers, continued to suffer lung problems and pulmonary fibrosis.

Looking at blood samples taken before the recovery paths diverged, the team found that late resolvers had significantly fewer immune cells known as monocytes white blood cells that play a critical role fending off disease circulating in their blood. The cells were abnormally depleted in patients who continued to suffer lung problems compared both to those who recovered and healthy control subjects.

The decrease in monocytes also correlated with the severity of the patients ongoing symptoms. That suggests that doctors may be able to use a simple blood test to identify patients likely to suffer long-haul COVID and to improve their care.

About half of the patients we examined still had lingering, bothersome symptoms and abnormal tests after six months, Bonham said. We were able to detect differences in their blood from the first visit, with fewer blood monocytes mapping to lower lung function.

The researchers also wanted to determine if severe COVID-19 could cause progressive lung scarring like idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. They found the two conditions had very different effects on immune cells, suggesting that even though symptoms were similar, the underlying causes were very different. This held true in patients with the most persistent long-haul COVID-19 symptoms.

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is progressive and kills patients within three to five years, Bonham said. It was a relief to see that all our COVID patients, even those with long-haul symptoms, were not similar.

Because of the small numbers of participants in UVAs study, and because they were mostly male (for easier comparison with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that strikes mostly men), the researchers say larger studies with other medical centers are needed to bear out the findings.

Still, they are hopeful that their new discovery will provide doctors a useful tool to identify COVID-19 patients at risk for long-haul lung problems and help guide them to recovery.

We are only beginning to understand the biology of how the immune system impacts pulmonary fibrosis, Bonham said. My team and I were humbled and grateful to work with the outstanding patients who made this study possible.

The researchers havepublished their findings in the scientific journal Frontiers in Immunology. The research team consisted of Grace C. Bingham, Lyndsey M. Muehling, Chaofan Li, Yong Huang, Shwu-Fan Ma, Daniel Abebayehu, Imre Noth, Jie Sun, Judith A. Woodfolk, Thomas H. Barker and Bonham. Noth disclosed that he has received personal fees from Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech and Confo unrelated to the research project. In addition, he has a patent pending related to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Bonham and all other members of the research team had no financial conflicts to disclose.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to UVA Healths Making of Medicineblog.

The UVA research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants R21 AI160334 and U01 AI125056; NIHs National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, grants 5K23HL143135-04 and UG3HL145266; UVAs Engineering in Medicine Seed Fund; the UVA Global Infectious Diseases Institutes COVID-19 Rapid Response; a UVA Robert R. Wagner Fellowship; and a Sture G. Olsson Fellowship in Engineering.

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Blood Test Could Predict Risk of Long-Term COVID-19 Lung Problems - UVA Today

Stanford researchers aim to get ahead of coronavirus evolution by designing antiviral drugs that continue to work on Paxlovid-resistant mutants. (Image credit: Getty Images)

Although COVID-19 has faded from the headlines, SARS-CoV-2 the coronavirus behind the pandemic is still rampantly infecting people around the world. Public health officials fear as the virus continues to evolve, it will eventually hit upon a diabolical mutation that renders current treatments ineffective, triggering a new wave of severe infection and social disruption.

In pursuit of new therapies to avoid this dark fate, researchers at Stanford have now unveiled a compound that measures up as a potentially powerful anti-coronavirus drug, detailed in a paper published March 13 in Science Translational Medicine. Dubbed ML2006a4, the compound works in the same way as Paxlovid the most effective oral drug available to date by binding to coronavirus particles and preventing the virus from making copies of itself. Compared to Paxlovid, though, ML2006a4 binds more tightly and durably, courtesy of the Stanford team custom-crafting the compound atom-by-atom.

In preclinical experiments, the compound prevented deadly infections in mice at a superior rate compared to Paxlovid. In addition, the new compound is potent enough that it could likely be formulated without an additional component present in Paxlovid that poses severe drug interaction concerns. Importantly, ML2006a4 also performed well against coronavirus variants that have already evolved degrees of resistance to Paxlovid, suggesting the compounds honed affinity makes it less vulnerable to mutant virus strains.

At this point entering the fifth year of the pandemic, Paxlovid is our only really good drug against SARS-CoV-2, but its proven fairly easy for the virus to evolve resistance to it, said Michael Lin, the senior author of the study, who is an associate professor of neurobiology and of bioengineering in the schools of Medicine and Engineering and a member of Stanford Bio-X. As new waves of coronavirus keep crashing down, we need to have alternative drugs that are more tolerant of mutations and not as easy for the virus to defeat.

For the study, Lin worked closely with lead author Michael Westberg, now an assistant professor at Aarhus University in Denmark. From 2018 until 2022, Westberg worked in Lins lab as a visiting scholar at Stanford Bio-X, funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, through a joint program designed to strengthen international collaborations and the exchange of scientific expertise between Stanford and Denmark.

Before the pandemic outbreak in 2020, Lins lab had already been investigating the broad class of drugs known as viral protease inhibitors. These drugs target protease enzymes that viruses need for disassembling bulky viral proteins as part of their replication cycle. Like a key fitting into a lock, protease inhibitors occupy the spaces, or active sites, where proteases normally link up with those bulky proteins, thus nipping replication in the bud.

Specifically, the Stanford researchers had gained familiarity with hepatitis C virus protease, which has similarities to coronavirus versions. Although Westberg had come to Stanford to work on other projects, the global emergency prompted a pivot. When the pandemic hit, we asked if we could put our expertise to good use, said Lin.

Their early research, posted online in September 2020, demonstrated that a hepatitis C drug, boceprevir, slotted reasonably well into the coronavirus protease site. Other scientists built off those findings, including at the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which ultimately created Paxlovid and received regulatory approval for its use in December 2021. We knew then that we were on the right track, said Lin, and we were motivated to keep going and make an even more effective drug.

The Lin lab pooled its collective chemical knowledge to design improvements to their iterative boceprevir-based compounds. Much of the work involved modifying the compound on the atomic scale in intricately detailed computer models to fit more snugly in the coronavirus protease active site.

Basically, you put your drug in the active site and you look for gaps where it doesnt tightly fit. Then you fill those gaps, said Lin.

The Stanford researchers approached this challenge in a rational way by adding different configurations of atoms of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen to the compounds as permitted by the laws of biochemistry.

Theres a lot of creativity and intuition involved because everyone is working with the same three atoms, but there are essentially infinite ways to arrange them, said Lin. Making these modifications, its like playing atomic Tetris.

The resulting compounds were then tested against actual coronavirus particles at the Stanford In Vitro Biosafety Level 3 Service Center. After multiple rounds of honing, Lins team arrived at the compound designated ML2006a4.

In studies with SARS-CoV-2-infected mice, ML2006a4 worked as well as Paxlovid in promoting survival, while offering better protection of the rodents lungs and lowering overall virus load in the body.

The researchers attribute this success to ML2006a4s extremely refined fit inside coronavirus protease, where the compound boasted a 20-fold higher binding affinity than Paxlovid. That better fit equates to stronger chemical bonds, meaning the drug can stay bound to the protease for a longer time. In this temporal regard, ML2006a4 indeed proved quite sticky: The inhibitor remained attached for approximately330minutes, or greater thanfivehours, whereas the corresponding Paxlovid inhibitor typically fell off its target in just abouttwo minutes.

From a medication perspective, such staying power translates to spaced-out, smaller doses that can still prevent disease from worsening while giving the immune system a chance to kill off the invaders. The long-lived drug-enzyme complex helps ensure that the virus doesnt escape and replicate before your next medication dose, said Lin.

In this way, ML2006a4 offers other advantages compared to Paxlovid. Technically, Paxlovid is two drugs packaged together: nirmatrelvir, the actual protease inhibitor, and ritonavir, a drug that prevents the liver from quickly breaking down nirmatrelvir, boosting nirmatrelvirs performance. Yet the slowing of the livers metabolism by ritonavir means that other drugs can toxically build up, forcing patients to take the risk of temporarily stopping their normal medications.

According to Lin, an oral pill based on ML2006a4 might not require ritonavir to prop up drug levels enough between typical 12-hour administrations to effectively keep coronavirus in check, but this would need to be tested to make sure, said Lin. We also continue to make improved versions of ML2006a4 with better potency and duration of activity, he added.

For the promising compounds to move forward, Lin and colleagues are seeking additional investment. So far, their funding has mostly consisted of small grants geared toward early-stage drug discovery. The group now feels their compounds are ready for expanded preclinical testing with an eye toward clinical trials in human patients.

Were very excited how far weve come and how successful our drug discovery has been on a shoestring budget, said Lin. We hope to see this promising compound developed further to stay ready for what SARS-CoV-2 throws at us next.

Additional Stanford co-authors on the paper include Shirit Einav, professor of medicine infectious diseases and of microbiology and immunology; Catherine Blish, the George E. and Lucy Becker Professor in Medicine and professor of medicine infectious diseases; Jaishree Garhyan, director of Biosafety Level 3 (BSL3) Service; Daniel Fernandez, director of crystallography; Puja Bhavesh Patel, research professional; Chenzhou Hao, research scientist; doctoral student Yan Wu; postdoctoral scholars Xinzhi Zou, Chieh-Wen Lo, and Marwah Karim; instructor in medicine Arjun Rustagi; former postdoctoral scholars Yichi Su and Lin Ning; and former researcher Aimee Beck. Lin is also an associate professor, by courtesy, of chemical and systems biology, and a member of the Cardiovascular Institute, the Maternal & Child Health Research Institute, Sarafan ChEM-H, the Stanford Cancer Institute, and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

Funding for the research was provided by Stanfords Sarafan ChEM-H and the Innovative Medicines Accelerator, a Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award, Emergent Ventures at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a Stanford-Coulter Translational Research Grant, the National Institutes of Health, the Denver Foundation, the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Stanford Bio-X Program, a Bio-X Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Fellowship, the Houston EM Foundation, and the PhRMA Foundation.

To read all stories about Stanford science, subscribe to the biweekly Stanford Science Digest.

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Drug design at the atomic level to thwart COVID-19 | Stanford News - Stanford University News

U.S.marriages have reboundedto pre-pandemic levels with nearly 2.1 million in 2022.

Thats a 4% increase from the year before. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the data Friday but has not released marriage data for last year.

In 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 1.7 million U.S. weddings the lowest number recorded since 1963. The pandemic threw many marriage plans into disarray, with communities ordering people to stay at home and banning large gatherings to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Marriages then rose in 2021, but not to pre-pandemic levels. They ticked up again in 2022 and surpassed 2019 marriage statistics by a small margin.

New York, the District of Columbia and Hawaii saw the largest increases in marriages from 2021 to 2022. Nevada home to Las Vegas famous wedding chapels continued to have the highest marriage rate in the nation, though it slightly decreased from 2021.

The number and rate of U.S. divorces in 2022 fell slightly, continuing a downward trend, the CDC said.

Overall,marriagesremain far less common than they once were in the U.S.

According to data that goes back to 1900, weddings hit their height in 1946, when the marriage rate was 16.4 per 1,000 people. The rate was above 10 in the early 1980s before beginning a decades-long decline. In 2022, the marriage rate was 6.2 per 1,000 population.

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Marriages in the U.S. are back to pre-pandemic levels, CDC says - NBC News

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Here's the latest on COVID-19, flu and RSV in the Oshkosh area - Oshkosh Northwestern

A new study published in The Lancet reveals never-before-seen details about staggeringly high mortality from the COVID-19 pandemic within and across countries. Places such as Mexico City, Peru, and Bolivia had some of the largest drops in life expectancy from 2019 to 2021. The research, which presents updated estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2021, provides the most comprehensive look at the pandemics toll on human health to date, indicating that global life expectancy dropped by 1.6 years from 2019 to 2021, a sharp reversal from past increases. Among GBDs other key findings, child mortality continued to drop amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with half a million fewer deaths among children under 5 in 2021 compared to 2019. Mortality rates among children under 5 decreased by 7% from 2019 to 2021.

For adults worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters, says co-first author Dr. Austin E. Schumacher, Acting Assistant Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Life expectancy declined in 84% of countries and territories during this pandemic, demonstrating the devastating potential impacts of novel pathogens.

"For adults worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a more profound impact than any event seen in half a century, including conflicts and natural disasters."

Researchers from IHME identified high mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in places that were previously less recognized and/or reported. For example, the study reveals that after accounting for the age of the population, countries such as Jordan and Nicaragua had high excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was not apparent in previous all-age excess mortality estimates. In analyzing subnational locations not previously investigated, the South African provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo had among the highest age-adjusted excess mortality rates and largest life expectancy declines during the pandemic in the world. Conversely, the places with some of the lowest age-adjusted excess mortality from the pandemic during this period included Barbados, New Zealand, and Antigua and Barbuda.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortality among older people worldwide rose in ways unseen in the previous 70 years. While the pandemic was devastating, killing approximately 16 million people around the globe in 2020 and 2021 combined, it did not completely erase historic progress life expectancy at birth rose by nearly 23 years between 1950 and 2021.

GBD 2021 analyzes past and current demographic trends at global, regional, national, and subnational levels. The study provides globally comparable measures of excess mortality and is one of the first studies to fully evaluate demographic trends in the context of the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. In estimating excess deaths due to the pandemic, the authors accounted for deaths from the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, as well as deaths associated with indirect effects of the pandemic, such as delays in seeking health care.

Employing innovative methods to measure mortality, excess mortality from the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy, and population, the study authors estimate that the pandemic caused global mortality to jump among people over age 15, rising by 22% for males and 17% for females from 2019 to 2021.

GBD 2021 goes beyond assessing the impact of the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the authors note, it also offers implications for the future of health-care systems, economies, and societies and ... a valuable foundation for policy evaluation, development, and implementation around the world.

GBD 2021 indicates that, despite early warnings that COVID-19 could threaten the gains that the world had made in saving childrens lives, these improvements continued during the pandemic, albeit at a slower pace. Still, stark differences in child mortality persist between regions. In 2021, one out of every four children who died worldwide lived in South Asia, while two out of every four children who died lived in sub-Saharan Africa.

Our study suggests that, even after taking stock of the terrible loss of lives the world experienced due to the pandemic, we have made incredible progress over 72 years since 1950, with child mortality continuing to drop globally, said co-first author Dr. Hmwe Hmwe Kyu, Associate Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME at the University of Washington. Now, continuing to build on our successes, while preparing for the next pandemic and addressing the vast disparities in health across countries, should be our greatest focuses.

"Even after taking stock of the terrible loss of lives the world experienced due to the pandemic, we have made incredible progress over 72 years since 1950."

The GBD 2021 study also assessed population trends. Beginning in 2017, the rate of global population growth began to drop following years of stagnation. Then, during the COVID-19 pandemic, these declines accelerated. As of 2021, 56 countries have reached peak population. Now, these countries are seeing their populations shrink. However, rapid population growth has continued in many lower-income countries. In addition, populations around the world are aging. Between 2000 and 2021, the number of people who were 65 and older grew faster than the number of people under age 15 in 188 countries and territories.

Slowing population growth and ageing populations, along with the concentration of future population growth shifting to poorer locations with worse health outcomes, will bring about unprecedented social, economic, and political challenges, such as labor shortages in areas where younger populations are shrinking and resource scarcity in places where population size continues to expand rapidly, says Dr. Schumacher. This is worth restating, as these issues will require significant policy forethought to address in the affected regions. As one example, nations around the world will need to cooperate on voluntary emigration, for which one source of useful guidance is the UNs Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

For interview requests, journalists may contact [emailprotected].

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research organization at the University of Washington (UW). Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD), Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the worlds most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) is the largest and most comprehensive effort to quantify health loss across places and over time. It draws on the work of more than 11,000 collaborators across more than 160 countries and territories. 2021 the newly published most recent round of GBD results includes more than 607 billion estimates of 371 diseases and injuries and 88 risk factors in 204 countries and territories. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation coordinates the study.

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COVID-19 had greater impact on life expectancy than previously known, but child mortality rates continued to decline ... - Institute for Health...

The origin of COVID-19 is highly debated most studies have focused on a zoonotic origin, but research from the journal Risk Analysis, examined the likelihood of an unnatural origin (i.e. from a laboratory.)

The results indicate a greater likelihood of an unnatural than natural origin of the virus. The researchers used an established risk analysis tool for differentiating natural and unnatural epidemics, the modified Grunow-Finke assessment tool (mGFT) to study the origin of COVID-19. This risk assessment cannot prove the specific origin of COVID-19 but shows that the possibility of a laboratory origin cannot be easily dismissed.

One of the researchers, Xin Chen, Ph.D., a researcher from The University of New South Wales, is available for an interview to speak more about the results of this study and its implications.

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Study reveals the possibility of a laboratory origin of COVID-19 - News-Medical.Net

TODAY: 4 years since former Nevada governor declared shutdown due to COVID-19

by News 3 Staff

KSNV

LAS VEGAS (KSNV)

Today marks four years since former Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced our state was closing down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We don't have time to waste. At this time, we must act aggressively and decisively to protect ourselves, our families, and our community," said Sisolak.

Las Vegas soon later went dark.

Many workers in our state were forced from their jobs without knowing what was next, and many were in the service industry.

There was also tension within our local schools after students were forced to attend classes remotely.

At last check, CDC data shows more than 12,000 Nevadans died from COVID-19 since the start of 2020.

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TODAY: 4 years since former Nevada governor declared shutdown due to COVID-19 - News3LV

A Stoughton man has pleaded guilty to participation in a COVID-19 business relief loan fraud scheme that netted those involved over $220,000, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorneys Office.

On Thursday, 41-year-old Patrick Joseph pleaded guilty to several fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud charges, the U.S. Attorneys office said in a press release.

Between April 2020 and April 2021, Joseph participated in a scheme that netted those involved over $220,000 through fraudulent COVID-19 paycheck protection business loan applications, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. He and co-conspirator, 55-year-old Stoughton resident Yves Montima, submitted 12 fraudulent loan applications, both in their names and on behalf of others.

The fraudulent loan applications claimed non-existent independent contractor income that they substantiated through falsified tax documents, the U.S. Attorneys office said. In addition to the money they got from the loans submitted in their own names, Joseph and Montima received kickback payments from the other people who benefited through their scheme.

Montima pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud in November 2021, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys office. In September 2023, a federal judge sentenced him to three years of supervised release with the first 10 months served in home confinement and to pay $239,595 in restitution.

Joseph was indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2021, and his sentencing is scheduled for June 20, according to the U.S. Attorneys office. He faces decades in prison, over a decade of supervised release and over $1 million in fines and forfeiture.

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Stoughton man pleads guilty to COVID-19 business relief loan fraud scheme - MassLive.com

Coronavirus

By Aditi Debnath | Here & Now

March 15, 2024

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Wisconsin Department of Health Services state epidemiologist Dr. Jasmine Zapata discusses key lessons learned in the four years after the COVID-19 pandemic emerged and ongoing status of the virus.

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Dr. Jasmine Zapata on takeaways from the COVID-19 pandemic - PBS Wisconsin