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A Series of Recently Published Papers Report the Development of SARS-CoV2 Neutralizing Antibodies and Passive Immunity toward COVID19

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, COVID-19 effects on Human Heart, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Human Antibody Response, Immune Modulatory, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Immunology, Infectious Disease & New Antibiotic Targets, number of asymptomatic infections, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-COV2 Hijacking the Complement and Coagulation Systems, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Synthetic Immunology: Hacking Immune Cells, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Vaccinology, Viral diseases, Virology - Vector-borne DIsease, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal hyperimmune globulin (H-IG), coronavirus, COVID-19, COVID-19 Treatment, humanized monoclonal antibody, neutralizing antibody, SARS-CoV-2 on May 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »

A Series of Recently Published Papers Report the Development of SARS-CoV2 Neutralizing Antibodies and Passive Immunity toward COVID19

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

Passive Immunity and Treatment of Infectious Diseases

The ability of one person to pass on immunity to another person (passive immunity) is one of the chief methods we develop immunity to many antigens. For instance, maternal antibodies are passed to the offspring in the neonatal setting as well as in a mother’s milk during breast feeding. In the clinical setting this is achieved by transferring antibodies from one patient who has been exposed to an antigen (like a virus) to the another individual. However, the process of purifying the most efficacious antibody as well as its mass production is limiting due to its complexity and cost and can be prohibitively long delay during a pandemic outbreak, when therapies are few and needed immediately. Regardless, the benefits of developing neutralizing antibodies to confer passive immunity versus development of a vaccine are evident, as the former takes considerable less time than development of a safe and effective vaccine. For a good review on the development and use of neutralizing antibodies and the use of passive immunity to treat infectious diseases please read the following review:

Margaret A. Keller^1,* and E. Richard Stiehm. Passive Immunity in Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2000 Oct; 13(4): 602–614. doi: 10.1128/cmr.13.4.602-614.2000

ABSTRACT

Antibodies have been used for over a century in the prevention and treatment of infectious disease. They are used most commonly for the prevention of measles, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, varicella, rabies, and vaccinia. Although their use in the treatment of bacterial infection has largely been supplanted by antibiotics, antibodies remain a critical component of the treatment of diptheria, tetanus, and botulism. High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin can be used to treat certain viral infections in immunocompromised patients (e.g., cytomegalovirus, parvovirus B19, and enterovirus infections). Antibodies may also be of value in toxic shock syndrome, Ebola virus, and refractory staphylococcal infections. Palivizumab, the first monoclonal antibody licensed (in 1998) for an infectious disease, can prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection in high-risk infants. The development and use of additional monoclonal antibodies to key epitopes of microbial pathogens may further define protective humoral responses and lead to new approaches for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

TABLE 1

Summary of the efficacy of antibody in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases

Infection
Bacterial infections
Respiratory infections (streptococcus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitis, Haemophilus influenzae)
Diphtheria
Pertussis
Tetanus
Other clostridial infections
C. botulinum
C. difficile
Staphylococcal infections
Toxic shock syndrome
Antibiotic resistance
S. epidermidis in newborns
Invasive streptococcal disease (toxic shock syndrome)
High-risk newborns
Shock, intensive care, and trauma
Pseudomonas infection
Cystic Fibrosis
Burns
Viral diseases
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis C
HIV infection
RSV infection
Herpesvirus infections
CMV
EBV
HSV
VZV
Parvovirus infection
Enterovirus infection
In newborns
Ebola
Rabies
Measles
Rubella
Mumps
Tick-borne encephalitis
Vaccinia

Go to:

A Great Explanation of Active versus Passive Immunity by Dr. John Campbell, one of the pioneers in the field of immunology:Antibodies have been used for over a century in the prevention and treatment of infectious disease. They are used most commonly for the prevention of measles, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, varicella, rabies, and vaccinia. Although their use in the treatment of bacterial infection has largely been supplanted by antibiotics, antibodies remain a critical component of the treatment of diptheria, tetanus, and botulism. High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin can be used to treat certain viral infections in immunocompromised patients (e.g., cytomegalovirus, parvovirus B19, and enterovirus infections). Antibodies may also be of value in toxic shock syndrome, Ebola virus, and refractory staphylococcal infections. Palivizumab, the first monoclonal antibody licensed (in 1998) for an infectious disease, can prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection in high-risk infants. The development and use of additional monoclonal antibodies to key epitopes of microbial pathogens may further define protective humoral responses and lead to new approaches for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.

However, developing successful neutralizing antibodies can still be difficult but with the latest monoclonal antibody technology, as highlighted by the following papers, this process has made much more efficient. In addition, it is not feasable to isolate antibodies from the plasma of covalescent patients in a scale that is needed for a worldwide outbreak.

A good explanation of the need can be found is Dr. Irina Robu’s post Race to develop antibody drugs for COVID-19 where:

When fighting off foreign invaders, our bodies make antibodies precisely produced for the task. The reason vaccines offer such long-lasting protection is they train the immune system to identify a pathogen, so immune cells remember and are ready to attack the virus when it appears. Monoclonal antibodies for coronavirus would take the place of the ones our bodies might produce to fight the disease. The manufactured antibodies would be infused into the body to either tamp down an existing infection, or to protect someone who has been exposed to the virus. However, these drugs are synthetic versions of the convalescent plasma treatments that rely on antibodies from people who have recovered from infection. But the engineered versions are easier to scale because they’re manufactured in rats, rather than from plasma donors.

The following papers represent the latest published work on development of therapeutic and prophylactic neutralizing antibodies to the coronavirus SARS-CoV2

1. Cross-neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by a human monoclonal SARS-CoV antibody.

Pinto, D., Park, Y., Beltramello, M. et al. Cross-neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by a human monoclonal SARS-CoV antibody. Nature (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2349-y

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a newly emerged coronavirus responsible for the current COVID-19 pandemic that has resulted in more than 3.7 million infections and 260,000 deaths as of 6 May 2020^1,2. Vaccine and therapeutic discovery efforts are paramount to curb the pandemic spread of this zoonotic virus. The SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein promotes entry into host cells and is the main target of neutralizing antibodies. Here we describe multiple monoclonal antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 S identified from memory B cells of an individual who was infected with SARS-CoV in 2003. One antibody, named S309, potently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV pseudoviruses as well as authentic SARS-CoV-2 by engaging the S receptor-binding domain. Using cryo-electron microscopy and binding assays, we show that S309 recognizes a glycan-containing epitope that is conserved within the sarbecovirus subgenus, without competing with receptor attachment. Antibody cocktails including S309 along with other antibodies identified here further enhanced SARS-CoV-2 neutralization and may limit the emergence of neutralization-escape mutants. These results pave the way for using S309- and S309-containing antibody cocktails for prophylaxis in individuals at high risk of exposure or as a post-exposure therapy to limit or treat severe disease.

2. Potent neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 identified by high-throughput single-cell sequencing of convalescent patients’ B cells

Yunlong Cao et al. Potent neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 identified by high-throughput single-cell sequencing of convalescent patients’ B cells. Cell (2020).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.05.025

Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic urgently needs therapeutic and prophylactic interventions. Here we report the rapid identification of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies by high-throughput single-cell RNA and VDJ sequencing of antigen-enriched B cells from 60 convalescent patients. From 8,558 antigen-binding IgG1⁺ clonotypes, 14 potent neutralizing antibodies were identified with the most potent one, BD-368-2, exhibiting an IC₅₀ of 1.2 ng/mL and 15 ng/mL against pseudotyped and authentic SARS-CoV-2, respectively. BD-368-2 also displayed strong therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy in SARS-CoV-2-infected hACE2-transgenic mice. Additionally, the 3.8Å Cryo-EM structure of a neutralizing antibody in complex with the spike-ectodomain trimer revealed the antibody’s epitope overlaps with the ACE2 binding site. Moreover, we demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies could be directly selected based on similarities of their predicted CDR3_H structures to those of SARS-CoV neutralizing antibodies. Altogether, we showed that human neutralizing antibodies could be efficiently discovered by high-throughput single B-cell sequencing in response to pandemic infectious diseases.

3. A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection

Wang, C., Li, W., Drabek, D. et al. A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nat Commun 11, 2251 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16256-y

Abstract

The emergence of the novel human coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China has caused a worldwide epidemic of respiratory disease (COVID-19). Vaccines and targeted therapeutics for treatment of this disease are currently lacking. Here we report a human monoclonal antibody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 (and SARS-CoV) in cell culture. This cross-neutralizing antibody targets a communal epitope on these viruses and may offer potential for prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Extra References on Development of Neutralizing antibodies for COVID19 {Sars-CoV2} published this year (2020) [1-4]

Fan P, Chi X, Liu G, Zhang G, Chen Z, Liu Y, Fang T, Li J, Banadyga L, He S et al: Potent neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against Ebola virus isolated from vaccinated donors. mAbs 2020, 12(1):1742457.
Dussupt V, Sankhala RS, Gromowski GD, Donofrio G, De La Barrera RA, Larocca RA, Zaky W, Mendez-Rivera L, Choe M, Davidson E et al: Potent Zika and dengue cross-neutralizing antibodies induced by Zika vaccination in a dengue-experienced donor. Nature medicine 2020, 26(2):228-235.
Young CL, Lyons AC, Hsu WW, Vanlandingham DL, Park SL, Bilyeu AN, Ayers VB, Hettenbach SM, Zelenka AM, Cool KR et al: Protection of swine by potent neutralizing anti-Japanese encephalitis virus monoclonal antibodies derived from vaccination. Antiviral research 2020, 174:104675.
Sautto GA, Kirchenbaum GA, Abreu RB, Ecker JW, Pierce SR, Kleanthous H, Ross TM: A Computationally Optimized Broadly Reactive Antigen Subtype-Specific Influenza Vaccine Strategy Elicits Unique Potent Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies against Hemagglutinin. J Immunol 2020, 204(2):375-385.

For More Articles on COVID-19 Please see Our Coronavirus Portal on this Open Access Scientific Journal at:

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/coronavirus-portal/

and the following Articles on Immunity at

Race to develop antibody drugs for COVID-19

Bispecific and Trispecific Engagers: NK-T Cells and Cancer Therapy

Issues Need to be Resolved With ImmunoModulatory Therapies: NK cells, mAbs, and adoptive T cells

Antibody-bound Viral Antigens

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Crowdsourcing Difficult-to-Collect Epidemiological Data in Pandemics: Lessons from Ebola to the current COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, coronavirus, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, Curation, Curation methodology, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Evidence-based decision-making, Evolution of Biology Through Culture, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), number of asymptomatic infections, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-COV2 Hijacking the Complement and Coagulation Systems, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Vaccinology, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged China, coronavirus, Ebola virus, Epidemiology, Pandemic, Population Health Management, SARS-CoV-2 on May 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Crowdsourcing Difficult-to-Collect Epidemiological Data in Pandemics: Lessons from Ebola to the current COVID-19 Pandemic

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, epidemiological data from the origin of the Sars-Cov2 outbreak, notably from the Wuhan region in China, was sparse. In fact, official individual patient data rarely become available early on in an outbreak, when that data is needed most. Epidemiological data was just emerging from China as countries like Italy, Spain, and the United States started to experience a rapid emergence of the outbreak in their respective countries. China, made of 31 geographical provinces, is a vast and complex country, with both large urban and rural areas.

Geographic Regions of China. Source: https://www.unicef.cn/en/figure-11-geographic-regions-china

As a result of this geographical diversity and differences in healthcare coverage across the country, epidemiological data can be challenging. For instance, cancer incidence data for regions and whole country is difficult to calculate as there are not many regional cancer data collection efforts, contrasted with the cancer statistics collected in the United States, which is meticulously collected by cancer registries in each region, state and municipality. Therefore, countries like China must depend on hospital record data and autopsy reports in order to back-extrapolate cancer incidence data. This is the case in some developed countries like Italy where cancer registry is administered by a local government and may not be as extensive (for example in the Napoli region of Italy).

Population density China by province. Source https://www.unicef.cn/en/figure-13-population-density-province-2017

Epidemiologists, in areas in which data collection may be challenging, are relying on alternate means of data collection such as using devices connected to the internet-of-things such as mobile devices, or in some cases, social media is becoming useful to obtain health related data. Such as effort to acquire pharmacovigilance data, patient engagement, and oral chemotherapeutic adherence using the social media site Twitter has been discussed in earlier posts: (see below)

Twitter is Becoming a Powerful Tool in Science and Medicine at https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2014/11/06/twitter-is-becoming-a-powerful-tool-in-science-and-medicine/

Now epidemiologists are finding crowd-sourced data from social media and social networks becoming useful in collecting COVID-19 related data in those countries where health data collection efforts may be sub-optimal. In a recent paper in The Lancet Digital Health [1], authors Kaiyuan Sun, Jenny Chen, and Cecile Viboud present data from the COVID-19 outbreak in China using information collected over social network sites as well as public news outlets and find strong correlations with later-released government statistics, showing the usefulness in such social and crowd-sourcing strategies to collect pertinent time-sensitive data. In particular, the authors aim was to investigate this strategy of data collection to reduce the time delays between infection and detection, isolation and reporting of cases.

The paper is summarized below:

Kaiyuan Sun, PhD Jenny Chen, BScn Cécile Viboud, PhD . (2020). Early epidemiological analysis of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak based on crowdsourced data: a population-level observational study. The Lancet: Digital Health; Volume 2, Issue 4, E201-E208.

Summary

Background

As the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) progresses, epidemiological data are needed to guide situational awareness and intervention strategies. Here we describe efforts to compile and disseminate epidemiological information on COVID-19 from news media and social networks.

Methods

In this population-level observational study, we searched DXY.cn, a health-care-oriented social network that is currently streaming news reports on COVID-19 from local and national Chinese health agencies. We compiled a list of individual patients with COVID-19 and daily province-level case counts between Jan 13 and Jan 31, 2020, in China. We also compiled a list of internationally exported cases of COVID-19 from global news media sources (Kyodo News, The Straits Times, and CNN), national governments, and health authorities. We assessed trends in the epidemiology of COVID-19 and studied the outbreak progression across China, assessing delays between symptom onset, seeking care at a hospital or clinic, and reporting, before and after Jan 18, 2020, as awareness of the outbreak increased. All data were made publicly available in real time.

Findings

We collected data for 507 patients with COVID-19 reported between Jan 13 and Jan 31, 2020, including 364 from mainland China and 143 from outside of China. 281 (55%) patients were male and the median age was 46 years (IQR 35–60). Few patients (13 [3%]) were younger than 15 years and the age profile of Chinese patients adjusted for baseline demographics confirmed a deficit of infections among children. Across the analysed period, delays between symptom onset and seeking care at a hospital or clinic were longer in Hubei province than in other provinces in mainland China and internationally. In mainland China, these delays decreased from 5 days before Jan 18, 2020, to 2 days thereafter until Jan 31, 2020 (p=0·0009). Although our sample captures only 507 (5·2%) of 9826 patients with COVID-19 reported by official sources during the analysed period, our data align with an official report published by Chinese authorities on Jan 28, 2020.

Interpretation

News reports and social media can help reconstruct the progression of an outbreak and provide detailed patient-level data in the context of a health emergency. The availability of a central physician-oriented social network facilitated the compilation of publicly available COVID-19 data in China. As the outbreak progresses, social media and news reports will probably capture a diminishing fraction of COVID-19 cases globally due to reporting fatigue and overwhelmed health-care systems. In the early stages of an outbreak, availability of public datasets is important to encourage analytical efforts by independent teams and provide robust evidence to guide interventions.

A Few notes on Methodology:

The authors used crowd-sourced reports from DXY.cn, a social network for Chinese physicians, health-care professionals, pharmacies and health-care facilities. This online platform provides real time coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak in China
More data was curated from news media, television and includes time-stamped information on COVID-19 cases
These reports are publicly available, de-identified patient data
No patient consent was needed and no ethics approval was required
Data was collected between January 20, 2020 and January 31,2020
Sex, age, province of identification, travel history, dates of symptom development was collected
Additional data was collected for other international sites of the pandemic including Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Russia, Singapore, UK, and USA
All patients in database had laboratory confirmation of infection

Results

507 patient data was collected with 153 visited and 152 resident of Wuhan
Reported cases were skewed toward males however the overall population curve is skewed toward males in China
Most cases (26%) were from Beijing (urban area) while an equal amount were from rural areas combined (Shaanzi and Yunnan)
Age distribution of COVID cases were skewed toward older age groups with median age of 45 HOWEVER there were surprisingly a statistically high amount of cases less than 5 years of age
Outbreak progression based on the crowd-sourced patient line was consistent with the data published by the China Center for Disease Control
Median reporting delay in the authors crowd-sourcing data was 5 days
Crowd-sourced data was able to detect apparent rapid growth of newly reported cases during the collection period in several provinces outside of Hubei province, which is consistent with local government data

The following graphs show age distribution for China in 2017 and predicted for 2050.

Source: https://www.indexmundi.com/china/age_structure.html

projected age distribution China 2050. Source https://chinapower.csis.org/aging-problem/

The authors have previously used this curation of news methodology to analyze the Ebola outbreak[2].

A further use of the crowd-sourced database was availability of travel histories for patients returning from Wuhan and onset of symptoms, allowing for estimation of incubation periods.

The following published literature has also used these datasets:

Backer JA, Klinkenberg D, Wallinga J: Incubation period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections among travellers from Wuhan, China, 20-28 January 2020. Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin 2020, 25(5).

Lauer SA, Grantz KH, Bi Q, Jones FK, Zheng Q, Meredith HR, Azman AS, Reich NG, Lessler J: The Incubation Period of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) From Publicly Reported Confirmed Cases: Estimation and Application. Annals of internal medicine 2020, 172(9):577-582.

Li Q, Guan X, Wu P, Wang X, Zhou L, Tong Y, Ren R, Leung KSM, Lau EHY, Wong JY et al: Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia. The New England journal of medicine 2020, 382(13):1199-1207.

Dataset is available on the Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical systems website of Northeastern University at https://www.mobs-lab.org/.

References

Sun K, Chen J, Viboud C: Early epidemiological analysis of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak based on crowdsourced data: a population-level observational study. The Lancet Digital health 2020, 2(4):e201-e208.
Cleaton JM, Viboud C, Simonsen L, Hurtado AM, Chowell G: Characterizing Ebola Transmission Patterns Based on Internet News Reports. Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2016, 62(1):24-31.

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Powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools Being Developed for the COVID-19 Fight

Posted in Artificial Intelligence in Health Care - Tools & Innovations, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine - Application for Diagnosis, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine - Applications in Therapeutics, Big Data, Biomarkers: Inflammation, Cancer Researchers Fighting COVID-19, coronavirus, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, COVID-19 effects on Human Heart, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Disease Biology, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, HealthCare IT, Image Processing/Computing, Imaging-based Cancer Patient Management, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Infectious Disease & New Antibiotic Targets, Infectious Disease Immunodiagnostics, Intelligent Information Systems, number of asymptomatic infections, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-COV2 Hijacking the Complement and Coagulation Systems, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Vaccinology, Viral diseases, Virology - Vector-borne DIsease, tagged #COVID-19, AI, Artificial intelligence, Artificial Intelligence & Clinical Trials, biotech innovation, COVID-19, DiA, IBM Watson, imaging, Pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology on May 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Powerful AI Tools Being Developed for the COVID-19 Fight

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

Source: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/04/ai-powered-technologies-accelerate-discovery-covid-19/

IBM Releases Novel AI-Powered Technologies to Help Health and Research Community Accelerate the Discovery of Medical Insights and Treatments for COVID-19

April 3, 2020 | Written by: Dario Gil

IBM Research has been actively developing new cloud and AI-powered technologies that can help researchers across a variety of scientific disciplines accelerate the process of discovery. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, we continue to ask how these technologies and our scientific knowledge can help in the global battle against coronavirus.

Today, we are making available multiple novel, free resources from across IBM to help healthcare researchers, doctors and scientists around the world accelerate COVID-19 drug discovery: from gathering insights, to applying the latest virus genomic information and identifying potential targets for treatments, to creating new drug molecule candidates.

Though some of the resources are still in exploratory stages, IBM is making them available to qualifying researchers at no charge to aid the international scientific investigation of COVID-19.

Today’s announcement follows our recent leadership in launching the U.S. COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which is harnessing massive computing power in the effort to help confront the coronavirus.

Streamlining the Search for Information

Healthcare agencies and governments around the world have quickly amassed medical and other relevant data about the pandemic. And, there are already vast troves of medical research that could prove relevant to COVID-19. Yet, as with any large volume of disparate data sources, it is difficult to efficiently aggregate and analyze that data in ways that can yield scientific insights.

To help researchers access structured and unstructured data quickly, we are offering a cloud-based AI research resource that has been trained on a corpus of thousands of scientific papers contained in the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), prepared by the White House and a coalition of research groups, and licensed databases from the DrugBank, Clinicaltrials.gov and GenBank. This tool uses our advanced AI and allows researchers to pose specific queries to the collections of papers and to extract critical COVID-19 knowledge quickly. Please note, access to this resource will be granted only to qualified researchers. To learn more and request access, please click here.

Aiding the Hunt for Treatments

The traditional drug discovery pipeline relies on a library of compounds that are screened, improved, and tested to determine safety and efficacy. In dealing with new pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, there is the potential to enhance the compound libraries with additional novel compounds. To help address this need, IBM Research has recently created a new, AI-generative framework which can rapidly identify novel peptides, proteins, drug candidates and materials.

We have applied this AI technology against three COVID-19 targets to identify 3,000 new small molecules as potential COVID-19 therapeutic candidates. IBM is releasing these molecules under an open license, and researchers can study them via a new interactive molecular explorer tool to understand their characteristics and relationship to COVID-19 and identify candidates that might have desirable properties to be further pursued in drug development.

To streamline efforts to identify new treatments for COVID-19, we are also making the IBM Functional Genomics Platform available for free for the duration of the pandemic. Built to discover the molecular features in viral and bacterial genomes, this cloud-based repository and research tool includes genes, proteins and other molecular targets from sequenced viral and bacterial organisms in one place with connections pre-computed to help accelerate discovery of molecular targets required for drug design, test development and treatment.

Select IBM collaborators from government agencies, academic institutions and other organizations already use this platform for bacterial genomic study. And now, those working on COVID-19 can request the IBM Functional Genomics Platform interface to explore the genomic features of the virus. Access to the IBM Functional Genomics Platform will be prioritized for those conducting COVID-19 research. To learn more and request access, please click here.

Drug and Disease Information

Clinicians and healthcare professionals on the frontlines of care will also have free access to hundreds of pieces of evidence-based, curated COVID-19 and infectious disease content from IBM Micromedex and EBSCO DynaMed. Using these two rich decision support solutions, users will have access to drug and disease information in a single and comprehensive search. Clinicians can also provide patients with consumer-friendly patient education handouts with relevant, actionable medical information. IBM Micromedex is one of the largest online reference databases for medication information and is used by more than 4,500 hospitals and health systems worldwide. EBSCO DynaMed provides peer-reviewed clinical content, including systematic literature reviews in 28 specialties for comprehensive disease topics, health conditions and abnormal findings, to highly focused topics on evaluation, differential diagnosis and management.

The scientific community is working hard to make important new discoveries relevant to the treatment of COVID-19, and we’re hopeful that releasing these novel tools will help accelerate this global effort. This work also outlines our long-term vision for the future of accelerated discovery, where multi-disciplinary scientists and clinicians work together to rapidly and effectively create next generation therapeutics, aided by novel AI-powered technologies.

Learn more about IBM’s response to COVID-19: IBM.com/COVID19.

Source: https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2020/04/ai-powered-technologies-accelerate-discovery-covid-19/

DiA Imaging Analysis Receives Grant to Accelerate Global Access to its AI Ultrasound Solutions in the Fight Against COVID-19

Source: https://www.grantnews.com/news-articles/?rkey=20200512UN05506&filter=12337

Grant will allow company to accelerate access to its AI solutions and use of ultrasound in COVID-19 emergency settings

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 12, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — DiA Imaging Analysis, a leading provider of AI based ultrasound analysis solutions, today announced that it has received a government grant from the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) to develop solutions for ultrasound imaging analysis of COVID-19 patients using Artificial Intelligence (AI).Using ultrasound in point of care emergency settings has gained momentum since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In these settings, which include makeshift hospital COVID-19 departments and triage “tents,” portable ultrasound offers clinicians diagnostic decision support, with the added advantage of being easier to disinfect and eliminating the need to transport patients from one room to another.However, analyzing ultrasound images is a process that it is still mostly done visually, leading to a growing market need for automated solutions and decision support.As the leading provider of AI solutions for ultrasound analysis and backed by Connecticut Innovations, DiA makes ultrasound analysis smarter and accessible to both new and expert ultrasound users with various levels of experience. The company’s flagship LVivo Cardio Toolbox for AI-based cardiac ultrasound analysis enables clinicians to automatically generate objective clinical analysis, with increased accuracy and efficiency to support decisions about patient treatment and care.

The IIA grant provides a budget of millions NIS to increase access to DiA’s solutions for users in Israel and globally, and accelerate R&D with a focus on new AI solutions for COVID-19 patient management. DiA solutions are vendor-neutral and platform agnostic, as well as powered to run in low processing, mobile environments like handheld ultrasound.Recent data highlights the importance of looking at the heart during the progression of COVID-19, with one study citing 20% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showing signs of heart damage and increased mortality rates in those patients. DiA’s LVivo cardiac analysis solutions automatically generate objective, quantified cardiac ultrasound results to enable point-of-care clinicians to assess cardiac function on the spot, near patients’ bedside.

According to Dr. Ami Applebaum, the Chairman of the Board of the IIA, “The purpose of IIA’s call was to bring solutions to global markets for fighting COVID-19, with an emphasis on relevancy, fast time to market and collaborations promising continuity of the Israeli economy. DiA meets these requirements with AI innovation for ultrasound.”DiA has received several FDA/CE clearances and established distribution partnerships with industry leading companies including GE Healthcare, IBM Watson and Konica Minolta, currently serving thousands of end users worldwide.”We see growing use of ultrasound in point of care settings, and an urgent need for automated, objective solutions that provide decision support in real time,” said Hila Goldman-Aslan, CEO and Co-founder of DiA Imaging Analysis, “Our AI solutions meet this need by immediately helping clinicians on the frontlines to quickly and easily assess COVID-19 patients’ hearts to help guide care delivery.”

About DiA Imaging Analysis:
DiA Imaging Analysis provides advanced AI-based ultrasound analysis technology that makes ultrasound accessible to all. DiA’s automated tools deliver fast and accurate clinical indications to support the decision-making process and offer better patient care. DiA’s AI-based technology uses advanced pattern recognition and machine-learning algorithms to automatically imitate the way the human eye detects image borders and identifies motion. Using DiA’s tools provides automated and objective AI tools, helps reduce variability among users, and increases efficiency. It allows clinicians with various levels of experience to quickly and easily analyze ultrasound images.

For additional information, please visit http://www.dia-analysis.com.

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Special COVID-19 Christopher Magazine

Posted in Cardiovascular and Vascular Systems, coronavirus, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, Evolution of Biology Through Culture, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Interviews with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), Interviews with Scientific Leaders, Population genetics, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Population Health Management, Nutrition and Phytochemistry, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-COV2 Hijacking the Complement and Coagulation Systems, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Vaccinology, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged #COVID-19, coronavirus, diagnostic testing, key opinion leaders, SARS-CoV-2, scientific leaders on May 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

via Special COVID-19 Christopher Magazine

Special COVID-19 Christopher Magazine

MARCH 21, 2020 / KARLSMALLEY

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

Antonio Giordano, MD, PhD. explains what COVID is and how to contain the infection, pointing also to what will require attention next.

Please see this special release at http://online.fliphtml5.com/qlnw/zgau/#p=1

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Dr. Giordano Featured in Forbes Article on COVID-19 Antibody Tests in Italy and USA

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, Cancer Researchers Fighting COVID-19, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19 effects on Human Heart, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Diagnostic Immunology, Diagnostics and Lab Tests, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Evolution of Biology Through Culture, Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Interviews with Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), number of asymptomatic infections, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, Scientific Publishing, Systemic Inflammatory Diseases as CVD Risk, tagged #italy, antibody tests, COVID-19, diagnostic antibody, diagnostic testing, Forbes, forbes magazine, immunoassay, key opinion leaders, SARS-CoV-2, scientific leaders on May 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Dr. Giordano Featured in Forbes Article on COVID-19 Antibody Tests in Italy and USA

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

WordCloud Image Produced by Adam Tubman

via Dr. Giordano Featured in Forbes Article on COVID-19 Antibody Tests in Italy and USA

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Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Session on NCI Activities: COVID-19 and Cancer Research 5:20 PM

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, Cancer - General, CANCER BIOLOGY & Innovations in Cancer Therapy, Cancer Genomics, Cancer Researchers Fighting COVID-19, Conference Coverage with Social Media, coronavirus, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Funding Opportunities for Cancer Research, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), number of asymptomatic infections, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, REAL TIME Conference Coverage Twitter's Hashtags and Handles per Presentation/session, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Vaccinology, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged AACR, American Association for Cancer Research, Cancer research, coronavirus, COVID-19, national cancer institute, SARS-CoV-2 on April 28, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Session on NCI Activities: COVID-19 and Cancer Research 5:20 PM

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

NCI Activities: COVID-19 and Cancer Research

Dinah S. Singer. NCI-DCB, Bethesda, MD @theNCI

at the NCI they are pivoting some of their clinical trials to address COVID related issues like trials on tocilizumab and producing longitudinal cohorts of cancer patients and COVID for further analysis and studies
vaccine and antibody efforts at NCI and they are asking all their cancer centers (Cancer COVID Consortium) collecting data
Moonshot is collecting metadata but now COVID data from cellular therapy patients
they are about to publish new grants related to COVID and adding option to investigators to use current funds to do COVID related options
she says if at home take the time to think, write manuscripts, analyze data BE A REVIEWER FOR JOURNALS,
SSMMART project from Moonshot is still active
so far NCI and NIH grant process is ongoing although the peer review process is slower
they have extended deadlines with NO justification required (extend 90 days)
also allowing flexibility on use of grant money and allowing more early investigator rules and lax on those rules
non competitive renewals (type 5) will allow restructuring of project; contact program administrator
she and NCI heard rumors of institutions shutting down cancer research she is stressing to them not to do that
non refundable travel costs may be charged to the grant
NCI contemplating on extending the early investigator time
for more information go to NIH and NCI COVID-19 pages which have more guidances updated regularly

In the News: An interview with NCI's Dinah Singer, Ph.D., "on the moonshot fight against cancer" https://t.co/lhKL47lS8h @washingtonpost pic.twitter.com/D6GDH6pVpo

— National Cancer Institute (@theNCI) January 13, 2017

Follow on Twitter at:

Updated listing of COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic trials from NIH Clinical Trials.gov

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, Clinical Diagnostics, Clinical Genomics, COVID-19, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Drug Development Process, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, FDA, FDA Regulatory Affairs, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Infectious Disease & New Antibiotic Targets, Infectious Disease Immunodiagnostics, number of asymptomatic infections, Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Viral diseases, tagged #COVID-19, Clinical trial, coronavirus, COVID-19, National Institutes of Health (NIH) ’s Common Fund, SARS-CoV-2 on April 16, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Updated listing of COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic trials from NIH Clinical Trials.gov

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

The following file contains an updated list (search on 4/15/2020) of COVID-19 related clinical trials from https://clinicaltrials.gov/

The Excel file can be uploaded here: Current Covid-19 Trials

Each sheet in the workbook is separated by current COVID-19 vaccine trials, currents COVID-19 trials with the IL6R (interleukin 6 receptor) antagonist tocilizumab, and all COVID related trials. The Excel spreadsheet also contains links to more information about the trials.

As of April 15, 2020 the number of listed trials are as follows:

clinicaltrials.gov search terms	Number of results	Number of completed trials	Number of trials currently recruiting
COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2	410	5 completed 5 withdrawn	192
1st row terms + vaccine	28	0	15
1st row terms + tocilizumab	16	0	10
1st row terms + hydroxychloroquine	61	1	22

A few highlights of the COVID related trials on clinicaltrials.gov

Withdrawn trials

Recombinant Human Angiotensin-converting Enzyme 2 (rhACE2) as a Treatment for Patients With COVID-19 (NCT04287686)

Study Description

Go to

Brief Summary:

This is an open label, randomized, controlled, pilot clinical study in patients with COVID-19, to obtain preliminary biologic, physiologic, and clinical data in patients with COVID-19 treated with rhACE2 or control patients, to help determine whether a subsequent Phase 2B trial is warranted.

Condition or disease	Intervention/treatment	Phase
COVID-19	Drug: Recombinant human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (rhACE2)	Not Applicable

Detailed Description:

This is a small pilot study investigating whether there is any efficacy signal that warrants a larger Phase 2B trial, or any harm that suggests that such a trial should not be done. It is not expected to produce statistically significant results in the major endpoints. The investigators will examine all of the biologic, physiological, and clinical data to determine whether a Phase 2B trial is warranted.

Primary efficacy analysis will be carried only on patients receiving at least 4 doses of active drug. Safety analysis will be carried out on all patients receiving at least one dose of active drug.

It is planned to enroll more than or equal to 24 subjects with COVID-19. It is expected to have at least 12 evaluable patients in each group.

Experimental group: 0.4 mg/kg rhACE2 IV BID and standard of care Control group: standard of care

Intervention duration: up to 7 days of therapy

No planned interim analysis.

Study was withdrawn before participants were enrolled.

Washed Microbiota Transplantation for Patients With 2019-nCoV Infection (NCT04251767)

Study Description

Go to

Brief Summary:

Gut dysbiosis co-exists in patients with coronavirus pneumonia. Some of these patients would develop secondary bacterial infections and antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). The recent study on using washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) as rescue therapy in critically ill patients with AAD demonstrated the important clinical benefits and safety of WMT. This clinical trial aims to evaluate the outcome of WMT combining with standard therapy for patients with 2019-novel coronavirus pneumonia, especially for those patients with dysbiosis-related conditions.

Detailed Description:

An ongoing outbreak of 2019 novel coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China. 2019-nCoV has caused a cluster of pneumonia cases, and posed continuing epidemic threat to China and even global health. Unfortunately, there is currently no specific effective treatment for the viral infection and the related serious complications. It is in urgent need to find a new specific effective treatment for the 2019-nCoV infection. According to Declaration of Helsinki and International Ethical Guidelines for Health-related Research Involving Humans, the desperately ill patients with 2019-nCov infection during disease outbreaks have a moral right to try unvalidated medical interventions (UMIs) and that it is therefore unethical to restrict access to UMIs to the clinical trial context.

There is a vital link between the intestinal tract and respiratory tract, which was exemplified by intestinal complications during respiratory disease and vice versa. Some of these patients can develop secondary bacterial infections and antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD). The recent study on using washed microbiota transplantation (WMT) as rescue therapy in critically ill patients with AAD demonstrated the important clinical benefits and safety of WMT. Additionally, the recent animal study provided direct evidence supporting that antibiotics could decrease gut microbiota and the lung stromal interferon signature and facilitate early influenza virus replication in lung epithelia. Importantly, the above antibiotics caused negative effects can be reversed by fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) which suggested that FMT might be able to induce a significant improvement in the respiratory virus infection. Another evidence is that the microbiota could confer protection against certain virus infection such as influenza virus and respiratory syncytial virus by priming the immune response to viral evasion. The above results suggested that FMT might be a new therapeutic option for the treatment of virus-related pneumonia. The methodology of FMT recently was coined as WMT, which is dependent on the automatic facilities and washing process in a laboratory room. Patients underwent WMT with the decreased rate of adverse events and unchanged clinical efficacy in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. This clinical trial aims to evaluate the outcome of WMT combining with standard therapy for patients with novel coronavirus pneumonia, especially for those patients with dysbiosis-related conditions.


Responsible Party:	Faming Zhang, Director of Medical Center for Digestive Diseases, The Second Hospital of Nanjing Medical University
Identifier	NCT04251767 History of Changes

Study was withdrawn before participants were enrolled.

Therapy for Pneumonia Patients iInfected by 2019 Novel Coronavirus (NCT04293692)

Study Description

Go to

Brief Summary:

The 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia outbroken in Wuhan, China, which spread quickly to 26 countries worldwide and presented a serious threat to public health. It is mainly characterized by fever, dry cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Some patients may develop into rapid and deadly respiratory system injury with overwhelming inflammation in the lung. Currently, there is no effective treatment in clinical practice. The present clinical trial is to explore the safety and efficacy of Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells (UC-MSCs) therapy for novel coronavirus pneumonia patients.

Detailed Description:

Since late December 2019, human pneumonia cases infected by a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) were firstly identified in Wuhan, China. As the virus is contagious and of great epidemic, more and more cases have found in other areas of China and abroad. Up to February 24, a total of 77, 779 confirmed cases were reported in China. At present, there is no effective treatment for patients identified with novel coronavirus pneumonia. Therefore, it’s urgent to explore more active therapeutic methods to cure the patients.

Recently, some clinical researches about the 2019 novel coronavirus pneumonia published in The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine suggested that massive inflammatory cell infiltration and inflammatory cytokines secretion were found in patients’ lungs, alveolar epithelial cells and capillary endothelial cells were damaged, causing acute lung injury. It seems that the key to cure the pneumonia is to inhibit the inflammatory response, resulting to reduce the damage of alveolar epithelial cells and endothelial cells and repair the function of the lung.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are widely used in basic research and clinical application. They are proved to migrate to damaged tissues, exert anti-inflammatory and immunoregulatory functions, promote the regeneration of damaged tissues and inhibit tissue fibrosis. Studies have shown that MSCs can significantly reduce acute lung injury in mice caused by H9N2 and H5N1 viruses by reducing the levels of proinflammatory cytokines and the recruitment of inflammatory cells into the lungs. Compared with MSCs from other sources, human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (UC-MSCs) have been widely applied to various diseases due to their convenient collection, no ethical controversy, low immunogenicity, and rapid proliferation rate. In our recent research, we confirmed that UC-MSCs can significantly reduce inflammatory cell infiltration and inflammatory factors expression in lung tissue, and significantly protect lung tissue from endotoxin (LPS) -induced acute lung injury in mice.

The purpose of this clinical study is to investigate safety and efficiency of UC-MSCs in treating pneumonia patients infected by 2019-nCoV. The investigators planned to recruit 48 patients aged from 18 to 75 years old and had no severe underlying diseases. In the cell treatment group, 24 patients received 0.5*10E6 UC-MSCs /kg body weight intravenously treatment 4 times every other day besides conventional treatment. In the control group, other 24 patients received conventional treatment plus 4 times of placebo intravenously. The lung CT, blood biochemical examination, lymphocyte subsets, inflammatory factors, 28-days mortality, etc will be evaluated within 24h and 1, 2, 4, 8 weeks after UC-MSCs treatment.

Sponsor:

Puren Hospital Affiliated to Wuhan University of Science and Technology

Collaborator:

Wuhan Hamilton Bio-technology Co., Ltd

Study was withdrawn before participants were enrolled.

Prognositc Factors in COVID-19 Patients Complicated With Hypertension (NCT04272710)

Study Description

Brief Summary:

There are currently no clinical studies reporting clinical characteristics difference between the hypertension patients with and without ACEI treatment when suffered with novel coronavirus infection in China

Detailed Description:

At present, the outbreak of the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infection in Wuhan and Hubei provinces has attracted great attention from the medical community across the country. Both 2019-nCoV and SARS viruses are coronaviruses, and they have a large homology.

Published laboratory studies have suggested that SARS virus infection and its lung injury are related to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in lung tissue. And ACE and ACE2 in the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) are vital central links to maintain hemodynamic stability and normal heart and kidney function in vivo.

A large amount of evidence-based medical evidence shows that ACE inhibitors are the basic therapeutic drugs for maintaining hypertension, reducing the risk of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and renal adverse events, improving quality of life, and prolonging life in patients with hypertension. Recent experimental studies suggest that treatment with ACE inhibitors can significantly reduce pulmonary inflammation and cytokine release caused by coronavirus infection.

ACEI treatment

hypertension patients with ACEI treatment when suffered with novel coronavirus infection in China

Control

hypertension patients without ACEI treatment when suffered with novel coronavirus infection in China

Locations


China
The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University Chongqing, China

Sponsors and Collaborators Chongqing Medical University


Responsible PI:	Dongying Zhang, Associate Professor, Chongqing Medical University

Withdrawn (Similar projects have been registered, and it needs to be withdrawn.)

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The Second in a Series of Virtual Town Halls with Leading Oncologist on Cancer Patient Care during COVID-19 Pandemic: What you need to know

Posted in Biomarkers: Inflammation, Cancer - General, Cancer and Current Therapeutics, Cancer Researchers Fighting COVID-19, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), interventional oncology, Patient Experience: Personal Memories of Invasive Medical Intervantion, Patient-centered Medicine, Patient’s Voice: Personal Experience with Invasive Medical Procedures, REAL TIME Conference Coverage Twitter's Hashtags and Handles per Presentation/session, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccinology, Women Health, tagged #COVID-19, Cancer Care, cancer centers, cancer patient advocacy, cancer patient management, coronavirus, COVID-19, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, physician-patient relationship, SARS-CoV-2, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV | Tagged COVID-19 on April 3, 2020| Leave a Comment »

The Second in a Series of Virtual Town Halls with Leading Oncologist on Cancer Patient Care during COVID-19 Pandemic: What you need to know

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

@StephenJWillia2

The second virtual Town Hall with Leading International Oncologist, discussing the impact that the worldwide COVID-19 outbreak has on cancer care and patient care issues will be held this Saturday April 4, 2020. This Town Hall Series is led by Dr. Roy Herbst and Dr. Hossein Borghaei who will present a panel of experts to discuss issues pertaining to oncology practice as well as addressing physicians and patients concerns surrounding the risk COVID-19 presents to cancer care. Some speakers on the panel represent oncologist from France and Italy, and will give their views of the situation in these countries.

Please register at the link below.

Link to register: https://us04web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YzsFbGacTg2DV73j6pYqxQ

This series is being hosted in partnership with Axiom Healthcare Strategies, Inc..

The Town Hall proceedings and live notes will be made available on this site and Live Notes will be Tweeted in Real Time using the #CancerCareandCOVID19 and @pharma_BI

Webinar banner

Topic

COVID-19 Oncology Town Hall

Description

The goal of these town halls is to improve outcomes of cancer patients across the globe, by sharing insights and lessons learned from oncologists fighting COVID-19. Dr. Roy Herbst and Dr. Hossein Borghaei will be joined by a panel of thought leaders with expertise in a variety of solid tumors to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted patient care in oncology.

Following the session, a video, transcript, and key takeaways will be released on Monday 4/6.

Time

For Live Notes From the Last Town Hall Meeting Specifically on Lung Cancer and COVID19 please go to

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2020/03/28/live-notes-from-town-hall-for-patients-with-leading-oncologists-on-lung-cancer-and-covid19-3_28_20/

For more information on Cancer Care and Issues of Cancer and COVID19 please see our Coronavirus Portal at

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/coronavirus-portal/

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Curation of Resources for High Risk People to COVID-19 Infection: Guidances for Transplant Patients

Posted in COVID-19, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), number of asymptomatic infections, Patient Experience: Personal Memories of Invasive Medical Intervantion, Patient Outlook, SAR-Cov-2 a vasculotropic (blood vessels) RNA Virus, SARS-CoV-2, SARS-COV2 Hijacking the Complement and Coagulation Systems, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Supportive therapies, Surgical Procedure, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, Vaccinology, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged #COVID-19, Allotransplantation, American Society of Transplantation, coronavirus, COVID-19, immunocompromised, immunosuppression, Immunosuppressive drug, infection, organ donation, safety guidelines, SARS-CoV-2 on April 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Curation of Resources for High Risk People to COVID-19 Infection :Guidances for Transplant Patients

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

From the American Society of Transplantation

Source: https://www.myast.org/information-transplant-professionals-and-community-members-regarding-2019-novel-coronavirus

INFORMATION FOR TRANSPLANT PROFESSIONALS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS REGARDING 2019 NOVEL CORONAVIRUS

The recent outbreak of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China and the finding of infection in many other countries including the United States has led to questions among transplant programs, Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and patients. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) strives to provide up-to-date information to answer these questions and to provide guidance as needed. Accordingly, the OPTN Ad Hoc Donor Transmission Advisory Committee (DTAC), American Society of Transplantation (AST) and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), after careful review of information available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), offers information to transplant programs and OPOs in light of these concerns. Please visit the OPTN website for more information.

The American Society of Transplantation recently conducted a Town Hall on guidances for transplant patients with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. A video recording of the Town Hall is given below

Description of the Town Hall by the AST: A number of transplant organizations from around the world have partnered to develop this educational webinar for the organ donation and transplantation communities. Our goal is to share experiences to date and respond to your questions about the impact of COVID-19 on organ donation and transplantation.

This webinar was recorded on March 23, 2020.

Resource Handout: https://www.myast.org/sites/default/f…

AST COVID-19 Page: https://www.myast.org/covid-19-inform…

The American Society of Transplantation has other up to date resources on their webpage at https://www.myast.org/covid-19-information#

AST Resources For Transplant Professionals

Information for Transplant Professionals (Updated 3/31/20)

Medication Access and Drug Shortage Concerns During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Frequently Asked Questions (posted 3/31/20)

AST Resources For Transplant Recipients and Candidates

Information for Transplant Recipients and Candidates (Updated 3/30/20)

Frequently Asked Questions can be found here https://www.myast.org/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-frequently-asked-questions-transplant-candidates-and-recipients

Mark Spigler from the American Kidney Fund listed some tips specifically for kidney transplant recipients. In his blog

Coronavirus, COVID-19 and kidney patients: what you need to know he wrote:

Because transplant recipients take immunosuppressive drugs, they are at higher risk of infection from viruses such as cold or flu. To limit the possibility of being exposed to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, transplant patients should follow the CDC’s tips to avoid catching or spreading germs, and contact their health care provider if they develop cold or flu-like symptoms. By being informed and taking your own personal precautions, you can help reduce your risk of coming in contact with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. You can find more information and resources for kidney patients by visiting our special coronavirus webpage at KidneyFund.org/coronavirus. We’ll update the page with important information for kidney patients and their caregivers as the coronavirus crisis continues to unfold.

Resources from the National Kidney Foundation

Source: https://www.kidney.org/coronavirus/transplant-coronavirus

Coronavirus and Kidney Transplants (please click on the links below)

For more information concerning various issues on COVID-19 please see our Coronavirus Portal at:

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/coronavirus-portal/

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US Responses to Coronavirus Outbreak Expose Many Flaws in Our Medical System

Posted in and Bioethics, Bio-Ethics, Biomarkers: Inflammation, coronavirus, Coronavirus Gene Expression, COVID-19, COVID-19 effects on Human Heart, COVID-19: Pandemic Surgery Guidance, Economic Impact of Coronavirus Pandemic, Ethics and Leadership, Federal Budget Appropriations, Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Health Law & Patient Safety, Health Law Policy, Healthcare costs and reimbursement, Healthcare Reform, Hospital-based Medical Innovations, Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system), Key Opinion Leaders in eScientific Publishing - Interviews with, Law and Medicine Conflicts, Leadership, Power, Social Interlocking Connections, number of asymptomatic infections, Patents, Patient Experience, Patient Experience: Personal Memories of Invasive Medical Intervantion, Patient Outlook, Patient’s Voice: Personal Experience with Invasive Medical Procedures, Population genetics, Population Health Management, Population Health Management, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, SARS-CoV-2, Seasonality & Environmental Factors in Resurgence, Serology tests for coronavirus antibodies, Support Staff, Treatment Protocols for COVID-19, United States, Vaccinology, Virus Infective Acute Respiratory Syndrome: SARS-CoV, tagged #COVID-19, cancer patient advocacy, COVID-19, defining patient experience, drivers of patient experience, healthcare communication, healthcare quality, Medical research, physician-patient relationship, public health response, public interest, US healthcare on March 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »

US Responses to Coronavirus Outbreak Expose Many Flaws in Our Medical System

Curator: Stephen J. Williams, Ph.D.

The coronavirus pandemic has affected almost every country in every continent however, after months of the novel advent of novel COVID-19 cases, it has become apparent that the varied clinical responses in this epidemic (and outcomes) have laid bare some of the strong and weak aspects in, both our worldwide capabilities to respond to infectious outbreaks in a global coordinated response and in individual countries’ response to their localized epidemics.

Some nations, like Israel, have initiated a coordinated government-private-health system wide action plan and have shown success in limiting both new cases and COVID-19 related deaths. After the initial Wuhan China outbreak, China closed borders and the government initiated health related procedures including the building of new hospitals. As of writing today, Wuhan has experienced no new cases of COVID-19 for two straight days.

However, the response in the US has been perplexing and has highlighted some glaring problems that have been augmented in this crisis, in the view of this writer. In my view, which has been formulated after social discussion with members in the field ,these issues can be centered on three major areas of deficiencies in the United States that have hindered a rapid and successful response to this current crisis and potential future crises of this nature.

The mistrust or misunderstanding of science in the United States
Lack of communication and connection between patients and those involved in the healthcare industry
Socio-geographical inequalities within the US healthcare system

1. The mistrust or misunderstanding of science in the United States

For the past decade, anyone involved in science, whether directly as active bench scientists, regulatory scientists, scientists involved in science and health policy, or environmental scientists can attest to the constant pressure to not only defend their profession but also to defend the entire scientific process and community from an onslaught of misinformation, mistrust and anxiety toward the field of science. This can be seen in many of the editorials in scientific publications including the journal Science and Scientific American (as shown below)

Stepping Away from Microscopes, Thousands Protest War on Science

Boston rally coincides with annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference and is a precursor to the March for Science in Washington, D.C.

byLauren McCauley, staff writer

Responding to the troubling suppression of science under the Trump administration, thousands of scientists, allies, and frontline communities are holding a rally in Boston’s Copley Square on Sunday.

#standupforscience Tweets

Three years ago, I was honored to stand with dozens of earth scientists to #StandUpForScience at #AGU16. I was terrified, but resolute. In many ways, we've come so far. But wow, #AGU19, we still have so far to go. My remarks: https://t.co/Txul1T9qYP via @CollinMaessen pic.twitter.com/G1C2YI28Re

— Dr. Kim Cobb @kimcobb.bsky.social (@coralsncaves) December 11, 2019

Tomorrow, people around the world march to #StandUpForScience. https://t.co/IxyPOlLagc via @NexusMediaNews #MarchforScience pic.twitter.com/uCaH1a7FiR

— Climate Nexus (@ClimateNexus) April 21, 2017

“Science serves the common good,” reads the call to action. “It protects the health of our communities, the safety of our families, the education of our children, the foundation of our economy and jobs, and the future we all want to live in and preserve for coming generations.”

It continues:

But it’s under attack—both science itself, and the unalienable rights that scientists help uphold and protect.

From the muzzling of scientists and government agencies, to the immigration ban, the deletion of scientific data, and the de-funding of public science, the erosion of our institutions of science is a dangerous direction for our country. Real people and communities bear the brunt of these actions.

The rally was planned to coincide with the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference, which draws thousands of science professionals, and is a precursor to the March for Science in Washington, D.C. and in cities around the world on April 22.

Source: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/02/19/stepping-away-microscopes-thousands-protest-war-science

https://images.app.goo.gl/UXizCsX4g5wZjVtz9

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/85438fbe-278d-11e7-928e-3624539060e8

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) also had marches for public awareness of science and meaningful science policy at their annual conference in Washington, D.C. in 2017 (see here for free recordings of some talks including Joe Biden’s announcement of the Cancer Moonshot program) and also sponsored events such as the Rally for Medical Research. This patient advocacy effort is led by the cancer clinicians and scientific researchers to rally public support for cancer research for the benefit of those affected by the disease.

Source: https://leadingdiscoveries.aacr.org/cancer-patients-front-and-center/

However, some feel that scientists are being too sensitive and that science policy and science-based decision making may not be under that much of a threat in this country. Yet even as some people think that there is no actual war on science and on scientists they realize that the public is not engaged in science and may not be sympathetic to the scientific process or trust scientists’ opinions.

From Scientific American: Is There Really a War on Science? People who oppose vaccines, GMOs and climate change evidence may be more anxious than antagonistic

Certainly, opponents of genetically modified crops, vaccinations that are required for children and climate science have become louder and more organized in recent times. But opponents typically live in separate camps and protest single issues, not science as a whole, said science historian and philosopher Roberta Millstein of the University of California, Davis. She spoke at a standing-room only panel session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C. All the speakers advocated for a scientifically informed citizenry and public policy, and most discouraged broadly applied battle-themed rhetoric.

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/is-there-really-a-war-on-science/

In general, it appears to be a major misunderstanding by the public of the scientific process, and principles of scientific discovery, which may be the fault of miscommunication by scientists or agendas which have the goals of subverting or misdirecting public policy decisions from scientific discourse and investigation.

This can lead to an information vacuum, which, in this age of rapid social media communication,

can quickly perpetuate misinformation.

This perpetuation of misinformation was very evident in a Twitter feed discussion with Dr. Eric Topol, M.D. (cardiologist and Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute) on the US President’s tweet on the use of the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine based on President Trump referencing a single study in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. The Twitter thread became a sort of “scientific journal club” with input from international scientists discussing and critiquing the results in the paper.

Please note that when we scientists CRITIQUE a paper it does not mean CRITICIZE it. A critique is merely an in depth analysis of the results and conclusions with an open discussion on the paper. This is part of the normal peer review process.

Below is the original Tweet by Dr. Eric Topol as well as the ensuing tweet thread

I reviewed the cited paperhttps://t.co/E4Iw7GpVh6 an open-label, non=randomized study
The endpoint was viral PCR (mostly + or -, many ND) by nasopharyngeal swab.
6 of the 36 people were asymptomatic.
6 with pneumonia (LRTI)
6 people received "H + A" pic.twitter.com/KBjR1QcZRV

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) March 21, 2020

Eric – a huge issue here is they only report data on 20 of the 26 patients, and of the 6 – all deteriorated! Six hydroxychloroquine-treated patients were lost in follow-up: they worsened and weee sent to the ICU! They need to do last observation carried forward for those.

— Christopher Cannon, M.D. 🇺🇦 (@cpcannon) March 21, 2020

OMG, do you realize none of the patients in the treatment arm were definitive positives to start with? They were all in the "gray zone". JFC, this study was worse than I thought when I skimmed it the first time!

— 🔬Rob Hutton 🏳️‍🌈 (@DMINologist) March 21, 2020

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1241442247133900801?s=20

Within the tweet thread it was discussed some of the limitations or study design flaws of the referenced paper leading the scientists in this impromptu discussion that the study could not reasonably conclude that hydroxychloroquine was not a reliable therapeutic for this coronavirus strain.

The lesson: The public has to realize CRITIQUE does not mean CRITICISM.

Scientific discourse has to occur to allow for the proper critique of results. When this is allowed science becomes better, more robust, and we protect ourselves from maybe heading down an incorrect path, which may have major impacts on a clinical outcome, in this case.

2. Lack of communication and connection between patients and those involved in the healthcare industry

In normal times, it is imperative for the patient-physician relationship to be intact in order for the physician to be able to communicate proper information to their patient during and after therapy/care. In these critical times, this relationship and good communication skills becomes even more important.

Recently, I have had multiple communications, either through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets with cancer patients, cancer advocacy groups, and cancer survivorship forums concerning their risks of getting infected with the coronavirus and how they should handle various aspects of their therapy, whether they were currently undergoing therapy or just about to start chemotherapy. This made me realize that there were a huge subset of patients who were not receiving all the information and support they needed; namely patients who are immunocompromised.

These are patients represent

cancer patient undergoing/or about to start chemotherapy
Patients taking immunosuppressive drugs: organ transplant recipients, patients with autoimmune diseases, multiple sclerosis patients
Patients with immunodeficiency disorders

These concerns prompted me to write a posting curating the guidance from National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated cancer centers to cancer patients concerning their risk to COVID19 (which can be found here).

Surprisingly, there were only 14 of the 51 US NCI Cancer Centers which had posted guidance (either there own or from organizations like NCI or the National Cancer Coalition Network (NCCN). Most of the guidance to patients had stemmed from a paper written by Dr. Markham of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle Washington, the first major US city which was impacted by COVID19.

Also I was surprised at the reactions to this posting, with patients and oncologists enthusiastic to discuss concerns around the coronavirus problem. This led to having additional contact with patients and oncologists who, as I was surprised, are not having these conversations with each other or are totally confused on courses of action during this pandemic. There was a true need for each party, both patients/caregivers and physicians/oncologists to be able to communicate with each other and disseminate good information.

Last night there was a Tweet conversation on Twitter #OTChat sponsored by @OncologyTimes. A few tweets are included below

There’s still time to JOIN our #OTchat! Here's Q3: What communication strategies have you implemented to reach out to patients? #OTchat #COVID19nCancer #coronavirus #healthcomm #FlattenTheCurve pic.twitter.com/7PsSnVhLsn

— Oncology Times (@OncologyTimes) March 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/OncologyTimes/status/1242611841613864960?s=20

A4: #COVID19 is adding stress to #cancer patients & survivors. SHARE this patient handout to help them manage #anxiety and take appropriate precautions. https://t.co/BrBIXX2VX7 #OTchat #COVID19nCancer pic.twitter.com/HeHrJ8GzEB

— Oncology Times (@OncologyTimes) March 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/OncologyTimes/status/1242616756658753538?s=20

Share #cancer care resources to help protect patients during #COVID19. #OTchat https://t.co/O0yT51Db3c

— Oncology Times (@OncologyTimes) March 25, 2020

https://twitter.com/OncologyTimes/status/1242615906846547978?s=20

The Lesson: Rapid Communication of Vital Information in times of stress is crucial in maintaining a good patient/physician relationship and preventing Misinformation.

3. Socio-geographical Inequalities in the US Healthcare System

It has become very clear that the US healthcare system is fractioned and multiple inequalities (based on race, sex, geography, socio-economic status, age) exist across the whole healthcare system. These inequalities are exacerbated in times of stress, especially when access to care is limited.

An example:

On May 12, 2015, an Amtrak Northeast Regional train from Washington, D.C. bound for New York City derailed and wrecked on the Northeast Corridor in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Of 238 passengers and 5 crew on board, 8 were killed and over 200 injured, 11 critically. The train was traveling at 102 mph (164 km/h) in a 50 mph (80 km/h) zone of curved tracks when it derailed.[3]

Some of the passengers had to be extricated from the wrecked cars. Many of the passengers and local residents helped first responders during the rescue operation. Five local hospitals treated the injured. The derailment disrupted train service for several days.

(Source Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Philadelphia_train_derailment)

What was not reported was the difficulties that first responders, namely paramedics had in finding an emergency room capable of taking on the massive load of patients. In the years prior to this accident, several hospitals, due to monetary reasons, had to close their emergency rooms or reduce them in size. In addition only two in Philadelphia were capable of accepting gun shot victims (Temple University Hospital was the closest to the derailment but one of the emergency rooms which would accept gun shot victims. This was important as Temple University ER, being in North Philadelphia, is usually very busy on any given night. The stress to the local health system revealed how one disaster could easily overburden many hospitals.

Over the past decade many hospitals, especially rural hospitals, have been shuttered or consolidated into bigger health systems. The graphic below shows this

From Bloomberg: US Hospital Closings Leave Patients with Nowhere to go

https://images.app.goo.gl/JdZ6UtaG3Ra3EA3J8

Note the huge swath of hospital closures in the midwest, especially in rural areas. This has become an ongoing problem as the health care system deals with rising costs.

Lesson: Epidemic Stresses an already stressed out US healthcare system

Please see our Coronavirus Portal at

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/coronavirus-portal/

for more up-to-date scientific, clinical information as well as persona stories, videos, interviews and economic impact analyses

and @pharma_BI

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Archive for the ‘Immune-Mediation (independent immunopathology: lung and reticuloendothelial system)’ Category

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1. Cross-neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 by a human monoclonal SARS-CoV antibody.

2. Potent neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 identified by high-throughput single-cell sequencing of convalescent patients’ B cells

3. A human monoclonal antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection

For More Articles on COVID-19 Please see Our Coronavirus Portal on this Open Access Scientific Journal at:

and the following Articles on Immunity at

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Crowdsourcing Difficult-to-Collect Epidemiological Data in Pandemics: Lessons from Ebola to the current COVID-19 Pandemic

Summary

Background

Methods

Findings

Interpretation

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Powerful AI Tools Being Developed for the COVID-19 Fight

IBM Releases Novel AI-Powered Technologies to Help Health and Research Community Accelerate the Discovery of Medical Insights and Treatments for COVID-19

DiA Imaging Analysis Receives Grant to Accelerate Global Access to its AI Ultrasound Solutions in the Fight Against COVID-19

Grant will allow company to accelerate access to its AI solutions and use of ultrasound in COVID-19 emergency settings

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Dr. Giordano Featured in Forbes Article on COVID-19 Antibody Tests in Italy and USA

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Live Notes, Real Time Conference Coverage 2020 AACR Virtual Meeting April 28, 2020 Session on NCI Activities: COVID-19 and Cancer Research 5:20 PM

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Updated listing of COVID-19 vaccine and therapeutic trials from NIH Clinical Trials.gov

Washed Microbiota Transplantation for Patients With 2019-nCoV Infection (NCT04251767)

Therapy for Pneumonia Patients iInfected by 2019 Novel Coronavirus (NCT04293692)

Prognositc Factors in COVID-19 Patients Complicated With Hypertension (NCT04272710)

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The Second in a Series of Virtual Town Halls with Leading Oncologist on Cancer Patient Care during COVID-19 Pandemic: What you need to know

Webinar Registration

For Live Notes From the Last Town Hall Meeting Specifically on Lung Cancer and COVID19 please go to

For more information on Cancer Care and Issues of Cancer and COVID19 please see our Coronavirus Portal at

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Curation of Resources for High Risk People to COVID-19 Infection :Guidances for Transplant Patients

AST Resources For Transplant Professionals

AST Resources For Transplant Recipients and Candidates

Other Resources like videos and further articles

Frequently Asked Questions can be found here https://www.myast.org/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-frequently-asked-questions-transplant-candidates-and-recipients

Resources from the National Kidney Foundation

For more information concerning various issues on COVID-19 please see our Coronavirus Portal at:

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US Responses to Coronavirus Outbreak Expose Many Flaws in Our Medical System

1. The mistrust or misunderstanding of science in the United States

This can lead to an information vacuum, which, in this age of rapid social media communication,

can quickly perpetuate misinformation.

2. Lack of communication and connection between patients and those involved in the healthcare industry

3. Socio-geographical Inequalities in the US Healthcare System

Please see our Coronavirus Portal at

for more up-to-date scientific, clinical information as well as persona stories, videos, interviews and economic impact analyses

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