SARS CoV-2 Infection

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a severe complication associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection that frequently affects the cardiovascular system. Although acute cardiac abnormalities usually resolve, the long-term cardiovascular consequences of MIS-C remain uncertain. Previous follow-up of this cohort 2 years after MIS-C identified signs of subclinical cardiovascular abnormalities compared with healthy controls. This cross-sectional study aims to evaluate cardiovascular health in individuals 5 years after MIS-C. Participants with a history of MIS-C will be compared with age- and sex-matched healthy controls using cardiovascular imaging, vascular assessments, cardiopulmonary exercise testing, and biomarkers of endothelial injury.

Respiratory viral infections caused by influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and SARS-CoV-2 remain major causes of morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality among older adults worldwide. Current antiviral therapies have limited effectiveness and generally require administration within the first 48 hours after symptom onset. Increasing evidence suggests that the programmed death receptor-1/programmed death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) immune checkpoint pathway plays an important role in the host immune response during acute viral respiratory infections. Upregulation of PD-L1 has been associated with impaired antiviral T-cell activity, immune exhaustion, and disease progression in influenza, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2 infections. The AIRE-INT study is a prospective, observational, multicenter, non-interventional study designed to characterize the temporal kinetics of PD-L1 expression and inflammatory biomarkers in adults aged 60 years or older presenting with acute respiratory viral infection. The study will be conducted in primary care centers and urgent care facilities within the Barcelonès Nord and Maresme healthcare regions in Catalonia, Spain. A total of 150 participants will be enrolled, including 75 with confirmed viral respiratory infection and 75 controls with negative rapid antigen tests for influenza, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2. Eligible participants must be aged ≥60 years and present within 24 to 72 hours after the onset of respiratory symptoms compatible with acute viral infection, including fever, cough, nasal congestion, or dyspnea. Participants in the infected group must have a positive rapid antigen test for influenza, RSV, or SARS-CoV-2. Control participants must test negative for all three viruses. Written informed consent will be obtained before enrollment. Participants with severe immunosuppression, chronic immunosuppressive therapy, active oncologic disease, terminal illness, or autoimmune diseases associated with PD-L1 dysregulation will be excluded. Each participant will be followed for up to 60 days and will complete two in-person study visits and one follow-up assessment. Visit 1 will occur between 24 and 72 hours after symptom onset and will include informed consent, collection of demographic and clinical data, assessment of symptoms and medical history, rapid antigen testing, and blood sample collection for PD-L1 and inflammatory biomarker analyses. Visit 2 will occur between 5 and 9 days after symptom onset and will include repeat clinical assessment and blood sample collection to evaluate temporal changes in PD-L1 expression and inflammatory responses during the acute phase of infection. Visit 3 will occur between 30 and 60 days after symptom onset and will consist of clinical follow-up through telephone contact and electronic medical record review to assess symptom resolution, complications, hospitalization, intensive care admission, and mortality. Laboratory analyses will include flow cytometry quantification of PD-L1 expression and evaluation of inflammatory biomarkers, including C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), complete blood count parameters, renal and hepatic function markers, and virus-specific IgG antibodies. Blood samples will be processed according to standardized laboratory procedures at the Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol Microbiology Department. The primary objective is to characterize the temporal profile of PD-L1 expression from symptom onset to infection resolution in older adults with influenza, RSV, or SARS-CoV-2 infection. Secondary objectives include: Describing the evolution of inflammatory serum biomarkers and their association with disease severity. Identifying biomarkers useful for screening, prognosis, and clinical monitoring. Establishing a biological reference framework for future evaluation of PD-L1 inhibitors in respiratory viral infections. The primary outcome measure is the level and temporal evolution of PD-L1 expression and inflammatory biomarkers between study visits. Secondary outcomes include hospitalization, intensive care admission, mortality at 60 days, symptom duration, and clinical progression. Statistical analyses will include descriptive and univariate analyses, longitudinal modeling of biomarker kinetics using locally estimated scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) and nonlinear mixed-effects regression models, and predictive logistic regression models evaluating associations between biomarkers and clinical outcomes. The study is expected to provide important information regarding the kinetics of PD-L1 expression and inflammatory responses during acute respiratory viral infections in older adults. The findings may support the development of prognostic biomarkers and future host-directed therapeutic strategies targeting the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway across multiple respiratory viruses.

SARS-CoV-2 transmission was expected to have a devastating impact in sub-Saharan African countries. Instead, morbidity and mortality rates in nearly the whole region are an order of magnitude lower than in Europe and the Americas. To identify what is different requires a better understanding of the underlying immunological substrate of the population, and how these factors affect susceptibility to infection, progression of symptoms, transmission, and responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Study objectives 1. Determine the risk and predictors of infection and disease among contacts of SARS-CoV-2 infection subjects in Malawi 2. Determine whether innate immune responses lower the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease, and acquisition and duration of vaccine responses. 3. Assess whether alterations in innate immune responses relevant to SARS-CoV-2 are associated with malaria or intestinal parasite infections. 4. Assess the acquisition and longevity of antibodies (Ab) and cellular adaptive responses elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination. 5. Assess whether malaria and intestinal parasite infections, chronic/mild undernutrition, and anemia mediate alterations in Ab and other adaptive cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 through innate immune responses or a different unknown mechanism.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, testing primarily relied on the use of nasopharyngeal swabs to detect the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for the disease. However, this technique has several limitations, including the variable quality of swabs, its invasive nature, and arbitrariness in the choice of the number of cycles. Furthermore, it does not allow for the detection of viral proteins. To overcome these limitations, researchers developed the eBAM-CoV test, patented for the detection of viral proteins in the exhaled air of COVID-19 patients. This portable device provides an immediate assessment of the "viral load" with both quantitative and qualitative results, showing promise for early virus detection. The researchers hypothesize that the eBAM-CoV test is likely to exhibit a satisfactory concordance with the reference RT-PCR test in the detection of COVID-19, especially among symptomatic patients or closed contacts.

The overarching goal of this study is to determine if baricitinib, as compared to placebo, will improve neurocognitive function, along with measures of physical function, quality of life, post-exertional malaise, effect of breathlessness on daily activities, post-COVID-19 symptom burden, and biomarkers of inflammation and viral measures, in participants with Long COVID.

This study is a cooperative investigation funded by the NIH. The project is a collaboration among three major NIH Clinical Translational Science Awardees: 1) UCI (lead site with its affiliate CHOC), 2) Northwestern University (with its affiliate Lurie Children's Hospital), and 3) USC (with its affiliate Children's Hospital of Los Angeles). There is an increasing number of children who, through medical advances, now survive diseases and conditions that were once fatal, but which remain chronic and debilitating. A major challenge to improve both the immediate and long term care and health of such children has been the gap in our understanding of how to assess the biological effects of exercise. Like otherwise healthy children, children with chronic diseases and disabilities want to be physically active. The challenge is to determine what constitutes safe and beneficial level of physical activity when the underlying disease or condition \[e.g., cystic fibrosis (CF) or sickle cell disease (SCD)\] imposes physiological constraints on exercise that are not present in otherwise healthy children. Current exercise testing protocols were based on studies of athletes and high performing healthy individuals and were designed to test limits of performance at very high-intensity, unphysiological, maximal effort. These approaches are not optimal for children and adolescents with disease and disability. This project (REACH-Revamping Exercise Assessment in Child Health) is designed to address this gap. Cohorts of children will be identified with two major genetic diseases (CF and SCD) and measure exercise responses annually as they progress from early puberty to mid or late puberty over a 3-4year period. In addition, in the light of the pandemic, a group of children will be added who were affected by SARS-CoV-2 and investigate their responses to exercise. SARS-CoV-2 has similar long-term symptoms than CF and SCD have. Novel approaches to assessing physiological responses to exercise using advanced data analytics will be examined in relation to metrics of habitual physical activity, circulating biomarkers of inflammation and growth, leukocyte gene expression, and the impact of the underlying CF, SCD or SARS-CoV-2 condition. The data from this study will help to develop a toolkit of innovative metrics for exercise testing that will be made available to the research and clinical community.

This is an open label, phase I dose-escalation study to evaluate the safety of coronavirus-specific T cell (CST) therapy for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised patients following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Participants will receive donor-derived CSTs for prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection after HSCT (≥28 days and \<4 months after HSCT). In this dose escalation trial, three doses (1x107/m2, 2x107/m2, and 4x107/m2) will be tested for safety, with study arms for adult (≥18 years of age and \<80 years) HSCT recipients (Arm A) and two arms for pediatric (≥12 years of age and \<18 years; ≥2 years and \<12 years) HSCT recipients (Arm B and Arm C, respectively), and defined dose escalations in each study arm. The study agent will be assessed for safety (stopping rules defined) and antiviral activity.

The study's primary objective is to evaluate the performance of the CorDx Tyfast Flu A/B \& COVID-19 At-Home Test for detecting SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, and B in nasal samples collected by lay users, compared to 510(k)-cleared RT-PCR tests. Secondary objectives are to assess usability and instruction comprehension and reproducibility with untrained operators at Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-waived sites.

Long COVID is defined by a range of symptoms affecting multiple organs that persist for more than three months following an acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. Approximately 7% of individuals who recover from SARS-Cov-2 infection develop Long COVID. Long COVID Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (LCPOTS) symptoms include fatigue, exercise intolerance, orthostatic intolerance, syncope, and heightened orthostatic tachycardia. Research has found that decreased parasympathetic activity in LCPOTS increases the production of highly immunogenic neoantigens Isolevuglandins (IsoLG-adducts). IsoLG-adducts induce formation of circulating monocyte/T cell complexes(doublets) leading to the persistent and unresolved immune response that continues after the initial infection. The purpose of the this research, is to study the effects of 2-hydroxybenzylamine (2-HOBA), an Iso-LG-adduct scavenger, its effects in immune markers and compare it with Placebo

The term post-acute COVID-19 syndrome or Long COVID is a disabling syndrome that persists beyond the 3-month convalescence period after COVID-19 infections. This syndrome affects mostly women (\~80%), present with chronic tachycardia and Orthostatic intolerance symptoms without any identifiable cause. In addition, non-specific symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and "brain fog", commonly described in POTS patients are also present in this novel condition, recently named post-COVID-19 tachycardia syndrome, POTS variant. Reduced Vagal activity and unresolved inflammation is post-COVID-19 POTS is hypothesized as the cause of Long COVID

This study will be conducted as a prospective cohort study, enrolling all eligible women in their first trimester of pregnancy during a baseline visit during week 6-13 of pregnancy at Government Medical College Hospital, Nagpur. The Hospital provides primary, secondary, and tertiary care and the obstetric department delivers about 10,000 babies a year. The hypothesis is that co-infection of other respiratory viruses (ORV), particularly COVID-19 and Influenza increases the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in mothers and babies and could address the current standard of care in India to not vaccinate pregnant women during pregnancy, by either encouraging vaccination against both viruses before planning a pregnancy or during pregnancy based on global data supporting the safety of this strategy.

The goal of this clinical trial is to test two investigational COVID-19 booster vaccines, called CoTend-s3BXBB and CoTend-BXBB, in healthy volunteers ages 40-64. The CoTend-s3BXBB vaccine includes a component called "s3", which was designed to improve the body's response to the vaccine. CoTend-BXBB is the same vaccine without s3. The main questions the study aims to answer are: 1) Is the investigational vaccine safe? 2) Does "s3" lead to bigger, broader, and longer-lasting responses to the vaccine? 5 different doses of the vaccines will be studied. Participants will receive a single dose of either CoTend-s3BXBB, CoTend-BXBB, or placebo. Participants will be monitored for side effects. Saliva, nasal, and blood samples will be collected and immune responses to the vaccine will be measured.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the approach to solid organ transplantation has evolved. Transplants using organs (excluding lungs) from COVID-19-positive donors have shown short-term safety, but there is limited data on recipients who are SARS-CoV-2 positive. Currently, kidney transplants in such recipients are delayed until symptoms resolve and a negative PCR is preferred, despite the risks of prolonged dialysis and increased cold ischemia time. Recent data from the Omicron era suggest that early antiviral treatment may reduce complications. Immunosuppressive therapy might even help mitigate severe inflammatory responses. The proposed study aims to show that kidney transplantation can be safely performed in asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic COVID-19-positive recipients who begin antiviral treatment (remdesivir) within 24 hours before transplant and continue for 10 days. This could reduce waiting times and improve outcomes. Remdesivir is an antiviral safe for use in patients with low kidney function, including those on dialysis or post-transplant, with minimal side effects. The hypothesis is that this treatment strategy can prevent progression to severe COVID-19 and allow safe transplantation

The study aims to investigate the safety and immunogenicity of one dose vs two doses of a T-cell priming next-generation vaccine against Coronavirus disease.

Olfactory dysfunction is a defining symptom of COVID-19 infection. Studies have demonstrated improved olfaction in patients with post infectious olfactory dysfunction after an olfactory training (OT). The aim of this study is to assess the clinical outcomes of olfactory training (12 weeks) therapy in the treatment of persistent olfactory dysfunctions after COVID-19. Specially, we aim to compare the effectiveness of two different olfactory training (different odors). A group will train themselves with 4 scents (rose, orange, clove and eucalyptus) and another group with 4 different scents (cheese, coffee, strawberries and lemon). Olfaction sensory evaluation will be performed by using different olfaction tests (Sniffin' Sticks and UPSIT) and complete questionnaires to assess olfactory perception and particularly parosmia and phantosmia.

COVID-19 is the pandemic disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. It is a highly contagious viral disease, the condition of which main clinical symptoms are characterized by fever and respiratory symptoms. Evidence indicates to worse outcomes in patients with pre-existing diseases, such as diabetes, arterial hypertension, heart disease, pneumopathies, chronic kidney disease, and immunodeficiencies. Recipients of kidney transplants make prolonged use of immunosuppressive drugs to inhibit the acquired immune response, notably the activity of lymphocytes. Due to this potential to modulate the immune and inflammatory response, it is speculated that the clinical and laboratory condition of COVID-19 in these patients is atypical. Preliminary evidence suggests worse outcomes of COVID-19 in immunosuppressed patients, as carriers of cancer. However, information on kidney transplant recipients is insufficient. So far, only reports of the case are available in the literature with different clinical presentations and outcomes. The aim of this study is, therefore, to characterize the demographics, clinical and laboratory conditions, and the outcomes of COVID-19 in kidney transplant recipients in a national multicenter cohort.

In this study we aim to characterize SARS CoV-2 strain specific immune response (SARS-CoV-2 Spike IgG) in health care workers and general populations at the Jimma Medical Center and the St. Paul Hospital in Addis Ababa in association to clinical immune protection and Covid-19 disease. Participants, stratified by SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination status, will be followed at 3-month intervals for a maximum of 2 years. Prevalence, incidence, and dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies as well as clinical assessments especially related to COVID-19 breakthrough disease in previously exposed/vaccinated participants will be performed. From a subset of selected participant blood sample, more in depth immunological analysis will be performed that include virus culture-based neutralization assays, antibody avidity assays, SARS-CoV-2 specific antibody epitope recognition using peptide arrays, and T-cell immunity assays (IGRA). We also plan to analyze and model cost-effectiveness considerations related to adapted COVID-19 vaccine strategies, specifically if SARS-CoV-2 the costs for routine sero-diagnosis in high SARS-CoV-2 prevalent population prior to vaccination will impact the decision to vaccinate (no vaccination for low-risk populations or reduced vaccine dosing) and is cost-efficient. The study is largely exploratory, providing deeper insights in SARS-CoV-2 specific immune responses and interaction with SARS-CoV-2 viral variants.

Patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 can present with a wide range of manifestations clinical conditions, ranging from no symptoms to serious or chronic illness. The current gold standard test for the diagnosis of COVID-19 is based on a molecular test of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), aimed at detecting the RNA of the virus in respiratory samples such as nasopharyngeal swabs or aspirates bronchial, other methods such as antigen tests and serological detection tests IgM and IgG in response to COVID-19 viral infection, can be used for the purposes of screening in the general population. In this context of variety of existing tests, it is important to monitor the biological parameters related to COVID-19 pathology by tracking the accuracy, specificity and sensitivity of these tests in current clinical practice. This research is a collection of additional biological samples with minimal impact on the intake usual care of the patients concerned, for the monitoring of biological parameters carried out in routine on several reagent kits used for screening for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, for the implementation of indicators quality monitoring of these kits.

In some clinical forms of COVID-19, an uncontrolled hyper-inflammatory reaction known as a "cytokine storm" appears abruptly, around day 7, and is associated with rapid respiratory deterioration, requiring hospitalization in an intensive care unit (ICU). At present, although risk factors for this severe form have been described, there are no validated criteria for determining which individual patients will develop this aggravation. The study of respiratory sounds (amplitude, frequency, ...) has made it possible in other respiratory pathologies (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) to predict exacerbations several days in advance. Having a predictive respiratory pattern for worsening in COVID-19 would make it possible to anticipate the need for intensive care hospital beds, by means of a tool easily available on a mobile phone.