Coronavirus Archives - Colorado Longitudinal Study

New canine coronavirus discovered in past human pneumonia patients

A researcher with Duke University developed a new test to scan for all coronaviruses — even the unknown ones — and found evidence of a new coronavirus in samples taken from pneumonia patients in Malaysia in 2017 and 2018, according to a study published May 19, 2021, in Clinical Infectious Diseases journal. This new coronavirus appears to have been transmitted by dogs but does not appear to being transmitted from human to human at this point. To stop a future coronavirus pandemic, the researcher says more of these types of tests need to be done on more people earlier. At COLS, we’re working to create a biobank that would give researchers access to large numbers of biological samples they could test for new and emerging pathogens and also the data that will help tell them who is most likely to become infected.

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Trained Immunity and COVID-19 Risk

Can the flu, polio, chicken pox, or other vaccines lower a person’s risk of contracting COVID-19? It might seem far-fetched that a vaccine designed to protect against one infection could protect against others, too. But a growing body of research suggests that this does, in fact, occur through a process called “trained innate immunity.” Vaccines are known to work by stimulating the adaptive immune system, causing the body to make antibodies that can recognize and attack a specific pathogen if it is encountered again. But recent studies suggest that some vaccines also train the body’s faster-acting and less specific innate immune system, improving its ability to fight off many kinds of infections. Vaccines appear to achieve this feat by reprogramming stem cells that give rise to cells involved in this early innate immune response. Long-term studies across various populations are needed to understand if trained immunity is valid and whether it can be replicated for other coronaviruses.

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Researching the Link Between Blood Type and COVID-19 Risk

Several studies recently published seem to show a correlation — not causation — between blood type and risk of contracting COVID-19 or experiencing more severe symptoms. The studies are interesting, but researchers warn that much further research is needed. Mypinder Sekhon, an intensive care physician at Vancouver General Hospital and an author of one of the studies, said, “As a clinician … [blood type] is at the back of my mind when I look at patients and stratify them. But in terms of a definitive marker we need repeated findings across many jurisdictions that show the same thing.” Sekhon added that he doesn’t believe blood type “supersedes other risk factors of severity” for Covid-19, such as a person’s age or comorbidities. “If one is blood group A, you don’t need to start panicking, and if you’re blood group O, you’re not free to go to the pubs and bars.”

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Racial Disparities in COVID Deaths Linked to Prenatal Factors

As of late July, Black people in the US were dying of the coronavirus at more than twice the rate of white people. One reason for this alarming ratio is that African-Americans have higher rates of diabetes, hypertension and asthma—ailments linked to worse outcomes after infection with the coronavirus. Decades of research show that these health conditions, usually diagnosed in adulthood, can reflect hardships experienced while in the womb. Risk factors linked to maternal poverty—such as malnutrition, smoking, exposure to pollution, stress, or lack of health care during pregnancy—can predispose babies to future disease in middle age and beyond. This research article focuses on current studies in this field relying on commonly collected statistics, such as low birth weight, with the author pointing out that it is difficult to conduct traditional direct research because it would be unethical and immoral to knowingly expose fetuses to negative conditions to track the long-term health effects. When fully developed, the Colorado Longitudinal Study will track biological specimens and naturally occurring social determinants of health factors on participants throughout the lifespan, enabling researchers to objectively study the linkages and level of impact between these types of prenatal factors and long-term health outcomes.

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PBMCs Might Have Solved the Mystery of COVID in Africa

African nations have experienced a much lower rate of COVID infections than most of the world. Researchers hoped that analyzing PBMCs (a type of blood cell) stored during an earlier influenza vaccine trial would have helped test a hypothesis that people in these countries had stronger immunity against COVID due to exposure to other coronaviruses. Unfortunately, temperature fluctuations in the storage of the cells had rendered them useless for this research, showing the importance of proper storage of biospecimens to preserve fragile molecules.

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Covid-19 Specimen Bank Accelerates Research

Researchers using biological specimens to determine how long it takes to produce neutralizing antibodies to the COVID-19 virus.

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