Project description:A subset of individualsenrolledina randomised controlled trial ofChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and received either ChAdOx1 COVID-19 or control MenACWY vaccine whoexperienced COVID-19-associated symptoms were evaluated using multi-omictechnologies. Participants were selected to represent symptomatic individuals with and without COVID-19 as determined by a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT).
Project description:A subset of individualsenrolledina randomised controlled trial ofChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and received either ChAdOx1 COVID-19 or control MenACWY vaccine whoexperienced COVID-19-associated symptoms were evaluated using multi-omictechnologies. Participants were selected to represent symptomatic individuals with and without COVID-19 as determined by a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) for stage 1 and only NAAT+ve for stage 2 of the study.
Project description:A subset of individualsenrolledina randomised controlled trial ofChAdOx1 nCoV-19 and received either ChAdOx1 COVID-19 or control MenACWY vaccine whoexperienced COVID-19-associated symptoms were evaluated using multi-omictechnologies. Participants were selected to represent symptomatic individuals with and without COVID-19 as determined by a nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) for stage 1 and only NAAT+ve for stage 2 of the study.
Project description:The ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which results from the rapid spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a significant global public health threat, with molecular mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis largely unknown. Small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) are known to play important roles in almost all biological processes. In the context of viral infections, sncRNAs have been shown to regulate the host responses, viral replication, and host-virus interaction. Compared with other subfamilies of sncRNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs) and Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs), tRNA-derived RNA fragments (tRFs) are relatively new and emerge as a significant regulator of host-virus interactions. Using T4 PNK‐RNA‐seq, a modified next‐generation sequencing (NGS), we recently found that nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) samples from SARS-CoV-2 positive and negative subjects show a significant difference in sncRNA profiles. There are about 166 SARS-CoV- 2-impacted sncRNAs. Among them, tRFs are the most significantly affected and almost all impacted tRFs are derived from the 5’-end of tRNAs (tRF5). Using a modified qRT-PCR, which was recently developed to specifically quantify tRF5s by isolating the tRF signals from its corresponding parent tRNA signals, we validated that tRF5s derived from tRNA GluCTC (tRF5-GluCTC), LysCTT (tRF5-LysCTT), ValCAC (tRF5-ValCAC), CysGCA (tRF5-CysGCA) and GlnCTG (tRF5-GlnCTG) are enhanced in NPS samples of SARS-CoV2 patients and SARS-CoV2-infected airway epithelial cells. In addition to host-derived ncRNAs, we also identified several sncRNAs derived from the virus (svRNAs), among which a svRNA derived from CoV2 genomic site 346 to 382 (sv-CoV2-346) has the highest expression. The induction of both tRFs and sv-CoV2-346 has not been reported previously, as the lack of the 3’-OH ends of these sncRNAs prevents them to be detected by routine NGS. In summary, our studies demonstrated the involvement of tRFs in COVID-19 and revealed new CoV2 svRNAs.
Project description:While the majority of infants infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) exhibit mild or no symptoms, approximately 3 million children under the age of five are hospitalized every year due to complications from RSV. This research sought to explore the biological processes and related biomarkers responsible for the varied manifestations of RSV disease in young infants. The goal is to pave the way for a more precise categorization of RSV-infected infants based on their medical requirements. Whole blood samples are collected from infant case-control cohort study, the RESCEU case-control cohort is a multinational, multicenter, observational study (clinical trial registration number: NCT03756766). Infants < 12 months old with RSV disease were recruited from the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in The Netherlands, Hospital Clínico Universitario de Santiago (SERGAS) in Spain, Imperial College (IMPERIAL) National Health Service Trust (NHS) and Oxford University Hospital NHS Trust (OXFORD) in the United Kingdom during the RSV seasons 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020. Healthy controls without underlying comorbidities were recruited outside of the RSV season. Eligibility criteria included hospitalization for less than 48 hours at enrolment or within 96 hours of disease onset, no previous receipt of medications to treat RSV infection, no prior exposure to an investigational RSV vaccine or medication, no previous receipt of immunoglobulins or monoclonal antibodies, and had not used montelukast or oral steroids within seven days before enrolment. Infants with co-morbidities were not evaluated in the manuscript. RSV was detected using RSV point-of-care test (POCT) by either a rapid antigen detection test (Alere I) (Alere Inc, Waltham, Massachusetts) or rapid RSV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test at the hospital setting, or a RSV PCR test at the laboratory. Convalescence samples were collected 7 ±1 weeks after a positive RSV diagnostic test result. We used microarray to assist us to identify biomarkers for severe RSV disease.
Project description:Severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV) that lacks the envelope (E) gene (rSARS-CoV-ΔE) is attenuated in vivo [1,2]. To identify factors that contribute to rSARS-CoV-ΔE attenuation, gene expression in cells infected by SARS-CoV with or without E gene was compared. Twenty-five stress response genes were preferentially upregulated during infection in the absence of the E gene. In addition, genes involved in signal transduction, transcription, cell metabolism, immunoregulation, inflammation, apoptosis and cell cycle and differentiation were differentially regulated in cells infected with rSARS-CoV with or without the E gene. Administration of E protein in trans reduced the stress response in cells infected with rSARS-CoV-ΔE, with respiratory syncytial virus, or treated with drugs, such as tunicamycin and thapsigarcin that elicit cell stress by different mechanisms. In addition, SARS-CoV E protein down-regulated the signaling pathway inositol-requiring enzyme 1 (IRE-1) of the unfolded protein response, but not the PKR-like ER kinase (PERK) or activating transcription factor 6 (ATF-6) pathways, and reduced cell apoptosis. Overall, the activation of the IRE-1 pathway was not able to restore cell homeostasis, and apoptosis was induced probably as a meassure to protect the host by limiting virus production and dissemination. The expression of proinflammatory cytokines was reduced in rSARS-CoV-ΔE-infected cells compared to rSARS-CoV-infected cells, suggesting that the increase in stress responses and the reduction of inflammation in the absence of the E gene contributed to the attenuation of rSARS-CoV-ΔE. We used Affymetrix microarrays (Human Genome U133 plus 2.0) to compare global gene expression between SARS-CoV-infected, mock-infected and SARS-CoV-ΔE-infected cells. For ech type of sample three hybridizations were carried-out (independent biological replicates).