Significant spread of all coronavirus variants tracked in Houston area
Study underscores the need for greatly increased genome surveillance to rapidly identify and track the emergence and introduction of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the United States, investigators report in The American Journal of Pathology
2021-04-14
(Press-News.org) Philadelphia, April 14, 2021 - In late 2020, several concerning SARS-CoV-2 variants emerged globally. They are believed to be more easily transmissible, and there is concern that some may reduce the effectiveness of antibody treatments and vaccines. An extensive genome sequencing program run by the Houston Methodist health system has identified all six of the currently identified SARS-CoV-2 variants in their patients. A new study appearing in The American Journal of Pathology, published by Elsevier, finds that the variants are widely spread across the Houston metropolitan area.
"Before the SARS-CoV-2 virus arrived in Houston, we planned an integrated strategy to confront and mitigate this microbial threat to our patients," explains lead investigator James M. Musser, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist and Fondren Presidential Distinguished Chair with Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA. "We instituted a plan to sequence the genome of every positive specimen from patients within the Houston Methodist system with the goal of understanding pathogen spread in our community and identifying biologically-important mutant viruses."
Dr. Musser notes that Greater Houston is the first metropolitan multiplex in the United States that has documented all of these important and concerning variants circulating among its residents. The Houston Methodist health system has one of the largest SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing operations in the US and has so far sequenced 20,453 genomes from clinical specimens collected from patients from March 2020 to February 2021. Patient home address zip codes were used to see how the variants spread across Greater Houston's large, multiethnic, and geographically and socioeconomically diverse population.
The UK variant known as B.1.1.7 was first identified in a patient in Houston in January 2021 and has been found in 23 patients through February 2021. The California variants, B.1.429 and B.1.427 were first found in Houston in late December 2020. Variant B.1.429 has been identified in 143 patients in Houston and variant B.1.427 in 19 patients. The South African variant B.1.351 was first detected in Houston in two patients in December 2020 and January 2021. The Brazil variant P.1 has been identified in four patients since mid-January 2021 and P.2 in 39 patients since late December 2020.
With the exception of B.1.351, the investigators found geographically widespread dissemination of the variants, indicating successful patient-to-patient transmission among the communities. None of the patients were from a common household or reported recent international travel, suggesting that every infection was independently acquired locally or during domestic travel.
Initially Dr. Musser and co-investigators had observed that although the P.2 infection was numerically a minor cause of all Houston-area infections, it was the most common variant of concern in their population because its mutation has the potential to neutralize treatments and vaccines. Continued monitoring of the Houston area shows that the UK B.1.1.7 variant is now the most prevalent variant. According to Dr. Musser, "Emergence of new variants underscores the need for ongoing extensive genomic sequencing efforts for early identification and public health warning."
By linking the SARS-CoV-2 whole genome sequencing data to patient metadata in the electronic medical record, Houston Methodist is able to use analytic tools such as high-performance compute clusters and machine learning to investigate the genomic diversity and characteristics such as strain virulence or patient outcomes. "Our goal is to sequence the SARS-CoV-2 genome of every infected patient in our healthcare system in near-real time and expand outward to other patients in our community," Dr. Musser states. "Our results underscore the need to greatly increase genome surveillance to rapidly identify and track the introduction of new SARS-CoV-2 variants in the U.S. and in local areas."
Dr. Musser and his co-investigators have noted that in the last three weeks, Houston Methodist cases of the UK variant have increased to almost 1,600 from 648. They advise that because vaccination is the best way to decrease the number of circulating COVID-19 variants, a much larger percentage of the population needs to get vaccinated. In the meantime, the team is keeping a very close eye on the variants and the type of disease they cause.
INFORMATION:
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-04-14
A new study by former University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign graduate student Jeffrey Kwang, now at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Abigail Langston, of Kansas State University; and Illinois civil and environmental engineering professor Gary Parker takes a closer look at the vertical and lateral – or depth and width – components of river erosion and drainage patterns. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“A tree’s dendritic structure exists to provide fresh ends for leaves to grow and collect as much light as possible,” Parker said. “If you chop off some branches, they will regrow in a dendritic pattern. ...
2021-04-14
LA JOLLA, CALIF. - April 14, 2021 - Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that two existing drug candidates--JAK inhibitors and Mepron--hold potential as treatments for a deadly acute myeloid leukemia (AML) subtype that is more common in children. The foundational study, published in the journal Blood, is a first step toward finding effective treatments for the hard-to-treat blood cancer.
"While highly successful therapies have been found for other blood cancers, most children diagnosed with this AML subtype are still treated with harsh, toxic chemotherapies," says Ani Deshpande, Ph.D., assistant professor in Sanford Burnham Prebys' ...
2021-04-14
Half a century had passed, but UC Santa Barbara Professor Armand Kuris was sure he'd been here before. In fact, he was completely certain. After all, he had detailed notes of the location, written carefully in India ink when he was still a graduate student.
This time, though, Kuris served as a seasoned mentor for several young researchers who hadn't even been born when he first visited the site. Truth be told, many of their parents hadn't yet been born.
This was just one of many shorelines along the coast of the Pacific Northwest where the group was repeating ecological field work Kuris conducted in 1969 and 70. He teamed up with Assistant Professor Chelsea Wood of the University of Washington and her lab -- all parasite ...
2021-04-14
A new study co-authored by University of Colorado Cancer Center researcher Srinivas Ramachandran, PhD, shows how DNA segments known as enhancers function in cells.
The paper published last month in Molecular Cell highlighted the work from Ramachandran, along with Satyanarayan Rao, both part of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the CU School of Medicine, and Kami Ahmad from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
Enhancers are DNA sequences that drive cell-type-specific gene expression, developmental transitions, and cellular responses to external stimuli. They typically have multiple binding sites for transcription factors, which are proteins that help turn specific genes "on" or "off" by binding to nearby DNA. Ramachandran ...
2021-04-14
URBANA, Ill. - Food waste and obesity are major problems in developed countries. They are both caused by an overabundance of food, but strategies to reduce one can inadvertently increase the other. A broader perspective can help identify ways to limit food waste while also promoting healthy nutrition, two University of Illinois researchers suggest.
"You can reduce food waste by obtaining less or eating more. Our concern was that if people are reducing waste by eating more, what does that mean for nutrition? And how do we think about these tradeoffs in a way that promotes both good nutrition outcomes and good food waste outcomes? ...
2021-04-14
By Luciana Constantino | Agência FAPESP – Adults with periodontitis transmit bacteria that can cause the disease in future to their children, and the bacteria remain in the oral cavity even when the children undergo treatment of various kinds, reinforcing the need for preventive care in the first year of a baby’s life. This is the main conclusion of a study conducted at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. An article on the study is published in Scientific Reports.
Periodontitis is an inflammation of the periodontium, the tissue that supports the teeth and maintains them in the maxillary and mandibular bones. The disease is triggered by bacterial infection. Symptoms include bleeding of the gums and halitosis. In severe cases, it ...
2021-04-14
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Graphene excels at removing contaminants from water, but it's not yet a commercially viable use of the wonder material.
That could be changing.
In a recent study, University at Buffalo engineers report a new process of 3D printing graphene aerogels that they say overcomes two key hurdles -- scalability and creating a version of the material that's stable enough for repeated use -- for water treatment.
"The goal is to safely remove contaminants from water without releasing any problematic chemical residue," says study co-author Nirupam Aich, PhD, assistant professor of environmental engineering at the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "The aerogels ...
2021-04-14
HERSHEY, Pa. -- People who trust television and Facebook to provide them with accurate news about the coronavirus pandemic are less knowledgeable about COVID-19, according to a new study, which assessed people's knowledge of the virus in the earliest stages of the pandemic.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Current Medical Research & Opinion, surveyed 5,948 adults in Pennsylvania between March 25-31, 2020, and found that those who relied on social media and TV for news were less likely to get the facts right about the coronavirus.
In fact, adults that used Facebook as an additional ...
2021-04-14
URBANA, Ill. - Before humans can benefit from new drug therapies and nutritional additives, scientists test their safety and efficacy in animals, typically mice and rats. But, as much as they've done for biomedical research, rodents aren't always the best research model for studies on neonatal brain development and nutrition. That's where pigs can play an important role.
University of Illinois researchers say the domestic pig is ideal for these studies because their brain size, rate of development, and digestive system are excellent analogues for human newborns.
They know a lot about pig brains, having built the first - and recently, the second - complete, MRI-based atlases of the organ. They've used the first to study ...
2021-04-14
La Jolla, CA--The human genome contains the instructions to make tens of thousands of proteins. Each protein folds into a precise shape--and biologists are taught that defined shape dictates the protein's destined function. Tens of thousands of singular shapes drive the tens of thousands of needed functions.
In a new Cell Reports study, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology demonstrate how Ebola virus has found a different way to get things done. The virus encodes only eight proteins but requires dozens of functions in its lifecycle. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Significant spread of all coronavirus variants tracked in Houston area
Study underscores the need for greatly increased genome surveillance to rapidly identify and track the emergence and introduction of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the United States, investigators report in The American Journal of Pathology