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Reflection: persistent viral RNA has been seen post-COVID and after other viral infections. Targeting and getting rid of such RNA may hold key to the treatment of #longCOVID and #MECFS patients who suffer from this pathogenesis. (End)
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For those interested in sharing science on Twitter, I wrote a short step-by-step guide on how to construct an effective thread. My new World View article in @NatImmunol (photo by @DanRenzetti). Hope you find it useful! #Scicomm
rdcu.be/cP05X
nature.com/articles/s4159…
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To help the parents navigate the COVID vaccines now approved for younger children, I collaborated with Dr. Thomas Murray @YalePediatrics @yalepedsid @ynhhealth to create this table using @BioRender for primary COVID vaccine series for different age groups.
Please share! (1/)
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What an honor to be featured in the latest BBC Science in Action with @michelle_monje! We discuss our latest research on how mild respiratory COVID can cause multi-lineage neural dysregulation with @PeaseRoland. Many thanks to @AndrewLuckBaker 🙏🏼
bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3…
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An excellent article by @patrickc highlighting the barriers for academics like myself to develop universal and nasal COVID vaccines. We need government to empower someone to intervene and lift the roadblocks. Funding alone is not enough. Please read & RT👇🏽
slowboring.com/p/we-could-hav…
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Here is a piece I wrote with Dr. Albert Ko on why we need booster doses to maintain our immune responses against SARS-CoV-2. Help educate your immune system by being up to date with your booster doses to prevent severe COVID. @YaleCII @YaleSPH @YaleMed
time.com/6198402/covid-…
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I am thrilled to coauthor an editorial piece for @SciImmunology with @EricTopol highlighting the need for Operation Nasal Vaccine—Lightning ⚡️ speed to counter COVID-19. Nasal spray boosters can induce local immunity to ⬇️ infection & transmission.
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
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Sincere thank you to many of you who reached out to @POTUS and @WHCOVIDResponse in support of our efforts on nasal booster vaccine 🙏🏼
I will be speaking at the White House Summit on Future of COVID-19 Vaccines on July 26.
RSVP to join via livestream: pitc.zoomgov.com/webinar/regist…
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I’m in the White House to participate in this summit on the future of COVID vaccines 🤩
So excited to discuss #primeandspike nasal booster vaccine!! twitter.com/WHCOVIDRespons…
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I am honored to be included in this video to discuss #longCOVID. So grateful to the patients including @pamelarbishop @EfCovid19 @loscharlos for speaking up and teaching us what living with COVID is like. Please watch this today. @KnowableMag
youtube.com/watch?v=7lfGu_…
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Very excited to share our latest research on immunological features of #LongCovid. Our 2+ year collaboration with @PutrinoLab with many other fantastic colleagues and patients - Mount Sinai Yale Long COVID (MY-LC) study by @sneakyvirus1 et al. 🧵(1/)
medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
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There are multiple hypotheses behind long COVID pathogenesis including persistent virus/viral remnants, autoimmunity, dysbiosis, virome reactivation and tissue damage. Our data will dive deep into some of these. (3/)
science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
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This is a cross-sectional multi-dimensional immune phenotyping & patient surveys in people with or without LC, who got COVID during the 2020 first wave, on average more than a year from infection. Most were not-hospitalized, ♀ dominant, younger to middle age. (4/)
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Long COVID group reported significant increases in the intensity of symptoms and dramatically worsened quality of life. Survey outcomes put together into a single classification metric “Long COVID Propensity Score or LCPS” demonstrated significant diagnostic potential. (5/)
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Long COVID participants reported a number of symptoms, most commonly fatigue, brain fog, dysautonomia..etc. Hierarchical clustering of binary symptom data identified 3 clusters of patients with similar sets of self-reported symptoms. (6/)
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Long COVID participants also had reduced central memory T cells and increased exhausted CD4 and CD8 T cells. The exhausted T cells suggest chronic antigens stimulating these T cells. What they are we do not know yet. (8/)
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Long COVID patients also had increases in CD4 T cells that secrete IL-2, IL-4 and IL-6, as well as some that secrete both IL-4 and IL-6. These T cells correlated with the levels of EBV reactive antibodies. Follow me down this thread further to find out more! (9/)
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We measured antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 antigens in people who received 2 doses of mRNA vaccines. Curiously, long COVID patients produced higher levels of IgG against Spike. Without vaccines, LC had higher IgG against nucleocapsid. Data suggest persistent antigen? (10/)
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Next we examined a large number of plasma factors and asked which factors are most different in long COVID vs. non-long COVID groups. By far the most significant differences were found in cortisol levels. Long COVID group had lower plasma cortisol levels than control groups.(12/)
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Cortisol levels in circulation were about half of the control groups. Despite this, we saw no elevation in ACTH levels, suggesting an impaired compensatory response by the hypothalamic-pituitary axis. (13/)
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This is so interesting, giving the report by @SuYapeng et al showing similar reduction in long haulers with respiratory viral symptoms at 2-3 months post COVID. This implies chronic hypocortisolism in long COVID. (14/)
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However, REAP did find notably elevated autoantibodies to sodium ion transporters in a subset of Long COVID patients who displayed reactivities agains 6-9 different proteins of this family. Those with tinnitus and nausea had elevated levels of these AABs. (16/)
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In contrast to autoantibodies, REAP detected elevation in IgG against herpesvirus antigens. In particular, antibody reactivity to glycoproteins and early antigens of Epstein-Barr virus, Varicella zoster virus were elevated in long COVID over other groups. (17/)
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The increases in antibodies to EBV and VZV antigens were also detected using independent assays like ELISA and @serimmune epitope mapping. However, seroprevalence for EBV and VZV were similar in LC and CC. These data suggest recent reactivation of EBV and VZV in LC. (18/)
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This again is consistent with the report by @SuYapeng et al, showing that EBV viremia at the time of diagnosis is one of the four predictive factors for long COVID. (Note that our study did not examine viremia but infer EBV reactivation by serology)(19/)
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
We study innate and adaptive immunity against viruses and study disease pathogenesis. #COVID19 #longCOVID #vaccines @HHMINEWS @YaleIBIO @YaleMed @YaleCII