Category Technology

A group from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA, etc. has reported on characteristics of Pfizer mRNA vaccinated SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8185186/

The antibody response peaked 1 week after the second vaccine dose, followed by a decline in titers over the following weeks as expected from an antibody response to vaccination. Interestingly, titers against the spike proteins of β-coronaviruses OC43 and HKU1 increased substantially after vaccination.

RBD and NTD were co-dominant epitopes of the mRNA vaccine-induced antibodies, and the majority of remaining epitopes was mapped to S2. All antibodies were tested for neutralizing activity against the USA-WA1/2020 strain of SARS-CoV-2. Only a minority of the binding antibodies showed neutralizing activity (see figure below, obtained from three individuals: V1, V5, V6).

For sera from the six vaccinated individuals, binding between vaccinee sera and variant RBDs were evaluated. The highest reduction was only 2-fold for E406Q, N440K, E484K, and F490K (see figure below, six vaccinated individuals: V1-V6).
This would be a kind of good news showing that Pfizer mRNA vaccine would be effective against current SARS-CoV-2 variants.

A group from Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Minnesota, etc. has indicated that losatran, ACE2 inhibitor, did not show any therapeutic effects on against SARS-CoV-2.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8225661/

This was a multicenter prospective double blind randomized placebo-controlled trial for the treatment of symptomatic outpatients with confirmed COVID-19 conducted across 3 hospital systems in Minnesota, United States between April and November 2020.

The intervention was losartan 25 mg versus equally appearing placebo. Participants self-administered study drug orally twice daily for 10 days for participants with eGFR >60 mL/min/1.73 m2, and once daily for those with eGFR 30–60 mL/min/1.73 m2. The threshold for angiotensin receptor blockade is 20 mg daily, with twice daily dosing more effective than once daily due to a 6–9 h half-life of the active metabolite. This dose was chosen in lieu of a 50 mg twice daily (maximum) dose after the FDA raised safety concerns regarding the higher dose regimen. This dose is expected to provide 37% inhibition of the angiotensin receptor.

The primary outcome did not differ significantly, and also viral loads were not statistically different between treatment groups at any time point. This clinical trial was terminated.

A group from Biological Defense Program, DSO National Laboratories, Singapore, etc. has reported on Fc-mediated effector functions of a potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253487

Antibody-Dependent Enhancement (ADE) of disease remains a major concern for the use of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as therapeutics. ADE can occur if Fcγ Receptor (FcγR) engagement mediates an increase in the infection of phagocytic cells. Due to the potential of ADE, several ongoing SARS-CoV-2 antibody programs have chosen to use Fc isotypes that do not engage FcγR, like the IgG4 isotype, and engineered variants such as those carrying FcγR-null LALA variant. However, these may be counterproductive because the signaling mechanisms underpinning the efficacies of these antibodies, particularly the ability of FcγR engagement to induce other antiviral responses such as ADCC will be killed. To address these questions, authors isolated and characterized a RBD-binding neutralizing IgG1 antibody, named SC31, from an early convalescent patient. Authors assessed the impact of Fc functionality on its therapeutic efficacy by comparing SC31 with its LALA variant and demonstrated that the engagement of Fc receptors by SC31 triggers additional IFN-γ-mediated antiviral responses but importantly do not induce ADE.

To determine the role of Fc-mediated effector functions in the therapeutic efficacy of SC31, the abilities of SC31 and its LALA variant were compared. The upstream activation of the FcγRIIIa ADCC signalling pathway was evaluated using a Jurkat reporter cell line expressing FcγRIIIa and with ADCC reporter assay after co-culture with target HEK293 cells expressing membrane-bound SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein. In contrast to its LALA variant, SC31 was confirmed to induce a dose-dependent activation of ADCC signaling.

A group from Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, etc. has reported that Galectin-3 could be a good marker for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8200414/

Although ultrasound is the gold standard for the diagnosis and surveillance of AAAs with high sensitivity and specificity, the frequency of ultrasound surveillance varies with aneurysm diameter. Furthermore, ultrasound is not recommended for patients with subaneurysmal aortic dilatation. Therefore, circulating biomarkers of inflammation, which reflect the aneurysmal size, can assist in the detection and prognosis of AAA.

A cross-sectional study was performed to analyze plasma Gal-3 and IL-6 levels as circulating biomarkers in both control patients (n = 195) and patients with AAA (n = 151). Plasma Gal-3 levels were significantly higher in patients with AAA than in control patients (96.9 ± 4.5L vs. 76.5 ± 1.9 ng/mL), and the levels of IL-6 were also higher in AAA samples than in healthy control samples (92.8 ± 5.2 pg/mL vs. 72.5 ± 3.0 pg/mL). The diagnostic performance of Gal-3 and IL-6 were evaluated using ROC analysis. The results were that Gal-3 levels predicted AAA presence (AUC=0.91) significantly more accurately than did IL-6 levels (AUC=0.72).

Gal-3 is likely a chemotactic molecule for macrophages. Thus, its expression could be associated with various cardiovascular diseases. The increased risk of AAA observed in patients with higher Gal-3 levels may reflect the recruitment of inflammatory cells, including activated macrophages, in the arterial system and the subsequent secretion of Gal-3.

A group from Tohoku Medical and Pharmaceutical University has reviewed 11 kinds of mammalian lectins responsible for pathogen recognition.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8185196/

From this review, three C-type lectins were highlighted here for your information.
Many C-type lectins show selectivity toward mannose residues and this mannose binding is utilized for microbe sensing. One of the most studied examples is mannose-binding protein, MBP, which is known to activate the complement lectin pathway. Why does mannose recognition play this role in detecting non-self when mannose residues occur frequently in mammalian N-glycans, e.g., high-mannose glycan. The likely explanation is in the higher spatial density of mannose residues on bacteria relative to that of mammalian glycans. The C-type lectin domain has a Ca2+ ion coordinated with the OH3 and OH4 of the mannose. The affinity of 1:1 binding is weak with a dissociation constant of roughly 1 mM, however, the presentation of trimeric binding sites in MBP domains could interact with the multiple terminal mannose residues presented on microbes. The spacing between the mannose binding sites is around 50 Å, and is eminently suitable for binding packed terminal mannose residues with high affinity, but not single endogenous high mannose glycans. Langerin is also a C-type lectin with a coiled-coil region and a neck region in a trimeric structure, and has a distance of roughly 40 Å between binding sites. A trimeric oligosaccharide ligand with appropriate linker length for the 40 Å distance between each binding site has been reported for Langerin, with 1,000-fold higher affinity over the monomeric ligand.

As for Dectin-2, the binding site accommodates internally positioned Manα1-2Man of mannans and other polysaccharides, whereas other C-type lectins like DC-SIGN and langerin bind only terminal Manα1-2Man structures. Recognition of internal mannose residue is advantageous in that multiple binding sites are presented toward lectin receptor. Dectin-2 is thus suitable for binding to longer mannan polysaccharides.

A group from Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, Belgium, etc. has reported relationship between serum uric acid level and COVID-19 severity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8201458/

The prevalence of hypouricemia is approximately 0.3% in the general ambulatory population. In this study, 20% of the patients hospitalized for SARS-CoV-2 infection developed hypouricemia, a proportion that increased to 77% among patients requiring mechanical ventilation.

Uric acid is the end-product of purine metabolism in humans and is generated in the liver. The kidney is an important regulator of circulating uric acid levels as it excretes most of total body uric acid. Serum urate is freely filtered by the glomeruli followed by a complex balance of reabsorption and secretion in the kidney proximal tubule. Although the molecular mechanisms of urate transport in the proximal tubule are still incompletely understood, URAT1 (SLC22A12) is the main apical transporter mediating urate reabsorption in the brush border of the proximal tubule. In a small subset of kidney samples from patients who died from COVID-19, it was shown that life-threatening SARS-CoV-2 infection is associated with a significant (~ 70%) decrease in the expression of the apical urate transporter URAT1 in the kidney proximal tubule, contributing to the impaired tubular absorption of urate. The mechanisms linking hypouricemia and progression to severe disease requiring mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 remains speculative and may be diverse

Anyhow, it seems that serum uric acid could be used as a reliable biomarker to identify patients at risk of life-threatening COVID-19.

A group from University of British Columbia, Canada has reported whether HIV antibodies could neutralize SARS-CoV-2 or not.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-91746-7

Cross-reactive interactions of three HIV antibodies (2G12, PGT128, PGT126) in the presence of methyl α-d-mannopyranoside, a stabilized mannose analogue, were evaluated using an ELISA assay. Disruption of cross-reactivity was observed for all these antibodies with increasing concentrations of methyl α-d-mannopyranoside, demonstrating that the binding of these antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were via glycan sensitivity of these interactions.

HEK293-T cells stably overexpressing ACE-2 were incubated with SARS-CoV-2 S pseudo-typed virus harbouring a luciferase reporter gene, in the presence of serial dilutions of three HIV antibodies. Luciferase activities in cellular lysates were determined 48 h post-infection (RLU: relative luciferase units). However, no neutralization capabilities were detected for these antibodies over a wide range of concentrations, while VH-FC ab8 demonstrated potent neutralization, a positive control antibody VH-FC ab8 which targets the SARS-CoV-2 RBD.

But, the blog admin thinks that the infection to immune cells (i.e., macrophages) expressing C-type lectins might be neutralized by these HIV antibodies? 

A group from Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, etc. has reported new urinary biomarkers for cardiovascular events originating from Type 2 diabetes.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcvm.2021.668059/full

Targeting cardiovascular events (CVE) as one of primary outcomes originating from the diabetes, urinary glycomes in 680 patients with type 2 diabetes were evaluated with using Lectin microarrays.

During approximately a 5-year follow-up period, 62 patients reached the endpoint. Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed that urinary glycan signals binding to two lectins were significantly associated with the outcome after adjustment for known indicators of CVE and for false discovery rate, as well as increased model fitness. Hazard ratios for these lectins (+1 SD for the glycan index) were UDA (recognizing glycan: mixture of Man5 to Man9): 1.78 (95% CI: 1.24–2.55, P = 0.002) and Calsepa [High-Man (Man2–6)]: 1.56 (1.19–2.04, P = 0.001). Common glycan binding to these lectins was high-mannose type of N-glycans.

The urinary excretion of high-mannose glycan may be a valuable biomarker for improving prediction of CVE in patients with type 2 diabetes. It is still unclear what kinds of mechanisms are underlaying such abnormal N-glycosylation.