ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has had a deleterious impact on both the Black community and college students. Studies on this topic have taken a general approach and thus do not consider how the effects of the pandemic are distinct and potentially exacerbated among subgroups of students. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by examining the psychological impact of COVID-19 on Black college students. A sample of Black college students (Mage = 20.09) was interviewed and asked to describe their emotional reactions to COVID-19 and their coping processes in response to the pandemic. Interview data were analyzed using a consensual qualitative research approach (Hill et al., 1997, 2005). Findings showed that a majority of students had a negative emotional reaction to the pandemic (e.g., low mood and stress), and a small subset of students had a positive emotional reaction (e.g., emotional growth). In addition, students tended to cope with the pandemic most commonly via engagement (e.g., positive reframing) and social support coping strategies. We discuss the implications of our findings and offer recommendations for how institutions may better support Black college students’ mental health in the midst of the ongoing pandemic. © 2022, Johns Hopkins University Press. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Background: Adoptive cell immunotherapies for opportunistic virus in immunocompromised patients using haploidentical memory T cells have shown to be safe and effective. Since severe cases of COVID-19 present a dysregulated immune system with T cell lymphopenia and a hyper-inflammatory state we have proposed that a similar strategy could be proven to be efficient for COVID-19 patients. This is a study protocol of an open-label, multicenter, double-arm, randomized, dose-finding phase I/II clinical trial to evaluate the feasibility, safety, tolerability, and efficacy of the administration of a single dose of allogenic SARS-CoV-2 specific memory CD45RA - T cells and Natural Killer (NK) cells in COVID-19 patients with lymphopenia and pneumonia. The aim of the study is to find efficient treatments for patients with moderate/severe COVID-19. Identification of Specific memory T cells and NK cells: i)Memory T Cells: we first determined the existence of SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells within the CD45RA - T memory cells of the blood of convalescent donors. Memory T cells can respond quickly to the infection and provide long-term immune protection to reduce the severity of the COVID-19 symptoms without inducing classically T cell alloreactivity. Also, CD45RA - memory T cells confer protection for other pathogens the donors encountered in their life. ii)NK cells: we determined the phenotype of NK cells after COVID-19 and the main characteristic of SARS-CoV-2 specific NK population in the blood of convalescent donors, as it has been shown for cytomegalovirus infections. Also, NK cells confer protection for other pathogens the donors encountered in their life. Pilot Phase I- Safety, feasibility, and dose escalation: Between September and November 2020 a phase 1, dose-escalation, single-center clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the safety and feasibility of the infusion of CD45RA - memory T cells containing SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells as adoptive cell therapy against moderate/severe cases of COVID-19. Nine participants with pneumonia and/or lymphopenia and with at least one human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match with the donor were infused. The first three subjects received the lowest dose (1x10 5 cells/kg), the next three received the intermediate dose (5x10 5 cells/kg) and the last three received the highest dose (1x10 6 cells/kg) of CD45RA - memory T cells. Clinicaltrials.gov registration: NCT04578210. Findings: All participants' clinical status measured by National Early Warning Score (NEWS) and 7-category point ordinal scales showed improvement six days after infusion. No serious adverse events were reported. Inflammatory parameters were stabilized post-infusion and the participants showed lymphocyte recovery two weeks after the procedure. Donor microchimerism was observed at least for three weeks after infusion in all patients. Interpretation: This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the idea that treatment of COVID-19 patients with moderate/severe symptoms using convalescent SARS-CoV-2 specific CD45RA - memory T cells is feasible and safe. We did not find dose-liming toxicity. The Recommended Phase 2 dose was 1x10 6 CD45RA - T cells. Phase II- Efficacy: Between January 2021 and July 2021 patients have been enrolled based on the matched with the HLA genotype of the convalescent donors and following the protocol inclusion/exclusion criteria. The primary outcome is the incidence of patient recovery at day 14, defined as normalization of fever and oxygen saturation or lymphopenia recovery. Secondary outcomes are the time to normal level of lymphocytes, the proportion of patients showing clinical improvement at day 7, time to first negative SARS-CoV-2 PCR, the incidence of treatment-related adverse events, duration of hospitalization, time to discharge, time to improvement by one category a 7-point ordinal scale or NEWS score, the proportion of patients requiring intensive care unit, and all-cause mortality. In addition, lymphocyte recovery by multiparametric flow cytometry and donor chimerism by real-time PCR in the e perimental arm was monitored weekly during the first month. This study provides preliminary evidence supporting the idea that treatment of COVID-19 patients with moderate/severe symptoms using convalescent CD45RA - memory T cells is safe and feasible. The phase II clinical trial is ongoing to demonstrate efficacy. [Formula presented] Disclosures: Soria: Celgene: Other: Fees;Gilead: Other: Fees;AbbVie: Other: Fees.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by the worldwide spread of the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2. Because of its mutational rate, wide geographical distribution, and host response variance this coronavirus is currently evolving into an array of strains with increasing genetic diversity. Most variants apparently have neutral effects for disease spread and symptom severity. However, in the viral spike protein, which is responsible for host cell attachment and invasion, the D614G variant, containing the amino acid substitution D to G in position 614, was suggested to increase viral infection capability. Here we propose a novel method to test the epidemiological impact of emergence of a new variant, by a combination of epidemiological curves (for new cases) and the temporal variation of relative frequencies of the variants through a logistic regression model. We applied our method to temporal distributions of SARS-CoV-2 D614 or G614, in two geographic areas: USA (East Coast versus West Coast) and Europe-Asia (East Countries versus West Countries). Our analysis shows that the D614G prevalence and the growth rates of COVID-19 epidemic data curves are correlated at the early stages and not correlated at the late stages, in both the USA andEurope-Asia scenarios. These results show that logistic models can reveal the potential selective advantage of D614G, which can explain, at least in part, the impact of this variant on COVID-19 epidemiology.