ABSTRACT
Purpose:The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of ongoing waves of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting guidelines on the corneal donor pool with resumption of clinical operations.Methods:A retrospective analysis of donors deemed eligible for corneal transplantation at an eye bank from July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2021. Donors ineligible due to meeting Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA) COVID-19 guidelines or a positive postmortem COVID-19 testing were examined. The correlation between COVID-19 rule outs and state COVID positivity was calculated. The number of scheduled surgeries, suitable corneas, imports, and international exports was compared with a pre-COVID period. Postmortem testing was reduced for the final 5 months of the study, and numbers were compared before and after the policy change.Results:2.85% of referrals to the eye bank were ruled out because of EBAA guidelines. 3.2% of postmortem tests were positive or indeterminate resulting in an ineligible tissue donor (0.42% of referrals). Over the 18-month period, there was a 4.30% shortage of suitable corneas compared with transplantation procedures. There was a significant correlation between postmortem testing and state COVID-19 positivity (r = 0.37, P <0.01), but not with EBAA guidelines (r = 0.19, P = 0.07). When postmortem testing was reduced, significantly more corneas were exported internationally.Conclusions:Although corneal transplant procedures were back to normal levels, there was a shortage of suitable corneal tissue. The discontinuation of postmortem testing was associated with a significant increase in international exports of corneal donor tissue. © 2023 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges in the organization of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation. Availability of HSCs was decreased due to donor infection and transport limitations. Accordingly, a series of measures was introduced to ensure the protection of patients and donors and availability of transplants during the pandemic. The goal of this study was to show the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the collection of allogeneic HSCs in University Hospital Centre (UHC) Zagreb. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis for the period from March 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021. The data were collected from hospital computer database and meeting reports of the HSC Transplantation Committee of UHC Zagreb. Results: In the reported period peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) were preferred, except when bone marrow (BM) transplantation was strongly indicated. Allogeneic HSC grafts were cryopreserved before conditioning to ensure availability on the day of transplantation. Thirteen patients were excluded from the program due to COVID-19 infection. HSCs were collected from related and unrelated donors from the Croatian HSC Donor Registry and World Marrow Donor Assocciation for the total of 135 patients. All 17 (12.5%) harvested BM grafts were transplanted. Sixteen patients were transplanted with PBSC instead of BM. Out of the collected PBSC 94.1% were transplanted but in 17 patients transplantations were delayed due to COVID-19 infection of the donor and/or the patient. Of the total 118 PBSC transplants 100 (84.7%) were cryopreserved in 540 cryo bags. Seven (5.9%) cryopreserved grafts have not been infused because of the progression of the main disease (5), COVID-19 infection of the patient (1) and poor product viability (1). Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted HSC collection and transplantation with many organizational and logistical challenges. Cryopreservation of allogeneic grafts enabled efficient management of the transplantation programs but was accompanied with the risk of not infusing some grafts, which exposed donors to unnecessary risks and increased the cost of treatment. © 2022 Hrvatski Lijecnicki Zbor. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Through this project we will determine the role of the mammary tissue microbiome in breast cancer development using 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and dual-transcriptomic sequencing. In the first two years of this project we have selected and received 165 samples from the Susan G. Komen and Indiana University Simon Cancer Center TissueBanks. We completed 16S rRNA sequencing on DNA isolated from all samples in this cohort and note a distinct microbial compositional signature that is associated with breast cancer development. We anticipate submitting this work for publication by February 2021. Due to COVID-19, the RNA isolations from these samples have been delayed until we can return to campus. We anticipate completing RNA isolations in Summer 2021 and will begin our analysis of the RNA sequencing data in Fall 2021. Regardless of these delays, the project is well underway. Results from this work will be key in characterizing host-microbiome cross-talk in the pathogenesis of breast tumor development.
ABSTRACT
During the fourth year of this award, we have continued to generate important data related to targeting of CD22 on B cells and CD33 on mast cells to abrogate food allergies. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down our labs in March 2020 for several months, causing some delays in our work. With that said, we have still produced new data and are now back in the labs on a regular basis to carry out additional experiments. For the CD22 project, we have now developed a humanized mouse model using NSG mice lacking mouse B and T cells, transfused with human PBMCs. These mice make human IgG against peanut allergens upon exposure to peanut and in pilot experiments, we were successful in stopping this IgG production by use of Ah1 STALs. We have also prepared mouse CD22L Ah1, Ah2, Ah3, and Ah6 for use in our conferred memory model to block IgE production to all major allergens. In terms of targeting CD33 in this past year, we have developed a novel approach by conjugating human CD33L directly to anti-human IgE, without the use of liposomes for scaffolding. This molecule is effective in inducing tolerance in humanized mice. Overall, our results move us closer to translating our STALs platform into human studies by focusing now on the use of humanized mouse models and human CD22 and CD33 ligands in our systems. Finally, we have applied for an Expansion Award for this project.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is to analyze the effects of the Department of Defenses policy changes to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), its defined contribution plan, enacted on 1 January 2018. A voluntary and anonymous survey was administered online to approximately 2,000 active-duty Navy personnel at Destroyer Squadron 31 to determine how the new TSP default options affected their TSP utilization and if their actions align with previous studies in behavioral economics. From the 87 survey responses received, 91 percent confirmed participation in the TSP, demonstrating the potential significance of TSP-related policy changes on military members. We found the new default contribution rate had less of an impact than the new default contribution allocation, which shifted from the Government Securities Investment Fund (G Fund) to the Lifecycle Fund (L Fund) aligned to when the service member would reach retirement age. The G Fund has a historic rate of return of 2 percent over the past ten years, whereas the 2050 L Fund has produced a rate of return of 10 percent. We also discovered the majority of individuals who joined under the new system (53percent) do not know in which funds their retirement TSP savings are invested. Our study demonstrates the substantial impact that current and future policy changes can have on the financial retirement health of service members and provides senior military leaders valuable data to develop training and policies appropriately.
ABSTRACT
Background The COVID-19 pandemic has altered organ and tissue donations as well as transplantation practices. SARS-CoV-2 serological tests could help in the selection of donors. We assessed COVID-19 seroprevalence in a population of tissue donors, at the onset of the outbreak in France, before systematic screening of donors for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Methods 235 tissue donors at the Lille Tissue Bank between November 1, 2019 and March 16, 2020 were included. Archived serum samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using two FDA-approved kits. Results Most donors were at higher risks for severe COVID-19 illness including age over 65 years (142/235) and/or presence of co-morbidities (141/235). According to the COVID-19 risk assessment of transmission, 183 out of 235 tissue donors presented with a low risk level and 52 donors with an intermediate risk level of donor derived infection. Four out of the 235 (1.7%) tested specimens were positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: 2 donors with anti-N protein IgG and 2 other donors with anti-S protein total Ig. None of them had both type of antibodies. Conclusion Regarding the seroprevalence among tissue donors, we concluded that the transmission probability to recipient via tissue products was very low at the beginning of the outbreak.