COVID-19 Neutralizing Antibody Surveillance Testing for Fully Vaccinated Individuals During Delta Variant Spread

We recently performed 568 rapid neutralizing antibody (NAb) tests on 164 fully vaccinated individuals who received either Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine regimens over 7 weeks. The NAb levels against the wild type (WA1/2020), Delta, and Kappa variants were measured and compared. Depending on each individuals medical condition and vaccination status, the NAb levels for most of the fully vaccinated people decreased within 2-6 months, while a small number of individuals either generated non-detectable amount of NAbs after full vaccination (e.g., immunocompromised), or had high NAb levels lasting beyond 6 months. Since the NAb levels vary significantly among different individuals and decrease over time, the deployment of a low-cost rapid test to monitor NAb levels against both the wild type and emerging variants among fully vaccinated individuals can play a very crucial role to control the current pandemic. Our study provides an example of using such a rapid NAb test to fill this currently unmet medical need.

Single Nucleus Multiomic Profiling Reveals Age-Dynamic Regulation of Host Genes Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Respiratory failure is the leading cause of COVID-19 death and disproportionately impacts adults more than children. Here, we present a large-scale snATAC-seq dataset (90,980 nuclei) of the human lung, generated in parallel with snRNA-seq (46,500 nuclei), from healthy donors of ~30 weeks, ~3 years and ~30 years of age. Focusing on genes implicated in SARS-CoV-2 cell entry, we observed an increase in the proportion of alveolar epithelial cells expressing ACE2 and TMPRSS2 in adult compared to young lungs. Consistent with expression dynamics, 10 chromatin peaks linked to TMPRSS2 exhibited significantly increased activity with age and harbored IRF and STAT binding sites. Furthermore, we identified 14 common sequence variants in age-increasing peaks with predicted regulatory function, including several associated with respiratory traits and TMPRSS2 expression. Our findings reveal a plausible contributor to why children are more resistant to COVID-19 and provide an epigenomic basis for transferring this resistance to older populations.