The Association Between Receiving the Flu and COVID-19 Vaccines and Related Factors, Data from the StopFlu Campaign in Eight States and the District of Columbia, 2022.

Given the evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the importance of vaccines, it is imperative to understand the relationships between receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and other vaccines, such as the flu vaccine. Data were obtained from a survey as part of an evaluation of the StopFlu Kaiser Permanente media campaign, promoting the flu and COVID-19 vaccines in communities of color across eight states and the District of Columbia. The outcome considered was receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The exposure considered was receiving the flu vaccine. Covariates included demographic factors, and sources of trusted health information. Overall, 4,185 participants had complete data and were included the analysis. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between receiving the flu vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine. Among participants, 77.8% reported receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and 55.4% received the flu vaccine. After adjusting for demographics and sources of trusted health information, participants reporting receiving the flu vaccine had 5.18 times the odds of also receiving the COVID-19 vaccine [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 5.18 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 4.24-6.32]. Trusting advice from a doctor and healthcare organization also had increased odds of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. (AOR: 1.84 95%CI: 1.45-2.33, AOR: 2.08 95%CI: 1.64-2.63). This study demonstrates that promotion of one vaccine may influence uptake of other vaccines, which is important given the highly politicized nature of the COVID-19 vaccine. Further research could provide more insight into how promotion of a vaccine could impact behavior with regards to another.

Integrative analysis reveals functional and regulatory roles of H3K79me2 in mediating alternative splicing.

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence suggests alternative splicing (AS) is a co-transcriptional splicing process not only controlled by RNA-binding splicing factors, but also mediated by epigenetic regulators, such as chromatin structure, nucleosome density, and histone modification. Aberrant AS plays an important role in regulating various diseases, including cancers. METHODS: In this study, we integrated AS events derived from RNA-seq with H3K79me2 ChIP-seq data across 34 different normal and cancer cell types and found the higher enrichment of H3K79me2 in two AS types, skipping exon (SE) and alternative 3' splice site (A3SS). RESULTS: Interestingly, by applying self-organizing map (SOM) clustering, we unveiled two clusters mainly comprised of blood cancer cell types with a strong correlation between H3K79me2 and SE. Remarkably, the expression of transcripts associated with SE was not significantly different from that of those not associated with SE, indicating the involvement of H3K79me2 in splicing has little impact on full mRNA transcription. We further showed that the deletion of DOT1L1, the sole H3K79 methyltransferase, impeded leukemia cell proliferation as well as switched exon skipping to the inclusion isoform in two MLL-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia cell lines. Our data demonstrate H3K79me2 was involved in mediating SE processing, which might in turn influence transformation and disease progression in leukemias. CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, our work for the first time reveals that H3K79me2 plays functional and regulatory roles through a co-transcriptional splicing mechanism.