Volume 26 Issue 8, 1 August 2020

This week marks our last COVID-19 Research in Brief. COVID-19 research has been progressing at a staggering speed. But a lot still needs to be uncovered to effectively fight this pandemic. We look back at 6 months of biomedical research on COVID-19.

Neural implants can give people with neurological disorders a new lease on life. But it can all be taken all away at the end of the trial.

Every crisis is a strong call to mobilize the entire research community to respond. The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception. Researchers, universities, funders, philanthropies, journals, and journalists have all pivoted, en masse, to COVID-19. Everyone is ‘Covidized’, and it should worry us.

Racism is a social determinant of health and negatively affects health outcomes. This Comment describes steps to take toward achieving equity and racial justice in medical training and addressing racism in clinical settings.

We call upon the research community to standardize efforts to use daily self-reported data about COVID-19 symptoms in the response to the pandemic and to form a collaborative consortium to maximize global gain while protecting participant privacy.

Mobile apps provide a convenient source of tracking and data collection to fight against the spread of COVID-19. We report our analysis of 50 COVID-19-related apps, including their use and their access to personally identifiable information, to ensure that the right to privacy and civil liberties are protected.

As the COVID-19 pandemic escalates, teams around the world are now advocating for a new approach to monitoring transmission: tapping into cellphone location data to track infection spread and warn people who may have been exposed. Here we present data collected in Israel through this approach so far and discuss the privacy concerns, alternatives and different ‘flavors’ of cellphone surveillance. We also propose safeguards needed to minimize the risk for civil rights.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the crucial importance of antibody surveys in estimating the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection at a population level. Studies in Brazil and China address the use of serology to obtain a better estimate of the infection rate.

The Healthy Nevada Project shows that otherwise invisible disease risk can be revealed through DNA-based screening. Identifying these monogenic risks could be the first step toward a new population health-screening program.

Metformin can promote the regeneration of neural precursor cell populations and improve cognitive function in a preclinical model of cranial radiation and a pilot clinical study of children after cranial radiation and chemotherapy.

Home monitoring technologies are being rushed to market during the COVID-19 pandemic; here, safety and privacy considerations are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an accelerated development of applications for digital health, including symptom monitoring and contact tracing. Their potential is wide ranging and must be integrated into conventional approaches to public health for best effect.

Initial results of serological surveillance in China provide valuable data for estimation of the cumulative prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the general population.

Three separate rounds of serological surveys in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil from mid-April to mid-May 2020 show an increase in antibodies specific for SARS-CoV-2 over time.

A cohort of asymptomatic patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 had significantly lower levels of virus-specific IgG antibodies compared to a cohort of age- and sex-matched symptomatic infected patients.

A new epidemiological study shows reduced susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 and decreased risk of developing severe symptoms in people aged younger than 20 years, suggesting that children have limited contribution to spread of COVID-19.

Projection of the number of COVID-19 cases and the associated burden on healthcare resources using a modified SEIR model reveals that rural regions in the United States are at risk of higher per capita case burdens, which could lead to health systems being overwhelmed in these areas.

Analysis of a large, single-center cohort of patients with cancer who were infected with COVID-19 uncovers factors associated with disease severity and interactions with anti-cancer therapies

Artificial intelligence algorithms integrating chest computed tomography scans and clinical information can diagnose COVID-19 with similar accuracy as compared to a senior radiologist.

A systematic evaluation of the value of AI-based decision support in skin tumor diagnosis demonstrates the superiority of human–computer collaboration over each individual approach and supports the potential of automated approaches in diagnostic medicine.

Screening for a set of autosomal-dominant genetic conditions in a large, unselected cohort of individuals uncovers carriers who were missed by routine medical care, demonstrating the utility of broad genetic screening.

High levels of antibodies specific for the stalk region of influenza hemagglutinin protein are associated with expansion of mutant viruses in human volunteers, suggesting potential challenges for influenza vaccine efforts targeting the HA stalk.

In a study of children with high genetic risk aged 2 years or older, a risk score integrating pancreatic islet autoantibodies, genetic factors and family history is highly predictive of type 1 diabetes in the subsequent 8 years.

A molecular analysis of tau from patients with sporadic Alzheimer’s disease reveals striking diversity in biochemical properties between patients, which influences seeding activity and correlates with the aggressiveness of the disease.

Pharmacological inhibition of GFRAL–RET signaling in preclinical tumor models supports the therapeutic potential for reversing GDF15-dependent cachexia in people with cancer.

Single-cell transcriptomics analysis of malignant ascites samples from patients with high-grade serous ovarian cancer reveals inter- and intra-patient heterogeneity in malignant cells, cancer-associated fibroblasts and macrophages.

In a phase 2 clinical trial cohort of patients with leptomeningeal disease, anti-PD-1 monotherapy was safe and associated with a 3-month overall survival of 60%.

A pilot clinical trial evaluating metformin in patients with pediatric brain tumors shows that it is a safe approach resulting in improved cognitive function that is consistent with the recovery of adult hippocampal neurogenesis observed in mouse models.

Multiple subpopulations of synovial tissue macrophages with varied transcriptional, phenotypic and functional features may contribute to disease flare and tissue repair in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis and patients in clinical remission.