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Ultra-processed foods (UPF) may increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, two new studies have found. One of the presentations to the European Society of Cardiology in Amsterdam suggests consuming things like breakfast cereals, fizzy drinks and fast food could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease by almost 25%. Ultra-processed foods are generally defined as those that typically have five or more ingredients and include additives and ingredients that are not generally used in home cooking. What do the studies say? A team of researchers from the University of Sydney studied how increased consumption of UPF affected more than 10,000 middle-aged women over the last 15 years. They found that those with the highest proportion of UPF in their diet were 39% more likely to develop high blood pressure than those with the lowest, The Guardian reported. The second study, by researchers at China’s Fourth Military Medical University, found those who ate the most UPF were almost 25% more likely to suffer from a heart attack, stroke, or angina. More on Food Related Topics: Increasing the intake of UPF by only 10% caused the risk of heart disease to jump significantly, they added. Those with less than 15% of UPF in their diet were least likely to suffer from heart-related medical problems. Advertisement While researchers said there was a “non-linear relationship between UPF consumption and cardiovascular events”, they added: “Heavy UPF consumption was significantly and positively associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events.” Image: Mass manufactured bread can count as ultra-processed What are UPFs? It is estimated that more than half of British diets are made up of ultra-processed food – items which have gone through a series of industrial processes, and may contain preservatives. According to the British Heart Foundation, they often contain high levels of saturated fat, salt and sugar. That means there is “less room in our diets for more nutritious foods”, the BHF says. Ultra-processed foods include: Fizzy drinks, chocolate and sweets, hot dogs, sausages, hamburgers, meatballs, instant soup and noodles, ready meals, margarine and spreads, meal substitute shakes and breakfast cereals. Some seemingly ‘natural’ UPFs Most of the bread or buns in a supermarket bread aisle, cereal bars, fruit yogurts and ready-to-heat products. Like pre-prepared pies and pizzas, they may all seem pretty harmless when you view them on the supermarket shelf, but they actually qualify as ultra-processed. That is because they may contain extra ingredients added during production, such as emulsifiers, sweeteners, and artificial colours and flavours. Processed foods: Tends to be products with a few extra ingredients – typically made by adding things like sugar, oil and salt to unprocessed food. They include: canned fruit and vegetables, salted or sugared nuts and seeds, salted, cured or smoked meats, canned fish, fruit in syrup, cheese and handmade bread. Unprocessed or minimally processed foods: Fruit, vegetables, pulses, rice, seeds, pasta, eggs, fresh meat, fish and milk. How to eat healthily The best way to get your nutrition is via fresh, unprocessed food, cooked from scratch. A Mediterranean diet is often cited as healthy. It is recommended by the British Heart Foundation because it contains plenty of “minimally or unprocessed foods such as fruit, vegetables, fish, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils and wholegrains”, said dietitian Victoria Taylor. Read more on Sky News:Ultra-processed food linked to early death, studies findDo you know how much salt you should be eating?Bringing cake to office ‘as harmful as passive smoking’ Image: Some breakfast cereals are classed as ultra-processed What do experts say? Former government food adviser Henry Dimbleby said the results should be a “wake-up call” for the UK. “If there is something inherent in the processing of foods that is harmful, then that is a disaster,” he told The Guardian. “Britain is particularly bad for ultra-processed food. It is storing up problems for the future. If we do nothing, a tidal wave of harm is going to hit the NHS.” Dr Chris van Tulleken, a TV doctor who has written a book on UPF called Ultra Processed People, said the studies were “entirely consistent with a large and growing body of work showing that increasing consumption of UPF is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease”. He added: “Almost every food that comes with a health claim on the packet is UPF. “There is now significant evidence that these products inflame the gut, disrupt appetite regulation, alter hormone levels and cause myriad other effects which likely increase the risk of cardiovascular and other disease much in the same way that smoking does.”
6 minutes ago LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Local first responders are putting together a blood drive in honor of a fallen hero. Saturday marked three years since Lincoln Police Investigator Mario Herrera was shot while serving a warrant. He died 12 days later. But starting this Monday, you can give back in his honor. During those final 12 days of his life, officials say Herrera received countless amounts of blood transfusions, keeping him alive longer than anticipated. That’s why Lincoln Police and Lincoln Fire and Rescue are banding together for the “12 Days of Hope” blood drive. According to the American Red Cross, just one blood donation can save more than one life. If you’d like to donate, head to the Public Safety Center at 6601 Pine Lake Road from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tags: 12 days of hope, 12 Days of Hope Blood Drive, American Red Cross, blood transfusion, Investigator Mario Herrera, Lincoln Fire & Rescue, Lincoln Fire and Rescue, Lincoln Police Department, Lincoln Police Investigator Mario Herrera, Mario Herrera., Public Safety Center
In a recent study published in the Med Journal, researchers trained machine learning (ML) models to analyze RNA molecular signatures in patients’ blood and evaluated their performance in distinguishing between common infectious pediatric diseases. Their results elucidate that ML models assessing differential gene expression levels can rapidly differentiate between 18 inflammatory and infectious diseases in children. Notable, these models’ diagnostic accuracy was comparable to medical health professionals perusing conventional clinical data. Given the poor diagnostic accuracy and severe delays of current diagnostic approaches, this proof of concept shows excellent promise in diagnosing illnesses during pediatric care in the future. Study: Diagnosis of childhood febrile illness using a multi-class blood RNA molecular signature. Image Credit: NDABCreativity/Shutterstock.com The limitations of today’s pediatric diagnoses Children seeking medical care most commonly suffer from inflammatory and infectious diseases in hospital and community settings. Of these, only a small portion of children are infected with severe bacterial or inflammatory conditions, presenting clinical teams with the conundrum of appropriately identifying and treating this cohort without over-treating most patients suffering from self-limiting viral infections. “Conventional diagnostic tests cannot distinguish the multitude of potential etiologies with sufficient speed and accuracy to inform initial treatment. Culture-based microbiological diagnosis is slow, and while molecular diagnostic techniques are faster, they are limited by the pathogens included in the panel and positive results may identify pathogens that are not the cause of the current illness, particularly for respiratory samples.” Conventional viral pathogen detection often identifies a single viral pathogen but fails to capture infections of multiple interacting microbes, limiting their diagnostic application. Most severe infections are localized in hard-to-access sites (especially the lungs), resulting in false negative reports despite severe clinical infection symptoms. Inflammatory conditions, including Kawasaki disease (KD) and juvenile idiopathic arthritis, do not currently have tests to confirm or refute diagnosis, resulting in severe delays in treatment initiation, or worse, disease misidentification. Alarmingly, less than half of children admitted with a fever or even to a pediatric intensive care unit ultimately receive a definitive diagnostic verdict. This forces healthcare professionals to rely on interventions involving broad-spectrum antibiotics for even the most harmless infections, thereby contributing to the growing problem of antimicrobial drug resistance. Recently, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) has been explored as an alternative diagnostic approach, not limited by waiting times associated with conventional diagnostic procedures. A growing body of research elucidates that transcriptional signatures in whole-blood samples can rapidly and accurately distinguish between bacterial and viral infections, dengue, malaria, rotavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, tuberculosis (TB), and inflammatory conditions, including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and KD. A noteworthy limitation of these studies is that they focus on simplified binary distinctions – one-versus-one (bacterial or viral infection) or one-versus-all (TB or any other disease) – thereby reducing their practical clinical applications. About the study The present study employs a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and Ridge regression hybrid-derived feature selection and classification approach to alleviate the limitations of previous research undertaken in the field. Researchers trained ML classifiers on 12 gene expression microarray datasets and subsequently tested model performance on an independent patient cohort whose whole-blood RNA-seq data was acquired. To discover the biomarker panel used for model training, 12 publicly available microarray datasets of children (n = 1,212) with acute febrile illness and healthy controls were used. Related Stories Control data was used to batch correct results using the COmbat CO-Normalization Using conTrols (COCONUT) method. Patients for whom clinical validation of illness was available were included in the study, while those with multiple potential causative pathogens were excluded. This resulted in a final dataset of 338 bacterial, 290 viral, and 487 inflammatory cases. Malaria was the only identified parasitic pathogen in the dataset (n = 97). This dataset was randomly divided into training (75%) and test (25%) data using a stratified holdout approach to maintain class proportions. Five ML models were trained and assessed, of which the LASSO + Ridge hybrid model was identified as the best-fit model that allowed cost-sensitivity evaluation. Cost-sensitivity (also called ‘cost-sensitive learning’) is a model penalization algorithm that uses the consensus judgment of multiple field experts to assign ‘weightage’ to the demerits of disease misidentification or treatment initiation delays. This allowed for the prioritization of predictions in favor of conditions for which misdiagnosis consequences are highest. While the above approach is helpful for specific disease identification and long-term clinical intervention, most pediatric cases, especially severe infections, require immediate treatment of the broad group of causative agents (bacterial, viral, or inflammatory). All data was categorized into viral, bacterial, or inflammatory to address this need and reanalyzed. Since TB and KD differ significantly from other bacterial and inflammatory conditions, respectively, in their pathology, management, and transcript signatures, they were treated as independent classes. “These predictions allow the model to reflect the diagnostic classification used in clinical decision making and simultaneously address multiple clinical questions. The clinical teams can be provided with the probabilities for each patient to belong in each class as an optimal input for decision making.” The final ML model was cross-validated on an independent dataset comprising whole-blood RNA-seq data from 411 patients covering all broad diagnostic classes and 18 under-study diseases to validate the LASSO-Ridge hybrid model performance. Finally, ML models were benchmarked against previous one-versus-all studies using linear model coefficients, receiver operating characteristic (ROC), and area under the curve (AUC) measures. Study findings The LASSO-Ridge ML model identified 161 RNA probes comprising 155 genes capable of distinguishing between 18 possible pediatric conditions. Since 10 genes were underrepresented across the datasets or represented transcripts that could not be sufficiently verified, 145 genes were defined as the final biomarker cohort. Broad class analyses revealed that all six included classes (viral, bacterial, malaria, TB, KD, inflammatory) could be accurately distinguished in one-versus-one and one-versus-all analyses. Test set prediction results revealed that ML models can reliably predict most diagnostic classes, albeit with prediction performance being a function of training sample size. However, broad-scale class classification was reliable independent of training sample size, which highlights the future
COVID-19 infections are on the rise again in the region. For instance, in Wausau, wastewater monitoring by the Wisconsin Department of Health indicates that COVID infections are on average higher than they have been for the past three months. The variant we’re seeing now, called EG5 or Eris, is an offshoot of the omicron variant. Currently, it’s the most prevalent form of COVID in the US, according to CDC Variant Surveillance. I spoke with Kyla Waksmonski, Community Health Specialist for the Oneida County Health Department. “We have seen a little bit of an increase in COVID, 19 cases across the past several weeks. And as far as potential impact, we’re not sure what that’ll look like, if it’ll continue or if it will plateau out,” she said. Symptoms for this new variant remain the standard list of COVID symptoms- fever, cough, aches, new loss of taste or smell. Certain people may be more at risk for severe complications. Free at-home tests are available through the Oneida County Health Department. As school starts up again and students gather in large numbers, Waksmonski said that infections could spread more easily. “The CDC’s current recommendations is the available bi-valent vaccine that’s out right now. But that’s really just for people who are 65 and older and immunocompromised. However, there is a new COVID vaccine on the horizon that we expect to come out later this fall after FDA approval,” said Waksmonski. The Oneida County Health Department reminds people to stay home if you’re sick and test for COVID. They also say to wear a well-fitting mask when recommended.
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – It was an intense showing of support, and a somber time that hangs over Lincoln in the history books: August 26th, 2020. That was the day Investigator Mario Herrera was shot in the line of duty during a standoff near 33rd & Holdrege. In the days that followed, 12 specifically, Herrera fought for his life with the help of many blood transfusions that were only possible because of donors at blood centers across eastern Nebraska. Today, and until Sept. 7th, Lincoln Police, Lincoln Fire & Rescue, and the Nebraska Community Blood Bank are working to make sure those 12 days in 2020 are not remembered just as a somber occurrence. The 12 Days of Hope Blood Drive is being held to not only honor Herrera’s life, but also to continue to keep at the forefront the critical need for blood donations to help others who need it. “Band Together to Save Lives” the motto says. That’s what happened in 2020, and that’s what all three agencies are hoping Lincolnites will do over the course of the remaining time of the event. On Monday, August 28th, LFR and LPD’s Southeast team will be holding a blood donation drive at the Joint Public Safety Center at 66th & Pine Lake, as NCBB’s Bloodmobile will be at the station for donors to stop by to help save a life from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. You’re encouraged to stop by, schedule an appointment, or stop by LPD’s headquarters at 9th and K on September 7th, when the Bloodmobile will return for another round of taking donations. You can schedule an appointment by clicking this link or this link. You can also do so by visiting the NCBB’s website. Copyright 2023 KOLN. All rights reserved.
Risk for recurrent cardiovascular (CV) events among patients with a recent acute coronary syndrome (ACS) hospitalization may be reduced with early intensification of lipid-lowering therapy posthospitalization, according to a study presented at the National Lipid Association (NLA) Scientific Sessions 2023, held in Atlanta, Georgia, between June 1 and June 4, 2023. The ongoing VICTORION-INCEPTION trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04873934) is planned to be completed in 2024. It is a phase 3b, randomized, parallel-group, open-label study that includes 384 patients aged at least 18 years from more than 60 locations across the United States. Researchers aim to examine the effect of inclisiran added to usual care vs usual care alone on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) concentrations among patients recently hospitalized for ACS who have LDL-C concentrations equal to at least 70 mg/dL despite statin therapy. Percentage change from baseline to Day 330 in LDL-C concentration and proportion of patients at Day 330 achieving LDL-C of less than 70 mg/dL are the primary endpoints. Continue Reading Secondary outcomes of the study will be changes in intensity of lipid-lowering therapy from baseline to Day 330, the proportion of patients discontinuing statins at Day 330, the proportion of patients achieving prespecified LDL-C targets after Day 90 and Day 330, and absolute changes from baseline to Day 330 in LDL-C. Inclusion criteria include ACS within 5 weeks (inpatient/outpatient) of enrollment and LDL-C concentration of at least 70 mg/dL or non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol of at least 100 mg/dL despite statin therapy. Additionally, patients will have fasting triglyceride concentrations of less than 4.52 mmol/L at screening and estimated glomerular filtration rate of greater than 20 mL/min. Patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to inclisiran plus usual care (n=192) or usual care alone (n=192). Inclisiran therapy will be inclisiran sodium 300 mg subcutaneously twice yearly after initial doses at baseline and 3 months. The researchers plan to discontinue inclisiran in patients with unexplained creatinine kinase values, changes in liver parameters meeting study drug interruption criteria, or with intolerable adverse events. Statin therapy and usual care will continue among patients in both groups. The researchers noted that usual care may include anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibodies in the usual care group only, or inclisiran in the usual care group if the treating physician prescribes it (acquired through commercial outlet). The discretion of the treating physician will be used for adjustments in therapy during the study other than for inclisiran in the inclisiran arm. LDL-C values obtained as part of the study will not be accessible by treating physicians, however at their discretion, physicians can perform these assessments. Study limitations include patients in the usual care only arm receiving inclisiran by treating physicians. Disclosure: This research is supported by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Some study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors’ disclosures. Reference Anderson JL, Navar AM, Balachander N, LeCocq J, Desai NR, Knowlton KU. A randomized study to compare LDL-C lowering effects of inclisiran with usual care vs usual care alone in patients with recent hospitalization for an acute coronary syndrome: rationale and design of the VICTORION-INCEPTION trial. Abstract presented at: National Lipid Association (NLA) Scientific Sessions 2023; June 1-4, 2023; Atlanta, GA. Abstract #130. Topics: Cardiovascular Disease Medications
Bayhealth recently held an informational event for residents of The Peninsula in Millsboro. Ben Collins, senior director of operations for the cardiovascular service line, spoke about how patients with cardiovascular conditions can expect the highest quality of care at Bayhealth. This was one of several such events the Bayhealth Foundation has hosted throughout central and southern Delaware to inform residents that they don’t have to travel far to take care of their health needs. Bayhealth’s Cardiovascular Service Line recently earned the HeartCARE Center National Distinction of Excellence, which recognizes demonstrated commitment to comprehensive, high-quality culture and cardiovascular care. Bayhealth has also received cardiac cath lab accreditation and electrophysiology lab accreditation, and was first in the state to receive transcatheter aortic valve replacement certification. “It’s important for patients to know that they can get the high-quality care they deserve right here in Delaware,” said Lindsay Rhodenbaugh, DMin, Bayhealth Foundation president. For more information, go to Bayhealth.org/Foundation.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., ROTTERDAM, Netherlands and SUZHOU, China, Aug. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Harbour BioMed (“HBM”, or the “Company”; HKEX: 02142), a global biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel antibody therapeutics focusing on oncology and immunology, today announced its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2023. Dr. Jingsong Wang, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Harbour BioMed commented, “In the first half of 2023, Harbour BioMed recorded a significant increase in its revenue, turning losses into profits. The outstanding performance demonstrated the Company’s excellent global business development capabilities and remarkable achievements in cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Our strategy on global innovation ensures we maintain a competitive edge in multiple fields of drug discovery, further creating favorable advantages for differentiated pipeline development and expansive international collaborations, thus unleashing a wider range of value. Despite the numerous challenges ahead, we will steadfastly promote the Company’s global strategy to drive sustainable growth on the base of innovation, thereby accelerating the advancement of our business.” With strong R&D capabilities, the Company has continued to optimize and upgrade its industry leading and globally patented antibody platforms to further implement its “Antibody+” business strategy. During the reporting period, the Company filed 268 patents, 12 of which had been granted invention patents by the China National Intellectual Property Administration with 174 in progress. Robust patent clusters provide effective protection for the Company’s products and new technology innovations, enabling the company to maintain an advantageous position in global biotech industry. Leveraging the unique antibody discovery technology, Harbour Therapeutics currently has over 10 innovative global programs in immuno-oncology and immunology, while Nona Biosciences further create value through global collaborations based on technology innovations. The Company has achieved positive half-yearly revenue growth rates exceeding 40% for two consecutive years benefiting from its robust technology platform and cutting edge innovations in the field of Immuno-oncology and Immunology. The Company recorded revenues of over $40 million in the first half of 2023 and achieved its first interim profit of approximately $3 million. Turning to a profit verifies Harbour BioMed’s sustained and outstanding value creation ability. The out-licensing and collaboration of innovative products from Harbour Therapeutics’ portfolio, including HBM7008 and batoclimab (HBM9161), have significantly contributed to this growth. At the same time, the Company has also seen the positive contribution from Nona Biosciences to the earnings growth and profits during the period. Harbour Therapeutics: Advanced pipeline with exciting advancements Batoclimab (HBM9161) ‘s positive results on its phase III clinical trial for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis (gMG) were announced during 1H2023. Batoclimab resulted in a higher rate of sustained MG-ADL improvement in adult patients with gMG than placebo, and sustained improvement were observed in the second cycle. As the most advanced asset in the portfolio, this marks a major milestone for Harbour BioMed as it is the first positive readout of a registrational trial since its establishment. Also, as the first anti-FcRn product with a complete data set in Greater China, this result of batoclimab has significant positive impact on the development of effective therapeutics for patients with gMG in China. Porustobart (HBM4003) is a next-generation fully human heavy chain only anti-CTLA-4 antibody generated from the Harbour Mice® HCAb platform. It has showcased promising efficacy and safety profile in multiple clinical trials in patients with melanoma, neuroendocrine neoplasms and hepatocellular carcinoma, demonstrating the potential to be developed as a cornerstone therapy in immuno-oncology. Data released in 1H2023 showed that the overall objective response rate (ORR) was 36.8% in its phase Ib clinical trial of porustobart in combination with toripalimab in patients with advanced high-grade neuroendocrine neoplasms, and in its phase Ib clinical trial of porustobart in combination with toripalimab in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, the ORR hit 46.7%. The Company is poised for the first pivotal trial of porustobart in the next 6 months and plans to expand in multiple new indications including colorectal cancer. HBM1020 is a first-in-class therapeutic monoclonal antibody against B7H7/HHLA2 entering clinical development globally. It obtained U.S. FDA clearance for phase I trial in January 2023 and completed the first patient dosing in June 2023. As a newly discovered member of the B7 family, B7H7/HHLA2 expression is found non-overlapping with PD-L1 expression in multiple tumor types, which indicates an alternative immune evasion pathway besides PD-(L)1. Preclinical data demonstrated its immune activation and anti-tumor functional activities, showing great potential to address huge unmet medical needs in patients with advanced malignancies. HBM9033 is an antibody-drug conjugate-based (ADC) drug that specifically targets human mesothelin (MSLN), a TAA that is upregulated in various solid tumors, including mesothelioma, ovary cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatic cancers. HBM9033 is the first ADC product of the Company, which is generated from the Company’s patented ADC platform and has obtained the IND Clearance by U.S. FDA for phase I trial in August 2023. The collaboration with industry partners on product development has provided more diversified avenues and enriched resources for Harbour Therapeutics’ portfolio advancement, which is an integral part of the strategy that the Company will continue to implement and optimize. Regional and global business collaborations are accelerating the development of numerous programs including HBM7022, HBM7008 and HBM9378. These efforts have verified our innovation ability and recognized the value of the product portfolio of the Company. Nona Biosciences: Unleashing platform value to shape the second growth curve As a pioneer in innovative antibody platform technology, the Company continues to advance the “Antibody+” strategy based on its unique advantages of Harbour Mice® technology and develop its strengths in cutting-edge research areas such as bispecific antibody, ADC, mRNA, CAR-T, artificial intelligence and protein engineering, providing strong momentum for breakthroughs in innovative technologies. Nona Biosciences, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company, as a pivot of value realization and business expansion, is committed to providing global partners with innovative antibody solutions, continuously developing the global cooperation network, and constantly exploring diverse business areas to promote sustainable business growth. With its world-leading technology innovation, the Company’s second growth curve is steadily gaining
White-tailed deer across Ohio have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, new research has found – and the results also show that viral variants evolve about three times faster in deer than in humans. Scientists collected 1,522 nasal swabs from free-ranging deer in 83 of the state’s 88 counties between November 2021 and March 2022. More than 10% of the samples were positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and at least one positive case was found in 59% of the counties in which testing took place. Genomic analysis showed that at least 30 infections in deer had been introduced by humans – a figure that surprised the research team. “We generally talk about interspecies transmission as a rare event, but this wasn’t a huge sampling, and we’re able to document 30 spillovers. It seems to be moving between people and animals quite easily,” said Andrew Bowman, associate professor of veterinary preventive medicine at The Ohio State University and co-senior author of the study. “And the evidence is growing that humans can get it from deer – which isn’t radically surprising. It’s probably not a one-way pipeline.” The combined findings suggest that the white-tailed deer species is a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 that enables continuing mutation, and that the virus’s circulation in deer could lead to its spread to other wildlife and livestock. The study is published today in Nature Communications. Bowman and colleagues previously reported detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections in white-tailed deer in nine Ohio locations in December 2021, and are continuing to monitor deer for infection by more recent variants. “We expanded across Ohio to see if this was a localized problem – and we find it in lots of places, so it’s not just a localized event,” Bowman said. “Some of the thought back then was that maybe it’s just in urban deer because they’re in closer contact with people. But in rural parts of the state, we’re finding plenty of positive deer.” Beyond the detection of active infections, researchers also found through blood samples containing antibodies – indicating previous exposure to the virus – that an estimated 23.5% of deer in Ohio had been infected at one time or another. The 80 whole-genome sequences obtained from the collected samples were represented groups of viral variants: the highly contagious delta variant, the predominant human strain in the United States in the early fall of 2021 that accounted for almost 90% of the sequences, and alpha, the first named variant of concern that had circulated in humans in the spring of 2021. The analysis revealed that the genetic composition of delta variants in deer matched dominant lineages found in humans at the time, pointing to the spillover events, and that deer-to-deer transmission followed in clusters, some spanning multiple counties. “There’s probably a timing component to what we found – we were near the end of a delta peak in humans, and then we see a lot of delta in deer,” Bowman said. “But we were well past the last alpha detection in humans. So the idea that deer are holding onto lineages that have since gone extinct in humans is something we were worried about.” The study did suggest that COVID-19 vaccination is likely to help protect people against severe disease in the event of a spillover back to humans. An analysis of the effects of deer variants on Siberian hamsters, an animal model for SARS-CoV-2 studies, showed that vaccinated hamsters did not get as sick from infection as unvaccinated animals. That said, the variants circulating in deer are expected to continue to change. An investigation of the mutations found in the samples provided evidence of more rapid evolution of both alpha and delta variants in deer compared to humans. “Not only are deer getting infected with and maintaining SARS-CoV-2, but the rate of change is accelerated in deer – potentially away from what has infected humans,” Bowman said. How the virus is transmitted from humans to white-tailed deer remains a mystery. And so far, even with about 30 million free-ranging deer in the U.S., no substantial outbreaks of deer-origin strains have occurred in humans. Circulation among animals, however, remains highly likely. Bowman noted that about 70% of free-ranging deer in Ohio have not been infected or exposed to the virus, “so that’s a large body of naive animals that the virus could spread through rather uninhibited.” “Having that animal host in play creates things we need to watch out for,” he said. “If this trajectory continues for years and we have a virus that becomes deer-adapted, then does that become the pathway into other animal hosts, wildlife or domestic? We just don’t know.” This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Ohio State’s Infectious Diseases Institute. Martha Nelson of the National Library of Medicine was co-corresponding author of the study. Ohio State co-authors Dillon McBride, Steven Overend, Devra Huey, Amanda Williams, Seth Faith and Jacqueline Nolting worked on the study with co-authors from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; the University of California, Los Angeles; the National Research Centre in Giza, Egypt; PathAI Diagnostics; the Ohio Department of Natural Resources; the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Columbus and Franklin County Metroparks; and the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Belgium.
