From the Curator-in-Chief's Desk—June 11, 2021

This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved extending the shelf life of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine from 3 months to 4.5 months. This will help increase the supply of available vaccines. Over 42% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, and reported cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. are at their lowest since the start of the pandemic. The CDC reported this week that wide-spread vaccinations have contributed to the decrease of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths in older Americans.

For those who have received the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine, Greaney, A., et al. noted that vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies bind a broader range of epitopes of the spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD) as compared to natural infection-induced neutralizing antibodies. The authors suggest this broader breadth may afford vaccinated individuals greater protection against variant lineages carrying single substitutions to the RBD. This supports the findings from Yadav, P., et al. that reported BBV152 vaccinated sera had only slight decreases in neutralization against the Beta (B.1.351) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants as compared to the reference SARS-CoV-2 strain. Wall, E., et al. analyzed sera from individuals fully vaccinated with the Pfizer and BioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine and also found reduced neutralization against the Beta and Delta variants, but predicted these individuals would be protected against infection after receiving 2 doses.

Researchers are also learning more about the clinical association between COVID-19 and diabetes. Tang, X., et al. found that SARS-CoV-2 infects insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. Wu, C.-T., et al. demonstrated that the neuropilin 1 (NRP1) receptor is critical for SARS-CoV-2 infection of β cells, and infection leads to reduced insulin secretion and β cell death. These factors may exacerbate diabetes in patients, highlighting the need for widespread vaccination to reduce COVID-19 infections.

This year, ASM Microbe is part of World Microbe Forum, a collaboration between ASM, FEMS, ASLM and ASV, taking place online 20-24 June 2021. This unique, global, online meeting will bring together researchers, industry professionals, students, educators and leaders in the microbial sciences from across the world. The registry will host the session "COVID-19 Research Registry: A Year of Progress" where some of our curators will provide an update on the advancement of SARS-CoV-2 research in the last year. Registration is now open, and we hope you can join us at World Microbe Forum.

Lynn Enquist, Ph.D.

 

 

 

June 4, 2021

By Jonathan D. Dinman, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland, College Park, Md. Dr. Dinman is one of the curators of the registry.
 
“SARS-CoV-2 uses a multipronged strategy to impede host protein synthesis” by Finkel, Y., et al., published in Nature on 12 May, 2021.
 
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