COVID-19 Research Registry

Top COVID-19 research: timely, curated and vetted by experts

ASM is keeping the pulse of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In the eye of a pandemic, the need for a trusted, up-to-date resource of coronavirus research plays a crucial role in supporting the scientific community on the frontlines fighting the virus.

This registry includes top-ranked, COVID-19 research articles curated by experts and serves as a resource for scientists working together to address fundamental science and accelerate scientific research on SARS-CoV-2.

BASIC VIROLOGY

How is the genome of SARS-CoV-2 evolving? What mechanism does the coronavirus use to target human cells? How does the immune system react to SARS-CoV-2?

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CLINICAL DIAGNOSTICS

Will serology provide the ultimate answer? Does the existence of the antibody equal protection due to antibody neutralization? How often should patients be tested?

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TREATMENT

What are the results of the newest treatment? What drugs are in the pipeline? What are the latest outcomes from clinical trials?

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PREVENTION

What are the different kinds of vaccines? Do coronaviruses evolve to escape vaccines? What have we learned from work with Ebola virus and SARS vaccines development?

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EPIDEMIOLOGY

How does a pandemic start? How long will this pandemic last: can data models give us some hints? COVID-19 affects people differently depending on their age, how does this affect transmission? How does social distancing influence transmission rates?

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GENERAL REVIEWS

Scientifically speaking, what is a coronavirus? What are the similarities and differences in structure and activities of SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2? What is the PK/PD of Remdesivir?

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COVID-19 Research Registry - Editorial Volume 1

Lynn Enquist, Ph.D.
Curator-in-Chief

Keeping up with the most recent research publications is challenging for any investigator, but when hundreds of publications and preprints are appearing every week on SARS-CoV-2, the task can be overwhelming. The launch of the ASM COVID-19 Research Registry (Registry) was a milestone for ASM in response to the needs of the scientific community.

The goal of the Registry is not to be a simple collection of publications. We seek to provide a "one-stop shop" of authoritative information of fundamental research on SARS-CoV-2. We want the Registry to bring together traditional and non-traditional microbiology researchers and experts and provide them with reliable and up-to-date scientific information about SARS-CoV-2 studies. Moreover, the Registry aims to be the go-to source for educators and students who want to find solid materials for teaching and learning about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19.

In a short time, we have established the Registry site and system that provides aggregated access to vetted fundamental research on SARS-CoV-2, and other selected viruses. Every week, the ASM Registry staff funnel research articles to our expert curators who chose the best preprints and publications. These items are added continuously to the site. Our curators continue to recommend previously published and impactful papers. Collectively, you can find over 120 high quality papers on the Registry today.

We hope new connections and new ideas will develop. A new feature, Research Resources, was added to the Registry. There, we will include research tools and information for the research community. For example, for those who want to see a more encyclopedic account of what is being reported about COVID-19, the NIH Office of Portfolio Analysis has a good dashboard to follow the numbers of publications and preprints.

Sincerely,

Lynn Enquist, Ph.D.
Curator-in-Chief

Commentary

By Dr. C.A.M. de (Xander) Haan, Associate Professor, Utrecht University

“BCG-induced trained immunity: can it offer protection against COVID-19?” by O’Neill, L.A. and Netea, M.G., Nature Review Immunology.

Bridging the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine gap by BCG vaccination?

Development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is expected to take at least 12-18 months. The authors of this comment propose that the Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) live attenuated vaccine, which was developed against tuberculosis a century ago, may be used to bridge this gap. Although currently there is no evidence that BCG protects against SARS-CoV-2 infection or disease, previous studies indicate that BCG can protect against viral respiratory tract infections in children.

This non-specific protective effect is proposed to be mediated by epigenetic changes that lead to long-term transcriptional programming of immune cells, resulting de facto in the induction of innate immune memory, termed trained immunity. Upon challenge with another pathogen, the trained immune cells then show an enhanced response, thereby promoting host defense.

Randomized controlled clinical trials are needed to provide evidence for the hypothesis that BCG vaccination may protect against COVID-19. Currently, such clinical trials are ongoing or being planned in different countries. Care should be taken that BCG vaccination to protect against COVID-19 will not cause, however, an increase of disease and deaths from tuberculosis resulting from vaccine shortages.