Clinical Care, Therapeutics & Vaccines – Feb. 7, 10 a.m. – noon
Nicole Iovine, MD, PhD, Rebecca Wakeman, Christopher Duncan, Matthew Shaw
Multicenter, Adaptive, Randomized Blinded Controlled Trial of the Safety and Efficacy of Investigational Therapeutics for the Treatment of COVID-19 in Hospitalized Adults
The Adaptive Covid-19 Treatment Trial identified remdesivir and baricitinib as effective treatments in hospitalized patients. Notably, remdesivir was the first drug that received Emergency Use Authorization and then full FDA approval for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and remains the standard of care for hospitalized patients.
Matthew Schaller, PhD, et al
Yamini Sharma, Zadia Dupee, Duy Nguyen, Juan Urueña, Ryan Smolchek, Julia C Loeb, Tiago N Machuca, M.D., John A Lednicky, David J Odde, Robert F Campbell, W Gregory Sawyer, Borna Mehrad, M.D.
Ex vivo SARS-CoV-2 infection of human lung reveals heterogeneous host defense and therapeutic responses
Cell lines are the mainstay in understanding the biology of COVID-19 infection, but do not recapitulate many of the complexities of human infection. The use of human lung tissue is one solution for the study of such novel respiratory pathogens. We created a bank of cryopreserved human lung tissue and used this to study individual responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We observed that although the viral replication and viral titer were similar between donors, the host response to infection was heterogenous. We also observed heterogeneity in the reduction of viral titer when using experimental and clinically approved drugs for the treatment of COVID-19.
Leah Reznikov, PhD
Targeted disruption of ACE2-SARS-CoV-2 interactions using small molecules
Ashley Brown, PhD
Ashley N. Brown, PhD, George Drusano, MD, Juergen Bulitta, PhD, Yinzhi Lang, PhD
Identification of effective antivirals against SARS-CoV-
Antiviral agents, particularly oral drugs, have great potential to alter the course of the pandemic. We have identified the orally-available nucleoside polymerase inhibitor molnupiravir (MOL) as a promising antiviral drug for COVID-19. Here, we explain why MOL therapy failed in hospitalized patients and explore alternative dosing strategies that have great potential to maximize viral suppression in an attempt to improve therapeutic outcomes in patients with COVID-19.
Matthew Hitchings, PhD, et al
Matt Hitchings, PhD, Otavio Ranzani, PhD, Jason Andrews, PhD, Derek Cummings, PhD, Albert Ko, PhD, Julio Croda, PhD
Observational studies of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in Brazil
Since early 2021, our group has worked closely with members of Brazilian State Ministries of Health to understand aspects of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness using passive surveillance data and observational study designs. In this talk I will describe our major findings, discuss the continued importance of observational studies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the future direction of such endeavors.
Detection, Surveillance & Risk Factors – Feb. 9, 10 a.m. – noon
Josephine Esquivel-Upshaw, DMD
Josephine F. Esquivel-Upshaw, Fan Ren, Steve Pearton, Yu-Te Liao, Jenshan Lin, Steve Ghivizzani
A handheld electrical sensor for rapid, sensitive detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 from saliva
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a significant impact worldwide. Currently, the most common detection methods for the virus are polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lateral flow tests. PCR takes more than an hour to obtain the results and lateral flow tests have difficulty with detecting the virus at low concentrations. In this study, clinical human saliva samples were screened for COVID-19 using disposable glucose biosensor strips and a reusable printed circuit board. The disposable strips were gold plated and functionalized to immobilize antibodies on the gold film. After functionalization, the strips were connected to the gate electrode of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) on the printed circuit board to amplify the test signals. A synchronous double-pulsed bias voltage was applied to the drain of the transistor and strips. The resulting change in drain waveforms was converted to digital readings. The same saliva samples were also tested using PCR technology to obtain cycling threshold (Ct) values. Ct values refer to the number of amplification cycles needed to detect the presence of the virus. These PCR results were compared with digital readings from the sensor to better evaluate the sensor technology. The results indicate samples with a range of Ct values 17.8 to 35 can be differentiated, which highlights the increased sensitivity of this sensor technology. This research exhibits the potential of this biosensor technology to be further developed into a cost-effective, point-of-care, and portable rapid detection method for SARS-CoV-2.
Kartik Cherabuddi, MD, and Rebeccah Mercado, MS
COVID-19 vaccine and infection in young adults and university system
Christopher Vulpe, MD, PhD, Michael Norris, PhD, Stephanie Karst, PhD
Identification of host determinants of SARS-CoV-2 infection
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in 275 million infections and 5.4 million deaths as of December 2021. While effective vaccines are being administered globally, there is still a great need for antiviral therapies as antigenically novel SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge across the globe. Viruses require host factors at every step in their life cycle, representing a rich pool of candidate targets for antiviral drug design.In this study, we report a global analysis of host-HCoV interactions gleaned from genome-wide screens performed for two HCoVs and in two different cell lines. We also performed a comprehensive comparative analysis of all published genome-wide SARS-CoV-2 screens to date and developed a website to enable comparisons of SARS-CoV-2 CRISPR screen datasets (sarscrisprscreens.epi.ufl.edu/). Together, our study has provided significant insight into host-HCoV interactions and identified novel candidate antiviral compounds.
Jane Benoit, PhD candidate (Florida State University)
SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid alters chromatin dynamics in human lung cells
Nucleosomes, formed by 150bp of DNA wrapped around a histone octamer, regulate genomic accessibility. Cells expressing SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid show differential nucleosome accessibility and altered regulatory factor binding. These alterations in nucleosome architecture impact cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 and may be linked to disease pathogenesis.
Dissemination, Policy, Public Information, PPE & Health Care Delivery – Feb. 9, 2-4 p.m.
Eric Cooks, PhD, et al
Eric Cooks, Gillian Mertens, Kathryn McAlindon, Palani Te, Maribeth Williams, Maryam Sattari, Christopher Scuderi, Stefany Paredes, Francisco Martinez-Wittinghan, Maria Lupi, Charles Haddad, Judella Haddad-Lacle, Dianne Goede, Brian Fitzgerald, Benjamin Lok, Janice Krieger
Provider perspectives for strengthening research partnerships to implement cancer screening interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disruption to primary health care caused by COVID-19 is expected to exacerbate CRC screening inequities. Meet ALEX is a remote, digital CRC screening intervention in which demographically-matched virtual health assistants (VHAs) educate patients about the importance of screening and provide the opportunity to request in-home stool testing. To identify barriers and facilitators to implementing digital cancer screening interventions in the current health care environment, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with UF Health physicians and clinical staff. In this talk, I will describe our preliminary findings.
Steven Munger, PhD
Steven Munger, PhD, Jeb Justice, MD, Carol Dirain, PhD, John E. Hayes, PhD (Penn State, Dept Food Science), Richard Gerkin, PhD (Arizona State, College of Life Sciences)
Rapid olfactory tools for telemedicine-friendly COVID-19 screening and surveillance
Symptom-based screening tools can offer a valuable, albeit imperfect, complement to COVID-19 viral testing for identifying potentially infected individuals, particularly in communities where there technical, financial or governmental hurdles to universal access or timely processing. A major challenge with symptomatic testing is that COVID-19 is highly protean: the heterogeneity of symptoms means no single symptom or constellation of symptoms is definitive diagnostically. However, sudden partial or complete olfactory loss is the single best symptomatic predictor of COVID-19 (Gerkin et al., Chem Senses, 2021). Unfortunately, most current smell testing options have severe drawbacks for routine olfactory screening: they are typically expensive, time consuming, often require a trained test administrator, can be culturally biased, and may require a cognitive load associated with language and working memory. We have developed a novel, self-administered odor detection threshold test with a goal of identifying individuals with COVID-19 prior to, or in the absence of, viral testing, as well as for use in population-level surveillance of COVID-19 spread. The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T) employs an adaptive Bayesian algorithm implemented via a web app along with a card-based odor deliver device to assess the ability of user’s to detect a range of odor concentrations. The AroMa-T has several advantages over other smell tests: it is reliable, rapid, inexpensive and cross-cultural. It also avoids issues with familiarity, recall, and naming, and it can be self-administered in the clinic, workplace or home. Anosmia and other olfactory disorders are prevalent beyond the effects of COVID-19, with an estimated 16 million persons in the US experiencing a significant olfactory impairment, the vast majority undiagnosed. Further, in many cases olfactory dysfunction is associated with other severe health issues such as chronic rhinosinusitis, neurodegenerative disease, or toxin exposure. Thus, in addition to a role in COVID-19 screening and community surveillance, the ArOMa-T may be a useful tool for the diagnosis of olfactory disorders, particularly in the primary care setting.
Carma Bylund, PhD
Jordan Alpert, Merry Jennifer Markham, Chris Harle, Samantha Paige, Martina Murphy, Gemme Campbell, Chelsea Hampton
Doctor-Patient Cancer Communications through Telemedicine during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid shift to telemedicine for cancer patients and their clinicians. Our research examined cancer patients’ and clinicians’ experiences with tele-oncology including both Zoom visits and secure messaging. Our results informed two translational products: (1) aTip Sheet for doctors conducting Zoom visits and (2) FAQs for patients regarding COVID.
Meredith McQuerry, PhD, Annie Dodson (Florida State University)
Physiological Comfort of First Responders when Wearing a Novel Zinc Ion Face Covering for COVID-19 Prevention
This study compared the physiological comfort (heart rate, skin temperature, sweat rate, perceived comfort, breathability, temperature sensation, and fit) of knit face masks with and without a proprietary zinc ion fiber embedded. Two knit face masks (a 100% nylon, zinc ion embedded, single-layer knit mask and a 100% cotton, single-layer knit mask) were assessed in a wear trial with eight full-time, career firefighters with no chronic illnesses or respiratory conditions, male (n=7) and female (n=1) (age: 34.4 ± 5.4 years, height: 1.75 ± 0.11m, weight: 93.1 ± 17.2kg). Results indicate that in addition to excellent protection capabilities against such viruses as COVID-19, the novel zinc ion mask provides at least as much comfort, if not more than a 100% cotton mask when design and fit are held constant.
Mark Hudak, MD, Kimberly Barnette, Trace Getzlaff
National Registry of Perinatal SARS-CoV-2 Infections
The Perinatal COVID-19 Registry acquired information from over 250 hospitals in 42 states about the perinatal outcomes of mothers and infant dyads in which the mother first tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within 14 days before to 10 days after delivery. Data were assessed to determine the risk of an infant testing positive; the risk factors for infant test positivity; correlation of infant clinical signs with testing status; maternal survival; etc. We examined the effect of infection control practices on infant positivity. To date, we have acquired detailed data on over 11,000 dyads.
Mental Health and Using Data – Feb. 10, 3-5 p.m.
Nicola Sambuco, PhD, Lourdes P. Dale,Andrea D. Guastello,Steven P. Cuffe, Brandon R. Allen, Carol A. Mathews
Exposure to COVID-19 trauma and risk factors for developing psychopathology
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges and stressors, especially on the health care system and workers. Our research aimed at assessing predisposing and environment-related factors associated with more severe forms of psychopathology and burnout. Data showed that, regardless of the profession, individuals with vulnerable dispositional traits, compared to resilient individuals, reported higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD that decreased concurrently with the vaccines’ availability. In our sample, nurses – compared to doctors – reported higher levels of burnout, while all health care workers exposed to morally injurious events reported higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, as well as higher levels of burnout. Altogether, these data show that hospital administrators/supervisors should recognize the importance of supporting the health care workers they supervise, particularly those at greatest risk because of dispositional characteristics, experienced moral injury, and burnout.
Elizabeth Shenkman, PhD, Brittney Roth Manning
Primary Data Collection, Active Surveillance Study of Post-Vaccination Events of Interest Among Patients Vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine or HERO-TOGETHER Registry
Laura Reid Marks, PhD, Yanyun Yang, PhD, Sylvie Naar, PhD, Eunhui Yoon, PhD (Florida State University)
Psychological and Substance Use Impacts of COVID-19 Perceived Threat in Racially Diverse Emerging Adults
The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered fear in the lives of many emerging adults during an already stressful time. We examined the associations among COVID-19 perceived threat, psychological distress, and changes in alcohol and cannabis use since the onset of the pandemic in a sample of emerging adults. We also investigated how these relationships changed based on race, sex assigned at birth, and political affiliation. We collected data from 1,339 emerging adults [M(age) = 23.62, SD(age) = 1.57; women = 400, men = 932] using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Of the participants, 341 identified as Asian, 370 as Black, and 448 as White. In terms of party affiliation, 530 participants identified as Democrat and 564 as Republican. Participants were asked to complete a survey with measures assessing perceived COVID-19 threat (Conway et al., 2020) and psychological distress (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), as well as, items asking them about the increased use of alcohol and cannabis since the pandemic. We found a positive relationship between perceived COVID-19 threat and psychological distress across all groups. We also found a positive relationship between perceived COVID-19 threat and increases in alcohol use across all groups. Perceived COVID-19 threat was not significantly associated with increases in cannabis use since the onset of the pandemic. Black emerging adults demonstrated a stronger association between perceived COVID-19 threat and increases in alcohol use than the combined White/Asian racial group.
Christopher Harle, PhD, and Tanja Magoc, PhD
Tanja Magoc, PhD, Yankuic Galvan, PhD, Gigi Lipori, MT, MBA, Jennifer Myles, PhD, Scott Sortino, BS, Jennifer Fishe, MD, Guillaume Labilloy, ME, MBA, Ian Tfirn, MPH, Chris Harle, PhD
Easily Accessible Real-World Data Registry for Research: A COVID-19 Case Study
The COVID-19 pandemic has markedly increased demand for both retrospective and prospective research data, including electronic health record (EHR) data. In many academic health centers, research requests for EHR data typically require study-specific Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and an honest-broker process for specifying, extracting, and transmitting the dataset to study teams. That process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and not well suited for the urgency that COVID-19 research demands. Therefore, to allow University of Florida (UF) researchers to rapidly analyze COVID-19-related EHR data, we built a reusable, de-identified COVID-19 dataset that is available to researchers without study-specific IRB approval, nor requires data specification or extraction. The Extract, transform, Load (ETL) pipeline and supporting data documentation developed in this project also serves as the starting point in creating and disseminating UF Health clinical data that are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). FAIR principles provide guidance that will allow UF Health clinical data to be used more rapidly and widely in research using artificial intelligence and other analytic methods.
Social Determinants of Health, Medical Engineering – Feb. 11, 1-3 p.m.
Lauri Baker, PhD, Ashley McLeod-Morin, PhD, Anissa M. Zagonel
Lessons from COVID-19: Positioning Regional Food Supply Chains for Future Pandemics, Natural Disasters and Human-made Crises
The Center for Public Issues Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources (PIE Center) has conducted a series of 5 national public opinion surveys to examine the perceptions of Americans related to COVID-19 specifically tracking health, economic, and communication concerns throughout the pandemic. The PIE Center launched the series of surveys in mid-March 2020 and has continued public opinion surveys related to COVID-19 through January 2022. In addition, the PIE Center surveyed leaders in agriculture and natural resources sectors to explore their unique concerns and beliefs. This work has also lead to a grant looking at food supply chain issues during covid-19. More information on survey efforts is available at piecenter.com/covid-19 and more on the food supply chain project is available at https://ruralengagement.org/lessons-from-covid-19.
Michelle Danyluk, PhD, et al
M.D. Danyluk, B.J. Chapman, B.D. Chaves, D.W. Schaffner, A. Binder, C.C. Gunter, M. Jacob, M.D. Koci, M.D. Krug, M. Melendez, N. Montazeri, K.R. Schneider, and H. Vu
FoodCoVNet: A collaborative approach to managing SARS-CoV-2 within the food industry; filling data gaps and impacting behaviors
The global SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic has had a direct impact on the U.S. food supply. Risk managers in the food industry and regulatory communities have been forced to address this emerging pathogen based on scarce data. Public health and regulatory officials scrambled to provide guidance for the food sector early in the outbreak. Our project team, FoodCoVNET, stepped in to fill this gap. We quickly began to review and catalog the existing and expanding literature. We used that information to provide ongoing science-based technical support to our colleagues in the food sector. Our support includes best practice recommendations and assistance in confirming data gaps. As a result of that experience, we created this framework for an integrated research and extension project that leverages existing food safety networks to rapidly address SARS-CoV-2 concerns within the food sector. We address SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 concerns by evaluating practices and confirming efficacy through laboratory research on virus persistence, inactivation, and transfer within food packing, processing, retail and service environments. We translate that knowledge into a variety of forms to aid in risk management decisions. This project has a foundation of stakeholder engagement, utilizing an iterative approach to gather information from food sector constituents and industry leaders to ensure that data gaps are identified and filled. We have create a clearinghouse of resources including outreach and training materials focused on recommending science-based behaviors and practices and evaluate our impact on reducing the effect of COVID-19 on the food sector
Melissa Radey, PhD, Lisa Langenderfer-Magruder, Kristine Posada, Jo Brown-Speights (Florida State University)
Social Support and Well-being Among Low-income Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Hugh Fan, PhD, John Lednicky, PhD, CY Wu, PhD
Multiplexed Airborne Virus Collection and Detection at the Point-of-Care
This research project is to develop an integrated platform consisting of an aerosol sampler and a nucleic acid analysis device. The sampler is capable of enlarging virus aerosols into droplets through water vapor condensation, achieving high collection efficiency of airborne viruses. The analysis device carries out virus lysis, RNA purification and enrichment, reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), and colorimetric detection. We have carried out air sampling in clinics, restaurants, and other venues, and we demonstrated simultaneous detection of both SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) and influenza viruses.
Adrianna Philippe, Staja Booker, PhD, RN, Roger Fillingim, PhD, Todd Manini, PhD, Linda Cottler, PhD, MPH, FACE, Angela Starkweather, PhD, RN, FAAN
Covid-19 and Chronic Pain Management in African American Older Adults
This research describes preliminary results from 29 participants from an ongoing study investigating the impact of movement on knee osteoarthritis pain, function, and self-management. Participants were asked two closed-ended questions and 1 open-ended question to describe how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted their ability to manage pain. All participants are African American/Black and age 55 years and older with knee osteoarthritis.
Aokun Chen, Aokun Chen, Yunpeng Zhao, Yi Zheng, Hui Hu, Jennifer N. Fishe, William R. Hogan, Elizabeth A. Shenkman, Yi Guo, Jiang Bian
Background: Although many studies have associated contextual social determinants of health (SDoH) with COVID-19 outcomes, most prior studies used data from a single site with poor geographical representativeness, or analyzed a small number of contextual SDoH. There is still a large knowledge gap in our understanding of the relationships between contextual SDoH and COVID-19 outcomes. In our study, we linked multiple contextual SDoH factors with EHR data from a large clinical research network (CRN) in the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) to examine the impact of contextual SDoH on COVID-19 occurrence and severity in Florida. Methods: Our study population included a cohort of adult COVID-19 patients and a matching cohort of adult non-COVID-19 patients. We extracted EHR data between January 1st, 2020 and May 20th, 2021 on patients whose latest address was in Florida. A total of 199 contextual SDoH variables covering 11 factor domains were included in this analysis. We adopted a two-phase multiple linear regression approach modified from that in the exposome-wide association (ExWAS) study. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the statistically significant contextual SDoH variables were generated. Results: We identified 15,890 COVID-19 patients and 63,560 matched non-COVID-19 patients in Florida between January 2020 and May 2021. Adjusting for the covariates, six contextual SDoH variables were significantly associated with the occurrence of COVID-19: number of pediatric hospital beds (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.85-0.85); rate of bed utilization (OR: 0.86, 95% CI: 0.86-0.87); percentage of vacant business properties (OR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.89-0.90); number of golf courses and country clubs establishments (OR: 1.05 95% CI: 1.03-1.07); murder rate (OR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.13-1.14); percentage of minorities (OR: 1.30, 95% CI: 1.29-1.31). Three contextual SDoH variables were significantly associated with the severity of COVID-19: percentage of farmers’ markets that report selling baked/prepared food products (OR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.86-0.92); percentage of SNAP households (OR: 1.14, 95% CI: 1.06-1.21); number of establishments in religious organizations (OR: 1.34, 95% CI: 1.16-1.54). Conclusion: To our best knowledge, this is the first study to examine the impact of contextual SDoH on COVID-19 occurrence and severity using EHRs in a large CRN in the PCORnet. More in-depth studies are needed to further examine how SDoH may impact COVID-19 outcomes.
Poster Session – April 5, 2022
Jane Benoit, PhD candidate (Florida State University)
SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid alters chromatin dynamics in human lung cells
Nucleosomes, formed by 150bp of DNA wrapped around a histone octamer, regulate genomic accessibility. Cells expressing SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid show differential nucleosome accessibility and altered regulatory factor binding. These alterations in nucleosome architecture impact cellular responses to SARS-CoV-2 and may be linked to disease pathogenesis.
Ashley Brown, PhD
Ashley N. Brown, PhD, George Drusano, MD, Juergen Bulitta, PhD, Yinzhi Lang, PhD
Identification of effective antivirals against SARS-CoV-
Antiviral agents, particularly oral drugs, have great potential to alter the course of the pandemic. We have identified the orally-available nucleoside polymerase inhibitor molnupiravir (MOL) as a promising antiviral drug for COVID-19. Here, we explain why MOL therapy failed in hospitalized patients and explore alternative dosing strategies that have great potential to maximize viral suppression in an attempt to improve therapeutic outcomes in patients with COVID-19.
Eric Cooks, PhD, et al
Eric Cooks, Gillian Mertens, Kathryn McAlindon, Palani Te, Maribeth Williams, Maryam Sattari, Christopher Scuderi, Stefany Paredes, Francisco Martinez-Wittinghan, Maria Lupi, Charles Haddad, Judella Haddad-Lacle, Dianne Goede, Brian Fitzgerald, Benjamin Lok, Janice Krieger
Provider perspectives for strengthening research partnerships to implement cancer screening interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Disruption to primary health care caused by COVID-19 is expected to exacerbate CRC screening inequities. Meet ALEX is a remote, digital CRC screening intervention in which demographically-matched virtual health assistants (VHAs) educate patients about the importance of screening and provide the opportunity to request in-home stool testing. To identify barriers and facilitators to implementing digital cancer screening interventions in the current health care environment, semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with UF Health physicians and clinical staff. In this talk, I will describe our preliminary findings.
David Diehl, PhD, July Nelson, Glenn Israel, Sebastian Galindo, Damilola Ajayi, Sam Latsko, Katherine McCall, Cassandra Ward
Changes in Work-Life Balance during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from a Survey of Extension Professionals
Using a retrospective post-then-pre design, we asked Extension professionals to reflect on their work-life balance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives were to assess whether work-life balance variables (work interference with personal life, personal life interference with work, and work-personal life enhancement) changed from before to during the pandemic, whether any changes in work-life balance were concentrated in households with parents who had caregiving responsibilities, and whether changes in any of these work-life balance variables were associated with respondents’ gender, marital status, or work location. Findings indicated that (1) personal life interference with work significantly increased and work-personal life enhancement decreased during the pandemic; (2) respondents who had young children in the household reported a significant and large increase for work interference in personal life while respondents who did not have young children in the household reported a small decrease for work interference in personal life; and (3) changes in work-life balance variables were not associated with gender or marital status, but respondents’ who were working both at home and at the office (hybrid working) reported higher levels of work interference in their personal lives.
Josephine Esquivel-Upshaw, DMD
Josephine F. Esquivel-Upshaw, Fan Ren, Steve Pearton, Yu-Te Liao, Jenshan Lin, Steve Ghivizzani
A handheld electrical sensor for rapid, sensitive detection and quantification of SARS-CoV-2 from saliva
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a significant impact worldwide. Currently, the most common detection methods for the virus are polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and lateral flow tests. PCR takes more than an hour to obtain the results and lateral flow tests have difficulty with detecting the virus at low concentrations. In this study, clinical human saliva samples were screened for COVID-19 using disposable glucose biosensor strips and a reusable printed circuit board. The disposable strips were gold plated and functionalized to immobilize antibodies on the gold film. After functionalization, the strips were connected to the gate electrode of a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) on the printed circuit board to amplify the test signals. A synchronous double-pulsed bias voltage was applied to the drain of the transistor and strips. The resulting change in drain waveforms was converted to digital readings. The same saliva samples were also tested using PCR technology to obtain cycling threshold (Ct) values. Ct values refer to the number of amplification cycles needed to detect the presence of the virus. These PCR results were compared with digital readings from the sensor to better evaluate the sensor technology. The results indicate samples with a range of Ct values 17.8 to 35 can be differentiated, which highlights the increased sensitivity of this sensor technology. This research exhibits the potential of this biosensor technology to be further developed into a cost-effective, point-of-care, and portable rapid detection method for SARS-CoV-2.
Loretta Friedrich, MS, Michelle Danyluk, PhD
Survival of Phi6 on Food Contact Surfaces
Our on going research is evaluating the survival of PHi6 (SARS_Co-V_2 surrogate) on different types of food packaging material and food manufacturing surfaces as impacted bystorage temperatures, moisture and storage conditions.
Phoebe Jin
Evaluation of clinical predictors for major outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19
Naim Montazeri, Tautvydas Shuipys, PhD
Persistence and inactivation of coronavirus on contact surfaces
This ongoing research investigates the persistence of coronavirus (CoV) surrogates on contact surfaces. Various contact surfaces, commonly found in food settings, such as stainless steel, clamshell food container, and paper cup, are inoculated with CoV 229E, a human pathogen and a surrogate to SARS CoV-2. The coupons were incubated under various relative humidities. Virus survival is tested with infectivity (plaque) assay after different time intervals. The inoculated coupons are subjected to commercially available disinfectants to study viral inactivation rates.
Laura Reid Marks, PhD, Yanyun Yang, PhD, Sylvie Naar, PhD, Eunhui Yoon, PhD (Florida State University)
Psychological and Substance Use Impacts of COVID-19 Perceived Threat in Racially Diverse Emerging Adults
The COVID-19 pandemic has fostered fear in the lives of many emerging adults during an already stressful time. We examined the associations among COVID-19 perceived threat, psychological distress, and changes in alcohol and cannabis use since the onset of the pandemic in a sample of emerging adults. We also investigated how these relationships changed based on race, sex assigned at birth, and political affiliation. We collected data from 1,339 emerging adults [M(age) = 23.62, SD(age) = 1.57; women = 400, men = 932] using Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Of the participants, 341 identified as Asian, 370 as Black, and 448 as White. In terms of party affiliation, 530 participants identified as Democrat and 564 as Republican. Participants were asked to complete a survey with measures assessing perceived COVID-19 threat (Conway et al., 2020) and psychological distress (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), as well as, items asking them about the increased use of alcohol and cannabis since the pandemic. We found a positive relationship between perceived COVID-19 threat and psychological distress across all groups. We also found a positive relationship between perceived COVID-19 threat and increases in alcohol use across all groups. Perceived COVID-19 threat was not significantly associated with increases in cannabis use since the onset of the pandemic. Black emerging adults demonstrated a stronger association between perceived COVID-19 threat and increases in alcohol use than the combined White/Asian racial group.
Steven Munger, PhD
Steven Munger, PhD, Jeb Justice, MD, Carol Dirain, PhD, John E. Hayes, PhD (Penn State, Dept Food Science), Richard Gerkin, PhD (Arizona State, College of Life Sciences)
Rapid olfactory tools for telemedicine-friendly COVID-19 screening and surveillance
Symptom-based screening tools can offer a valuable, albeit imperfect, complement to COVID-19 viral testing for identifying potentially infected individuals, particularly in communities where there technical, financial or governmental hurdles to universal access or timely processing. A major challenge with symptomatic testing is that COVID-19 is highly protean: the heterogeneity of symptoms means no single symptom or constellation of symptoms is definitive diagnostically. However, sudden partial or complete olfactory loss is the single best symptomatic predictor of COVID-19 (Gerkin et al., Chem Senses, 2021). Unfortunately, most current smell testing options have severe drawbacks for routine olfactory screening: they are typically expensive, time consuming, often require a trained test administrator, can be culturally biased, and may require a cognitive load associated with language and working memory. We have developed a novel, self-administered odor detection threshold test with a goal of identifying individuals with COVID-19 prior to, or in the absence of, viral testing, as well as for use in population-level surveillance of COVID-19 spread. The Adaptive Olfactory Measure of Threshold (ArOMa-T) employs an adaptive Bayesian algorithm implemented via a web app along with a card-based odor deliver device to assess the ability of user’s to detect a range of odor concentrations. The AroMa-T has several advantages over other smell tests: it is reliable, rapid, inexpensive and cross-cultural. It also avoids issues with familiarity, recall, and naming, and it can be self-administered in the clinic, workplace or home. Anosmia and other olfactory disorders are prevalent beyond the effects of COVID-19, with an estimated 16 million persons in the US experiencing a significant olfactory impairment, the vast majority undiagnosed. Further, in many cases olfactory dysfunction is associated with other severe health issues such as chronic rhinosinusitis, neurodegenerative disease, or toxin exposure. Thus, in addition to a role in COVID-19 screening and community surveillance, the ArOMa-T may be a useful tool for the diagnosis of olfactory disorders, particularly in the primary care setting.
Christopher Vulpe, MD, PhD, Michael Norris, PhD, Stephanie Karst, PhD
Identification of host determinants of SARS-CoV-2 infection
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in 275 million infections and 5.4 million deaths as of December 2021. While effective vaccines are being administered globally, there is still a great need for antiviral therapies as antigenically novel SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to emerge across the globe. Viruses require host factors at every step in their life cycle, representing a rich pool of candidate targets for antiviral drug design.In this study, we report a global analysis of host-HCoV interactions gleaned from genome-wide screens performed for two HCoVs and in two different cell lines. We also performed a comprehensive comparative analysis of all published genome-wide SARS-CoV-2 screens to date and developed a website to enable comparisons of SARS-CoV-2 CRISPR screen datasets (sarscrisprscreens.epi.ufl.edu/). Together, our study has provided significant insight into host-HCoV interactions and identified novel candidate antiviral compounds.
Nicola Sambuco, PhD, Lourdes P. Dale,Andrea D. Guastello,Steven P. Cuffe, Brandon R. Allen, Carol A. Mathews
Exposure to COVID-19 trauma and risk factors for developing psychopathology
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed challenges and stressors, especially on the health care system and workers. Our research aimed at assessing predisposing and environment-related factors associated with more severe forms of psychopathology and burnout. Data showed that, regardless of the profession, individuals with vulnerable dispositional traits, compared to resilient individuals, reported higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD that decreased concurrently with the vaccines’ availability. In our sample, nurses – compared to doctors – reported higher levels of burnout, while all health care workers exposed to morally injurious events reported higher symptoms of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, as well as higher levels of burnout. Altogether, these data show that hospital administrators/supervisors should recognize the importance of supporting the health care workers they supervise, particularly those at greatest risk because of dispositional characteristics, experienced moral injury, and burnout.
Yang Yang, Jong Du, Mattia Prosperi, Tara Sabo Atwood
Rapid disinfection of SARS CoV-2 and other pathogen contaminated PPE in healthcare facilities and personal items in schools and offices using compact plasma reactors