A Global Immunological Observatory to meet a time of pandemics
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 presents an unprecedented international challenge, but it will not be the last such threat. Here, we argue that the world needs to be much better prepared to rapidly detect, define and defeat future pandemics. We propose that a Global Immunological Observatory (GIO) and associated developments in systems immunology, therapeutics and vaccine design should be at the heart of this enterprise.
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No data is involved in this manuscript.
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Funding
The authors declare that there was no funding for this work.
Reviewing Editor
- Peter Rodgers, eLife, United Kingdom
Publication history
- Received: May 18, 2020
- Accepted: June 5, 2020
- Accepted Manuscript published: June 8, 2020 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: June 12, 2020 (version 2)
Copyright
This is an open-access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.
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Further reading
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- Epidemiology and Global Health
- Medicine
Background: SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels can be used to assess humoral immune responses following SARS-CoV-2 infection or vaccination, and may predict risk of future infection. Higher levels of SARS-CoV-2 anti-Spike antibodies are known to be associated with increased protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, variation in antibody levels and risk factors for lower antibody levels following each round of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination have not been explored across a wide range of socio-demographic, SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination, and health factors within population-based cohorts.
Methods: Samples were collected from 9,361 individuals from TwinsUK and ALSPAC UK population-based longitudinal studies and tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Cross-sectional sampling was undertaken jointly in April-May 2021 (TwinsUK, N = 4,256; ALSPAC, N = 4,622), and in TwinsUK only in November 2021-January 2022 (N = 3,575). Variation in antibody levels after first, second, and third SARS-CoV-2 vaccination with health, socio-demographic, SARS-CoV-2 infection and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination variables were analysed. Using multivariable logistic regression models, we tested associations between antibody levels following vaccination and: (1) SARS-CoV-2 infection following vaccination(s); (2) health, socio-demographic, SARS-CoV-2 infection and SARS-CoV-2 vaccination variables.
Results: Within TwinsUK, single-vaccinated individuals with the lowest 20% of anti-Spike antibody levels at initial testing had 3-fold greater odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection over the next six to nine months (OR = 2.9, 95% CI: 1.4, 6.0), compared to the top 20%. In TwinsUK and ALSPAC, individuals identified as at increased risk of COVID-19 complication through the UK 'Shielded Patient List' had consistently greater odds (2- to 4-fold) of having antibody levels in the lowest 10%. Third vaccination increased absolute antibody levels for almost all individuals, and reduced relative disparities compared with earlier vaccinations.
Conclusions: These findings quantify the association between antibody level and risk of subsequent infection, and support a policy of triple vaccination for the generation of protective antibodies.
Funding: Antibody testing was funded by UK Health Security Agency. The National Core Studies program is funded by COVID-19 Longitudinal Health and Wellbeing - National Core Study (LHW-NCS) HMT/UKRI/MRC (MC_PC_20030 & MC_PC_20059). Related funding was also provided by the NIHR 606 (CONVALESCENCE grant COV-LT-0009). TwinsUK is funded by the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, Versus Arthritis, European Union Horizon 2020, Chronic Disease Research Foundation (CDRF), Zoe Ltd and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network (CRN) and Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King's College London. The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome (Grant ref: 217065/Z/19/Z) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC.
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- Epidemiology and Global Health
Background: In contrast to most of the world, the cervical cancer screening programme continued in Denmark throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the cervical cancer screening participation during the pandemic in Denmark.
Methods: We included all women aged 23-64 years old invited to participate in cervical cancer screening from 2015-2021 as registered in the Cervical Cancer Screening Database combined with population-wide registries. Using a generalised linear model, we estimated prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of cervical cancer screening participation within 90, 180 and 365 days since invitation during the pandemic in comparison with the previous years adjusting for age, year and month of invitation.
Results: Altogether, 2,220,000 invited women (in 1,466,353 individuals) were included in the study. Before the pandemic, 36% of invited women participated in screening within 90 days, 54% participated within 180 days and 65% participated within 365 days. At the start of the pandemic, participation in cervical cancer screening within 90 days was lower (pre-lockdown PR=0.58; 95% CI: 0.56-0.59 and 1st lockdown PR=0.76; 95% CI: 0.75-0.77) compared with the previous years. A reduction in participation within 180 days was also seen during pre-lockdown (PR=0.89; 95% CI: 0.88-0.90) and 1st lockdown (PR=0.92; 95% CI: 0.91-0.93). Allowing for 365 days to participation, only a slight reduction (3%) in participation was seen with slightly lower participation in some groups (immigrants, low education and low income).
Conclusions: The overall participation in cervical cancer screening was reduced during the early phase of the pandemic. However, the decline almost diminished with longer follow-up time.
Funding: The study was funded by the Danish Cancer Society Scientific Committee (grant number R321-A17417) and the Danish regions.