Maternal psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and structural changes of the human fetal brain [Scholarly Article - Communications Medicine, May 2022]

Title:

Maternal psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and structural changes of the human fetal brain 

 

Authors:

Yuan-Chiao Lu, Nickie Andescavage, Yao Wu, Kushal Kapse, Nicole R. Andersen, Jessica Quistorff, Haleema Saeed, Catherine Lopez, Diedtra Henderson, Scott D. Barnett, Gilbert Vezina, David Wessel, Adre du Plessis & Catherine Limperopoulos 

 

Published:

Communications Medicine, Volume 2, 26 May 2022

https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-022-00111-w

 

Abstract:

Background 

Elevated maternal psychological distress during pregnancy is linked to adverse outcomes in offspring. The potential effects of intensified levels of maternal distress during the COVID-19 pandemic on the developing fetal brain are currently unknown.  

 

Methods 

We prospectively enrolled 202 pregnant women: 65 without known COVID-19 exposures during the pandemic who underwent 92 fetal MRI scans, and 137 pre-pandemic controls who had 182 MRI scans. Multi-plane, multi-phase single shot fast spin echo T2-weighted images were acquired on a GE 1.5 T MRI Scanner. Volumes of six brain tissue types were calculated. Cortical folding measures, including brain surface area, local gyrification index, and sulcal depth were determined. At each MRI scan, maternal distress was assessed using validated stress, anxiety, and depression scales. Generalized estimating equations were utilized to compare maternal distress measures, brain volume and cortical folding differences between pandemic and pre-pandemic cohorts.  

 

Results 

Stress and depression scores are significantly higher in the pandemic cohort, compared to the pre-pandemic cohort. Fetal white matter, hippocampal, and cerebellar volumes are decreased in the pandemic cohort. Cortical surface area and local gyrification index are also decreased in all four lobes, while sulcal depth is lower in the frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes in the pandemic cohort, indicating delayed brain gyrification.  

 

Conclusions 

We report impaired fetal brain growth and delayed cerebral cortical gyrification in COVID-19 pandemic era pregnancies, in the setting of heightened maternal psychological distress. The potential long-term neurodevelopmental consequences of altered fetal brain development in COVID-era pregnancies merit further study.

Human rhinovirus infection blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication within the respiratory epithelium: implications for COVID-19 epidemiology [Scholarly Article - The Journal of Infectious Diseases, March 2021]

Title:

Human rhinovirus infection blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication within the respiratory epithelium: implications for COVID-19 epidemiology  

 

Authors:

Kieran Dee, Daniel M Goldfarb, Joanne Haney, Julien A R Amat, Vanessa Herder, Meredith Stewart, Agnieszka M Szemiel, Marc Baguelin & Pablo R Murcia

 

Published:

The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiab147, 23 March 2021

https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiab147

 

Abstract:

Virus-virus interactions influence the epidemiology of respiratory infections. However, the impact of viruses causing upper respiratory infections on SARS-CoV-2 replication and transmission is currently unknown. Human rhinoviruses cause the common cold and are the most prevalent respiratory viruses of humans. Interactions between rhinoviruses and co-circulating respiratory viruses have been shown to shape virus epidemiology at the individual host and population level. Here, we examined the replication kinetics of SARS-CoV-2 in the human respiratory epithelium in the presence or absence of rhinovirus. We show that human rhinovirus triggers an interferon response that blocks SARS-CoV-2 replication. Mathematical simulations show that this virus-virus interaction is likely to have a population-wide effect as an increasing prevalence of rhinovirus will reduce the number of new COVID-19 cases.

 

University of Liverpool, UK - Evolution of a killer: How African Salmonella made the leap from gut to bloodstream

Title:

Evolution of a killer: How African Salmonella made the leap from gut to bloodstream

 

Published:

University of Liverpool, 21 December 2020

https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2020/12/21/evolution-of-a-killer-how-african-salmonella-made-the-leap-from-gut-to-bloodstream/

From the news article:

University of Liverpool scientists have exploited the combined power of genomics and epidemiology to understand how a type of Salmonella bacteria evolved to kill hundreds of thousands of immunocompromised people in Africa.

For better health, don't sleep your age: Older people with ‘young’ sleep patterns have more robust cognition than those whose rest is typical for their age [Nature, 17 Nov 2020]

Title:

For better health, don't sleep your age: Older people with ‘young’ sleep patterns have more robust cognition than those whose rest is typical for their age

 

Published:

Nature, 17 November 2020

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03244-x

From the article:

Shaun Purcell at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, and his colleagues tracked the sleep of 3,819 people between 54 and 96 years old by recording their brain waves through electroencephalogram sensors that the participants wore throughout the night. The researchers then scored each person’s sleep for more than 150 sleep characteristics and brain-activity patterns. These included factors such as sleep disturbance, the length of the sleep cycles in which dreams occur and preference for mornings or evenings.

See also:

Macro and micro sleep architecture and cognitive performance in older adults

By Ina Djonlagic, Sara Mariana, Annette L. Fitzpatrick [et al.]

Nature Human behaviour, 16 November 2020

 

James E. Vanderplank: South African and globally recognised plant pathologist [Scholarly Article - South African Journal of Science, 26 November 2020]

Title:

James E. Vanderplank: South African and globally recognised plant pathologist

 

Authors:

Teresa A. Coutinho, University of Pretoria

André Drenth, The University of Queensland

Michael J. Wingfield, University of Pretoria

 

Published:

South African Journal of Science, Volume 116, Number 11/12 (26 November 2020)

https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/8264

From the article:

James Edward Vanderplank, best known to plant pathologists globally simply as ‘Vanderplank’, is widely regarded as one of the world’s most influential plant scientists. This recognition stems from his reputation as the founding father of modern quantitative plant disease epidemiology.1  Professional plant pathologists and students in the discipline are familiar with Vanderplank’s work as it provides a theoretical framework to study disease epidemics and breeding for disease resistance. The United Nations declaration of 2020 as the international Year of Plant Health provides an apt opportunity to reflect on the contributions Vanderplank has made to both plant pathology and plant breeding.

medRxiv scholarly article (17 April 2020) - Time course quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Parisian wastewaters correlates with COVID-19 confirmed cases

Title:
Time course quantitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Parisian wastewaters correlates with COVID-19 confirmed cases

Authors:
Sebastian Wurtzer, Vincent Marechal, Jean-Marie Mouchel & Laurent Moulin

Published:
medRxiv, 17 April 2020
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062679
[This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.]

From the abstract:
"Since many SARS-CoV-2 carriers are assumed to exhibit no or few non-specific symptoms, SARS-CoV-2 circulation among human populations may be detected too lately and only when massive human testing is available or when clinal COVID-19 cases are reported. This is obviously a major pitfall for evaluating and possibly controlling the current epidemic. Due to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in stool samples qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewaters has recently been proposed as a complementary tool to investigate the virus circulation in human populations. If this assumption is correct, SARS-CoV-2 relative amounts in wastewaters should correlate with the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. To test this hypothesis, we performed a time-course quantitative analysis of SARS-CoV2 by RT-qPCR in 23 raw and 8 treated wastewater samples collected from 3 major wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) of the Parisian area collecting 3 to 4 million inhabitants reject. This study was conducted from 5 March to 7 April 2020."

See also:
Title: Coronavirus found in Paris sewage points to early warning system
Author: Christa Lesté-Lasserre
Published: Science, 21 April 2020
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-found-paris-sewage-points-early-warning-system