Volume 226, Issue 8, 15 October 2022

The omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 causes 3–4-fold less anosmia prevalence than previous variants. The molecular mechanisms responsible for reduced infection of olfactory cells may explain the sparing of olfactory function with the omicron variant.

Since 1960, polio immunization has prevented nearly 30 million cases of paralysis compared to a world with no polio vaccines. We estimate that the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has decreased polio cases by 2.5–6 million since it began in 1988.

IPV immunogenicity increased when administered at an older age, likely due to reduced interference from maternally derived antibodies. Two doses of fIPV could also be used to vaccinate missed cohorts, which is antigen sparing and more immunogenic.

Results from a longitudinal pediatric cohort in Cambodia demonstrated that children with high levels of antibodies to Aedes aegyptimosquito saliva were more likely to get dengue, but were also less likely to have clinical symptoms.

Patients with severe dengue have higher inflammatory biomarkers, impaired natural killer (NK) cell activation/cytotoxic potential, and polymorphisms in genes involved in NK cell cytolytic function.

We explored the drivers of dengue infection in an endemic setting testing blood taken from multigenerational households and looking for antibodies against dengue virus. We showed that most of the variance in seropositivity was explained by unmeasured house-level effects.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in seroconversion of a significant proportion of the US plasma donor population, and thus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 neutralizing antibodies are now present in commercial immunoglobulin lots fractionated from US-sourced plasma.

The balance of the evidence does not support the claim that human-to-human transmission of hantavirus infection occurs. Well-designed cohort and case-control studies that control for co-exposure to rodents are needed to inform public health recommendations.

Heterologous booster vaccines significantly increased binding and neutralizing antibody in healthy adults immunized with 2 doses of CoronaVac. The present evidence may benefit vaccine strategies to combat variants of concern, including the omicron variant.

Using self-reported vaccination and testing results for coronavirus disease 2019 among a random adult population in Hong Kong, we estimated that third doses of messenger RNA or inactivated vaccines could provide moderate level of protection during the Omicron BA.2 surge.

Effectiveness of vaccines and postinfection immunity against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is significantly lower than against the Delta variant. The probability of a severe outcome is substantially lower for the Omicron variant compared to Delta.

We demonstrated that cross-neutralizing activity against omicron in COVID-19 convalescent patients (n = 23) who had received 2 doses of an mRNA vaccination.

Immunoglobulin preparations produced from plasma of COVID-19 recovered or vaccinated donors contain SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. Neutralization of the Wuhan as well as the Omicron virus variant is shown for immunoglobulin manufactured from plasma collected in the US and EU.

A booster dose of UB-612, a next-generation subunit protein-peptide vaccine, induced high cross-reactive antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants and is predicted to confer approximately 95% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 caused by the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain.

Infection- and vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody activities against the SARS-CoV-2 variants Delta and Omicron vary greatly among individuals. Infection history does not predict if one dose of vaccine is adequate to provide maximal levels of neutralizing antibodies against variants of concern.

The SD Biosensor and Panbio rapid antigen tests performed well in samples with Omicron 21M, 21K, and 21L infections. The Panbio test performed best in infections with Omicron 21L, which had significantly higher viral load than 21M and 21K.

This was one of the first studies to detect Omicron sublineages in wastewater from South- Africa. BA.1 was detected in wastewater on 23 November 2021, followed by BA.2 on 10 March 2022, whilst on 18 April 2022 BA.4 and BA.5 were detected in selected sites.

Circulating and cervical mucosa-associated invariant T cells were assessed in women with or without human immunodeficiency virus infected and uninfected women and were reduced in the circulation of HIV-infected women but numerically preserved in their ectocervical mucosa, where distinct dominance of TRAV1-2–TRAJ20 was seen.

This study demonstrates that maternal HIV infection is associated with major changes in the biophysical features of maternal antibodies that are potentially key to their transfer across the placenta.

Elevated kynurenine-to-tryptophan ratio, a measure of indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase activation, was associated with significantly poorer sleep efficiency and a greater number of wake episodes after sleep onset in women with HIV compared with demographically similar uninfected women.

Malaria infection and transmission involves biting by anopheline mosquitoes. Exposure to these mosquitoes is difficult to measure in humans, but IgG serological data to anopheline salivary proteins were shown to predict vector exposure in Haitian persons.

Recent studies suggest involvement of endothelial glycocalyx in malaria pathogenesis. Using lectin histochemistry on postmortem brain samples, we show changes of specific sugar epitopes in cerebral capillaries in children who died from cerebral malaria as compared with nonmalarial comas.