Covid News and Updates

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has given the first intra-nasal COVID vaccination in the world clearance for limited use in life-threatening conditions in people age 18 and older.

This was said on Thursday by Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh, who was presiding over a meeting of the Societies of Autonomous Institutions of the Department of Biotechnology. He also announced the historic choice to combine the 14 societies of Biotechnology Institutes into a single society for the sake of practical operation, financial efficiency, and integrated working.

The Minister praised the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and its PSU, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance (BIRAC), for helping Bharat Biotech International Limited produce the first intranasal COVID vaccine ever (BBIL).

Dr. Jitendra Singh stated that the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and BIRAC supported the product development and clinical testing under the Mission COVID Suraksha Program. This vaccine was authorised for primary 2 dose schedule, homologous booster doses for ages 18 and older in emergency conditions.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, “India’s efforts through Mission COVID Suraksha under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only strengthened AtmaNirbhar Bharat but also bolstered India’s status as a worldwide vaccine development and manufacturing centre showcasing the strength of Science and Technology. It is a matter of great pride for the country.”

On November 28, iNCOVACC – the intra-nasal vaccine received both Primary series and Heterologous booster approval, as per a press release by Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL).

This vaccine has the double benefit of enabling faster development of variant-specific vaccines and easy nasal delivery that enables mass immunization to protect from emerging variants of concern. It promises to become an important tool in mass vaccinations during pandemics and endemics.

The vaccine is a recombinant replication-deficient adenovirus vector vaccine with a pre-fusion stabilized spike protein. This vaccine candidate was evaluated in Phases 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials with successful results.

It has been specifically formulated to allow intranasal delivery through nasal drops. The nasal delivery system has been designed and developed to be cost-effective in low- and middle-income countries. This vaccine is stable at 2-8 degree celsius for easy storage and distribution.

Large manufacturing capabilities have been established by Bharat Biotech at multiple sites across India, including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Telangana, with operations pan India.

It has the potential to be a crucial tool for mass immunisation campaigns during pandemics and endemics. Launch dates, prices, and availability will be disclosed in due course following the receipt of this clearance.

Data on product development will be shared with the public and submitted to peer-reviewed journals.

To monitor and restrict the spread of SARS-CoV-2, epidemiological monitoring and healthcare services still require rapid, low-cost, and reliable diagnostics. Brazilian researchers have helped to the work in this sector by developing an electrochemical immunosensor that detects antibodies against the virus.

An publication in the journal ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering describes the breakthrough. In quest of an unique diagnostic approach, the researchers chose zinc oxide, a common metallurgical substance, and coupled it for the first time with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass, a conductive material used in solar electrodes and other advanced applications.

“With this unusual combination and the addition of a biomolecule, the viral spike protein, we developed a surface capable of detecting antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. The result is displayed as an electrochemical signal captured by this surface,” said chemist Wendel Alves, lead author of the article. Alves is a professor at the Center for Natural and Human Sciences, Federal University of the ABC (UFABC), Sao Paulo state.

The researchers’ electrode identified COVID-19 antibodies in serum in around five minutes with 88.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity, exceeding even the current gold-standard clinical diagnostic technique, the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

FAPESP funded the study through the National Science and Technology Institute for Bioanalysis and a Thematic Project. Prior understanding of chemical features such as the isoelectric point of the virus’s spike protein (S), according to Alves, who heads UFABC’s Electrochemistry and Nanostructured Materials Laboratory, enabled the researchers to design a platform for S to bond electrostatically to zinc oxide nanorods. Because of its flexibility and unique chemical, optical, and electrical characteristics, zinc oxide is increasingly being employed to manufacture biosensors.

The immunosensor is simple to build and operate, and it has a cheap production cost. “The group was able to construct the gadget due to its deep expertise of new materials and zinc oxide nanorod fabrication,” Alves explained.

The nanorods create a coating on the conductive surface of the FTO, establishing a suitable molecular milieu for S protein immobilisation and making the construct an easy approach to detect these antibodies.
The platform will now be modified to be portable and connectable to mobile devices for use in detecting COVID-19 and other infectious disorders, according to the researchers.

Analysis and potential applications

In all, 107 blood serum samples were examined. They were separated into four groups: pre-pandemic (15), COVID-19 convalescents (47), vaccinated without prior positive disease findings (25), and vaccinated after a positive result (20). CoronaVac was provided in two doses four weeks apart. CoronaVac is manufactured by the Chinese business SinoVac in collaboration with the Butantan Institute (Sao Paulo state).

The article’s authors, who are affiliated with UFABC and the Heart Institute (INCOR) at the University of Sao Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP), note that the device detects antibodies produced in response to both virus infection and vaccination, and that it has excellent potential as a tool for monitoring seroconversion and seroprevalence.

Detecting vaccination responses is critical for public health officials to analyse the performance of various vaccinations as well as immunisation campaigns or programmes, they emphasise.

The technology has been verified for detecting immunity caused by CoronaVac, but the researchers want to use it to test for responses to Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines as well.

One of the electrode’s benefits is its flexible design, which allows it to be readily adapted for additional diagnostic and biomedical applications employing other biomolecules on the zinc oxide nanorods and other target analytes.

“The technology is a versatile biosensing platform. As developed by us, it can be modified and customized for serological detection of other diseases of public health interest,” Alves said

Researchers from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney have developed a unique nasal vaccination approach that provides significant lung immunity and protection against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The findings were reported in the prominent journal Nature Communications. The novel vaccination technique has been successfully tested in mice and has the potential to be a significant tool for improving protection against COVID-19 infection and limiting viral dissemination.

The new vaccine was delivered by simply breathing in through the nose and was made up of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and an adjuvant called Pam2Cys (a molecule that helps stimulate a stronger immune response in the body) developed by Professor Richard Payne, NHMRC Investigator in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science. It induced significant levels of neutralising antibodies as well as enhanced T-cell responses in the lungs and airways of the mice examined.

Dr Anneliese Ashhurst, lead author of the study and research fellow at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Centenary Institute, stated that while current COVID-19 vaccines are critical, there are some limitations, including waning immunity after vaccination and infection, as well as the impact of new viral variants evolving.

“Current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 substantially reduce mortality and severe disease, but protection against infection is less effective. Vaccinated individuals are still catching COVID-19 and can spread the infection, so breakthrough infections are still occurring,” said Dr Ashhurst.
“To stop viral spread and to prevent this virus from mutating we need a new vaccine approach that blocks COVID-19 transmission,” she said.

The novel vaccine was given nasally in the mice trial, making its way through the respiratory system and sticking to the tissues of the nasal cavity, airways, and lungs. High quantities of protective antibodies were found in the airways, as well as enhanced T-cell responses in the lungs, according to testing (T-cells help destroy SARS-CoV-2 infected cells). Notably, none of the vaccinated mice developed COVID-19 infection.

“Our vaccine differs from most current COVID-19 vaccines in that it enables generation of an immune response directly in those areas of the body that are likely to be the first point of contact for the virus – the nose, airway and lungs. This may help explain the vaccine’s effectiveness,” said Dr Ashhurst.

Senior study author, Professor Emeritus Warwick Britton AO, Head of the Centenary Institute’s Tuberculosis Research Program, said that the new vaccine strategy could play a key role in the fight against many diseases.
“Our vaccination findings have shown exciting potential in pre-clinical studies, improving protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The approach developed here could help break the COVID-19 infection cycle and will likely influence future coronavirus vaccine related studies,” Professor Britton said.

He added that adapted versions of the new nasal vaccine could also be potentially applied to other viral or bacterial respiratory diseases such as influenza, avian flu, SARS and MERS.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court that there was no legal requirement to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Centre argued in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that the idea of informed consent is inapplicable to the voluntary use of a medicine such as a vaccination.

“While the Government of India strongly encourages all eligible persons to undertake vaccination in public interest, there is no legal compulsion for the same,” the affidavit read. The statement came in response to a petition filed by two parents whose children reportedly died as a result of the COVID vaccine’s negative effects.

If a person experiences bodily harm or death as a result of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), the vaccination beneficiary or their family have legal options, including filing a claim for damages/compensation in civil courts for negligence, malfeasance, or misfeasance.

“Such claims may be determined on a case-to-case basis in an appropriate forum,” the Centre said further submitting: “there is no material evidence to suggest how the State can be fastened with strict liability for the tragic death of the respective children of the petitioners which is the requirement in law to sustain a claim for compensation against the State under Article 32 of the Constitution.”

The union government, on the other hand, stated that the facts contained in this affidavit demonstrate how the Government of India has taken significant steps to ensure a safe National COVID-19 Vaccination Program.
The Centre further stated that both the vaccine manufacturer and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare make information on COVID-19 inoculation openly available in the public domain (MoHFW).

AEFIs have been recorded for every vaccination in the globe, just as side effects in medication. A vaccine beneficiary can always get more information about the vaccine and its potential side effects from health workers at the vaccination site or their doctor before making an informed decision on their own, according to the government, who claims that once a vaccine beneficiary has access to all relevant information and voluntarily chooses to enter a vaccination centre and receive vaccination, the issue of lack of informed consent is resolved.

The Centre has opposed the petition seeking compensation from the respondents for the deaths of their respective children, claiming that causation analysis revealed that the death of the first petitioner’s daughter was caused by a vaccine product-related reaction, while there is insufficient evidence to reach a definitive conclusion in the case of the second petitioner’s daughter.

The Centre further said that the National AEFI Committee and Secretariat’s existing structure for monitoring, investigation, and analysis of AEFIs is appropriate, effective, transparent, and directed by worldwide best practises and scientific medical specialists.

“The Petitioners’ request for an independent examination of AEFI cases should not be granted by this Court because it would cast doubt on the existing regulatory and AEFI monitoring mechanisms and undermine the public interest. It should be underlined that the Petitioners have failed to demonstrate how the existing AEFI monitoring and investigation mechanism has proven ineffective in this case “The Centre urged the court to dismiss the plea.

Individuals who have already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, benefit from a vaccine as well, with 60% to 94% protection against reinfection depending on the variant, according to a research. These findings are reported in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by a new study conducted by Katrine Finderup Nielsen from Statens Serum Institut in Denmark. During the last epidemic, vaccination was one of the most effective techniques for limiting the spread of COVID-19. People who have been infected with the virus are known to have long-lasting natural immunity, but Finderup Nielsen and her colleagues wanted to determine if these people would still benefit from the vaccination.

The researchers examined infection and vaccination data from Danish national registries, which included all Danes who tested positive for the virus or were vaccinated between January 2020 and January 2022. More than 200,000 persons tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron waves were included in the data collection. According to their findings, for persons who had previously been infected, immunisation provided up to 71% protection against reinfection during the Alpha phase, 94% protection during the Delta period, and 60% protection during the Omicron period, with protection lasting up to nine months.

These data suggest that vaccination protected persons against SARS-CoV-2 in addition to natural immunity during all three waves of variations. The authors caution out that the present trial was too short to assess if the vaccination protects against serious outcomes like mortality and hospitalisation, and that larger follow-up studies would be needed to answer this question. In terms of public health, these insights on vaccine efficacy can assist decision makers plan the scheduling and execution of vaccination efforts to maximise their effectiveness.

Finderup Nielsen adds, “In our study we find a significant vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection, and this shows the importance of vaccination also for those who might be protected by natural immunity.”

Using a specific type of MRI, researchers observed brain changes in people up to six months after they recovered from COVID-19. The work will be presented at the annual conference of the Radiological Society of North America next week. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around one in every five individuals will experience long-term consequences from COVID-19. Long-term COVID causes neurological symptoms such as trouble thinking or focusing, headache, sleep issues, lightheadedness, pins-and-needles feeling, change in smell or taste, and depression or anxiety. COVID-19, on the other hand, has been linked to abnormalities in the heart, lungs, and other organs in asymptomatic people, according to research.

As more people become infected with and recover from COVID-19, research concentrating on the disease’s long-term implications has begun to surface. The researchers employed susceptibility-weighted imaging to examine the effects of COVID-19 on the brain in this investigation. Magnetic susceptibility is the degree to which particular materials, such as blood, iron, and calcium, will become magnetised in the presence of a magnetic field. This skill facilitates in the detection and monitoring of a variety of neurologic disorders such as microbleeds, vascular malformations, brain tumours, and stroke.

“Group-level studies have not previously focused on COVID-19 changes in magnetic susceptibility of the brain despite several case reports signalling such abnormalities,” said study co-author Sapna S. Mishra, a PhD candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. “Our study highlights this new aspect of the neurological effects of COVID-19 and reports significant abnormalities in COVID survivors.”

The susceptibility-weighted MRI data of 46 COVID-recovered patients and 30 healthy controls were examined by the researchers. Imaging was performed six months after recovery. The most often reported symptoms among individuals with extended COVID were weariness, difficulty sleeping, loss of focus, and memory problems.

“Changes in susceptibility values of brain regions may be indicative of local compositional changes,” Mishra said. “Susceptibilities may reflect the presence of abnormal quantities of paramagnetic compounds, whereas lower susceptibility could be caused by abnormalities like calcification or lack of paramagnetic molecules containing iron.”

When MRI data were compared to healthy controls, patients who recovered from COVID-19 had considerably greater susceptibility levels in the frontal lobe and brain stem. The frontal lobe clusters found mostly exhibit variations in white matter.

“These brain regions are linked with fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression, headaches and cognitive problems,” Mishra said.

The frontal lobe clusters were made up of portions of the left orbital-inferior frontal gyrus (a key region for language comprehension and production) and right orbital-inferior frontal gyrus (associated with various cognitive functions such as attention, motor inhibition, and imagery, as well as social cognitive processes) and the adjacent white matter areas.

The researchers also discovered a substantial difference in the brain stem’s right ventral diencephalon area. This area is involved in several important biological activities, such as coordinating hormone release with the endocrine system, sending sensory and motor impulses to the cerebral cortex, and regulating circadian cycles (the sleep-wake cycle).

“This study points to serious long-term complications that may be caused by the coronavirus, even months after recovery from the infection,” Mishra said. “The present findings are from the small temporal window. However, the longitudinal time points across a couple of years will elucidate if there exists any permanent change.”

The researchers are now doing a long-term investigation on the same patient group to see if these brain anomalies remain over time.

The Health Ministry labelled a WhatsApp message encouraging individuals to participate in a COVID poll as ‘fake’ and deceptive on Thursday.
“#FactCheck “This letter that is circulating in several WhatsApp groups is FAKE and DECEPTIVE,” the Health Ministry stated in a tweet:

https://twitter.com/MoHFW INDIA/status/1593237606799929349?s=20&t=75WMmr91iym2tOWWE-DqOw

The viral message stated that a Coronavirus survey was being conducted blockwise on a population over the age of 18 from January to March 2023, and invited individuals to participate.

“You are hereby offered a huge social responsibility based on your good past raconds to conduct a SURVEY on Coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2 or Covid 19) at the following districts of West Bengal, India: Hooghly, Howrah, Burdwan East, Burdwan West, Malda, Murshidabad, Jhargram, Birbhum, Nadia and Medinipur East,” the message read.

The letter also encouraged individuals to visit the designated regions and examine the protective measures in place.
The message also stated that the participants will be given cash to help them find workers.

According to researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, patients with acute COVID-19 infection had greater levels of the cytokine IL-26 in their blood. Furthermore, elevated IL-26 levels are associated with an enhanced inflammatory response, indicating that the condition is serious. The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, show that IL-26 might be a biomarker for severe COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been beneficial in lowering the number of severe COVID-19 infections. However, the advent of novel virus strains, restricted vaccine dissemination, and waning immunity are issues that are driving scientists to develop more effective therapies for the disease. “In order to identify effective therapies, we need to learn more about the underlying immunological pathways.”

There is also a need for improved diagnostics in COVID 19-patients,” says Eduardo Cardenas, postdoc researcher at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, and principal author of the new pilot study.
The researchers have tried, for the first time, to ascertain whether immune signalling via the cytokine interleukin-26 (IL-26) is involved in severe COVID-19.

“We already know that IL-26 is engaged in mobilising immune cells that combat bacterial infections in the lungs and also in chronic respiratory disease in humans,” says the study’s last author Anders Linden, consultant and professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet. “What’s more, IL-26 has antiviral and antibacterial effects.”

The authors selected 49 individuals who had been hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 infection, 44 of whom had severe symptoms and required oxygen treatment, to explore how the molecule is implicated in COVID-19. From June 2020 to January 2021, patients were recruited in a hospital in Stockholm. During the same time span, a control group of 27 healthy people was also recruited. The researchers next examined IL-26 protein levels as well as other inflammatory chemicals in the blood.

“We can show for the first time that blood levels of the cytokine IL-26 are much higher in patients with COVID-19 than in healthy controls,” says Dr Cardenas.

The researchers could also detect that the rise was linked to a cytokine storm, which is an extreme and deadly inflammatory response associated with severe COVID-19 instances. “Our discovery gives us a potential biomarker for severe COVID-19, but given the antiviral effects of IL-26, we may also have identified a new therapeutic target,” says Professor Linden.

The results, according to Dr. Cardenas, are intriguing but preliminary and suggest additional research with a larger patient group. “Such a research is in the works and will provide further information on the clinical utility of monitoring IL-26 in COVID patients, such as whether the levels indicate disease severity.”

Researchers from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney have developed a unique nasal vaccination approach that provides significant lung immunity and protection against the SARS-CoV-2 Covid virus.

The findings were reported in the prominent journal Nature Communications. The novel vaccination technique has been successfully tested in mice and has the potential to be a significant tool for improving protection against COVID-19 infection and limiting viral dissemination.

Lead author of the study, Dr Anneliese Ashhurst, research fellow in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Centenary Institute said that while current COVID-19 vaccines are critical, there were some limitations, including the waning of immunity post-vaccination and infection, combined with the impact of new viral variants evolving.

“Current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 substantially reduce mortality and severe disease, but protection against infection is less effective. Vaccinated individuals are still catching COVID-19 and can spread the infection, so breakthrough infections are still occurring,” said Dr Ashhurst.

“To stop viral spread and to prevent this virus from mutating we need a new vaccine approach that blocks COVID-19 transmission,” she said.

In the mice study, the new vaccine was delivered nasally, making its way through the respiratory tract, adhering to the tissues of the nasal cavity, airways and lungs. Testing showed the generation of high levels of protective antibodies in the airways and increased T-cell responses in the lungs (T-cells help destroy SARS-CoV-2 infected cells).

Covid vaccine test

Significantly, none of the vaccinated mice became infected with COVID-19.

“Our vaccine differs from most current COVID-19 vaccines in that it enables generation of an immune response directly in those areas of the body that are likely to be the first point of contact for the virus – the nose, airway and lungs. This may help explain the vaccine’s effectiveness,” said Dr Ashhurst.

Senior study author, Professor Emeritus Warwick Britton AO, Head of the Centenary Institute’s Tuberculosis Research Program, said that the new vaccine strategy could play a key role in the fight against many diseases.

“Our vaccination findings have shown exciting potential in pre-clinical studies, improving protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The approach developed here could help break the COVID-19 infection cycle and will likely influence future coronavirus vaccine related studies,” Professor Britton said.

He added that adapted versions of the new nasal vaccine could also be potentially applied to other viral or bacterial respiratory diseases such as influenza, avian flu, SARS and MERS.

Also Read: Baby vaccination responses linked to birth delivery method: Research

According to Martin Roessler of Technische Universitat Dresden, Germany, and colleagues’ new study published in the journal PLOS Medicine, there is a significant new-onset major complication in children, adolescents, and adults across 13 distinct diagnosis and symptom complexes following COVID-19 infection.

According to research, some patients infected with COVID-19 experience long-term health difficulties after the acute phase of the disease. However, research on post-acute (post-COVID-19) syndrome remains limited, particularly in children and adolescents. Researchers identified patients with a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 in the new study, which used a healthcare dataset covering nearly half of the German population and spanned all of 2019 and 2020.

They then compared the occurrence of pre-specified diagnoses, entered into the medical record at least three months post-infection, in these patients (11,950 children and adolescent and 145,184 adults) to a control cohort of more than 750,000 individuals with matched age, sex and pre-existing medical conditions, without PCR-confirmed COVID-19.

Overall, children and adolescents who had been infected with COVID-19 were 30% more likely than controls to have documented health problems beginning three months or more after infection (436.91 vs 335.98 per 1,000 person-years, IRR=1.30, 95% CI=1.25-1.35, p<0.01). Adults with COVID-19 were 33% more likely than controls to have health problems (615.82 vs 464.15 per 1,000 person-years, IRR=1.33, 95% CI=1.31-1.34, p<0.01).

Among children and adolescents, rates of malaise/fatigue/exhaustion, cough and throat/chest pain were the most strongly associated with a prior COVID-19 infection, but rates of headache, fever, abdominal pain, anxiety disorder and depression were also increased. Among adults, smell/taste disturbance, fever, and dyspnea (or difficulty breathing) were most strongly associated with COVID-19 infection but also more common were cough, throat and chest pain, hair loss, fatigue, exhaustion and headache.

“The results of the present study indicate that post-COVID-19 syndrome cannot be dismissed among children and adolescents,” the authors say.

“We found that COVID-19 diagnosis was associated with higher long-term demand for healthcare services as reflected in outpatient and inpatient diagnoses of a broad set of outcomes more than three months after confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. While children and adolescents appear to be less affected than adults, these findings are statistically significant for all age groups.”