Largest, most diverse ever study of prostate cancer genetics brings disparities into focus

Eighty-six new risk factors identified in research co-led by USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center

KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF USC

Research News

 

Some racial and ethnic groups suffer relatively more often, and fare worse, from common ailments compared to others. Prostate cancer is one disease where such health disparities occur: risk for the disease is about 75 percent higher, and prostate cancer is more than twice as deadly, in Blacks compared to whites. Yet whites are often overrepresented as research participants, making these differences difficult to understand and, ultimately, address.

With this problem in mind, scientists at the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology and the Institute for Cancer Research, London, led a study that brings together data from the majority of genomic prostate cancer studies globally. Including more than 200,000 men of European, African, Asian and Hispanic ancestry from around the world, the study is the largest, most diverse genetic analysis ever conducted for prostate cancer -- and possibly for any other cancer.

The paper appears today in Nature Genetics.

The study's authors identified 86 new genetic variations that increase risk for prostate cancer, not previously discovered, bringing the total number of risk loci for prostate cancer to 269. Applying a model for assessing prostate cancer risk based on the interplay of these genetic factors, the researchers showed that men of African ancestry inherit about twice the prostate cancer risk on average compared to men of European ancestry, while men of Asian ancestry inherit about three-quarter the risk of their white counterparts -- evidence that genetics play some part in the differences in how often cancer occurs in different racial groups.

This research is also a step toward applying precision medicine to early detection.

"Our long-term objective is to develop a genetic risk score that can be used to determine a man's risk of developing prostate cancer," said corresponding author Christopher Haiman, ScD, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and director of the USC Center for Genetic Epidemiology. "Men at higher risk may benefit from earlier and more frequent screening, so the disease can be identified when it's more treatable."

Study tackles health disparities

Praise for the study's potential in increasing health equity came from Jonathan W. Simons, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. The foundation funds Haiman's other work leading the RESPOND initiative exploring the disease among African American men.

"PCF believes that Dr. Haiman's research findings will lead to more effective prostate cancer precision screening strategies for men of West African ancestry," Simons said. "PCF is certain that identification of these very high-risk individuals will make a positive impact on this significant health care disparity."

Haiman and his colleagues used genomic datasets from countries including the U.S., the UK, Sweden, Japan, and Ghana to compare 107,247 men with prostate cancer to a control group comprising 127,006 men. By examining a spectrum of races and ethnicities, the study's authors aim to make the genetic risk score more useful for more people.

"We not only found new markers of risk, but also demonstrated that, by combining genetic information across populations, we were able to identify a risk profile that can be applied across populations," said Haiman. "This emphasizes the value of adding multiple racial and ethnic populations into genetic studies."

Risk score could contribute to better screening

Today's screening guidelines for prostate cancer suggest that those 55 and older with average risk can choose to take the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in consultation with their physicians. High PSA levels are associated with prostate cancer, but the PSA test tends to detect slow-growing tumors. With widespread use, it too often leads to unnecessary treatment.

The PSA test's value as a screening tool would grow if it were deployed selectively to monitor people found to be at high risk for prostate cancer -- which is where the genetic risk score could come into play. Those at particularly high risk might even begin screening before age 55.

In order to translate the current research findings into better early detection, a large-scale clinical trial would be needed.

"Most important, unlike previous screening trials, this one would need to be more representative of the diversity we see in the world," Haiman said. "No population should get left behind."

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About this study

The paper has more than 230 co-authors, representing scores of organizations. Co-first authors of the study are David Conti, PhD, professor of preventive medicine, and Burcu Darst, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar and research associate, both of the Keck School of Medicine. Co-senior authors are Haiman, on behalf of the Elucidating Loci Involved in Prostate Cancer Susceptibility (ELLIPSE) consortium, and the ICR's Rosalind Eeles, FMedSci, PhD, FRCP, FRCR, and Zsofia Kote-Jarai, PhD, on behalf of the Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL) consortium.

This study was supported by National Institutes of Health (U19CA148537, R01CA194393, K99CA246063), with further support from Cancer Research UK, Prostate Cancer UK, and the Movember Foundation.

Changes in Abortion in Texas Following an Executive Order Ban During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Kari White, PhD, MPH1; Bhavik Kumar, MD, MPH2; Vinita Goyal, MD, MPH3; et alRobin Wallace, MD, MAS4; Sarah C. M. Roberts, DrPH5; Daniel Grossman, MD5

Author Affiliations Article Information

Research Letter
January 4, 2021

JAMA. Published online January 4, 2021. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.24096

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an executive order on March 22, 2020, postponing surgeries and procedures that were not medically necessary.1 Texas officials interpreted this to prohibit most abortions until the order expired on April 21, 2020, contrary to medical associations’ recommendations.2

The objective of this analysis was to assess changes in abortions following the executive order. We also hypothesized that abortions performed at 12 weeks’ gestational age (GA) or more would increase after the order expired.3

Methods

The University of Texas at Austin and University of California, San Francisco, institutional review boards approved this study and waived informed consent. Since January 2017, monthly data were requested from Texas abortion facilities on the number of medication abortions, procedural abortions at less than 12 weeks’ GA, and procedural abortions at 12 weeks’ GA or more. Of 24 Texas facilities, 18 reported data for 2019 and 2020, including 4 that opened in 2019. These facilities provide 93% of abortions in Texas, according to comparisons with state vital statistics data.4

Monthly data were also collected on the number of Texas residents obtaining abortions at 30 of the 37 open facilities in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico from February 2020 through May 2020 and compared with 2017 data collected previously from these states (Supplement).

Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate the percent change in the number of in-state abortions that occurred in February, March, April (the month most affected by the order), and May 2020 for all abortions, medication abortions, procedures less than 12 weeks’ GA, and procedures 12 weeks’ GA or more relative to the same month in 2019, and all out-of-state abortions among Texas residents relative to 2017, separately. A second set of negative binomial models were used to estimate whether monthly in-state abortions occurring in February, March, April, and May 2020 differed from the overall linear trend in Texas since January 2019, after adjustment for the number of abortion facilities and abortion seasonality. Stata version 15 was used for analyses (StataCorp). A 95% CI not including the null defined statistical significance.
Results

Texas facilities provided 18 268 abortions from February through May 2019 and 16 349 abortions during these months in 2020 (Table 1). Overall, 4608 abortions were provided in April 2019 and 2856 in April 2020, a 38.0% (95% CI, −40.8% to −35.1%) decrease.

Texas residents receiving care at out-of-state facilities increased from 157 in February 2020 to 947 in April 2020; monthly totals ranged from 107 to 165 in 2017.

The number of medication abortions increased from 1808 in April 2019 to 2297 in April 2020, accounting for 39% and 80% of all abortions, respectively (Table 2). After adjustment for time trends and number of facilities, there was a 17.4% (95% CI, −7.1% to 48.4%) difference in the number of medication abortions in April 2020 relative to that expected had the linear trend from January 2019 continued. Compared with April 2019, there were fewer procedural abortions less than 12 weeks’ GA (2318 vs 317) and at 12 weeks’ GA or more (482 vs 242) in April 2020. After the executive order was lifted in May 2020, 815 procedural abortions at 12 weeks’ GA or more were provided vs 507 in May 2019, an 82.6% (95% CI, 46.7% to 127.4%) increase over that expected based on linear trends.

Discussion

These data show that abortions declined in Texas during the executive order. Stay-at-home orders, facilities’ coronavirus precautions, and patients’ reluctance to seek in-person care may also have contributed to the decline. Other Texas patients traveled out of state or requested medications online.5 Abortions at 12 weeks’ GA or more increased after the order expired, which likely reflects delays in care among those who waited for an appointment and facilities’ limited capacity to meet backlogged patient need. Although abortions later in pregnancy are very safe, they are associated with a higher risk of complications and may require additional visits compared with those provided earlier in pregnancy.6

Study limitations include lack of data from some Texas and out-of-state facilities, which may affect these estimates. Monthly facility data do not allow assessment of changes associated with the exact timing of the order.

Section Editor: Jody W. Zylke, MD

Changes in Abortion in Texas Following an Executive Order Ban During the Coronavirus Pandemic | Surgery | JAMA | JAMA Network

Table 1. Number of Abortions Provided in Texas and to Texas Residents at Out-of-State Facilities and Percent Change in Abortions, February-May 2019 and February-May 2020a
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Table 2. Distribution of Abortion Type and Percent Change in Number of Abortions in Texas, February-May 2019 and February-May 2020
View LargeDownload

Scientists discover how mother-of-pearl self-assembles into a perfect structure

Opposites attract

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT DRESDEN

Research News

 

IMAGE: A CROSS-SECTION THROUGH A SHELL SHOWING THE PERIODICALLY LAYERED NACRE ON TOP OF A PRISMATIC SHELL STRUCTURE. view more 

CREDIT: © IGOR ZLOTNIKOV

Mollusks build shells to protect their soft tissues from predators. Nacre, also known as the mother of pearl, has an intricate, highly regular structure that makes it an incredibly strong material. Depending on the species, nacres can reach tens of centimeters in length. No matter the size, each nacre is built from materials deposited by a multitude of single cells at multiple different locations at the same time. How exactly this highly periodic and uniform structure emerges from the initial disorder was unknown until now.

Nacre formation starts uncoordinated with the cells depositing the material simultaneously at different locations. Not surprisingly, the early nacre structure is not very regular. At this point, it is full of defects. "In the very beginning, the layered mineral-organic tissue is full of structural faults that propagate through a number of layers like a helix. In fact, they look like a spiral staircase, having either right-handed or left-handed orientation," says Dr. Igor Zlotnikov, research group leader at the B CUBE - Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden. "The role of these defects in forming such a periodic tissue has never been established. On the other hand, the mature nacre is defect-free, with a regular, uniform structure. How could perfection emerge from such disorder?"

The researchers from the Zlotnikov group collaborated with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble to take a very detailed look at the internal structure of the early and mature nacre. Using synchrotron-based holographic X-ray nano-tomography the researchers could capture the growth of nacre over time. "Nacre is an extremely fine structure, having organic features below 50 nm in size. Beamline ID16A at the ESRF provided us with an unprecedented capability to visualize nacre in three-dimensions," explains Dr. Zlotnikov. "The combination of electron dense and highly periodical inorganic platelets with delicate and slender organic interfaces makes nacre a challenging structure to image. Cryogenic imaging helped us to obtain the resolving power we needed," explains Dr. Pacureanu from the X-ray Nanoprobe group at the ESRF.

The analysis of data was quite a challenge. The researchers developed a segmentation algorithm using neural networks and trained it to separate different layers of nacre. In this way, they were able to follow what happens to the structural defects as nacre grows.

The behavior of structural defects in a growing nacre was surprising. Defects of opposite screw direction were attracted to each other from vast distances. The right-handed and left-handed defects moved through the structure, until they met, and cancelled each other out. These events led to a tissue-wide synchronization. Over time, it allowed the structure to develop into a perfectly regular and defect-free.

Periodic structures similar to nacre are produced by many different animal species. The researchers think that the newly discovered mechanism could drive not only the formation of nacre but also other biogenic structures.

CAPTION

The end-station at the holographic X-ray nano-tomography beamline (ID16A) at ESRF.

CREDIT

© Igor Zlotnikov

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Dr. Igor Zlotnikov is a leader of a multidisciplinary group at the B CUBE, TU Dresden. The group studies the interplay between physics of materials and cellular control. The Zlotnikov group implements state-of-the-art techniques from a large spectrum of fields in life and physical sciences to address the fundamental question of how the nature uses thermodynamic principles to generate complex structures. The group is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF; grant 03Z22EN11).

Publication:

Maksim Beliaev, Dana Zoellner, Alexandra Pacureanu, Paul Zasklansky, and Igor Zlotnikov: Dynamics of Topological Defects and Structural Synchronization in a Forming Periodic Tissue. Nature Physics (January 2021)
doi: 10.1038/s41567-020-01069-z

B CUBE - Center for Molecular Bioengineering was founded as a Center for Innovation Competence within the initiative "Unternehmen Region" of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It is part of the Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB). B CUBE research focuses on the investigation of living structures on a molecular level, translating the ensuing knowledge into innovative methods, materials and technologies.

Web: http://www.tu-dresden.de/bcube

How to identify heat-stressed corals

'Coral hospital' tool could help safeguard reefs facing climate change

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 NEWS RELEASE 4-JAN-2021

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IMAGE: THE RICE CORAL MONTIPORA CAPITATA IN WATERS NEAR THE HAWAI'I INSTITUTE OF MARINE BIOLOGY ON MOKU O LO?E IN KĀNE'OHE BAY, HAWAII. view more 

CREDIT: D. BHATTACHARYA

Researchers have found a novel way to identify heat-stressed corals, which could help scientists pinpoint the coral species that need protection from warming ocean waters linked to climate change, according to a Rutgers-led study.

"This is similar to a blood test to assess human health," said senior author Debashish Bhattacharya, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We can assess coral health by measuring the metabolites (chemicals created for metabolism) they produce and, ultimately, identify the best interventions to ensure reef health. Coral bleaching from warming waters is an ongoing worldwide ecological disaster. Therefore, we need to develop sensitive diagnostic indicators that can be used to monitor reef health before the visible onset of bleaching to allow time for preemptive conservation efforts."

Coral reefs provide habitat, nursery and spawning grounds for fish, food for about 500 million people along with their livelihoods, and coastline protection from storms and erosion. But global climate change threatens corals by warming ocean waters, resulting in coral bleaching and disease. Other threats to corals include sea-level rise, a more acidic ocean, unsustainable fishing, damage from vessels, invasive species, marine debris and tropical cyclones, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, examined how Hawaiian stony corals respond to heat stress, with a goal of identifying chemical (metabolite) indicators of stress. Heat stress can lead to the loss of algae that live in symbiosis with corals, resulting in a white appearance (bleaching) and, potentially, the loss of reefs.

YouTube video: How to build a Coral Hospital

Scientists subjected the heat-resistant Montipora capitata and heat-sensitive Pocillopora acuta coral species to several weeks of warm seawater in tanks at the Hawai'i Institute of Marine Biology. Then they analyzed the metabolites produced and compared them with other corals not subjected to heat stress.

"Our work, for the first time, identified a variety of novel and known metabolites that may be used as diagnostic indicators for heat stress in wild coral before or in the early stages of bleaching," Bhattacharya said.

The scientists are validating their coral diagnosis results in a much larger study and the results look promising. The scientists are also developing a "coral hospital" featuring a new lab-on-a-chip device, which could check coral health in the field via metabolite and protein indicators.

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The coral hospital work is in collaboration with Rutgers School of Engineering Professor Mehdi Javanmard and Xiaoyang Su, an assistant professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and director of the Rutgers Metabolomics Shared Resource at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Rutgers co-lead authors for the Hawaii study include doctoral student Amanda Williams and Eric N. Chiles, research teaching specialist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey. Other Rutgers co-authors include Jananan S. Pathmanathan, a post-doctoral associate, and Professor Su. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island and Stanford University contributed to the study.

Astronomers agree: 

Universe is nearly 14 billion years old

NOT 6000 YEARS 

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

ITHACA, N.Y. - From an observatory high above Chile's Atacama Desert, astronomers have taken a new look at the oldest light in the universe.

Their observations, plus a bit of cosmic geometry, suggest that the universe is 13.77 billion years old - give or take 40 million years. A Cornell University researcher co-authored one of two papers about the findings, which add a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community.

The new estimate, using data gathered at the National Science Foundation's Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe, as well as measurements of the same light made by the European Space Agency's Planck satellite, which measured remnants of the Big Bang from 2009 to '13.

The research was published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.

The lead author of "The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: A Measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background Power Spectra at 98 and 150 GHz" is Steve Choi, NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In 2019, a research team measuring the movements of galaxies calculated that the universe is hundreds of millions of years younger than the Planck team predicted. That discrepancy suggested a new model for the universe might be needed and sparked concerns that one of the sets of measurements might be incorrect.

"Now we've come up with an answer where Planck and ACT agree," said Simone Aiola, a researcher at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics and first author of one of two papers. "It speaks to the fact that these difficult measurements are reliable."

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Pandas' popularity not protecting neighbors

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: ASIATIC BLACK BEAR, PICTURED HERE IN A CAMERA TRAP IMAGE, FIND HABITAT GEARED TOWARD GIANT PANDAS DOESN'T MEET THEIR NEEDS view more 

CREDIT: FANG WANG, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR SYSTEMS INTEGRATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Forgive Asiatic black bear if they're not impressed with their popular giant panda neighbors.

For decades, conservationists have preached that panda popularity, and the resulting support for their habitat, automatically benefits other animals in the mountainous ranges. That logic extends across the world, as animals regarded as cute, noble or otherwise appealing drum up support to protect where they live.

Yet in Biological Conservation, scientists take a closer look at how other animals under the panda "umbrella" fare and find several species have every reason to be ticked at panda-centric policies.

"The popularity of giant pandas, as of the popularity of other beloved threatened animals across the world, has generated tremendous advances in protecting forests and other fragile habitats," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu, Michigan State University's Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and a paper author. "But this is an important reminder that it can't assume that what's good for a panda is automatically good for other species. Different species have specific needs and preferences."

The authors of "The hidden risk of using umbrella species as conservation surrogates: A spatio-temporal approach" used camera trap data collected throughout mountain ranges to get a clear understanding of what and how animals were using protected habitats.

What they discovered is that while the pandas are doing very well (the species in 2016 was declared "threatened" rather than "endangered" - a conservation point of pride). But three of the eight species focused upon in this study - the Asiatic black bear, the forest musk deer and the Chinese serow (a goat-like animal) seem to have suffered significant habitat loss and/or degradation under panda-centric habitat management. Pandas are picky about where they live - needing lots of bamboo, a gentle slope and no contact with humans. And the managed habitats have largely delivered for them. Just not so much for others.

Fang Wang, the paper's first author, noted that earlier efforts at tracking how a broader range of animals fared were handicapped by turning a blind eye to different habitat preferences, and not spotting potentially different habitat trends of other animals. The authors suggested that the forests and shrublands in lower elevations next to the habitats that best serve pandas could be better for bear and deer.

"China has made a tremendous achievement in establishing giant panda nature reserves, and now we're learning that one size does not fit all," said Wang, who with Liu and other authors is part of MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. "China as well as other countries that face similar conservation challenges have the opportunity to move forward from rescuing single species to protecting animal communities and ecosystems."

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The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation. Besides Liu and Wang, the paper was written by Julie Winkler, Andrés Viña, William Joseph McShea, Sheng Li, Thomas Connor, Zhiqiang Zhao, Dajun Wang, Hongbo Yang, Ying Tang and Jindong Zhang.

CAPTION

Animals like this forest musk deer in China, caught by a camera trap, don't necessarily thrive in habitat that specifically protects giant pandas

CAPTION

Giant pandas in China have found their status upgraded to "threatened" thanks to conservation efforts. But new studies indicate what's good for the panda may not be optimal for other species

Results of comprehensive SARS-CoV-2 animal model study published in Nature Microbiology

TEXAS BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 NEWS RELEASE 4-JAN-2021

Research News

 

San Antonio, Texas (January 4, 2020) - Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) and Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) published their findings regarding a comprehensive animal model study of SARS-CoV-2 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Microbiology. These findings were originally posted online in BioRxiv in June of 2020. The study evaluated three nonhuman primate (NHP) species (Indian rhesus macaques, African baboons and new-world origin common marmosets) and young and old animals, to determine susceptibility to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the development of COVID-19 disease. Over the course of the study, the macaque and baboon models showed significant promise as animal models for COVID-19 disease studies moving forward. Based on outcomes, the researchers recommended use of the macaque as a model to help develop vaccines, while the baboon showed greater disease development, making it a potential option for evaluating anti-viral therapeutics and co-morbidities, such as understanding the connection between COVID-19 and diabetes or COVID-19 and heart disease.

"Thanks to the support of our community, Texas Biomed was able to launch and complete the most comprehensive animal model study to date (June 2020) that has provides scientists greater understanding of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and definitively identifies two possible animal models to help move vaccines and therapeutics forward," said Larry Schlesinger, M.D., Texas Biomed President and CEO. "The speed and completeness to which this team of researchers operated to execute this study is nothing short of heroic. I am very pleased at the progress the Institute is making in our COVID-19 studies and believe this is the first of many discoveries to come."

COVID-19 is the defining pandemic of a generation. Texas Biomed launched this study in late March 2020 because animal models are a critical component of the biomedical pipeline necessary to fast track drug and vaccine development. The study was completed by May 2020.

"The benefit of Texas Biomed's unique research model lies in the expertise to support individual scientific study and contract research on one campus with the animal, biosafety and regulatory proficiency to help shepherd research from basic discovery through preclinical development and on to human clinical trials," explained Joanne Turner, PhD, Vice President for Research at Texas Biomed.

Animal models for infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, are allowing scientists worldwide to determine whether the candidate vaccines and antiviral therapeutics currently under development will be viable as human interventions. Additionally, animal models enable scientists to understand how the disease progresses in people with compromised immune systems to assist in the development of treatments for these individuals.

"Finding the appropriate animal models for COVID-19 allows for these critical discoveries to happen now, and they are an important step in combatting this disease," said Dr. Deepak Kaushal, PhD, Director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center and lead Principal Investigator on the macaque portion of the study. "Without well-documented animal data, the FDA is unlikely to license a vaccine or antiviral therapy for human use, even those currently undergoing human trials, because animal model data assure us that we have a complete picture of the disease and how humans may respond to potential therapies."

The team of 43 researchers reported clinical, viral, imaging, immunological and histopathological (tissue examination) findings during SARS-CoV-2 infection/COVID-19 disease in all three species of NHPs. The study ultimately found that nonhuman primates showed similar progression of SARS-CoV-2 infection to that of humans, with some becoming more ill than others, and signs of the virus in both the upper and lower respiratory tracts and signs of pneumonia.

"Our results tell us that these animal models will provide relevant, quantifiable information moving forward as we delve deeper into understanding the disease and targets for therapeutics and vaccines for human trials," Dr. Kaushal explained.

While previous animal studies showed the macaque to be a viable model for SARS-CoV-2, this was the first time that researchers performed a longitudinal study of three different NHPs (looking at disease progression factors over several days) and in both young and older macaques to determine if age is a factor in disease progression. Moreover, the researchers used the most comprehensive set of evaluations, ranging from bronchoalveolar lavages (lung fluid collection) and nasal swabs to determine virus presence to chest x-rays and CT scans to evaluate lung health after infection.

Results showed that the macaque and baboon models develop strong signs of acute viral infection leading to pneumonia, and the NHP immune system mounts a strong response and clears the infection. Specialized sets of myeloid cells (phagocytes) move from blood to the lungs and secrete high levels of Type I interferons, cytokines or proteins that send chemical messages required for controlling viruses in general and coronaviruses in particular. The appearance of these specialized phagocytes (cells that ingest foreign particles or dying cells in the body) corresponded with a decline in measurable amounts of virus and disease parameters. The longitudinal study of young and old animals showed little difference. However, the virus appears to persist and shed longer in the baboons and create greater pathology in the lungs. The marmoset model did not show any significant signs of disease progression.

This study was also the first report of SARS-CoV-2 infection specifically altering lymphoid cells (T cells) in the lung, which generated a strong and very specific immune response in the macaque, enabling the animals to clear the virus. This finding indicates the NHP model will be useful in understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and aid in the development of interventions that can create a similar response, as well as help evaluate the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, which require a specific immune response in order to be effective.

"While this study was not the first to indicate the macaque would serve as a good model for SARS-CoV-2, the study provides strong scientific evidence in support of this model, as well as the first evidence of the baboon model via comprehensive, clinically-relevant and well-documented research with controls," Dr. Kaushal said. "We strongly believe macaques and baboons will be very helpful in evaluating interventions that generate the strong immune response seen in these animal models."

The study was funded by philanthropic support from more than 300 donors after a call-to-action campaign was launched in late March. The campaign raised more than $3.5 million in one week, and additional donor support has brought the total raise for COVID-19 research at Texas Biomed to more than $5.7 million.

Concurrently, Texas Biomed investigators are submitting several grant applications to the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies to further these study findings and develop novel vaccine candidates, diagnostics and therapeutics. Scientists have already begun collaborative immune system and co-morbidity studies, as well as small animal model development studies in rodents and guinea pigs. Additionally, the Institute is collaborating with several pharmaceutical and research and development partners to test vaccine and therapeutic candidates.

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Texas Biomed is one of the world's leading independent biomedical research institutions dedicated to eradicating infection and advancing health worldwide through innovative biomedical research. Texas Biomed partners with researchers and institutions around the world to develop vaccines and therapeutics against viral pathogens causing AIDS, hepatitis, hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis and parasitic diseases responsible for malaria and schistosomiasis disease. The Institute has programs in host-pathogen interaction, disease intervention and prevention and population health to understand the links between infectious diseases and other diseases such as aging, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. For more information on Texas Biomed, go to http://www.TxBiomed.org.

 

Subscriptions to satellite alerts linked to decreased deforestation in Africa

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

Research News

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IMAGE: THE RESEARCH COVERED 22 TROPICAL COUNTRIES, OUTLINED IN ORANGE, ACROSS SOUTH AMERICA, AFRICA AND ASIA. FOREST COVER IN 2010 IS INDICATED IN GREEN. view more 

CREDIT: FANNY MOFFETTE / UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

MADISON, Wis. -- Deforestation dropped by 18 percent in two years in African countries where organizations subscribed to receive warnings from a new service using satellites to detect decreases in forest cover in the tropics.

The carbon emissions avoided by reducing deforestation were worth between $149 million and $696 million, based on the ability of lower emissions to reduce the detrimental economic consequences of climate change.

Those findings come from new research into the effect of GLAD, the Global Land Analysis and Discovery system, available on the free and interactive interface Global Forest Watch. Launched in 2016, GLAD provides frequent, high-resolution alerts when it detects a drop in forest cover. Governments and others interested in halting deforestation can subscribe to the alerts on Global Forest Watch and then intervene to limit forest loss.

The research was led by Fanny Moffette, a postdoctoral researcher in applied economics in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moffette collaborated with Jennifer Alix-Garcia at Oregon State University, Katherine Shea at the World Resources Institute and Amy Pickens at the University of Maryland.

The researchers published their findings Jan. 4 in Nature Climate Change. They studied deforestation in 22 tropical countries across South America, Africa and Asia from 2011 to 2018.

Moffette and her co-authors set out to understand whether these kinds of automated alerts could achieve their goal of reducing forest loss, which has global climate implications. Land-use changes like deforestation account for 6 percent to 17 percent of global carbon emissions. And avoiding deforestation is several times more effective at reducing carbon emissions than regrowing forests.

"The first question was to look at whether there was any impact from having access to this free alert system. Then we were looking at the effect of users subscribing to this data to receive alerts for a specific area," says Moffette.

Simply being covered by GLAD did not help a country combat deforestation. Only those African countries in which organizations had actually subscribed to receive alerts saw a decrease in deforestation. Intuitively, this finding makes sense, says Moffette. Having access to information is good. But what you need to change the course of deforestation are people committed to using that information and acting.

However, deforestation did not decrease in South American or Asian countries, even where organizations subscribed to receive warnings. There are multiple potential causes for this continental discrepancy.

"We think that we see an effect mainly in Africa due to two main reasons," says Moffette. "One is because GLAD added more to efforts in Africa than on other continents, in the sense that there was already some evidence of countries using monitoring systems in countries like Indonesia and Peru. And Colombia and Venezuela, which are a large part of our sample, had significant political unrest during this period."

The GLAD program is still young, and as more governments and organizations sign on to receive warnings, and decide how to intervene at sites of deforestation, the system's influence may grow.

Developed by a team at the University of Maryland that includes one of Moffette's collaborators, GLAD made several improvements over its predecessors. It has very high spatial resolution, roughly 900 square meters, which is orders of magnitude more precise than older tools. And it can provide alerts up to every eight days if the skies are cloud-free when satellites re-image a section of Earth. Users can define custom areas to monitor. They then receive weekly emails, available in six languages, that contain geographic coordinates of the alerts within the monitored areas.

Going forward, the team is looking to evaluate the effect of new features of the monitoring platform, such as data that can inform forest restoration, while supporting efforts of organizations that try to intervene to halt deforestation.

"Now that we know subscribers of alerts can have an effect on deforestation, there's potential ways in which our work can improve the training they receive and support their efforts," says Moffette.

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Alert system shows potential for reducing deforestation, mitigating climate change

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Forest loss declined 18% in African nations where a new satellite-based program provides free alerts when it detects deforestation activities.

A research collaboration that included Jennifer Alix-Garcia of Oregon State University found that the Global Land Analysis and Discovery System, known as GLAD, resulted in carbon sequestration benefits worth hundreds of millions of dollars in GLAD's first two years.

Findings were published today in Nature Climate Change.

The premise of GLAD is simple: Subscribe to the system, launch a free web application, receive email alerts when the GLAD algorithm detects deforestation going on and then take action to save forests.

GLAD, launched in 2016, delivers alerts created by the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discovery lab based on high-resolution satellite imaging from NASA's Landsat Science program. The information is made available to subscribers via the interactive web application, Global Forest Watch.

"Before GLAD, government agencies and other groups in the business of deforestation prevention had to lean on reports from volunteers or forest rangers," Alix-Garcia said. "Obviously the people making those reports can't be everywhere, which is a massive limitation for finding out about deforestation activity in time to prevent it."

Changes in land use make a huge difference in how much carbon dioxide reaches the atmosphere and warms the planet, said Alix-Garcia, an economist in OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences.

"Reforestation is good, but avoiding deforestation is way better - almost 10 times better in some instances," she said. "That's part of why cost-effective reduction of deforestation ought to be part of the foundation of global climate change mitigation strategies."

Deforestation, Alix-Garcia adds, is a key factor behind the 40% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide since the dawn of the industrial age, which in turn is contributing heavily to a warming planet. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global average atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in 2018 was 407.4 parts per million, higher than at any time in at least 800,000 years.

The annual rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 over the past six decades is roughly 100 times faster than increases resulting from natural causes, such as those that happened following the last ice age more than 10,000 years ago, according to NOAA.

Alix-Garcia, study leader Fanny Moffette of the University of Wisconsin and collaborators at the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute looked at deforestation in 22 nations in the tropics in South America, Africa and Asia between 2011 and 2018 - the last five years before GLAD and first two years after.

In Africa, the results were telling: Compared to the prior five years, the first two years of GLAD showed 18% less forest loss where forest protectors were subscribing to the system.

Using a concept known as the social cost of carbon - the marginal cost to society of each additional metric ton of greenhouse gas that reaches the atmosphere - researchers estimate the alert system was worth between $149 million and $696 million in Africa those two years.

There was no substantial change in deforestation in Asia or South America, however, but possible explanations for that are numerous and suggest GLAD can make a greater difference in those places in years to come, the researchers say.

"We think that we see an effect mainly in Africa due to two main reasons," Moffette said. "One is because GLAD added more to efforts in Africa than on other continents, in the sense that there was already some evidence of countries using monitoring systems in countries like Indonesia and Peru. And Colombia and Venezuela, which are a large part of our sample, had significant political unrest during this period."

The GLAD program is still young and as more groups sign up to receive alerts and decide how to intervene in deforestation, the system's influence may grow, she added.

"Now that we know subscribers of alerts can have an effect on deforestation, there are ways in which our work can potentially improve the training the subscribers receive and support their efforts," Moffette said.

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