SIB COV [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Systems immunology and biochemistry of immune responses to SARS-CoV-2
IRAS ID
288762
Contact name
Deborah Dunn-Walters
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Surrey
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
BB/T002212/1 , funders reference number; BB/V011456/1 , funders reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Understanding the immune and biochemical response to an infection is crucial to know how long immunity from infection will last and whether the correct types of immune response are being made in order to be protective (as opposed to being inflammatory and contributing to disease pathology, such as for SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 disease).
Our aim is:
Observational study to look at immune and biochemical markers in blood, sweat and saliva from COVID-19 patients at the time of illness and at follow up. Aiming to find biomarkers of disease severity and understand the immune protection versus immune pathology. This is a continuation of current work, longitudinal follow up is crucial to understand immunity. Additions to the protocol include consent procedures for patients lacking capacity. Also this work is now funded by BBSRC so we are asking for a new ethics with this in order to register the study on CRN.Summary of Results
The samples that we collected were used in several different studies by a network of people to try and understand SARS-CoV-2 disease. Very often these studies were written up and published in scientific journals (see 6 papers below).
In looking for some new ways to diagnose subtypes of disease – ie to be able to distinguish between mild and severe COVID, our collaborators used a machine to analyse molecules from the blood, saliva and skin swabs. Skin swabs are a non-invasive way to take samples and they did show potential as a diagnostic, although further work would be needed to determine whether the changes seen are due to the disease or to some confounding factor such as change of diet [1]. In the early phases of disease treatment we were able to show changes between patients treated with glucocorticoids and those without – lending weight to the utility of this clinical treatment [2]. Some markers in saliva could be associated with severity of disease [3] but we also showed that there were differences between the different waves of COVID disease (by the different types of SARS-CoV-2 virus) which raises the question of whether the potential diagnostics were for severity of COVID disease in general or more related to the type of virus the patients caught [4]. Finally, for the molecule analysis, we did a technical comparison of markers in blood, saliva and skin. This will help to choose sampling methods in future, not just for COVID [5].
We also did some very detailed analysis of the B cells in COVID disease, and we were able to compare this with other virus infections [6]. An unexpected and interesting finding is that some types of B cell receptor occurred frequently in both COVID and Ebloa disease. We would normally expect each disease to have a very specific profile. This has led to new hypotheses about the (poly)specificity of B cells in protecting us from infectious disease.
1. Matt Spick, et al. Changes to the sebum lipidome upon COVID-19 infection observed via rapid sampling from the skin. EClinicalMedicine (2021), https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.1016%252Fj.eclinm.2021.100786%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F2%2FCspx1FiS65&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287337746%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=67uyYDhi9n5t2sk06HGygzjHn8GNp%2BykbdzvchOK1uw%3D&reserved=0
2. Matt Spick, et al. Multi-omics reveals mechanisms of partial modulation of COVID-19 dysregulation by glucocorticoid treatment. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23:12079. https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.3390%252Fijms232012079%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F3%2Fim8sKqx35P&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287356513%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Q8PiFIqxza6841RJdfUVmPVCCBO7T53e64DP59KM5hA%3D&reserved=0
3. Frampas CF, et al (2022) Untargeted saliva metabolomics by liquid chromatography—Mass spectrometry reveals markers of COVID-19 severity. PLoS ONE 17(9): e0274967. https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.1371%252Fjournal.pone.0274967%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F4%2F9vke8dsuJv&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287374549%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=YjryffH%2FYUUFR75Ag75JB8%2Ff2mZqc5mUxiwyzCIsJWY%3D&reserved=0
4. Lewis, H.-M et al 2022 Metabolomics Markers of COVID-19 Are Dependent on Collection Wave. Metabolites 2022, 12, 713. https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.3390%252F%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F5%2FzRHSXkxF09&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287404427%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=8gHSOTlneXdxNNdoaZ4WCOhi6UV7rp3SsiM6YTtU9JQ%3D&reserved=0 metabo12080713
5. Matt Spick et al 2022 An integrated analysis and comparison of serum, saliva and sebum for COVID-19 metabolomics Nature Scientific Reports 12:11867. https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.1038%252Fs41598-022-16123-4%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F6%2Fwb5xpSfs_V&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287427110%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=4tAUL9kJyCAKY2XvYWzrLrUt5N2Yi5FOSMoCE6zEvak%3D&reserved=0
6. Alexander Stewart et al 2022 Pandemic, epidemic, endemic: B cell repertoire analysis reveals unique anti-viral responses to SARS-CoV-2, Ebola and Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Frontiers in Immunology May 2022 https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftrack.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fdoi.org%252F10.3389%252Ffimmu.2022.807104%2FNBTI%2FsyLDAQ%2FAQ%2F5a42ac48-fccc-4cfb-b746-ff0137d015c5%2F7%2FqR-iFUpOJq&data=05%7C02%7Cgmeast.rec%40hra.nhs.uk%7Ce45c1a7eb2dd4778295508de6276bcbb%7C8e1f0acad87d4f20939e36243d574267%7C0%7C0%7C639056459287447607%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XDN0II9hKa0rrAtREMXFrXiSxyLAfg6HtjUdO1ewvGI%3D&reserved=0REC name
North West - Greater Manchester East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0453
Date of REC Opinion
13 Jan 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion