| 1. |
- Bacchus, Philip, et al.
(författare)
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Civil-military collaboration to facilitate rapid deployment of a mobile laboratory in early response to covid-19 : A high-readiness exercise
- 2021
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Ingår i: HEALTH SECURITY. - : Mary Ann Liebert. - 2326-5094 .- 2326-5108. ; 19:5, s. 488-497
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rapid and adaptable diagnostic capabilities are of great importance in the face of emerging infectious diseases. In an outbreak, timely establishment of diagnostic routines is crucial to identifying cases and preventing the spread of the disease, especially when faced with high-consequence pathogens. In this article, we describe a multiagency exercise including the rapid deployment and diagnostic adaptation of the Swedish Armed Forces mobile laboratory (biological field analysis laboratory) in the context of COVID-19. This deployment was initiated as a high-readiness exercise at the end of January 2020, when the global development of the outbreak was still uncertain. Through collaboration with the Public Health Agency of Sweden and a civilian hospital, a real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction method specific to SARS-CoV-2 was made available and adapted to the mobile laboratory, and the team established and evaluated a functional and efficient diagnostic asset along with a logistical support chain. We also organized and evaluated mobile testing teams, and the method was later used in large-scale, national, cross-sectional COVID-19 surveys in several regions of Sweden. In this article, we focus on the challenges of overbridging the civil-military interface in this context and identifying lessons learned and added values to the response during the early pandemic. We propose that the experiences from this exercise and governmental agency collaboration are valuable in preparation for future outbreaks.
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| 2. |
- Lagerqvist, Nina, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of 11 SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests by using samples from patients with defined IgG antibody titers
- 2021
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 11:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We evaluated the performance of 11 SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests using a reference set of heat-inactivated samples from 278 unexposed persons and 258 COVID-19 patients, some of whom contributed serial samples. The reference set included samples with a variation in SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers, as determined by an in-house immunofluorescence assay (IFA). The five evaluated rapid diagnostic tests had a specificity of 99.0% and a sensitivity that ranged from 56.3 to 81.6% and decreased with low IFA IgG titers. The specificity was > 99% for five out of six platform-based tests, and when assessed using samples collected ≥ 22 days after symptom onset, two assays had a sensitivity of > 96%. These two assays also detected samples with low IFA titers more frequently than the other assays. In conclusion, the evaluated antibody tests showed a heterogeneity in their performances and only a few tests performed well with samples having low IFA IgG titers, an important aspect for diagnostics and epidemiological investigations.
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| 3. |
- Westman, Gabriel, 1977-, et al.
(författare)
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Torque teno virus viral load is related to age, CMV infection and HLA type but not to Alzheimer's disease
- 2020
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE. - 1932-6203. ; 15:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Torque teno virus (TTV) is an unenveloped, circular, single stranded DNA virus with a genome size of approximately 3.8 kb. Previous studies have demonstrated varying grades of association between TTV DNA levels and immune deficiencies related to age, chronic infections and cancer. Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been related to persistent viral infections such as HSV-1 and CMV, but it is not known whether TTV viral load could serve as a functional biomarker of cellular immunity in this setting. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate whether TTV infection and viral load is related to AD status, CMV immunity, systemic inflammation or HLA types connected to anti-viral immunity. A total of 50 AD subjects and 51 non-demented controls were included in the study. AD subjects were diagnosed according to NINCDS-ADRDA and DSM-IV criteria and neuroradiologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis. TTV viral load was analyzed in plasma samples using a quantitative real-time PCR. Using a cut-off for TTV status at 200 copies/ml, 88% (89/101) of the study subjects were classified as TTV positive. TTV viral load significantly increased with age (beta 0.049 per year, p< 0.001) but significantly decreased in relation to CMV IgG levels (beta -0.022 per 1000 units, p = 0.005) and HLA-B27 positivity (beta -0.53, p = 0.023). In conclusion, TTV immune control is not significantly affected by AD status, but appears related to age, CMV humoral immune response and HLA type.
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