This application is being submitted to PA-20-135 in accordance with NOT-AI-20-034. We are requesting an emergency supplement to R01AI32774 ?Mechanisms of IL-6 mediated T cell pathogenesis in autoimmunity? (PI: Jane H. Buckner). This supplement will directly address the NOT-AI-20-034 research area of interest ?Identification and evaluation of the innate, cellular and humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection?..?. Importantly, the proposed work is part of the NIAID Immunophenotyping assessment in a COVID-19 Cohort (IMPACC) study tasked with performing longitudinal immunophenotyping from 1,000 subjects with COVID-19. For each subject, among other assays, transcriptomic profiling will be done on peripheral blood, nasal swabs and endotracheal aspirates at six different time points. Specific to the emergency supplement requested here, we will be responsible for performing both the bulk host mRNA- sequencing (RNA-seq) and PCR quantification of viral nucleic acid from SARS-CoV-2 for each of the ~6,000 anticipated nasal swab samples. In addition, we will perform a pilot study on 60 nasal swab samples assessing the potential utility of metagenomic sequencing on these samples to consider it in a larger scale in this cohort. All work will be done in close coordination with NIAID, University of California, San Francisco (endotracheal RNA-seq), Emory University (blood RNA-seq), and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (virology) core sites.
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent for the current global pandemic of viral pneumonia. The proposed work will advance our understanding of the host immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and has the potential to identify novel therapeutic targets for treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia.
| Jones, Britta E; Maerz, Megan D; Buckner, Jane H (2018) IL-6: a cytokine at the crossroads of autoimmunity. Curr Opin Immunol 55:9-14 |
