Article
|
Open Access
Featured
-
-
Article
| Open AccessDisparate impacts on online information access during the Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated an important changes in online information access. Here, the authors analyse everyday web search interactions across 25,150 US ZIP codes revealing significant differences in how digital informational resources are mobilized by different communities.
- Jina Suh
- , Eric Horvitz
- & Tim Althoff
-
Article
| Open AccessVariant-specific symptoms of COVID-19 in a study of 1,542,510 adults in England
In this study, the authors assess changing symptom profiles associated with different SARS-CoV-2 variants from May 2020 to March 2022 in England. Using data from the REACT-1 study, they find that Omicron infection is more often associated with cold and influenza-like symptoms, and less with loss of taste and smell.
- Matthew Whitaker
- , Joshua Elliott
- & Paul Elliott
-
Article
| Open AccessAssociations of hurricane exposure and forecasting with impaired birth outcomes
Early forecasts give people in a storm’s path time to prepare, but less is known about the cost to society when forecasts are incorrect. In this observational study, the authors examine over 700,000 births in the path of Hurricane Irene and find exposure was associated with impaired birth outcomes.
- Jacob Hochard
- , Yuanhao Li
- & Nino Abashidze
-
Article
| Open AccessAmino acid variability, tradeoffs and optimality in human diet
Amino acids are important components in a variety of human foods and diets. Here, the authors show trade-offs linking dietary intake of amino acids to human health and develop amino acid intake guidelines based on them.
- Ziwei Dai
- , Weiyan Zheng
- & Jason W. Locasale
-
Article
| Open AccessShared genetic risk factors and causal association between psoriasis and coronary artery disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD) and psoriasis are established comorbidities, however their molecular relationship remains unclear. Here, the authors performed trans-disease meta-analysis, highlighting four genetic loci with evidence of colocalization, and prioritized genes based on multiomic data integration.
- Matthew T. Patrick
- , Qinmengge Li
- & Lam C. Tsoi
-
Article
| Open AccessMendelian randomization accounting for complex correlated horizontal pleiotropy while elucidating shared genetic etiology
Mendelian randomization uses genetic variation to study the causal effect of exposure on outcome, but results can be biased by confounders, such as horizontal pleiotropy. Here, the authors present MR-CUE, a method to determine causal effects by accounting for correlated and uncorrelated horizontal pleiotropic effects.
- Qing Cheng
- , Xiao Zhang
- & Jin Liu
-
Article
| Open AccessE-cigarettes and their lone constituents induce cardiac arrhythmia and conduction defects in mice
The use of E-cigarettes has increased despite the unknown long-term effects. Here the authors show that e-cigarette aerosols alter cardiac conduction, repolarization, and autonomic regulation in mice, contingent on the chemical composition of e-liquids and partly through parasympathetic modulation.
- Alex P. Carll
- , Claudia Arab
- & Daniel J. Conklin
-
Article
| Open AccessSystematic Mendelian randomization using the human plasma proteome to discover potential therapeutic targets for stroke
Mendelian randomization can be used to mimic the effects of protein-targeting drugs in a population of individuals. Here, the authors have identified potential causal proteins for stroke in a two-sample Mendelian randomization framework, providing potential stroke therapeutic targets.
- Lingyan Chen
- , James E. Peters
- & Joanna M. M. Howson
-
Article
| Open AccessClinical phenotypes and outcomes associated with SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron in critically ill French patients with COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron has been suggested to cause less severe disease. This prospective study shows that the clinical phenotype in patients infected with Omicron differs from patients infected with Delta but no association between Delta and Omicron including sublineages and mortality was observed.
- Nicolas de Prost
- , Etienne Audureau
- & Slim Fourati
-
Article
| Open AccessOutcomes among confirmed cases and a matched comparison group in the Long-COVID in Scotland study
In this population-based cohort study from Scotland, the authors investigate the prevalence of symptoms in the post-acute phase of COVID-19 infection compared to matched uninfected controls. They identify persistent symptoms associated with infection and identify factors associated with failure to recover.
- Claire E. Hastie
- , David J. Lowe
- & Jill P. Pell
-
Article
| Open AccessClinical severity of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 lineages compared to BA.1 and Delta in South Africa
South Africa experienced a resurgence in COVID-19 in 2022 driven by Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Here, the authors investigate the severity of infections caused by these subvariants, and find no difference in the risk of severe outcomes when compared to Omicron BA.1, whilst all Omicron subvariants were less severe than Delta.
- Nicole Wolter
- , Waasila Jassat
- & Cheryl Cohen
-
Article
| Open AccessDecarbonization will lead to more equitable air quality in California
Air quality is found to be more equitable through two salient decarbonization pathways for California in 2050 with the relative justice of decarbonization scenarios quantified at the neighborhood level and the tradeoffs between pathways evaluated.
- Shupeng Zhu
- , Michael Mac Kinnon
- & Scott Samuelsen
-
Article
| Open AccessEfficient and accurate frailty model approach for genome-wide survival association analysis in large-scale biobanks
The proliferation of large biobanks necessitates statistical methods designed for genetic analysis on biobank data. Here, the authors have developed a frailty model-based method for GWAS analysis of time-to-event phenotypes in large biobanks that accounts for relatedness in samples and censoring of phenotypes.
- Rounak Dey
- , Wei Zhou
- & Xihong Lin
-
Article
| Open AccessEstimating effects of parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills on offspring education using polygenic scores
Understanding how parents’ cognitive and non-cognitive skills influence their children’s educational trajectories is important for educational, family and economic policy. Here, the authors investigate parental influence on children’s education using genetic approaches.
- Perline A. Demange
- , Jouke Jan Hottenga
- & Rosa Cheesman
-
Article
| Open AccessELF5 is a potential respiratory epithelial cell-specific risk gene for severe COVID-19
Genetic factors have been found to be associated with severe COVID-19. Here, the authors integrated genomic, proteomic, and single-cell data to identify ELF5 as a candidate risk gene with a possible role in respiratory epithelial cells, which are targeted by SARS-CoV-2.
- Maik Pietzner
- , Robert Lorenz Chua
- & Claudia Langenberg
-
Article
| Open AccessSystematic evidence and gap map of research linking food security and nutrition to mental health
There is a broad range of research available on the relationship between food security and mental health. Here the authors carry out a systematic mapping of evidence on food security and nutrition related to mental health and identifies trends in themes, setting, and study design over the 20 year period studied.
- Thalia M. Sparling
- , Megan Deeney
- & Suneetha Kadiyala
-
Article
| Open AccessLactational delivery of Triclosan promotes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in newborn mice
Triclosan is an antimicrobial additive in consumer products that has been detected in human breast milk. Here the authors report that exposure of pregnant mice to triclosan leads to lactational exposure to newborns and the development of liver steatosis.
- André A. Weber
- , Xiaojing Yang
- & Robert H. Tukey
-
Article
| Open AccessDiscovering the drivers of clonal hematopoiesis
Identifying the genetic drivers of clonal haematopoiesis (CH) has been challenging due to their low frequencies and a lack of adequate tools. Here, the authors use a reverse calling to detect blood somatic mutations and the IntOGen pipeline to identify CH drivers in large cancer genomics data sets based on signals of positive selection.
- Oriol Pich
- , Iker Reyes-Salazar
- & Nuria Lopez-Bigas
-
Article
| Open AccessLong COVID burden and risk factors in 10 UK longitudinal studies and electronic health records
Current understanding of Long COVID is limited, in part, due to lack of evidence from population-representative studies. Here, the authors analyse data from ten UK population-based studies and electronic health records, and find wide variation in the frequency of Long COVID between studies but some consistent risk factors.
- Ellen J. Thompson
- , Dylan M. Williams
- & Claire J. Steves
-
Article
| Open AccessCOVID-19 disease severity in US Veterans infected during Omicron and Delta variant predominant periods
Infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant appears to cause milder disease in the general population than infection with Delta. Here the authors use data from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and demonstrate that this also applies to infection in an at-risk population of older age and with more co-morbidities.
- Florian B. Mayr
- , Victor B. Talisa
- & Adeel A. Butt
-
Article
| Open AccessAge and sex-specific risks of myocarditis and pericarditis following Covid-19 messenger RNA vaccines
There have been reports of myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA COVID-9 vaccination. Here, the authors use nationwide data from France and find increased risks of these outcomes in the first week following vaccination, for both the first and second dose, and present age- and sex-specific rates.
- Stéphane Le Vu
- , Marion Bertrand
- & Mahmoud Zureik
-
Article
| Open AccessNext-generation biomonitoring of the early-life chemical exposome in neonatal and infant development
Exposure to synthetic and natural toxicants is a major risk factor in the etiology of disease. Here, authors describe the development of a method to quantify >80 xenobiotics and apply it to assess early-life exposure in vulnerable infants.
- Thomas Jamnik
- , Mira Flasch
- & Benedikt Warth
-
Article
| Open AccessMeta-analysis of sub-Saharan African studies provides insights into genetic architecture of lipid traits
Genetic associations and polygenic scores for lipid traits have low transferability to African individuals. Here, the authors perform a large sub-Sarahan African lipid GWAS and find that larger datasets and better global representation in discovery GWAS help to bridge this gap.
- Ananyo Choudhury
- , Jean-Tristan Brandenburg
- & Michèle Ramsay
-
Article
| Open AccessHuman and planetary health implications of negative emissions technologies
This paper assesses the co-benefits and side-effects of DACCS and BECCS for human health and the planet. The health burden avoided by removing 5.9 Gtonne/yr CO2 is substantial, but only DACCS has a low impact on the Earth system.
- Selene Cobo
- , Ángel Galán-Martín
- & Gonzalo Guillén-Gosálbez
-
Article
| Open AccessDNA methylation signature of chronic low-grade inflammation and its role in cardio-respiratory diseases
Chronic inflammation, marked by C-reactive protein, has been associated with changes in methylation, but the causal relationship is unclear. Here, the authors perform a Epigenome-wide association meta-analysis for C-reactive protein levels and find that these methylation changes are likely the consequence of inflammation and could contribute to disease.
- Matthias Wielscher
- , Pooja R. Mandaviya
- & Marjo-Riitta Järvelin
-
Article
| Open AccessTrends and associated factors for Covid-19 hospitalisation and fatality risk in 2.3 million adults in England
In this retrospective cohort study, the authors investigate the risk of hospitalisation and death for all adults in England who tested positive for COVID-19 from October 2020–April 2021. They find that the risk of hospitalisation and death varied substantially over time after taking into account individual risk factors.
- T. Beaney
- , A. L. Neves
- & J. Clarke
-
Article
| Open AccessChildhood body size directly increases type 1 diabetes risk based on a lifecourse Mendelian randomization approach
The rise in type 1 diabetes is thought to be related to increased childhood obesity, but this relationship is not well understood. In this study, the authors utilize Mendelian randomization to separate the direct and indirect effects of childhood body size on risk of type 1 diabetes and 7 other immune-associated disease outcomes.
- Tom G. Richardson
- , Daniel J. M. Crouch
- & George Davey Smith
-
Article
| Open AccessEconomic shocks predict increases in child wasting prevalence
Economic shocks may lead to food insecurity and therefore acute child malnutrition (wasting). Here, the authors use data from Demographic Health Surveys to estimate impacts of past economic shocks on wasting and project possible effects of shocks related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Derek D. Headey
- & Marie T. Ruel
-
Article
| Open AccessAssessment of global health risk of antibiotic resistance genes
Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) have accelerated microbial threats to human health. Here, Zhang et al. analyze 4572 metagenomic samples to illustrate the global patterns of ARG distribution in diverse habitats. They quantitatively evaluate the health risk to humans of 2561 ARGs by integrating human accessibility, mobility, pathogenicity and clinical availability. With the machine learning, they map the antibiotic resistance threats in global marine habitats.
- Zhenyan Zhang
- , Qi Zhang
- & Haifeng Qian
-
Article
| Open AccessProjected climate-driven changes in pollen emission season length and magnitude over the continental United States
Atmospheric conditions affect the release of anemophilous pollen. Zhang et al. use a pollen emission model together with future climate data to simulate changes in pollen emission. The study shows that climate change driven pollen increase and seasonal changes may increase seasonal allergies
- Yingxiao Zhang
- & Allison L. Steiner
-
Comment
| Open AccessResilience-by-Design and Resilience-by-Intervention in supply chains for remote and indigenous communities
Indigenous and remote communities face difficulties in times of supply chain disruption. Here the authors comment on challenges faced by the Tribal Population of Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard) and argue for the inclusion of Resilience-by-Design and Resilience-by-Intervention in supply chain management.
- Emerson Mahoney
- , Maureen Golan
- & Igor Linkov
-
Article
| Open AccessRobust Mendelian randomization in the presence of residual population stratification, batch effects and horizontal pleiotropy
The validity of Mendelian Randomization (MR) studies may be affected by population stratification, batch effects, and horizontal pleiotropy. Here, the authors develop MR-SENSEMAKR, allowing quantification of the robustness of MR findings.
- Carlos Cinelli
- , Nathan LaPierre
- & Eleazar Eskin
-
Article
| Open AccessA robust method for collider bias correction in conditional genome-wide association studies
Genetic associations can be biased by conditioning on a phenotype. This study presents ‘Slope-Hunter’, a method which uses model-based clustering to correct this bias, even in the presence of genetic correlation, assuming the class of SNPs affecting only the collider explains more variation in the collider than any other class of SNPs.
- Osama Mahmoud
- , Frank Dudbridge
- & Kate Tilling
-
Article
| Open AccessA population-based cohort study of obesity, ethnicity and COVID-19 mortality in 12.6 million adults in England
Obesity is a known risk factor for severe COVID-19 disease. Here, the authors use linked Census, electronic health records, and mortality data for 12.6 million adults in England and show that the association between COVID-19 mortality and body mass index is stronger in ethnic minority groups.
- Thomas Yates
- , Annabel Summerfield
- & Vahé Nafilyan
-
Article
| Open AccessSelf-reported COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and uptake among participants from different racial and ethnic groups in the United States and United Kingdom
The authors show differences in self-reported vaccine hesitancy and uptake among participants from different racial and ethnic groups in the United States and in the United Kingdom during the initial phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
- Long H. Nguyen
- , Amit D. Joshi
- & Andrew T. Chan
-
Article
| Open AccessCholinergic signals preserve haematopoietic stem cell quiescence during regenerative haematopoiesis
The sympathetic nervous system has been shown to respond to stress and activate haematopoietic stem cells. Here they show that cholinergic signals in the bone marrow preserve haematopoietic stem cell quiescence and self-renewal under proliferative stress.
- Claire Fielding
- , Andrés García-García
- & Simón Méndez-Ferrer
-
Article
| Open AccessImmunoglobulin signature predicts risk of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome
Studying a prospective cohort, the authors develop and validate a predictive score for post-acute COVID-19 syndrome, also known as long-COVID. This score relies on an immunoglobulin signature and is independent of timepoint of blood sampling.
- Carlo Cervia
- , Yves Zurbuchen
- & Onur Boyman
-
Article
| Open AccessRegional excess mortality during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic in five European countries
In this study, the authors estimate excess mortality at the regional level for five European countries (England, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland) in 2020. They identify the regions and time periods with highest excess mortality and show how these patterns evolved through different pandemic waves.
- Garyfallos Konstantinoudis
- , Michela Cameletti
- & Marta Blangiardo
-
Article
| Open AccessLarge-scale diet tracking data reveal disparate associations between food environment and diet
Studying diets is challenging, typically restricted to small sample sizes, single locations, and non-uniform design across studies. Here, the authors leverage food entry data of a popular diet tracking app to observe diet health and weight status, studying the associations of fast food and grocery access, income and education with diet health outcomes.
- Tim Althoff
- , Hamed Nilforoshan
- & Jure Leskovec
-
Article
| Open AccessTotal energy expenditure is repeatable in adults but not associated with short-term changes in body composition
Low total energy expenditure (TEE) has been a hypothesized risk factor for weight gain, but longitudinal repeatability of TEE is incompletely understood. Here the authors report that TEE is repeatable for adults, but not for children, and increases in TEE (adjusted for fat-free mass, fat mass, age and sex) are not associated with body composition changes in short-term longitudinal analyses.
- Rebecca Rimbach
- , Yosuke Yamada
- & John R. Speakman
-
Article
| Open AccessOptions for reforming agricultural subsidies from health, climate, and economic perspectives
Springmann and Freund use an integrated modelling framework to show that coupling agricultural subsidies to producing foods with beneficial health and environmental characteristics can improve population health and lower greenhouse gas emissions without reducing economic welfare.
- M. Springmann
- & F. Freund
-
Article
| Open AccessSystematic analysis of drug-associated myocarditis reported in the World Health Organization pharmacovigilance database
Multiple drugs have been in the past associated with myocarditis. Here the authors perform a pharmacovigilance study and analyze 5108 reports of drug-induced myocarditis reporting temporal trends and overall mortality and identifying emerging drug classes among the treatments associated with myocarditis.
- Lee S. Nguyen
- , Leslie T. Cooper
- & Joe-Elie Salem
-
Article
| Open AccessClonal architecture predicts clinical outcomes and drug sensitivity in acute myeloid leukemia
Individual studies have been underpowered to draw clear associations between clonal heterogeneity and response to therapy in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here, the authors aggregate multiple AML cohorts and are able to correlate the clonal abundance of somatic mutations with clinical outcomes and drug sensitivity.
- Brooks A. Benard
- , Logan B. Leak
- & Ravindra Majeti
-
Article
| Open AccessBrain network coupling associated with cognitive performance varies as a function of a child’s environment in the ABCD study
Previous research suggests that, for children and adults, there is an association between better performance on cognitive tests and less functional connectivity between two brain networks. Here, the authors find that this association does not hold in a sample of children from households in poverty, highlighting the need for more diverse samples to incorporate a range of childhood environments in developmental cognitive neuroscience.
- Monica E. Ellwood-Lowe
- , Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- & Silvia A. Bunge
-
Article
| Open AccessCOVID-19 genetic risk variants are associated with expression of multiple genes in diverse immune cell types
Immune cells are important in the pathogenesis of COVID-19. Here the authors assessed the effects of COVID-19-risk variants on gene expression in a range of immune cell types, highlighting their potential to impact the function of diverse immune cell types and influence severe disease.
- Benjamin J. Schmiedel
- , Job Rocha
- & Pandurangan Vijayanand
-
Article
| Open AccessHealth impacts of wildfire-related air pollution in Brazil: a nationwide study of more than 2 million hospital admissions between 2008 and 2018
Brazil is a wildfire-prone region, and few studies have investigated the health impacts of wildfire exposure. Here, the authors show that wildfire waves are associated with an increase of 23% in respiratory hospital admissions and an increase of 21% in circulatory hospital admissions in Brazil.
- Weeberb J. Requia
- , Heresh Amini
- & Joel D. Schwartz
-
Article
| Open AccessEstimating disease prevalence in large datasets using genetic risk scores
Estimating disease prevalence in biobanks is prone to error, especially for self-reported traits. Here, the authors propose a method to estimate the prevalence of a disease within a cohort based on genetic risk scores.
- Benjamin D. Evans
- , Piotr Słowiński
- & Nicholas J. Thomas
-
Article
| Open AccessUsing secondary cases to characterize the severity of an emerging or re-emerging infection
Estimates of the severity of emerging infections did not consider the case ascertainment method, but secondary cases identified by contact tracing of index cases may be more reliable as they are less susceptible to ascertainment bias. Here, the authors perform a systematic review to quantify these differences and model their impacts for COVID-19.
- Tim K. Tsang
- , Can Wang
- & Benjamin J. Cowling
-
Article
| Open AccessThe composition of human vaginal microbiota transferred at birth affects offspring health in a mouse model
Exposure at birth to maternal microbiota has significant effects on offspring health and development. Here, the authors validate a model where inoculation of mice at birth with human vaginal microbiota produces significant effects on offspring health that are further amplified by an unhealthy prenatal environment.
- Eldin Jašarević
- , Elizabeth M. Hill
- & Tracy L. Bale