Insights from a pan India sero-epidemiological survey (Phenome-india cohort) for SARS-CoV2.

To understand the spread of SARS-CoV2, in August and September 2020, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India) conducted a serosurvey across its constituent laboratories and centers across India. Of 10,427 volunteers, 1058 (10.14%) tested positive for SARS-CoV2 anti-nucleocapsid (anti-NC) antibodies, 95% of which had surrogate neutralization activity. Three-fourth of these recalled no symptoms. Repeat serology tests at 3 (n = 607) and 6 (n = 175) months showed stable anti-NC antibodies but declining neutralization activity. Local seropositivity was higher in densely populated cities and was inversely correlated with a 30-day change in regional test positivity rates (TPRs). Regional seropositivity above 10% was associated with declining TPR. Personal factors associated with higher odds of seropositivity were high-exposure work (odds ratio, 95% confidence interval, p value: 2.23, 1.92–2.59, <0.0001), use of public transport (1.79, 1.43–2.24, <0.0001), not smoking (1.52, 1.16–1.99, 0.0257), non-vegetarian diet (1.67, 1.41–1.99, <0.0001), and B blood group (1.36, 1.15–1.61, 0.001)

A High Throughput Lipidomics Method Using Scheduled Multiple Reaction Monitoring

Lipid compositions of cells, tissues, and bio-fluids are complex, with varying concentrations and structural diversity making their identification challenging. Newer methods for comprehensive analysis of lipids are thus necessary. Herein, we propose a targeted-mass spectrometry based lipidomics screening method using a combination of variable retention time window and relative dwell time weightage. Using this method, we identified more than 1000 lipid species within 24-min. The limit of detection varied from the femtomolar to the nanomolar range. About 883 lipid species were detected with a coefficient of variance &lt;30%. We used this method to identify plasma lipids altered due to vitamin B12 deficiency and found a total of 18 lipid species to be altered. Some of the lipid species with &omega;-6 fatty acid chains were found to be significantly increased while &omega;-3 decreased in vitamin B12 deficient samples. This method enables rapid screening of a large number of lipid species in a single experiment and would substantially advance our understanding of the role of lipids in biological processes