The Yale Listen Study Town Hall: November 2022
February 27, 2024Information
Drs. Harlan Krumholz and Akiko Iwasaki discuss preliminary findings and answer questions from LISTEN participants.
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- 00:04Hi everybody.
- 00:05Welcome to the Listen Town Hall.
- 00:09Actually, I'm on a train right now,
- 00:10so let me just tell you,
- 00:12this is under unique circumstances,
- 00:14but everyone else is in secure
- 00:16locations where they'll be able
- 00:18to help in case I I bump off.
- 00:20But one, we wanted to really
- 00:23highlight how special this is.
- 00:26We're so thrilled to be able to
- 00:27have a meeting with people who
- 00:29are participating in the study.
- 00:30We're so appreciative of everyone's
- 00:32time and effort and the ways that
- 00:35they've been able to contribute
- 00:37the messages that they sent us,
- 00:39the information that's being provided.
- 00:41And we we can only do this through
- 00:46the approach that we're taking,
- 00:47which is that each of you is
- 00:48actually a member of the team.
- 00:49And we feel like we're just beginning this.
- 00:50I mean we're we're just in a point
- 00:52where we're able to invite people
- 00:54and and in and to start talking
- 00:55about the plans that we have.
- 00:57We've just reached 1000 people.
- 00:59The group includes people reporting on COVID,
- 01:02people reporting vaccine
- 01:03and people reporting both.
- 01:06Let me just say we're just
- 01:07starting to reach enough people
- 01:08to start producing insights from
- 01:10the surveys and medical records.
- 01:11We encourage all the listen participants
- 01:13to complete all the surveys.
- 01:15The more information that people complete,
- 01:17the more that we can use it together
- 01:20and to connect all the records without,
- 01:22without all those connections
- 01:23and without the surveys that
- 01:25we really don't have anything.
- 01:27So we've got to be able to pull together
- 01:29as much information together as we can.
- 01:31And we also appreciate if you can
- 01:33spread the word we're interested in,
- 01:35in.
- 01:35People with long COVID with vaccine
- 01:37injury also have neither,
- 01:38because ultimately we're going to
- 01:40need a controlled population,
- 01:41people who are not suffering from either.
- 01:43These things that we can compare
- 01:45to those who are to try to make
- 01:48useful scientific inferences and
- 01:49we're also working hard not just
- 01:51about describing this condition,
- 01:52but seeing whether or not we can
- 01:54test strategies that can help.
- 01:56And we hope that within a couple
- 01:57weeks we'll be able to announce the
- 01:59first clinical trial that we're going
- 02:01to be trying and we look forward
- 02:03to communicating you about that and
- 02:04and getting you in line and ready
- 02:06to dissipate and to be able to work
- 02:08with all of you in a way that that
- 02:10enables people to be part of it.
- 02:12But but I think the most important
- 02:14thing that we want to communicate is
- 02:16is gratitude and and thanks for being
- 02:18part of this and and in the course of this,
- 02:22we also recognize that you guys
- 02:24have joined a leap of faith.
- 02:25You've provided many of you've already
- 02:27provided information you've you've
- 02:29given us information that we hope
- 02:32to be able to turn into knowledge.
- 02:33We want to work with you to
- 02:35hear your questions,
- 02:36for you to hear what our plans
- 02:37are for us to work together
- 02:39as partners and to be able to
- 02:40make progress together.
- 02:41So we know that this has in some
- 02:43ways been frustrating in the
- 02:44sense that it's been started,
- 02:46but we haven't had any real
- 02:48meaningful findings yet.
- 02:48But we're we're just getting on our way.
- 02:50So I'm not going to tell
- 02:52anyone that patience with us,
- 02:53you should always be impatient with us,
- 02:55but we want to work with you as close
- 02:57as we can to help make progress.
- 02:58With that, let me turn and I
- 03:00apologize for being on the train
- 03:02actually that was unanticipated.
- 03:03So thank you for sticking with me on that.
- 03:05And let me hand it over to
- 03:07Akiko for some marks from her.
- 03:10Yeah, thank you, Harlan.
- 03:11Just to say, everyone,
- 03:12I'm Harlan Krumholtz.
- 03:13I didn't even say I'm Harlan
- 03:14Krumholtz and let me introduce
- 03:15the key code. It was time.
- 03:18Thank you, Harlan,
- 03:18and thank you for your dedication
- 03:20and joining us from A Train.
- 03:22Really appreciate it.
- 03:23And thank you to all of you
- 03:25from Listen for joining us.
- 03:27Delighted to be with you again.
- 03:30I've really enjoyed interrupting
- 03:31with you so far with the the last
- 03:34town hall meeting and Born Alley and
- 03:36I did a follow up because we had
- 03:39so many questions that we couldn't
- 03:40answer and during the meeting.
- 03:42So there is a video up on the Kindred
- 03:46site that if you're interested.
- 03:48Hopefully we addressed all the questions,
- 03:51but there may be others that we're,
- 03:53you know, you're welcome to submit
- 03:56to on the chat or question today.
- 03:59And we'll leave plenty of time
- 04:01at the at the last half of this
- 04:04meeting to have Q&A sessions.
- 04:06So please do ask us questions.
- 04:09So yeah, just like what Harlan said,
- 04:12we're very,
- 04:12very excited to be able to
- 04:14work with all of you.
- 04:16And as I sort of presented last two times,
- 04:20I guess there are,
- 04:21there's a lot of work going on some of
- 04:24the work that I shared with you from
- 04:26the Mount Sinai Yale long COVID research.
- 04:29But also we're going to be expanding
- 04:32and extending those kinds of
- 04:33research to with the Yale lesson
- 04:36study to not only long COVID but
- 04:40for vaccine adverse events and
- 04:42people who had a combination of
- 04:44long COVID and vaccine adverse events.
- 04:47And one of the emphasis that I
- 04:50made last time was the remarkable
- 04:52similarities in the types of symptoms
- 04:55that people are experiencing as
- 04:57a result of those three different
- 05:00conditions as well as the pre-existing
- 05:03conditions and pre-existing symptoms
- 05:05that people have had in this three cohort.
- 05:08One of the things that we
- 05:10would love to do is to.
- 05:12So that was borne Alley's analysis.
- 05:14By the way,
- 05:14one of the things that that we
- 05:17are really excited to do is to be
- 05:19able to include control groups.
- 05:21So right now we have great
- 05:23participation from people with
- 05:25these three different conditions.
- 05:27But we do need people who are if
- 05:30we don't have these conditions
- 05:31in order to compare and contrast
- 05:34the types of symptoms that people
- 05:35are experiencing or pre-existing
- 05:38conditions that people may have and
- 05:40ultimately to compare the immune profiles.
- 05:43So we encourage people to participate
- 05:46even if you especially you know if
- 05:49you don't have these types of conditions,
- 05:51but are you interested in
- 05:53contributing to research,
- 05:54This is a very important thing to do.
- 05:56The other thing that we would
- 05:58love to do in Listen is to be
- 06:01able to collect symptom data,
- 06:02your own people with these
- 06:04three different conditions.
- 06:05So you know,
- 06:07I know that the Kindred Listen
- 06:10team has already distributed the
- 06:13questionnaire for the symptoms,
- 06:15but we'd love to be able to
- 06:17get into that data as well.
- 06:19And ultimately we will be asking
- 06:21some of you to join bio biological
- 06:25research analysis looking at immune
- 06:28phenotyping by collection saliva and and
- 06:33we will compare that to
- 06:35the different symptoms.
- 06:36So just to kind of recap what
- 06:39what we discussed last time,
- 06:41last two times, essentially we are
- 06:44finding immunological features that
- 06:46are clearly associated with long COVID
- 06:49such as increased in exhausted T cells,
- 06:52increase in activated B cells,
- 06:55reduction in circulating central memory T
- 06:59cells as well as reduced levels of cortisol.
- 07:03And that is the most uniformly and
- 07:06strongly correlated differences
- 07:08that we see in the long COVID.
- 07:10And then I also touched on the sex
- 07:13differences in symptoms and immune responses.
- 07:16That's a paper that we are currently
- 07:20working on to to try to understand what
- 07:23symptoms are different differentially
- 07:25felt experienced by people of different
- 07:29sexes as well as immune phenotype that
- 07:33are associated with those symptoms.
- 07:35So those are the some of
- 07:37the ongoing research,
- 07:39Some things that I that that we
- 07:41are starting to do, but it's very,
- 07:44very new are the micro clot
- 07:47analysis and platelet activation,
- 07:49phenotyping analysis.
- 07:51This is in collaboration with
- 07:54Professor Rizzo Pretorius who kindly
- 07:56came and visited us at Yale to
- 07:59show us how to do these analysis.
- 08:02And even though we only collected
- 08:05a few samples to do the analysis,
- 08:07we are seeing significant activation of
- 08:11platelets from people with long COVID.
- 08:14We haven't looked into the vaccine
- 08:18adverse event samples yet,
- 08:20but these are the some,
- 08:22some of the the new types of
- 08:24analysis that we'll be doing.
- 08:25And I know that the Professor Pretorius's
- 08:29group has reported significantly elevated
- 08:32activation of platelets and Michael
- 08:35microclots in people with long COVID.
- 08:38So that's something that we'd love to
- 08:41be including in the future analysis.
- 08:43So yeah,
- 08:44these are some of the current and
- 08:46new thinking that we we have and
- 08:49are planning to do with you all
- 08:51in the listen study.
- 08:53And we'd love for you to
- 08:54be able to participate,
- 08:55you know if you can and if you're willing
- 08:58for the biological analysis as well.
- 09:01And we'd love to be able to share
- 09:04with you some of the findings
- 09:06from these types of analysis.
- 09:08And of course,
- 09:09as with all research,
- 09:10we need to be able to do the analysis
- 09:12in a sufficient number first to be able
- 09:15to compare on these immune features.
- 09:17But once we have enough number
- 09:20and once we have confidence,
- 09:22we will be sharing those data back with
- 09:25you and we'll be thinking about it together.
- 09:28So that's very,
- 09:30very exciting for us.
- 09:32Yeah.
- 09:32So and I'd be happy to answer any
- 09:35questions that you might have in
- 09:37the last half of this program.
- 09:39But I'm going to turn it over to
- 09:41Barnalli to talk about what other
- 09:43measurements we're doing for
- 09:44the immune phenotyping.
- 09:47Thank you, Akiko. So I'll
- 09:48start by sharing my slides.
- 09:58I hope everybody is able to see it.
- 10:05So, so we have been receiving a lot
- 10:08of questions about you know what
- 10:10kind of surveys you are taking or
- 10:12also about biospecimen collection.
- 10:14So I just wanted to begin with the
- 10:16study design. So for everybody,
- 10:18this is important to know that this
- 10:20study is divided into two parts.
- 10:22The first part of the study is
- 10:24analysis of the surveys that you take,
- 10:27the Kindred surveys that you have been
- 10:29taking and also the medical records,
- 10:31which makes it very important that
- 10:33you also connect your medical
- 10:35records so that we can analyze your
- 10:37data in an unbiased manner to get
- 10:39correct results from our analysis.
- 10:41So this is the first part of the study,
- 10:43this part of the study,
- 10:45every participant from any part of the
- 10:47world can join this study and take the
- 10:50surveys and participate in the listen study.
- 10:53So this is the first part of the study.
- 10:55Based on the analysis of the surveys as
- 10:57well as going through your medical records,
- 10:59which we cross checked many a times,
- 11:02we will select initially select subgroups
- 11:05of participants for biospecimen collection,
- 11:08those who donate blood and saliva
- 11:09to us on the very same day.
- 11:11They are also asked to take a few
- 11:13more surveys which helps us find
- 11:16out their current symptoms.
- 11:17And we also go through their medical
- 11:19records to see if they have taken
- 11:21any tests so that we can correlate
- 11:22the surveys with them.
- 11:24So this is the basic study designed.
- 11:25The biospecimen collection portion is
- 11:28only including residents from mainland US
- 11:32right now with the funding that we have.
- 11:35And so this is how we have
- 11:37designed the study.
- 11:38So with this,
- 11:39I would next talk about immunophenotyping
- 11:41and to begin with the very beginning,
- 11:43some basic descriptions.
- 11:44I know many of you know a lot more
- 11:47than what I have in the slide,
- 11:49but I just wanted to begin
- 11:50with the very basics, sorry.
- 11:53So our immune system.
- 11:55When we talk about immunophenotyping,
- 11:57we're talking about interaction with
- 11:58the pathogen and the aftermath of it.
- 12:01So our immune system protects us
- 12:03from harmful substances and foreign
- 12:05microorganisms, including viruses,
- 12:07and comprise of different cell types.
- 12:09Monocytes mature to form macrophages,
- 12:12which can engulf and digest debris
- 12:15and invading microorganisms.
- 12:16Neutrophils are another kind of
- 12:18engulfing or phagocytic cells.
- 12:20Yesinophils can act on parasites.
- 12:24Other than that we have the
- 12:26dendritic cells or DCS,
- 12:27which engulf microorganisms and
- 12:29present their protein fragments on
- 12:31their surface to activate T cells.
- 12:33And when we talk about T cells and B cells,
- 12:36the different subtypes that have
- 12:38been spoken about and written
- 12:40about in our publication as well.
- 12:43These T cells and B cells circulate
- 12:46within the body and when they encounter
- 12:48foreign bodies or microorganisms,
- 12:51T cells develop into activated T cells
- 12:53which are people spoke about with many
- 12:56different functions involved in protection.
- 12:58T cells are of two types,
- 12:59namely CD4 and CD8 protein bearing types.
- 13:03B cells upon activation differentiate
- 13:05to produce antibodies or are
- 13:08called antibody secreting cells as
- 13:10well as they generate memory B cells.
- 13:13Our data has also touched upon double
- 13:16negative B cells which have been associated
- 13:19with inflammation and autoimmune diseases.
- 13:22And then we have the messengers or cytokines.
- 13:26Cytokines are small proteins that
- 13:28cells used to communicate with
- 13:30each other inside of our body.
- 13:32They quickly transmit messages to
- 13:34different parts of our body helping
- 13:36to moderate the behavior of different
- 13:39tissues and systems like the immune
- 13:41system and the nervous system.
- 13:43The cytokines may be mentioned here
- 13:44or in any of the reports that we
- 13:47will provide to you as Interferon
- 13:49Gamma TNF Alpha Illinois 6.
- 13:51These are just examples,
- 13:52one or two examples of that.
- 13:54Now moving further to study design,
- 13:57what I wanted to show you is
- 13:59what we are going to study.
- 14:01So of course you have already
- 14:03understood that we need your surveys.
- 14:05We need your survey responses to
- 14:08understand the disease better, right?
- 14:10We need those surveys because we
- 14:11are going to analyze the surveys.
- 14:13We are going to look into your
- 14:15medical records,
- 14:16which makes it imperative that we
- 14:18have that medical record connected to
- 14:21the Kindred or the Listen platform.
- 14:23Next,
- 14:24what are the different experiments
- 14:26that we are going to do?
- 14:28So of course we are going to look
- 14:30at the TCRS that we have so as to
- 14:32understand what are the pathogens
- 14:34against which they have been generated.
- 14:37That's one.
- 14:37Next there will be multiple
- 14:39Elisas that we are going to do.
- 14:41So what does ELISA do or what question
- 14:43are we going to ask from here?
- 14:45We will be looking for auto antibodies.
- 14:47We will be looking for antibodies
- 14:50against multiple analytes such
- 14:51as different kinds of viruses,
- 14:53bacteria,
- 14:53what kind of infections you
- 14:55have had in the past.
- 14:56We will look at it in multiple ways,
- 14:58which includes rapid extracellular
- 15:01antigen profiling read as well as
- 15:04serum epitope repertoire analysis,
- 15:06which can tell us what pathogens
- 15:08you have encountered in the
- 15:10past as well as at the present.
- 15:12And at the same time,
- 15:13we'll also look at autoimmune antibodies.
- 15:15Looking at viral antibodies is
- 15:17another thing that we will do.
- 15:19So SARS,
- 15:20COV 2 antibodies will be looked
- 15:22at for different parts of the S
- 15:25protein as well as other proteins
- 15:27and then we will also look at
- 15:29the efficacy at neutralization
- 15:31which these antibodies have.
- 15:33So that's another experiment
- 15:34that we are going to do.
- 15:36At the same time as I have
- 15:39spoken about the different kinds,
- 15:41so I have spoken about the
- 15:43different kinds of cells.
- 15:44So we also have a technique by which
- 15:47we will be able to look at what are
- 15:50the different subsets of cells.
- 15:52So how do we do it?
- 15:53The the different cells I spoke about
- 15:56actually these cells have different
- 15:58kinds of proteins sitting on their surface.
- 16:01On the basis of antibodies
- 16:03which can recognize those,
- 16:04we will be able to separate out
- 16:07different types of cells and calculate
- 16:09the numbers and give you a fraction
- 16:11calculated number of each of these
- 16:14cell types by doing a technique using
- 16:16a technique called flow cytometry.
- 16:18So other than that,
- 16:20as Akiko has mentioned,
- 16:21we are very much interested in
- 16:23platelet activation and we will look
- 16:25at microclogs and platelet activation
- 16:27using all the assays that have been
- 16:30designed by the different scientists
- 16:31that she has already spoken about.
- 16:33So this is what we are going to do.
- 16:35And I know all of you have lots
- 16:37and lots of questions regarding
- 16:39how to connect our medical records
- 16:41or which surveys have I taken,
- 16:42why haven't I received a survey?
- 16:44And we talk a lot about it,
- 16:46we exchange emails about it.
- 16:48So we thought there are two very talented
- 16:51people who are behind all the processes.
- 16:54They are both working for Hugo.
- 16:55One is Tanya, who is the product
- 16:57manager and the other person is Emma,
- 17:00who's the data engineer at Hugo.
- 17:02And we have both of them today to
- 17:04demonstrate how it should be done and
- 17:06also respond to all your questions.
- 17:08So keep your questions ready and
- 17:11I think I will stop sharing my
- 17:14slides and I will hand it over to
- 17:18Tanya so that she can walk with you
- 17:21through the process of connection,
- 17:23connectivity issues, everything.
- 17:24Thank you,
- 17:25Tanya.
- 17:27Thank
- 17:27you, Bernali. I'm going to go ahead
- 17:29and share my screen. Hello, everyone.
- 17:32All right, give me one moment.
- 17:36Can everyone see my screen? Perfect.
- 17:40All right, so this is nothing
- 17:43that you're unfamiliar with,
- 17:44but this is our Kindred platform and
- 17:47I wanted to just highlight a couple
- 17:49of items that may be confusing or
- 17:51people have questions around that
- 17:53I can definitely clear up for you.
- 17:54So you walk into the Kindred platform
- 17:57and the first thing that you're
- 18:00going to see is your active tasks.
- 18:02This is what Bernali is referring to as
- 18:05the surveys that need to be completed
- 18:07and how important that is for those
- 18:10to be completed to analyze the data.
- 18:12So I they open up right into the
- 18:16survey into a new tab in your browser
- 18:18or on your mobile device so that
- 18:20you would open up them up that way.
- 18:23And this is the structure of our surveys.
- 18:25The most important thing is to
- 18:29consistently complete the surveys
- 18:30because what when you complete a survey,
- 18:32it's then backed with another survey
- 18:34that is all based on the questions
- 18:36that you answered.
- 18:37So it's very,
- 18:38very imperative that you complete
- 18:40the surveys or any tasks that you
- 18:42have up in this task carousel.
- 18:44It really helps with the research
- 18:46and anything that we are trying to
- 18:49gather for all the data analysis.
- 18:51So that I wanted to definitely emphasize
- 18:54this carousel and the accessibility of it.
- 18:57I'm going to move further down.
- 18:59This is our content feed.
- 19:01So if you are in your are in the
- 19:04listen study in the COVID community,
- 19:06so you're going to get listen study
- 19:08articles that are extremely helpful.
- 19:11You can listen to any of our town halls.
- 19:14There's also Kindred contributors
- 19:15where they tell their,
- 19:17you know the vaccine injured or long COVID,
- 19:20they tell their stories.
- 19:21It's very informational,
- 19:23very interesting information that we post.
- 19:25So I encourage you to read those
- 19:27definitely as as often as you can.
- 19:30They are updated quite often as well.
- 19:32All right.
- 19:33So one more item that I want you guys to
- 19:36just take a look at within the platform,
- 19:38which I'm not sure if you guys
- 19:40know is accessible to you.
- 19:41Is this My account button up
- 19:43here in the top right corner?
- 19:45So if you go to My account,
- 19:48you are able to fill in your first
- 19:50and last name when you enrolled it
- 19:52did take the the city, state and zip.
- 19:54If it's not in there,
- 19:56you can you can add it in their phone number,
- 19:59date of birth and your communication
- 20:02preference.
- 20:02So if you have your phone number,
- 20:03you can choose to have your
- 20:06communication sent SMS, e-mail or voice.
- 20:08I wanted to let you know that whatever
- 20:10works best for you and that you can
- 20:13customize that within this My account page.
- 20:16What's also nice under this menu is
- 20:18if you have a question, if you can,
- 20:20contact support and it will take you
- 20:22to our frequently Asked questions
- 20:24and it'll help you guide.
- 20:26You through any you know problem
- 20:28or issue that you're
- 20:29encountering or any questions
- 20:30that you may have and we also have
- 20:33our privacy in terms of service.
- 20:34So I wanted to highlight
- 20:37the My Account feature.
- 20:38We also of course you guys have
- 20:40the Listen study which you can
- 20:42click into and it is only Listen
- 20:43study related and I'm sure that
- 20:45you guys are quite aware of that.
- 20:48But the biggest emphasis that I'd
- 20:50like to make is on data connections.
- 20:52So data connections,
- 20:54it is super important that we have this
- 20:57information of your medical records.
- 21:00It is the key contributor as to
- 21:03understanding the medical diseases,
- 21:05any current,
- 21:06any current events that have happened
- 21:08since the last time that you've been seeing.
- 21:10So I want to go ahead and go
- 21:13through AQ and A of anything that
- 21:15is confusing or about this process.
- 21:18So I'm going to go ahead and jump
- 21:20right into how to connect your records.
- 21:22OK.
- 21:23So what you would do is you would go
- 21:25ahead and just click this add my data
- 21:28connections and then it says that Kindred,
- 21:30it uses Hugo,
- 21:31how to safely and secure your records.
- 21:33We connect with hundreds of providers,
- 21:35so not only healthcare,
- 21:36we pharmacies,
- 21:37devices, applications,
- 21:39you know insure insurers,
- 21:42payers etcetera and that we only
- 21:44share your data with your permission
- 21:46you can manage and revoke at any
- 21:48time and I will show you how you
- 21:50can do that and press continue.
- 21:52So we all we do is we have a list
- 21:54of popular connections just to
- 21:55give you an idea of what kind of
- 21:58different clinical devices and
- 21:59pharmacies that we have to offer.
- 22:02But there's also this wonderful search field.
- 22:04So what I'm going to do is I'm
- 22:06going to go ahead and search
- 22:07for a provider in my area.
- 22:09I'm in the Bay Area,
- 22:09so I'm going to go ahead and and
- 22:12search Kaiser and you'll see that
- 22:14all the Kaiser locations pull up and
- 22:16that you can select which one you
- 22:19know you're you are affiliated with.
- 22:21So let's say that I'm affiliated
- 22:22with Baldwin Park,
- 22:24I would go ahead and press
- 22:25the button to connect.
- 22:27I would enter my Kaiser Permanente Baldwin
- 22:31Park credentials into these fields.
- 22:33You would check off this box that you
- 22:35were authorizing the use and storage
- 22:37of the credentials and your health,
- 22:38health data through the Hugo Connect process.
- 22:42I want to emphasize this as well.
- 22:44Your credentials are securely stored and
- 22:46encrypted in both in motion and at rest.
- 22:48When you with using a management
- 22:50system that is strictly controlled,
- 22:52credentials are never shared and
- 22:53are solely a part of your account.
- 22:55You can change or revoke access at any time.
- 22:58All right,
- 22:59so I'm going to go ahead and submit
- 23:02and there's this fun confetti
- 23:04page that shows you that you
- 23:06have submitted and that record.
- 23:07You can go on to add another.
- 23:09So let's go ahead and do so.
- 23:11Let's go ahead and choose a pharmacy
- 23:13this time and let's go with Walgreens.
- 23:18Same thing. You can go ahead and connect,
- 23:22put in your Walgreens
- 23:24credentials and submit some.
- 23:28Some of the pharmacies or providers or
- 23:31healthcare systems have an external question
- 23:33or an additional item that you need to,
- 23:35you know, you have to redirect to a
- 23:37different page or an additional question.
- 23:39This one happens too with Walgreens,
- 23:41so I'm going to go ahead
- 23:43and submit an answer.
- 23:44And this is all test data,
- 23:45so this isn't anything real,
- 23:47Just want to show you what it looks like.
- 23:49When you are all done connecting your
- 23:52records, you can click this button.
- 23:54You can see what you've already connected
- 23:57and if you click out of this box,
- 23:59it is now showing up under My
- 24:02Data Connections as connected.
- 24:04Now let's say that you would like to that
- 24:08this says it has it needs attention.
- 24:10Maybe the password that you entered
- 24:12wasn't correct or maybe you need
- 24:14to re authenticate yourself.
- 24:15You can go ahead and select this wrench
- 24:18here and go to repair connection.
- 24:21That will bring it this Baldwin Park
- 24:23Medical Center right back up so that
- 24:25you can re enter your credentials and
- 24:27hopefully have a successful login.
- 24:29If you'd like to revoke access at any time,
- 24:32the same applies,
- 24:34you would disconnect.
- 24:37You would receive this page to
- 24:38unlink the connection and this it
- 24:40states that you're unlinking the
- 24:42connection and this will prevent
- 24:44any of your connected services from
- 24:46accessing your data in the future
- 24:48and you can unlink that way.
- 24:51And so I wanted to definitely show
- 24:52you all the different types of things
- 24:54that you can search for any questions
- 24:57that you may have and and go from there.
- 25:06Anything that I didn't cover that
- 25:07you feel needs to be covered.
- 25:11So there's a question in the box.
- 25:14So when it comes to adding medical records,
- 25:17every time I connect to Facility
- 25:19portal it will connect but
- 25:21then connection will be lost.
- 25:23I also keep getting sent
- 25:25duplicates of assay survey.
- 25:27Sorry that I have already filled
- 25:29out and finished and I get
- 25:31emails saying need to complete.
- 25:33If I have already come completed,
- 25:35do I really need to fill
- 25:38out again if the serve?
- 25:40If you're still receiving
- 25:41survey emails then that means that
- 25:43there is a survey to complete still.
- 25:46So if you log into your Kindred platform,
- 25:49you should see a survey up in my
- 25:51active Tasks if you are still receiving
- 25:53an e-mail to complete a survey.
- 25:56So that means that it might be in
- 25:58progress but not fully completed
- 25:59because it will still show up in the
- 26:02carousel until it is fully completed.
- 26:04If it's in progress and you stop at a
- 26:06certain point, if you press the button,
- 26:08it will restart at the time
- 26:10that you stopped the survey.
- 26:13I hope that that helps.
- 26:16Yeah. Tanya, there's another
- 26:17question that a couple of people have
- 26:20asked is if none of the providers
- 26:21are linked, what is the process?
- 26:25None of the providers are linked,
- 26:28meaning you can't find
- 26:30the provider under. OK.
- 26:33So let's say you can't find the providers.
- 26:35So let's just search here.
- 26:37All right. So you can't find
- 26:39what you're looking for.
- 26:41Let us know here.
- 26:44And this is where you can go ahead and
- 26:46you can submit a request to us saying,
- 26:49hey, I can't find my provider and that we
- 26:51will do our best to go ahead and locate
- 26:54that provider and try to get that added.
- 26:56Does that answer that question Perfect.
- 27:00Thank you. You're welcome.
- 27:05So as you can see,
- 27:06this needs attention already.
- 27:07It updates rather quickly because
- 27:09I was using test credentials.
- 27:11So just to let you know why that
- 27:13says it needs it needs attention.
- 27:15It's just the test
- 27:16credentials that I was using.
- 27:17But in a in a normal situation
- 27:19it would be connected with
- 27:21the correct credentials. Enter
- 27:27any further questions that I am.
- 27:32So here is 1 from Sheila.
- 27:34I see that I signed up back in August
- 27:36for the survey but have received nothing.
- 27:39Can someone help me get into the pipeline?
- 27:43So I think Tanya there Talia has already
- 27:47sent out an e-mail ID where you can ask
- 27:52all of these questions and get a response.
- 27:54Do you want to add any other suggestions?
- 28:01I would need to have more
- 28:02information to see what exactly
- 28:04this person's encountering,
- 28:05but I would be happy to assist
- 28:07or or stay after to to figure out
- 28:09what how that could be occurring.
- 28:11Yes, I want to hear and know
- 28:15about any possible, you know,
- 28:17disconnect or any any difficulties
- 28:19that anyone's having within the system
- 28:21other than finding their connection
- 28:23because there is a way to to submit
- 28:25that and we can try to obtain that.
- 28:27But yes, I can definitely follow up on that.
- 28:32So I also see that somebody is asking
- 28:35Angie here is asking how often
- 28:36should we check the app for surveys.
- 28:42You should be receiving emails for
- 28:44any new surveys that are assigned.
- 28:46So I would you know,
- 28:47it's it's always a great thing
- 28:49to visit the app, you know,
- 28:51a couple of times a week or as
- 28:52often as you'd like to see if you
- 28:54have any active tasks.
- 28:55But we will send e-mail correspondence
- 28:57when there is a task that needs
- 28:59to be completed and that would
- 29:01show up and whatever task we would
- 29:04send an e-mail about would would
- 29:06be up in this task carousel here.
- 29:08And there might even be one that
- 29:10says connect your health records
- 29:11And what you would do is you would,
- 29:13you know press on this on this arrow
- 29:15and then it would pop up this screen
- 29:17to encourage you to to to enter
- 29:20your medical record information.
- 29:25Thank you, Tanya.
- 29:26If there are any other questions,
- 29:28please type it and I can see many
- 29:31are being answered in real time. Now
- 29:36Bernal, if I could just jump in
- 29:38real quick and I wanted to explain
- 29:41a little bit about how our
- 29:43data collection works.
- 29:44A lot of the connections that we support
- 29:47are through an EMR provider called Epic.
- 29:50You'll notice that when you go
- 29:52to connect your credentials,
- 29:54a new tab will actually open and you will
- 29:57have to enter your credentials there.
- 29:59I'm seeing a question in the chat about
- 30:03if you have multiple Epic connections,
- 30:05do you need to sign up with each one?
- 30:07The answer is yes,
- 30:09because you are consenting on a
- 30:11sort of hospital basis to share your
- 30:13information and not the letter or
- 30:16the EMR basis to your information
- 30:20like that. And I just
- 30:21wanted to share how sort of
- 30:23new and novel this process actually is.
- 30:28We Well, not we, but if you guys are
- 30:32familiar with the Cures Act which was
- 30:34passed in 2016 that basically said that
- 30:38your healthcare providers need to share
- 30:41this information when you request it.
- 30:43And things like that actually take
- 30:47a very long time to get going.
- 30:50And you know, and then COVID happened
- 30:53and things kept getting pushed back and
- 30:55pushed back and we've reached this state
- 30:58where the deadline for full compliance
- 31:00is actually coming up pretty soon.
- 31:03It's the end of December 2022.
- 31:05So a lot of these processes that
- 31:08you guys are going through and
- 31:10almost sort of testing out for us,
- 31:12they're they're works in progress.
- 31:14So if you do see anything weird,
- 31:16you encounter a connection that
- 31:19you think should be there,
- 31:20that's not or you're finding that,
- 31:23you know, you connect and you
- 31:25keep getting needs attention,
- 31:26needs attention,
- 31:27needs attention.
- 31:28We encourage you to reach out to Kindred
- 31:31under score support at Hugo dot Health.
- 31:34The connection related issues
- 31:35actually tend to come straight to me,
- 31:38so I can get you going and make
- 31:40sure that we have everything working
- 31:41as smoothly as possible.
- 31:45I'm just going to check and
- 31:47see if there's any other
- 31:48questions that I can answer
- 31:50while I've got the floor here.
- 31:53Thanks so much, Emma. Yeah,
- 31:59I just tried
- 32:00reconnecting needs work account.
- 32:01How long does it take for a
- 32:03new connection to show up?
- 32:04So that's actually a great question because
- 32:07we get this one a lot in our support.
- 32:09It's not instantaneous.
- 32:10So the way it kind of works on
- 32:13the back end is once you finish,
- 32:15there's a message sent out to the rest of
- 32:17our system and it basically queues up a job.
- 32:19So it's like first in, first out type deal.
- 32:22So if there's a whole bunch of other
- 32:24people connecting at the same time,
- 32:26it may take up to, you know,
- 32:292-3 minutes for that new status to show up.
- 32:33So give it a little bit,
- 32:35maybe even refresh the screen
- 32:36in a minute or two.
- 32:38And if you're still seeing that
- 32:39needs attention,
- 32:39go ahead and reach out.
- 32:41How
- 32:47far back do
- 32:47you want My Health records?
- 32:49So when you first give us permission
- 32:52to go and access your records,
- 32:54we will pull basically everything
- 32:57that you give us permission to
- 32:59as far back as your electronic
- 33:01health record actually stores.
- 33:03And this varies based on different providers.
- 33:06I know my personal stuff,
- 33:07I can see as far back as I was born,
- 33:09but I was born in 1998,
- 33:11so some people might not have
- 33:13that same sort of longevity
- 33:14in terms of their records.
- 33:19And then what if our medical
- 33:20provider is a solo practitioner?
- 33:22Again, if you reach out to support or
- 33:27sorry kindred support at Hugo dot Health,
- 33:30we can you can send us your
- 33:32practitioners info and we can see
- 33:34if we could get you guys connected.
- 33:40Emma, there's a question I see
- 33:43are there hip hop protections in
- 33:45place when sharing medical records?
- 33:48This is also a really good question.
- 33:51So Hugo Health isn't what's called a
- 33:54covered entity under HIPAA protections,
- 33:57but we care greatly about your ability to
- 34:01share and protect your own health data.
- 34:04So we actually attest to and implement
- 34:06all of the HIPAA standards on our own,
- 34:10which you know, as someone who
- 34:12actually uses the Kindred platform,
- 34:13it's great because it means that there's
- 34:16less vulnerabilities when we're transferring
- 34:19your information to different places.
- 34:21It means that when it's stored, there's
- 34:24actually even more protections in place.
- 34:27Your information is actually
- 34:28completely de identified.
- 34:30So if there were a breach or
- 34:32something which not usually the case,
- 34:34they wouldn't be able to link any
- 34:37of that back to you whatsoever.
- 34:38And we really do believe in a
- 34:40test to HIPAA policies.
- 34:42There's also something,
- 34:43in case anyone's curious,
- 34:45called the Karen Alliance,
- 34:46which is an additional set of principles
- 34:50that different healthcare providers
- 34:52and health and information technology
- 34:54providers can attest to that have
- 34:57even stricter policies regarding
- 34:58sharing of data and all sorts of
- 35:01protections around that sort of stuff.
- 35:08Hey, Emma, can you hear me? Yes.
- 35:11Hi, this is Harlan. Hey Harlan,
- 35:17People do ask us about the issue about
- 35:20data staring in security and when they
- 35:22say we're connecting our records,
- 35:24what are we, what are we doing and
- 35:25what's going to happen with them?
- 35:26And I do think it's important to note
- 35:29the way this works on your behalf.
- 35:31Hugo's going, you may have just said this,
- 35:33that I just got bunked off.
- 35:34I'll come back and say it again.
- 35:35You go on your behalf.
- 35:37It's getting your data to deposit
- 35:40into your secure cloud based
- 35:42account and grow your data assets.
- 35:44With your permission,
- 35:45that data goes into the study.
- 35:47With your permission,
- 35:48the data can be used in aggregate for us
- 35:50to create some summaries about what's
- 35:51going on for the Kindred community,
- 35:53but you will never be
- 35:54identified individually.
- 35:55Your data is not going to be
- 35:57sold or moved or monetized.
- 35:58It's about empowering you for your
- 36:00data to come in and for you to give
- 36:03permission for your data to be used
- 36:05in this way if you change your mind.
- 36:07If you decide you don't want to do this,
- 36:09you can.
- 36:10It's your data and Hugo, not Hugo,
- 36:13does not own your data.
- 36:14You own your data.
- 36:15And we're trying to create the the,
- 36:17the environment,
- 36:17the ecosystem where you can put
- 36:19your data to work.
- 36:20But we're also going to fight like heck
- 36:23to protect your data and protect your
- 36:24rights and help you to get your data.
- 36:27Again,
- 36:27it comes in the way we conceptualize
- 36:30and it's like we say B to C to
- 36:32R it's like from the businesses
- 36:34or organizations that hold your
- 36:36data to C to the consumer to you
- 36:38and then you're permission to go
- 36:40use it for R for the research.
- 36:42And then when it sits within
- 36:45the Hugo community,
- 36:46we're not doing any funny business
- 36:47or have anything like hey,
- 36:49because you're on this platform,
- 36:50we can de identify and move it around.
- 36:52It's yours.
- 36:53And So what we're working on
- 36:54is a permission based system
- 36:58in a sense of community together and
- 37:00trying to use the platform for the
- 37:02purposes of trying to empower people to
- 37:04be able to do things with their data.
- 37:06There has to be a business model with Hugo.
- 37:08I mean we want it to be sustainable.
- 37:09So in the transactions and partnerships,
- 37:11we're trying to make it so that there's
- 37:14enough revenue generated to be able to
- 37:16help support the platform to do this.
- 37:18But what we won't do is compromise
- 37:20on the idea that it's your data or do
- 37:22anything with your data in order to
- 37:24generate revenue that's not in the model.
- 37:27The model is working in partnership
- 37:29with you for things that that you
- 37:34if you want to be part of listen,
- 37:35that's great.
- 37:36We want you to be part of listening.
- 37:37That data then can be shared
- 37:38with the listening study.
- 37:39I wear two hats in that way.
- 37:40I'm on I'm on the Hugo side to
- 37:41try to help build the platform.
- 37:43I'm working with the Kiko on the
- 37:45listening side to try to help
- 37:47learn something with you about
- 37:50the conditions that you guys
- 37:51are facing and are challenging.
- 37:53And and our intent purpose is
- 37:55to move as fast as we can learn
- 37:57from you and to try to make this
- 37:59into something meaningful for the
- 38:01community not just our community
- 38:02but the world community who
- 38:04are facing the same challenges.
- 38:05But but I wanted to just say that
- 38:07because from time to time I see I
- 38:09see someone raise that issue and we
- 38:10just want to say it really clearly
- 38:11and loudly that the data is always yours.
- 38:14And we're trying to everything is is
- 38:16going to be based on permissions and
- 38:18that's just the way we'll we'll work.
- 38:24And there was one exciting
- 38:25piece that I wanted to show.
- 38:26If you don't if you don't mind
- 38:29there was one more thing that is
- 38:30in the works that is coming very,
- 38:32very soon and hopefully
- 38:34you can see my screen here.
- 38:36Give me one second. All right.
- 38:39So with the Hugo connect feature here
- 38:43what we're going to have coming soon
- 38:45is the ability to upload your records.
- 38:47So let me just move this bar real
- 38:49quick so you're going to be able
- 38:51these are the mock ups for it.
- 38:53So you're going to be able
- 38:54to have an upload feature.
- 38:56So if you can't find your your provider
- 38:58or if you just received something
- 39:00from the doctor or if you have
- 39:02notes that are you know no longer in
- 39:03your in your file or what have you,
- 39:05whatever you'd like to send
- 39:07to be a part of your record,
- 39:08we can upload that file.
- 39:10So it would be as simple as finding
- 39:12this within Hugo Connect and then
- 39:15just simply uploading and then
- 39:17adding a name to the file.
- 39:18We're going to have some categories
- 39:20of what type of file this is,
- 39:21whether this is an X-ray or your
- 39:23medical records, immunization records,
- 39:24etcetera and then you'll be able
- 39:26to date the form and continue.
- 39:29So I think that's another way to
- 39:31really try to get your documents
- 39:33and your information to to us to
- 39:35be able to use that for research.
- 39:37So I thought that was exciting
- 39:38way to kind of bypass not finding
- 39:40that provider at that moment.
- 39:42You can upload documentation as well and
- 39:46that's the that's what I had to share.
- 39:54Thank you, Tanya.
- 39:55So I believe everybody was able to
- 39:58get some answers to your questions
- 40:01regarding connection of records and
- 40:04also about how we protect the data
- 40:06and it's your data that remains there.
- 40:08I think next we will move on to listen
- 40:12to Say Sir and his conversation about
- 40:15more diversity in the population that
- 40:19we have or the community that we have.
- 40:23And many other aspects which are
- 40:24also important for this study.
- 40:26So say, Sir, it's over to you.
- 40:29Thank you, Hornali. Hi, everyone.
- 40:30My name is Ezra Caravaggio.
- 40:32I'm one of the research
- 40:33coordinators of the study.
- 40:35And I wanted to speak with
- 40:37you on a couple of things.
- 40:39First, regarding diversity.
- 40:40And we want to make sure that our
- 40:43group of participants is as diverse
- 40:46as possible because we want to
- 40:48be sure that we're capturing the
- 40:51experience of everyone or that most
- 40:53people are are experiencing in in the
- 40:56United States or whatever you are.
- 40:59So we are making efforts to improve
- 41:02the diversity of our participants and
- 41:04we I wanted to ask you if you have
- 41:07any ideas on what can we do better to
- 41:11improve the engagement of communities
- 41:13that have typically being under
- 41:15represented in in clinical studies.
- 41:18And we're open to it and we're open
- 41:20to feedback if there is something
- 41:22that AUS participant feel that may
- 41:25be a barrier for other people to
- 41:27to join the study where we welcome
- 41:29every comment that you may have.
- 41:32We want to have a rich and diverse
- 41:34population of participants.
- 41:36And so the idea behind that is that
- 41:40we can produce information that
- 41:42everyone can apply to themselves.
- 41:44So yeah, that's one point.
- 41:46If you have any ideas and
- 41:50feedback regarding our efforts,
- 41:52they are very much well received.
- 41:54The second point that I wanted
- 41:55to ask you as participants is
- 41:57that in some of the surveys,
- 41:59particularly in the symptoms surveys
- 42:02or in the diagnosis surveys,
- 42:04we found that a lot of you are
- 42:07clicking none of the above,
- 42:09meaning that of delays of symptoms
- 42:11or diagnosis that we're listing.
- 42:13You are not identifying the
- 42:15ones that you are experiencing.
- 42:17So I wanted to ask you too,
- 42:19if you think that we are keeping out
- 42:24some of some key aspects of your experience,
- 42:27please let us know.
- 42:28You can type in the chat or you can
- 42:30e-mail us to Yale. Listen, study.
- 42:32Sorry.
- 42:33Yeah,
- 42:33listen,
- 42:34study at yale.edu and we'll be
- 42:36happy to modify what we're doing
- 42:39to better capture your experience.
- 42:42I will type in the e-mail in the chat
- 42:44so you can have it and that's it.
- 42:47Thank you.
- 42:51I think now we can. Yeah,
- 42:52we're not. Go ahead. Sorry,
- 42:54no. Say Sir, are we taking questions now?
- 42:57Leave it to you. Yeah, I'm. We'll
- 42:59be more than happy we start answering
- 43:03some questions that people may have.
- 43:05We can go over the ones that are
- 43:07still open or if you have any at
- 43:10this point please feel free to
- 43:12talk with. So what I have is a list
- 43:15of 10 and we can have a few more maybe
- 43:19from the list which are still open.
- 43:22I believe Akiko and Harlan are both
- 43:24here and we can start. Yeah, perfect.
- 43:27We can start with a few questions
- 43:30and then say Sir, you can add a
- 43:32few more from the open questions.
- 43:37So I'll start with the 10
- 43:38that I have on my list.
- 43:40Akiko, there are a few for
- 43:41you which I will start with.
- 43:43So the first question that we have here,
- 43:47will there be any efforts towards
- 43:49correlating immune features
- 43:50with symptoms, example,
- 43:52distinguishing patients presenting
- 43:54with dysautonomia versus not?
- 43:58Yes, absolutely.
- 43:58That is our ultimate goal
- 44:00is to be able to link the
- 44:03symptoms to the immune features.
- 44:05We've already started to do some
- 44:07of that with the Mylon COVID
- 44:09study and found for instance
- 44:11select number of people who have
- 44:15autoimmune auto antibodies to
- 44:17certain type of G protein couple
- 44:20receptors and sodium ion channels
- 44:22were associated with the tinnitus.
- 44:24So there is some sort of features
- 44:26that are coming up to be
- 44:28associated with specific symptoms,
- 44:30but we also want to do the reverse as
- 44:32the question the questioner is suggesting,
- 44:34which is to take a particular symptom
- 44:37or syndrome and then go back and look
- 44:40at the immune features to see if
- 44:42there's anything unique that's coming up.
- 44:44So that's ultimately the goal.
- 44:47Thank
- 44:48you, Akiko. So the next question
- 44:51is can you speak to whether in
- 44:53the initial findings you have
- 44:55seen this Autonomia in many long
- 44:56COVID and backs injured folks.
- 44:58It seems to be common.
- 45:01Yes, dysautonomia is definitely happening.
- 45:04I mean we haven't studied the
- 45:06vaccine injured people yet,
- 45:08but we are hoping to do
- 45:10that with the lesson study.
- 45:13But certainly with the myeloma and COVID,
- 45:15there are people with dysautonomia
- 45:18and Doctor David Petrino,
- 45:20who really specializes in diagnosis
- 45:23and treatment of various symptoms,
- 45:25including dysautonomia,
- 45:28is our partner in this.
- 45:29So he's also a partner in the
- 45:32Yale lesson study as well.
- 45:33So we're very excited and
- 45:35fortunate to have an expert like
- 45:37him on board to help us with it.
- 45:41Yeah. And I'll just say quickly that
- 45:44just as Akiko said that the hope is to be
- 45:48able to provide a almost like an Atlas,
- 45:50a map of the different kinds of
- 45:52manifestations that people are facing.
- 45:54See who's similar,
- 45:55who's different and then see whether
- 45:57or not we can reflect this in the immune,
- 46:00what we're calling immune signatures,
- 46:01the the unique ways that that the immune
- 46:05system seems to be signaling us around the
- 46:08different features of the immune system.
- 46:10And so just what you're asking
- 46:11is exactly what we're hoping.
- 46:13Can we get large numbers of people
- 46:15with similar clusters of symptoms and
- 46:17then see whether they have distinctive
- 46:19biological signals which can serve
- 46:22both for diagnostics and therapeutics,
- 46:24help us be able to identify and monitor
- 46:26and then ultimately find targets
- 46:28to treat for each of these people?
- 46:30Because I think both of us, Akiko,
- 46:32believe that that this is more
- 46:34than one disease.
- 46:35It's it's actually different people
- 46:36are being affected in very different
- 46:38ways and that's why they're manifesting
- 46:40with very different symptom complexes.
- 46:41And it's up to us to sort of find the clues,
- 46:44crack the case,
- 46:45understand what it is that's causing
- 46:48this vast spectrum of symptoms.
- 46:50And for different clusters of people
- 46:52who are experiencing similar ones,
- 46:54can we find common mechanisms.
- 46:56And so that that's really the hope.
- 46:57And that's why we need large numbers
- 46:59of people because we want to.
- 47:01I I think of it like an Atlas.
- 47:02And it's almost like who lives
- 47:03in your neighborhood?
- 47:04This is an unfortunate neighborhood
- 47:06because everybody's afflicted by a
- 47:08sort of similar cluster of symptoms.
- 47:09But if we can get large enough people
- 47:11together as opposed to what's happening now,
- 47:14or somebody goes to the doctor
- 47:14and people say,
- 47:15I've never seen this before or I
- 47:16don't know what this is, you know,
- 47:18that we start getting large numbers
- 47:19of people who saying, like, yeah,
- 47:20I'm not alone.
- 47:21There are a lot of people like me there.
- 47:25There are a lot of people like
- 47:26me in the world.
- 47:27And if we can start bringing those
- 47:29people together and looking whether
- 47:31they have similar biological signals
- 47:33that that that help us understand
- 47:36mechanism and lead us to produce
- 47:39diagnostic and therapeutic advances,
- 47:40that would be wonderful.
- 47:41And that's the hope with this.
- 47:46Thank you. Harlan.
- 47:47There's another question
- 47:49which I will just present.
- 47:51So here is a person who's
- 47:54suffering from vaccine adverse
- 47:56events and this person is asking,
- 47:58will you be contacting us to
- 48:00participate in the biological sample
- 48:02collection or should we let you know?
- 48:04We are interested.
- 48:07Absolutely. So as I mentioned,
- 48:09we're very excited to expand our studies
- 48:12to vaccine injured people and Bornelli,
- 48:18Cesar Harlan and I meet every week to
- 48:22discuss the type of participants that
- 48:24we we would like to recruit first.
- 48:27We don't have the resources
- 48:29to recruit everybody.
- 48:31We'd love to, but we don't have the kind
- 48:33of resource needed to to analyze everybody.
- 48:36But we will be starting with a small
- 48:39subset of people and then expanding
- 48:41that as we hopefully raise enough funds
- 48:44to be able to look at immune features.
- 48:47But definitely our first a set of vaccine
- 48:51injured samples will be coming shortly,
- 48:53right, Bornelli?
- 48:55OK, great. And
- 48:57and by the way, I think this is a really
- 48:59good idea that we could talk about,
- 49:00which is do people want to express
- 49:02interest in, in being part of the
- 49:04biological part of the study.
- 49:06Then we'll have a long list of people
- 49:08who've already expressed interest.
- 49:09Like Akiko said, we're by the way,
- 49:10we're constantly looking for resources to
- 49:12be able to expand and do more of these.
- 49:14But you know, I think it might be a good
- 49:16idea based on this comment to think that
- 49:18we can create a waiting list of people
- 49:20who are interested in in that way.
- 49:22We know that, you know,
- 49:24these are people who are really
- 49:25eager to participate in this part.
- 49:27So that's a really good comment.
- 49:28Thank you.
- 49:31Yeah, it would be great Harlan if Kindred,
- 49:34I mean so they listen site can
- 49:36have some sort of marking to say
- 49:39that if people are interested in
- 49:41donating their blood and saliva,
- 49:42it would be easy for us to just
- 49:45sort of cross check that with the
- 49:47participants that we we want to recruit.
- 49:49So maybe it's it's something
- 49:51that you can work on for us.
- 49:57Thank you Akipo and Harlan.
- 49:59The next question is about the recent
- 50:01MDPI article which has shown that
- 50:04persistent spike protein in brain
- 50:06and heart of a patient who died
- 50:09three weeks after third vaccine.
- 50:11How will you be assessing for
- 50:12persistent spike protein that may
- 50:14be triggering an immune response?
- 50:17Yeah, that's an excellent question.
- 50:20We'd love to do tissue level analysis
- 50:23but obviously taking biopsies from
- 50:25brain and lung and you know places that
- 50:28are difficult would not be possible
- 50:33possible we are you know so so the
- 50:35autopsy studies and other studies
- 50:37are are coming out where people are
- 50:39starting to look at these issues but
- 50:41even with the COVID samples this
- 50:43is sort of been a difficult thing.
- 50:46With the recover though they are having
- 50:49a an entire sort of you know funding
- 50:53for a collection of autopsy samples
- 50:56from people who who've had long COVID.
- 51:00I I I don't think they are including
- 51:02vaccine injured people and not group.
- 51:04But aside from having a tissue sample,
- 51:08which is maybe difficult in some cases,
- 51:11but there are some efforts to look at
- 51:16circulating spike and circulating antigens
- 51:18at least that's easier to collect.
- 51:22And we are actively working on looking at
- 51:25circulating spike from people with long
- 51:27COVID and and people with vaccine injuries.
- 51:30So that's just a proxy for something
- 51:33that may be happening elsewhere,
- 51:35but that that's sort of what we are
- 51:38you know immediately planning to do.
- 51:40Thank
- 51:41you, Akiko. The next question is
- 51:43about a recent Swedish study found
- 51:46antibodies for latent viruses in saliva,
- 51:49but not always in the blood.
- 51:51The saliva be tested for
- 51:53reactivated viruses as well in
- 51:54case it's missed in the blood.
- 51:57Absolutely, and that's why we are including
- 52:00blood collection in the Listen study.
- 52:02So with the Mylon COVID study with
- 52:04Mount Sinai, we didn't have access to
- 52:07the saliva and we really wish we did.
- 52:09But in the Yale Listen study,
- 52:11we will be asking participants to
- 52:13to donate their saliva and blood
- 52:15so we can look at both mucosal
- 52:18and systemic immune responses.
- 52:20And in fact we are planning to
- 52:22look at viral genome as well as
- 52:25antibody reactive to virus antigens
- 52:27both in saliva and in circulation.
- 52:32So the next question is
- 52:34about auto antibodies.
- 52:35So you have mentioned not seeing
- 52:37elevated GPCR auto antibodies in those
- 52:40of long haulers compared to controls.
- 52:42Can you comment on that please?
- 52:46Right. So as I shared with you last time,
- 52:49we are collaborating with Doctor Aaron
- 52:52Ring's laboratory here at Yale who
- 52:55developed a technology called rapid
- 52:58extracellular antigen profiling or REAP.
- 53:00And according to that analysis which
- 53:04looks at over 6000 different antigens
- 53:07that are expressed on the surface
- 53:10or are secreted from human cells,
- 53:12we do not see a consistent, first of all,
- 53:16we don't see a public or universal
- 53:18antigen that people are reacting to.
- 53:20So it's not like you have a specific
- 53:23antigen that everyone is responding.
- 53:24That's definitely not the case.
- 53:26We also don't see elevated levels
- 53:29of auto antibodies against the
- 53:326000 plus auto antigens in long
- 53:36COVID patients versus the controls.
- 53:39So there there's no unique pattern.
- 53:42There's no increase in auto
- 53:44antibody reactivity and intensity.
- 53:47There are of course you know
- 53:49various different auto antibodies
- 53:51that all of us carry.
- 53:52That doesn't mean that we
- 53:54are going to have disease.
- 53:55It's just something that B cells make,
- 53:58but it's just sort of quiescent auto antibody
- 54:00and that we are seeing in healthy control,
- 54:03convalescent control and long COVID.
- 54:05But that doesn't mean that there doesn't
- 54:08exist auto antibody that actually
- 54:10causes disease in a subset of people.
- 54:12So I I already mentioned
- 54:14about the sodium ion channel,
- 54:15but there may be other auto
- 54:18antibodies against intracellular
- 54:19antigens or nuclear antigens,
- 54:20who knows that could be causing disease
- 54:24and that we're not dismissing those.
- 54:27About the GPCR,
- 54:28yeah,
- 54:28there are many different ways of us
- 54:31saying although anybody has GPCRS
- 54:33and depending on the sensitivity and
- 54:36specificity and having the right
- 54:38kind of control groups to compare.
- 54:40That's what I was emphasizing last
- 54:42time and if anyone has studies that
- 54:45have included the proper controls,
- 54:48please do send it to me.
- 54:49I may have missed that,
- 54:51but so far I haven't seen great
- 54:54controlled studies to compare auto
- 54:57antibodies to GPCRS in various different
- 55:00conditions with the controls and
- 55:03and so that that that was sort of
- 55:05related to what what I said last time.
- 55:08Thank you, Akiko. I think I'll pass
- 55:10on to Cesar now so that he can ask
- 55:13a few more questions over to you.
- 55:17So I think it's almost time meant
- 55:18to be respectful of everyone.
- 55:20So I'm, I know that there
- 55:21are a lot of open questions.
- 55:23I'm sorry that we won't be
- 55:24able to cover them all.
- 55:26Maybe we can do something similar,
- 55:28put together a document after the
- 55:30town hall and answering most of them.
- 55:34But yeah, I don't think we have
- 55:36time for more questions, Bernali.
- 55:41OK. So I think we can list the
- 55:44questions and maybe put them
- 55:46up like the responses later.
- 55:48Yeah, sounds like a plan.
- 55:51If there is nothing else to respond to,
- 55:54we are already running short of time.
- 55:55I think we will thank all of you,
- 55:57the panelists and the
- 55:58participants who have joined us.
- 56:00Please ask questions,
- 56:02write to us, please,
- 56:04like finish the surveys whenever
- 56:07you receive an e-mail and also
- 56:09connect your medical records.
- 56:11These are all very important for us
- 56:13and we would love to have controls
- 56:16we did not have long COVID who do
- 56:18not have vaccine adverse events
- 56:20to report or neither together,
- 56:22and we need these controls in
- 56:24order to compare and contrast.
- 56:27Thank you all for your presence here today.
- 56:29Thank you. Thank you so much.
- 56:32See you again soon.