Healthcare Workers Bioresource: Study outline and baseline characteristics of a prospective healthcare worker cohort to study immune protection and pathogenesis in COVID-19

Augusto, João B., Menacho, Katia, Andiapen, Mervyn, Bowles, Ruth, Burton, Maudrian, Welch, Sophie, Bhuva, Anish N., Seraphim, Andreas, Pade, Corinna, Joy, George, Jensen, Melanie, Davies, Rhodri H., Captur, Gabriella, Fontana, Marianna, Montgomery, Hugh, O'Brien, Ben, Hingorani, Aroon D., Cutino-Moguel, Teresa, McKnight, Áine, Abbass, Hakam, Alfarih, Mashael, Alldis, Zoe, Baca, Georgina L., Boulter, Alex, Bracken, Olivia V., Bullock, Natalie, Champion, Nicola, Chan, Carmen, Couto-Parada, Xose, Dieobi-Anene, Keenan, Feehan, Karen, Figtree, Gemma, Figtree, Melanie C., Finlay, Malcolm, Forooghi, Nasim, Gibbons, Joseph M., Griffiths, Peter, Hamblin, Matt, Howes, Lee, Itua, Ivie, Jones, Meleri, Jardim, Victor, Kapil, Vikas, Jason Lee, Wing-Yiu, Mandadapu, Vineela, Mfuko, Celina, Mitchelmore, Oliver, Palma, Susana, Patel, Kush, Petersen, Steffen E., Piniera, Brian, Raine, Rosalind, Rapala, Alicja, Richards, Amy, Sambile, Genine, Couto de Sousa, Jorge, Sugimoto, Michelle, Thornton, George D., Artico, Jessica, Zahedi, Dan, Parker, Ruth, Robathan, Mathew, Hickling, Lauren M., Ntusi, Ntobeko, Semper, Amanda, Brooks, Tim, Jones, Jessica, Tucker, Art, Veerapen, Jessry, Vijayakumar, Mohit, Wodehouse, Theresa, Wynne, Lucinda, Treibel, Thomas A., Noursadeghi, Mahdad, Manisty, Charlotte and Moon, James C. (2020) Healthcare Workers Bioresource: Study outline and baseline characteristics of a prospective healthcare worker cohort to study immune protection and pathogenesis in COVID-19. Wellcome Open Research, 5. ISSN 2398-502X

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Abstract

Background: Most biomedical research has focused on sampling COVID-19 patients presenting to hospital with advanced disease, with less focus on the asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic. We established a bioresource with serial sampling of health care workers (HCWs) designed to obtain samples before and during mainly mild disease, with follow-up sampling to evaluate the quality and duration of immune memory. Methods: We conducted a prospective study on HCWs from three hospital sites in London, initially at a single centre (recruited just prior to first peak community transmission in London), but then extended to multiple sites 3 weeks later (recruitment still ongoing, target n=1,000). Asymptomatic participants attending work complete a health questionnaire, and provide a nasal swab (for SARS-CoV-2 RNA by RT-PCR tests) and blood samples (mononuclear cells, serum, plasma, RNA and DNA are biobanked) at 16 weekly study visits, and at 6 and 12 months. Results: Preliminary baseline results for the first 731 HCWs (400 single-centre, 331 multicentre extension) are presented. Mean age was 38±11 years; 67% are female, 31% nurses, 20% doctors, and 19% work in intensive care units. COVID-19-associated risk factors were: 37% black, Asian or minority ethnicities; 18% smokers; 13% obesity; 11% asthma; 7% hypertension and 2% diabetes mellitus. At baseline, 41% reported symptoms in the preceding 2 weeks. Preliminary test results from the initial cohort (n=400) are available: PCR at baseline for SARS-CoV-2 was positive in 28 of 396 (7.1%, 95% CI 4.9-10.0%) and 15 of 385 (3.9%, 2.4-6.3%) had circulating IgG antibodies. Conclusions: This COVID-19 bioresource established just before the peak of infections in the UK will provide longitudinal assessments of incident infection and immune responses in HCWs through the natural time course of disease and convalescence. The samples and data from this bioresource are available to academic collaborators by application https://covid-consortium.com/application-for-samples/.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Citation: Augusto JB, Menacho K, Andiapen M et al. Healthcare Workers Bioresource: Study outline and baseline characteristics of a prospective healthcare worker cohort to study immune protection and pathogenesis in COVID-19 [version 2; peer review: 1 approved, 2 approved with reservations]. Wellcome Open Res 2020, 5:179 (https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16051.2) NOTE: It is important to ensure the information in square brackets after the title is included in this citation. Data availability: The COVID-19 consortium has developed access systems to facilitate the use of this bioresource and the data underlying this article by scientists for health-related research of public interest. However, although participants are pseudoanonymsed, there is data regarding home addresses, household characteristics, and other details that could potentially lead to identification. Research teams can therefore apply to use the bioresource via the application form that can be found on the study website (https://covid-consortium.com/application-for-samples/).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Related URLs:	https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/article...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	05 Mar 2025 11:30
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 13:14
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/98678
DOI:	10.12688/wellcomeopenres.16051.2

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