The COVID-19 global pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has created an unprecedented challenge to our healthcare system. Secondary and concurrent bacterial and viral co-infections are well documented for other viral respiratory pathogens however our knowledge regarding co-infections in COVID-19 remains limited. The present study encompasses concurrent testing of 50,419 individual samples for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 and other bacterial and viral respiratory pathogens between March and August 2020. Overall a lower rate of viral co-infection was observed in the SARS-CoV-2 positive population when compared to the population testing negative for the virus. Significant levels of Staphylococcus aureus and Epstein-Barr virus co-infections were detected in the SARS-CoV-2 positive population. This is one of the largest surveys looking into the co-infection patterns of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States. Data from the present study will enhance our understanding of the current pandemic and will assist clinicians in making better patient care decisions especially with respect to anti-microbial therapy.

Mammalian sex hormones are spread in the environment from natural and anthropogenic sources. In the present study, the effect of estradiol on Arabidopsis thaliana growth primary metabolism, phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways and pathogen resistance were investigated. Treatments of Arabidopsis plants with 10 and 100 nM 17β-estradiol resulted in enhanced root growth and shoot biomass. In addition, treated plants had an increased rate of photosynthesis with a concomitant increase in carbohydrate and protein accumulation. Plants exposed to higher concentrations of 17β-estradiol (10 μM) had significantly lower root growth, biomass, photosynthesis rate, primary metabolite and phenylpropanoid and flavonoid contents indicating a toxic effect of estradiol. Treatments with increasing estradiol concentrations (10 nM, 100 nM and 10 μM) resulted in the downregulation of phenylpropanoid-flavonoid pathway genes (PAL1, PAL4, CHI and ANS) and subsequent decreased accumulation of phenolics, flavonoids and anthocyanins. Estradiol-treated plants were inoculated with Pseudomonas syringae pv. Tomato DC3000 and basal resistance was determined. Estradiol treatments rendered plants susceptible to the pathogen, thus compromising the plant defense mechanisms. These results indicate that at low concentrations, estradiol functions as a biostimulant of growth, yield and primary metabolism of Arabidopsis. However, estradiol functions as a potential transcriptional regulator of the phenylpropanoid pathway genes in Arabidopsis, having a negative effect on the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthetic pathways.

Animal steroidal hormones, including estrogens, are being introduced into the agricultural soil and water supply from increased pharmaceutical and farm waste. Considering the current levels of xenoestrogen contamination of plant environments in view of the climate change induced drought conditions, this study was designed to understand the effect of estradiol (ES) application on Arabidopsis drought stress responses. Estradiol treatment (10 nM, 100 nM) of plants subjected to drought stress conditions by withholding water for 7 days resulted in increased tolerance to drought stress reflected in the significantly higher plant survival rates of 74% and 78%, respectively compared to control plants' survival rates of 36% (no treatment) and 40% (mock treatment). Estradiol application significantly increased the content of glutathione, proline and H 2 O 2 and significantly enhanced the transcription of the stress responsive genes GSTU3, GER5, HSP101, and HSP70b. A high concentration of ES (10 µM) did not protect plants against drought stress and proved to be toxic. These results provide new insight into the effect of ES on drought-stress responses in Arabidopsis with possible practical agricultural applications regarding the effect of environmental estrogens on crop plants.

The interaction of SARS-COV-2 and other respiratory viral pathogens remains an active area of inquiry. Non-pharmaceutical interventions resulted in historically low levels of respiratory viral pathogen infection rates during 2020. In this report, we present evidence that Rhinovirus and SARS-COV-2 demonstrated a negative correlation in their distribution over a period of 98 weeks since the declaration of the pandemic. Rhinovirus infections allow a unique insight into the circulation patterns of SARS-COV-2.

Background Urinary tract infections (UTI) are the second most prevalent microbial infection, impacting 150 million people globally every year. Traditionally, urine culture is considered the gold standard for UTI pathogen detection. However, molecular techniques, such as real time multiplex PCR tests targeting multiple pathogens, are becoming the alternative diagnostic tools for rapid detection of pathogens with the potential to provide quick diagnosis and enable targeted treatment. Due to the serious economic and healthcare utilization burden UTIs pose, early pathogen detection with a rapid turn-around-time to results has the potential to be instrumental for improving patient care and outcomes. Methods A total of 300 deidentified patient samples that were previously tested via urine culture (ARUP laboratories, Utah) were subjected to real time PCR molecular testing employing the nanofluidic Open Array ® platform (HealthTrackRX, Texas). Statistical analyses were performed using R version 3.6.0. Results Among 300 urine specimens studied, culture detected pathogens in 183 patient samples (61%), and 117 samples were deemed negative. Culture and PCR results demonstrated an overall agreement of 75.3% (n=226) with 59% positive (n=177) and 16.3% negative (n=49). Results for 24.7% samples (n=74) were discordant. A total of 2% (n=6) were culture positive and PCR negative, and 22.7% (n=68) were culture negative and PCR positive. Agreement between PCR and culture positive results was 0.97, 95%CI (0.94, 0.99) (177/183). Among the PCR positive samples (n=245), 32.7% were poly-microbial (n=80) and 67.3% were mono-microbial (n=165). In comparison, among culture positive samples (n=183), 33.3% (n=61) were polymicrobial and 65.6% (n=120) monomicrobial. Conclusion Our study demonstrates that multiplex real time PCR-based detection of UTI bacterial pathogens has positive agreement with the traditional urine culture method. PCR based testing has the potential to deliver quick pathogen identification to enable targeted treatment options and medication adjustments. Further studies will correlate semi-quantitative cfu/mL culture values with semi-quantitative copies/mL PCR values to further refine result reporting and test performance. Disclosures Pallavi Upadhyay, PhD, HealthTrackRx: Stocks/Bonds Fahida Surar, B.S., HealthTrackRx: Salaried Employee Geun Kim, M.S., HealthTrackRx: Salaried Employee Jay Reddy, PhD, HealthTrackRx: Stocks/Bonds Barbara D. Alexander, MD, Astellas: Advisor/Consultant|HealthtrackRx: Advisor/Consultant|HealthtrackRx: Grant/Research Support|Scynexis: Grant/Research Support|UpToDate: Advisor/Consultant Kimberly Hanson, MD, MHS, FIDSA, HealthTrackRx: Advisor/Consultant|HealthTrackRx: Clinical Advisory Board Member Vijay Singh, PhD, HealthTrackRx: Stocks/Bonds.