COVID-19 Initiatives

CanPath and its regional cohorts are conducting two seroprevalence studies launched in January 2021. Both studies collect dried blood spots using kits mailed to participants, which are then tested for infection-acquired antibodies and vaccine-induced antibodies.  Both studies also include a supporting online questionnaire which captures who has been vaccinated, the date of vaccination, vaccine type, and much more.

The CIHR-funded study is testing 3,000 randomly selected CanPath participants at three time points (500 per regional cohort). This study will also develop capacity for immunogenomics through blood collection from 4,000 participants from the Ontario Health Study, Alberta’s Tomorrow Project and clinical partnerships.

The COVID-19 Immunity Task Force-funded study is testing 20,000 targeted CanPath participants, including populations that are traditionally not included in studies or are among the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as residents of long-term care homes and people living in under-served urban and rural communities with high prevalence of COVID-19. 

• 22,130Dried blood spot samples received
• 24,250Questionnaires completed

CanPath was awarded $2.6 million by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force for its SUPPORT-Canada Initiative. The initiative, titled SUrveying Prospective Population cOhorts for COVID-19 pRevalence and ouTcomes in Canada (SUPPORT-Canada), aims to capture data and biospecimens to enable population-level surveillance of COVID-19. 

SUPPORT-Canada is built out from CanPath, Canada’s largest population cohort, in partnership with the Toronto-based University Health Network (UHN), along with support from numerous research platforms, industry collaborators and service providers. 

By working with population cohorts, patient cohorts and healthcare worker cohorts, SUPPORT-Canada aims to:  

• Collect population and clinical-level COVID-19 data and outcomes from  over 400,000 Canadians to support personalized risk profiling, and inform adaptive social and public health responses; 
• Create capacity for world-leading research in immunophenotyping, seroprevalence and host-viral genetics;  
• Explore the role that genetics, co-morbidities and the environment play in shaping the pathophysiology of COVID-19 severity, susceptibility and immunological response. 

Dr. Philip Awadalla, National Scientific Director of CanPath, is leading the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative’s Clonal Hematopoiesis project, alongside Dr. Pradeep Natarajan and Dr. Kelly Bolton. 

The presence of pre-existing cardiovascular and lung disease are known to be associated with severe cases of COVID-19. Beyond medical comorbidities, age is a strong independent predictor of COVID-19 severity and may be related to age-related changes in inflammatory cells. Clonal Hematopoiesis (CH), the age-related accumulation of somatic mutations in blood, is known to alter the inflammatory profile of healthy individuals and may, in part, be a mediator of its ill-effects including cardiovascular disease and might be a critical determinant in predicting COVID-19 susceptibility and risk of adverse outcomes.  

However, whether CH predisposes to severe COVID-19 or affects the complications of COVID-19 is unknown. In this Subgroup, a team of investigators are seeking to understand the role that CH might play in influencing COVID-19 severity and how acute infection with SARS-CoV-2 might in turn promote clonal expansions in blood and lead to long-term adverse health outcomes.  

Project Objectives: 

1. Share resources and experience to facilitate COVID-19 Clonal Hematopoiesis research;  
2. Organize and coordinate COVID-19 Clonal Hematopoiesis analytical studies participating in the COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative; 
3. Provide a platform to share research findings.