dbGaP Study Accession: phs002679

NIH Institute/Center: NIDA

RADx Data Program: RADx-rad

DOI: 10.60773/hz9w-yy91

Release Date: 11/07/2022

Updated Date: 10/23/2023

Study Description: When faced with a pandemic such as SARS-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19, timely risk assessment and action are required to prevent public health impacts to entire communities. Because infected individuals may not have access to testing or may be asymptomatic and contraction can mean death, a proactive approach to detect the virus is needed to develop public health strategy to mitigate virus spread. Recent studies have detected SARS-CoV-2 genetic material in sewage and demonstrate a positive correlation between the concentration of viral markers and reported cases. The Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project (CSSP) was a collaborative effort to monitor sewersheds for genetic indicators of COVID-19 in wastewater to provide additional, population-level information about virus circulation that is not captured by clinical testing. Untreated wastewater (influent) samples were screened weekly from select sewersheds and targeted micro-sewersheds for detection and "true" prevalence. Congregate facilities provided unique opportunities for study because they are controlled populations where the precise number and timing of infections can be defined. Detailed monitoring of congregate facilities will be utilized to define the precise per patient contribution and longevity of SARS-CoV-2 RNA to wastewater by 1) increasing the number of facilities tested, 2) altering the frequency at which samples are collected, and 3) comparing sewershed data collected to clinical patient case data. Although SARS-CoV-2 contribution/patient varies among communities, there have been clear outlier communities that produce little or no genetic material in the wastewater despite the presence of known outbreaks. The reason for this lost signal is not known, so factors that contribute to SARS-CoV-2 signal suppression in wastewater were defined by 1) defining the physical nature of the genetic material in the sewershed to better understand the types of factors that could suppress signal, 2) expanding testing within sewersheds with suppressed signal as well as from additional facilities with similar population and industry demographics as those with suppressed signal to narrow the sources of signal suppression, 3) performing exhaustive chemical characterization comparing wastewater from locations that are suppressed to those that are not to identify candidate compounds that could be causing suppression, and 4) obtaining or generating candidate inhibitors and testing their ability to suppress signal from viral genetic material in a controlled experimental setting. The utility of using wastewater RNA to determine what viral variants are circulating in a community was further examined. Towards this the research team: 1) evaluated different methods for characterizing genetic material in wastewater such as variant specific qPCR and targeted high throughput sequencing, 2) developed methods for evaluating existing and emerging variants from wastewater, and 3) designed platforms for communicating wastewater variant results to the public.

Principal Investigator: Wenzel, Jeff

Has Data Files: Yes

Study Domain: Wastewater Surveillance; Variants

Data Collection Method: Wastewater Sampling

Keywords: Sewershed; Prevalence; Virus Circulation; Viral Load; Congregate Settings

Study Design: Longitudinal Cohort

Multi-Center Study: FALSE

Data Types: Environmental (Physical); Genomic; Clinical

Study Start Date: 01/01/2021

Study End Date: 05/31/2023

Species: Non-Human Data

Estimated Cohort Size: 108

Study Population Focus: N/A

Publication URL: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35830746/; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34452511/; https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36240259/

Acknowledgement Statement: This study was supported through funding, 4U01DA053893-02, for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) as part of the RADx-rad program. The Missouri Coronavirus Sewershed Surveillance Project (CSSP) has been a collaboration with city utilities or waste water treatment facilities (WWTFs) to collect weekly or biweekly influent samples to be sent to the University of Missouri – Columbia (UMC) laboratories. Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) collaborated to set criteria for testing locations of greatest need. Missouri DNR made contact with all entities to determine interest and facility ability for sampling. Samples are transported utilizing the statewide courier system established for the transport of clinical and environmental samples to the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory. After receiving wastewater samples, the UMC laboratories perform all analyses of SARS-COV-2 RNA in the sample. DHSS receives all results from UMC and meta data from collecting facilities for data analysis. Approved users should acknowledge the provision of data access by dbGaP for accession phs002679.v1.p1, and the NIH RADx Data Hub. Approved users should also acknowledge the specific version(s) of the dataset(s) obtained from the NIH RADx Data Hub.

Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) Number: RFA-OD-20-015

NIH Grant or Contract Number(s): 4U01DA053893-02

Consent/Data Use Limitations: General Research Use