Changes in body weight, health behaviors, and mental health in adults with obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between body weight changes, health behaviors, and mental health in adults with obesity during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: Between March 1, 2021, and November 30, 2021, adults from three obesity practices completed an online survey. The primary outcomes were ≥ 5% of body weight change since March 2020 and associated health behaviors and mental health factors. RESULTS: The sample (n = 404) was 82.6% female (mean age 52.5 years, mean BMI 43.3 kg/m2 ). Mean weight change was + 4.3%. Weight gain ≥ 5% was reported by 30% of the sample, whereas 19% reported ≥ 5% body weight loss. The degree of both weight gain and weight loss correlated positively with baseline BMI. Eighty percent of the sample reported difficulties with body weight regulation. Those who gained ≥ 5% versus those who lost ≥ 5% body weight were more likely to report higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression; less sleep and exercise; less healthy eating and home-cooked meals; and more takeout foods, comfort foods, fast foods, overeating, and binge eating. CONCLUSIONS: Weight gain in adults with obesity during the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with higher baseline BMI, deteriorations in mental health, maladaptive eating behaviors, and less physical activity and sleep. Further research is needed to identify effective interventions for healthier minds, behaviors, and body weight as the pandemic continues.

Five Year Trends in the Utilization of Robotic Bariatric Surgery Procedures, United States 2015-2019.

PURPOSE: Robotic approaches have been steadily replacing laparoscopic approaches in metabolic and bariatric surgeries (MBS); however, their superiority has not been rigorously evaluated. The main goal of the study was to evaluate the 5-year utilization trends of robotic MBS and to compare to laparoscopic outcomes. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of 2015-2019 MBSAQIP data. Kruskal-Wallis test/Wilcoxon and Fisher's exact/chi-square were used to compare continuous and categorical variables, respectively. Generalized linear models were used to compare surgery outcomes. RESULTS: The use of robotic MBS increased from 6.2% in 2015 to 13.5% in 2019 (N= 775,258). Robotic MBS patients had significantly higher age, BMI, and likelihood of 12 diseases compared to laparoscopic patients. After adjustment, robotic MBS patients showed higher 30-day interventions and 30-day readmissions alongside longer surgery time (26-38 min). CONCLUSION: Robotic MBS shows higher intervention and readmission even after controlling for cofounding variables.

Durability and correlates of vaccine protection against Zika virus in rhesus monkeys.

An effective Zika virus (ZIKV) vaccine will require long-term durable protection. Several ZIKV vaccine candidates have demonstrated protective efficacy in nonhuman primates, but these studies have typically involved ZIKV challenge shortly after vaccination at peak immunity. We show that a single immunization with an adenovirus vector-based vaccine, as well as two immunizations with a purified inactivated virus vaccine, afforded robust protection against ZIKV challenge in rhesus monkeys at 1 year after vaccination. In contrast, two immunizations with an optimized DNA vaccine, which provided complete protection at peak immunity, resulted in reduced protective efficacy at 1 year that was associated with declining neutralizing antibody titers to subprotective levels. These data define a microneutralization log titer of 2.0 to 2.1 as the threshold required for durable protection against ZIKV challenge in this model. Moreover, our findings demonstrate that protection against ZIKV challenge in rhesus monkeys is possible for at least 1 year with a single-shot vaccine.

Protection against a mixed SHIV challenge by a broadly neutralizing antibody cocktail.

HIV-1 sequence diversity presents a major challenge for the clinical development of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) for both therapy and prevention. Sequence variation in critical bNAb epitopes has been observed in most HIV-1-infected individuals and can lead to viral escape after bNAb monotherapy in humans. We show that viral sequence diversity can limit both the therapeutic and prophylactic efficacy of bNAbs in rhesus monkeys. We first demonstrate that monotherapy with the V3 glycan-dependent antibody 10-1074, but not PGT121, results in rapid selection of preexisting viral variants containing N332/S334 escape mutations and loss of therapeutic efficacy in simian-HIV (SHIV)-SF162P3-infected rhesus monkeys. We then show that the V3 glycan-dependent antibody PGT121 alone and the V2 glycan-dependent antibody PGDM1400 alone both fail to protect against a mixed challenge with SHIV-SF162P3 and SHIV-325c. In contrast, the combination of both bNAbs provides 100% protection against this mixed SHIV challenge. These data reveal that single bNAbs efficiently select resistant viruses from a diverse challenge swarm to establish infection, demonstrating the importance of bNAb cocktails for HIV-1 prevention.