Publications by authors named "Andras N Spaan"

In this issue of JEM, Davidson et al. (https://doi.org/10.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Human genetic studies of critical COVID-19 pneumonia have revealed the essential role of type I interferon-dependent innate immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Conversely, an association between the HLA-B*15:01 allele and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated individuals was recently reported, suggesting a contribution of pre-existing T cell-dependent adaptive immunity. We report a lack of association of classical HLA alleles, including HLA-B*15:01, with pre-omicron asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in unvaccinated participants in a prospective population-based study in the US (191 asymptomatic vs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Here, we describe an adult female with severe fasciitis and skin necrosis who carried a private, predicted deleterious missense mutation in OTULIN in heterozygosity. OTULIN is a cellular regulator of deubiquitination that has been shown to play a key role in intrinsic immunity against staphylococcal α-toxin. The patient was treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, and multiple surgical explorations were conducted without clinical response.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Inborn errors affecting the immune response to IFN-γ lead to mycobacterial diseases, while errors in IFN-α/β impact defense against viral infections.
  • A study of children with complete IRF1 deficiency showed they suffered from severe mycobacterial infections but displayed normal responses to various viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.
  • IRF1 plays a crucial role in the immune response to mycobacteria, enhancing IFN-γ responses, while its absence does not significantly hinder antiviral defenses associated with IFN-α/β.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers have identified a connection between haploinsufficiency of the OTULIN gene and severe responses to staphylococcal infections in patients, leading to life-threatening necrosis.
  • This condition is similar to the symptoms seen in Cri-du-Chat syndrome, which involves a deletion on chromosome 5p.
  • The impairment from OTULIN causes an accumulation of linear ubiquitin in skin cells, leading to increased vulnerability to the staphylococcal toxin α-toxin, despite no changes in blood immune cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

SARS-CoV-2 infections display tremendous interindividual variability, ranging from asymptomatic infections to life-threatening disease. Inborn errors of, and autoantibodies directed against, type I interferons (IFNs) account for about 20% of critical COVID-19 cases among SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. By contrast, the genetic and immunological determinants of resistance to infection per se remain unknown.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Autosomal dominant (AD) NFKB1 deficiency is thought to be the most common genetic etiology of common variable immunodeficiency (CVID). However, the causal link between NFKB1 variants and CVID has not been demonstrated experimentally and genetically, and there has been insufficient biochemical characterization and enrichment analysis. We show that the cotransfection of NFKB1-deficient HEK293T cells (lacking both p105 and its cleaved form p50) with a κB reporter, NFKB1/p105, and a homodimerization-defective RELA/p65 mutant results in p50:p65 heterodimer-dependent and p65:p65 homodimer-independent transcriptional activation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • At least 10% of critical COVID-19 pneumonia cases are linked to genetic defects in type I interferon immunity and autoantibodies against these cytokines, with rare X-linked variants found in 16 male individuals aged 7 to 71 years.
  • In a study involving 1,202 males with unexplained critical COVID-19, none of the asymptomatically infected participants had these deleterious variants, indicating a significant genetic component to severe illness.
  • The research highlights that X-linked recessive TLR7 deficiency plays a crucial role in about 1.8% of critical COVID-19 cases in males under 60, as effective TLR7 and plasmacytoid dendritic cells are vital for
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The pathophysiology of adverse events following programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) blockade, including tuberculosis (TB) and autoimmunity, remains poorly characterized. We studied a patient with inherited PD-1 deficiency and TB who died of pulmonary autoimmunity. The patient's leukocytes did not express PD-1 or respond to PD-1-mediated suppression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Most patients with autosomal dominant hyper-IgE syndrome (AD-HIES) carry rare heterozygous STAT3 variants. Only six of the 135 in-frame variants reported have been experimentally shown to be dominant negative (DN), and it has been recently suggested that eight out-of-frame variants operate by haploinsufficiency. We experimentally tested these 143 variants, 7 novel out-of-frame variants found in HIES patients, and other STAT3 variants from the general population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High-dimensional cytometry is a powerful technique for deciphering the immunopathological factors common to multiple individuals. However, rational comparisons of multiple batches of experiments performed on different occasions or at different sites are challenging because of batch effects. In this study, we describe the integration of multibatch cytometry datasets (iMUBAC), a flexible, scalable, and robust computational framework for unsupervised cell-type identification across multiple batches of high-dimensional cytometry datasets, even without technical replicates.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study analyzed 987 patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia and found that 101 patients had neutralizing autoantibodies (auto-Abs) against interferon-ω and various types of interferon-α at the onset of the disease.
  • - These auto-Abs interfere with the ability of type I interferons to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection in laboratory tests, but they were absent in people with mild infections and very rare in healthy individuals.
  • - The presence of these auto-Abs is linked to life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia and appears to affect 2.6% of women and 12.5% of men, indicating a significant gender difference in this autoimmune response.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • The study examines the varying outcomes of COVID-19 infection, from asymptomatic cases to severe pneumonia.
  • Researchers identified rare loss-of-function variants at 13 specific human loci related to immune response that are more prevalent in patients with severe illness.
  • Experimental tests revealed that these genetic variants can make human cells more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, indicating that certain immune deficiencies may contribute to severe COVID-19 cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bacterial pathogens have evolved to secrete strong anti-inflammatory proteins that target the immune system. It was long speculated whether these virulence factors could serve as therapeutics in diseases in which abnormal immune activation plays a role. We adopted the secreted chemotaxis inhibitory protein of (CHIPS) as a model virulence factor-based therapeutic agent for diseases in which C5AR1 stimulation plays an important role.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Staphylococcal bi-component pore-forming toxins, also known as leukocidins, target and lyse human phagocytes in a receptor-dependent manner. S-components of the leukocidins Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), γ-haemolysin AB (HlgAB) and CB (HlgCB), and leukocidin ED (LukED) specifically employ receptors that belong to the class of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Although these receptors share a common structural architecture, little is known about the conserved characteristics of the interaction between leukocidins and GPCRs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In the version of this Article originally published, the name of author Robert Jan Lebbink was coded wrongly, resulting in it being incorrect when exported to citation databases. This has now been corrected, though no visible changes will be apparent.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The staphylococcal bi-component leukocidins Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and γ-haemolysin CB (HlgCB) target human phagocytes. Binding of the toxins' S-components to human complement C5a receptor 1 (C5aR1) contributes to cellular tropism and human specificity of PVL and HlgCB. To investigate the role of both leukocidins during infection, we developed a human C5aR1 knock-in (hC5aR1) mouse model.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Staphylococcus aureus is a major bacterial pathogen that causes disease worldwide. The emergence of strains that are resistant to commonly used antibiotics and the failure of vaccine development have resulted in a renewed interest in the pathophysiology of this bacterium. Staphylococcal leukocidins are a family of bi-component pore-forming toxins that are important virulence factors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In order for Staphylococcus aureus to thrive inside the mammalian host, the bacterium has to overcome iron scarcity. S. aureus is thought to produce toxins that lyse erythrocytes, releasing hemoglobin, the most abundant iron source in mammals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Staphylococcus aureus is well adapted to the human host. Evasion of the host phagocyte response is critical for successful infection. The staphylococcal bicomponent pore-forming toxins Panton-Valentine leukocidin LukSF-PV (PVL) and γ-hemolysin CB (HlgCB) target human phagocytes through interaction with the complement receptors C5aR1 and C5aR2.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF