Publications by authors named "C H Sandt"

Objectives: Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination has off-target effects on disease risk for unrelated infections and immune responses to vaccines. This study aimed to determine the immunomodulatory effects of BCG vaccination on immune responses to vaccines against SARS-CoV-2.

Methods: Blood samples, from a subset of 275 SARS-CoV-2-naïve healthcare workers randomised to BCG vaccination (BCG group) or no BCG vaccination (Control group) in the BRACE trial, were collected before and 28 days after the primary course (two doses) of ChAdOx1-S (Oxford-AstraZeneca) or BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccination.

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  • Diabetes mellitus increases the risk of severe respiratory diseases like influenza and COVID-19, primarily due to glycemic variability rather than average blood glucose levels.
  • A study used blood samples and continuous glucose monitoring from individuals with type 1 diabetes to examine how glycemic variability affects T cell responses to influenza.
  • Higher glycemic variability was linked to a decreased proportion of specific T cells responding to the influenza virus, indicating the importance of monitoring glycemic variability for understanding immune responses in diabetic individuals.
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  • Methotrexate (MTX) is a common medicine for rheumatoid arthritis, but it may affect how well people’s immune systems respond to vaccines and infections.
  • In a study, researchers looked at how MTX treatment affected immune responses in patients who received a COVID-19 vaccine compared to healthy people and others not on MTX.
  • They found that while many immune cells were similar between patients and controls, those on MTX had fewer activated CD4 T cells, leading to slower antibody responses after vaccination.
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Respiratory infections cause significant morbidity and mortality, yet it is unclear why some individuals succumb to severe disease. In patients hospitalized with avian A(H7N9) influenza, we investigated early drivers underpinning fatal disease. Transcriptomics strongly linked oleoyl-acyl-carrier-protein (ACP) hydrolase (OLAH), an enzyme mediating fatty acid production, with fatal A(H7N9) early after hospital admission, persisting until death.

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FTIR spectroscopy is well known for its molecule fingerprinting capability but is also able to differentiate classes in complex biological systems. This includes strain typing and species level identification of bacterial, yeast or fungal cells, as well as distinguishing between cell layers in eukaryotic tissues. However, its use for the identification of macromolecules such as proteins remains underexplored and rarely used in practice.

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