Publications by authors named "Dobbs K"

Background: Pathologic confirmation of lung cancer influences treatment selection for suspected early-stage lung cancer. High pre-treatment tissue confirmation rates are recommended. We sought to define management and outcomes of patients undergoing surgery for primary lung cancer in a UK multi-centre clinical trial.

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  • The study identifies two cases of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) encephalitis in children linked to rare genetic variants of the TMEFF1 gene, which plays a protective role in the brain.
  • TMEFF1 protein interacts with the HSV-1 receptor NECTIN-1, blocking the virus's ability to enter brain cells, but genetic deficiencies in TMEFF1 allow for easier viral entry and replication within neurons.
  • The research suggests that enhancing TMEFF1 levels or using type I interferon can restore resistance to HSV-1, indicating a potential therapeutic pathway for preventing HSV-1 encephalitis.
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Inherited deficiency of the RNA lariat-debranching enzyme 1 (DBR1) is a rare etiology of brainstem viral encephalitis. The cellular basis of disease and the range of viral predisposition are unclear. We report inherited DBR1 deficiency in a 14-year-old boy who suffered from isolated SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis.

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  • The linear ubiquitin assembly complex (LUBAC), made up of HOIP, HOIL-1, and SHARPIN, is crucial for immune responses, with deficiencies leading to severe issues like immunodeficiency and autoinflammation.
  • Two individuals with SHARPIN deficiency exhibited autoinflammatory symptoms but did not have the expected skin problems seen in other cases, and their cells showed reduced immune responses.
  • Treatment with anti-TNF therapies successfully resolved the autoinflammatory symptoms in one case, highlighting LUBAC's important role in managing immune cell death and maintaining immune balance in humans.
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After several decades in development, two malaria vaccines based on the same antigen and with very similar constructs and adjuvants, RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) and R21/Matrix-M (R21), were recommended by the WHO for widespread vaccination of children. These vaccines are much-needed additions to malaria control programs that, when used in conjunction with other control measures, will help to accelerate reductions in malaria morbidity and mortality. Although R21 is not yet available, RTS,S is currently being integrated into routine vaccine schedules in some areas.

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Background: Previous studies show increased morbidity in children who are HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) compared to children who are HIV-unexposed uninfected (HUU). We sought to evaluate the effects of prenatal HIV exposure on clinical and immunological outcomes in the first 24 months of life.

Methods: Eighty-five HEU and 168 HUU children from Kenya were followed from birth to 24 months.

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Aims: Approximately half of patients with heart failure and a reduced ejection fraction (HeFREF) are discharged from hospital on triple therapy [angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), beta-blockers (BBs), and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs)]. We investigated what proportion of patients are on optimal doses prior to discharge and how many might be eligible for initiation of sacubitril-valsartan or sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2Is).

Methods And Results: Between 2012 and 2017, 1277 patients admitted with suspected heart failure were enrolled at a single hospital serving a local community around Kingston upon Hull, UK.

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  • Elderly patients with severe COVID-19 showed reduced T-cell diversity and weaker immune responses compared to younger patients, highlighting age-related vulnerabilities in fighting the virus.
  • The study used advanced sequencing techniques to analyze T-cell responses in both COVID-19 patients and individuals with inborn errors of immunity who received an mRNA vaccine, revealing specific genetic associations affecting these responses.
  • Findings indicated that mRNA vaccines successfully enhanced the T-cell responses in individuals with immune deficiencies, suggesting their effectiveness even in populations that struggle to develop strong immune responses on their own.
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Ebola disease is a severe disease with extremely high case-fatality rates ranging from 28-100%. Observations made during the 2013-2016 West African epidemic improved our understanding of the clinical course of Ebola disease and accelerated the study of therapeutic and preventative strategies. The epidemic also highlighted the unique challenges associated with providing optimal care for children during Ebola disease outbreaks.

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Background: Previous studies show increased morbidity in children who are HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) compared to children who are HIV-unexposed uninfected (HUU). We sought to evaluate the effects of prenatal HIV exposure on clinical and immunological outcomes in the first 24 months of life.

Methods: Eighty-five HEU and 168 HUU children from Kenya were followed from birth to 24 months.

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Morphological characteristics and DNA sequencing were used to identify plerocercoids of a Schistocephalus sp. infecting slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) from northern New Brunswick and plerocercoids of Ligula intestinalis infecting blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus) in Fundy National Park (FNP, New Brunswick). To our knowledge, no previous publications documented either cestode from New Brunswick, Canada.

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Inborn errors of TLR3-dependent type I IFN immunity in cortical neurons underlie forebrain herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV-1) encephalitis (HSE) due to uncontrolled viral growth and subsequent cell death. We report an otherwise healthy patient with HSE who was compound heterozygous for nonsense (R422*) and frameshift (P493fs9*) variants. Receptor-interacting protein kinase 3 (RIPK3) is a ubiquitous cytoplasmic kinase regulating cell death outcomes, including apoptosis and necroptosis.

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  • Primary atopic disorders are genetic immune conditions that lead to severe allergic responses, and studying these can help understand and potentially treat common allergic diseases.
  • A specific mutation in the JAK1 gene causes severe allergic reactions and changes in blood cell development, as seen in studies using zebrafish and human stem cells.
  • Treatment with the drug ruxolitinib in children with this JAK1 mutation significantly improved their growth and allergic symptoms, highlighting the importance of JAK1 in immune system regulation and therapy.
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Purpose: Biallelic loss-of-function variants in IKBKB cause severe combined immunodeficiency. We describe a case of autoimmunity and autoinflammation in a male infant with a heterozygous gain-of-function (GOF) IKBKB variant.

Methods: Case report and review of the literature.

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Phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-seq) allows for unbiased, proteome-wide autoantibody discovery across a variety of disease settings, with identification of disease-specific autoantigens providing new insight into previously poorly understood forms of immune dysregulation. Despite several successful implementations of PhIP-seq for autoantigen discovery, including our previous work (Vazquez et al., 2020), current protocols are inherently difficult to scale to accommodate large cohorts of cases and importantly, healthy controls.

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the pandemic respiratory infectious disease COVID-19. However, clinical manifestations and outcomes differ significantly among COVID-19 patients, ranging from asymptomatic to extremely severe, and it remains unclear what drives these disparities. Here, we studied 159 sequentially enrolled hospitalized patients with COVID-19-associated pneumonia from Brescia, Italy using the VirScan phage-display method to characterize circulating antibodies binding to 96,179 viral peptides encoded by 1,276 strains of human viruses.

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Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is a systemic inflammatory condition that follows SARS-CoV2 infection or exposure in children. Clinical presentations are highly variable and include fever, gastrointestinal (GI) disease, shock, and Kawasaki Disease-like illness (MIS-C/KD). Compared to patients with acute COVID, patients with MIS-C have a distinct immune signature and expansion of expressing T cells.

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Children under the age of 5 years living in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission are highly susceptible to clinical malaria with fever that prompts treatment of blood stage infection with anti-malarial drugs. In contrast, older school age children frequently experience subclinical malaria, i.e.

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Dysregulation in neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) formation and degradation may play a role in the pathogenesis and severity of COVID-19; however, its role in the pediatric manifestations of this disease, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and chilblain-like lesions (CLLs), otherwise known as "COVID toes," remains unclear. Studying multinational cohorts, we found that, in CLLs, NETs were significantly increased in serum and skin. There was geographic variability in the prevalence of increased NETs in MIS-C, in association with disease severity.

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Plasmodium falciparum (P. falciparum) induces trained innate immune responses in vitro, where initial stimulation of adherent PBMCs with P. falciparum-infected RBCs (iRBCs) results in hyperresponsiveness to subsequent ligation of TLR2.

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