SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk by Vaccine Doses and Prior Infections Over 24 Months: ProHEpiC-19 Longitudinal Study.

Background: As the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 progresses, it becomes crucial to comprehend the lasting effects of vaccination on safeguarding against new infections or reinfections.

Objective: This study aimed to assess the risk of new SARS-CoV-2 infections based on the number of vaccine doses, prior infections, and other clinical characteristics.

Methods: We defined a cohort of 800 health care workers in a 24-month study (March 2020 to December 2022) in northern Barcelona to determine new infections by SARS-CoV-2.

HLA-DR Expression on Monocytes and Sepsis Index Are Useful in Predicting Sepsis.

The reduction of mortality in patients with sepsis depends on the early identification and treatment of at-risk patients. The aim was to evaluate the HLA-DR expression on the surface of monocytes (HLA-DR ratio), the sepsis index (CD64 expression on neutrophils/HLA-DR ratio), and C-reactive protein (CRP) with the development of sepsis. We prospectively enrolled 77 critically ill patients, 59 with stroke and 18 with traumatic brain injuries.

Kinetics of humoral immune response over 17 months of COVID-19 pandemic in a large cohort of healthcare workers in Spain: the ProHEpiC-19 study.

Background: Understanding the immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus is critical for efficient monitoring and control strategies. The ProHEpic-19 cohort provides a fine-grained description of the kinetics of antibodies after SARS-CoV-2 infection with an exceptional resolution over 17 months.

Methods: We established a cohort of 769 healthcare workers including healthy and infected with SARS-CoV-2 in northern Barcelona to determine the kinetics of the IgM against the nucleocapsid (N) and the IgG against the N and spike (S) of SARS-CoV-2 in infected healthcare workers.

Clinical and immunological control of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis by tolerogenic dendritic cells loaded with MOG-encoding mRNA.

Background: Although effective in reducing relapse rate and delaying progression, current therapies for multiple sclerosis (MS) do not completely halt disease progression. T cell autoimmunity to myelin antigens is considered one of the main mechanisms driving MS. It is characterized by autoreactivity to disease-initiating myelin antigen epitope(s), followed by a cascade of epitope spreading, which are both strongly patient-dependent.

Optimal response to dimethyl fumarate is mediated by a reduction of Th1-like Th17 cells after 3 months of treatment.

Aim: Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) is one of the most promising therapies for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) patients since it has shown immunomodulatory and neuroprotective effects. However, a percentage of RRMS patients do not exhibit an optimal response to DMF. The objective of this study was to identify early biomarkers of treatment response by analyzing changes in peripheral leukocyte subpopulations directly in whole blood samples.

Monitoring CD49d Receptor Occupancy: A Method to Optimize and Personalize Natalizumab Therapy in Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

Background: In natalizumab-treated relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients, various extended interval dosing strategies are under evaluation to minimize severe treatment-associated side effects, mainly progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy development. Up to now, it has not been presented any approach, even in form of assay design, to determine the optimal percentage of CD49d receptor occupancy (RO) associated with a favorable clinical, radiological, and immunological response.

Methods: A multiparametric quantitative flow cytometry method was settled to measure CD49d RO on peripheral blood lymphocytes.

Cryopreserved vitamin D3-tolerogenic dendritic cells pulsed with autoantigens as a potential therapy for multiple sclerosis patients.

Background: Tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDC) have been postulated as a potent immunoregulatory therapy for autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). In a previous study, we demonstrated that the administration of antigen-specific vitamin D3 (vitD3) tolDC in mice showing clinical signs of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE; the animal model of MS) resulted in abrogation of disease progression. With the purpose to translate this beneficial therapy to the clinics, we have investigated the effectivity of vitD3-frozen antigen-specific tolDC pulsed with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein 40-55 peptide (f-tolDC-MOG) since it would reduce the cost, functional variability and number of leukapheresis to perform to the patients.

Baseline Differences in Minor Lymphocyte Subpopulations may Predict Response to Fingolimod in Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

Aims: Fingolimod, oral treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), is an agonist of sphingosine and its metabolite S1P that binds their receptors, blocking the egress of lymphocytes from lymph nodes. The aim of this study was immunomonitoring of minor peripheral lymphocyte subpopulations in RRMS patients under treatment with fingolimod and correlation with treatment response.

Methods: Prospective study.

Analysis of the cumulative changes in Graves' disease thyroid glands points to IFN signature, plasmacytoid DCs and alternatively activated macrophages as chronicity determining factors.

Graves' disease (GD) is a chronic autoimmune process in the thyroid gland and involves IFN and IFN driven immune activation. Assuming the thyroid gland is the main site stimulating the autoimmune response, we investigated the role of IFNs and other factors in the chronic evolution of GD by comparing the transcriptomic profiles of thyroid glands from short clinical course (SC), long clinical course (LC) cases, and control glands (C). Over 200 differentially expressed genes of the immune system were identified.

Undiagnosed thyroid dysfunction, thyroid antibodies, and iodine excretion in a Mediterranean population.

The prevalence of thyroid dysfunction varies in different populations. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to analyze the prevalence of undiagnosed thyroid dysfunction and thyroid antibodies and their relationship with urine iodine excretion in a representative sample of 1,124 (55.5% women; mean age: 44.

Regulatory T cells in type 1 diabetic patients with autoimmune chronic atrophic gastritis.

Type A chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is increased in type 1 diabetic patients (DM1). To address this issue, we determined and analyzed the number of peripheral blood regulatory T cells (Tregs) in 15 DM1-CAG patients, 15 DM1 patients without associated autoantibodies (DM1) and 15 healthy controls by flow cytometry and compared gastric Tregs expression (CD4+Foxp3+/CD4+) in DM1-CAG patients with that observed in 10 control Helicobacter pylori CAG-infected biopsies. The percentage of peripheral Tregs was higher in DM1-CAG patients compared to DM1 and controls (CD4+Foxp3+: 7.

Plasma ghrelin concentrations in type 1 diabetic patients with autoimmune atrophic gastritis.

Objective: Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients (DM1) show increased prevalence of pernicious anaemia, the histological substrate of which is type A chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) in the stomach corpus, the main source of ghrelin. We aimed to compare plasma ghrelin concentrations in DM1 patients with type A CAG (DM1-CAG), DM1 patients without type A CAG and healthy controls and in DM1-CAG group, to ascertain a possible relationship between ghrelin and biochemical markers of gastric mucosa atrophy and/or neuroendocrine (NE) cell hyperplasia and histological gastric biopsy findings.

Design And Methods: Fifteen DM1-CAG patients were matched for age, sex and body mass index with 15 DM1 patients without type A CAG and 15 controls.

[Evaluation of splenic function by dynamic gammagraphy, study of pitted erythrocytes and submembranous vacuoles in patients with slight and severe splenic trauma receiving conservative treatment or splenectomy].

Background And Objective: The splenic function of patients followed by the Department of General and Digestive Surgery in the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol (HUGTiP) from 1985 to 2003 for different degrees of splenic trauma according to the classification of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST) 1994 was quantified and related to the treatment received (non surgical, total splenectomy with or without splenosis and splenectomy plus autotransplantation) to detect splenic dysfunction predisposing the development of postsplenectomy sepsis (PSS).

Patients And Method: 43 patients underwent an isotopic study with dynamic splenic gammagraphy and pitted erythrocytes (Normarsky optics) and submembranous vacuoles (transmission electron microscopy) were evaluated.

Results: The non surgical group presented normal phagocytic and filtration function with the median speed of splenic enhancement being 3.