Publications by authors named "Francesca Trespidi"
Arboviral diseases are a growing global health concern. Pre-existing autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I interferons (IFNs) can underlie encephalitis due to West Nile virus (WNV) (∼40% of patients) and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE, due to TBE virus [TBEV]) (∼10%). We report here that these auto-Abs can also underlie severe forms of rarer arboviral infections.
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- The study discusses a rare lung disease in nine children linked to a genetic deficiency of the CCR2 receptor, leading to conditions like pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) and increased vulnerability to infections.
- This deficiency is characterized by loss-of-function variants, affecting the migration and signaling of immune cells, particularly monocytes, due to a lack of response to CCL-2, a chemokine essential for these processes.
- Elevated levels of CCL-2 in the blood serve as a diagnostic marker for identifying children with unexplained respiratory issues or recurrent infections, indicating the importance of CCR2 in lung health and immune response.
Mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) infection is benign in most individuals but can cause encephalitis in <1% of infected individuals. We show that ∼35% of patients hospitalized for WNV disease (WNVD) in six independent cohorts from the EU and USA carry auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-α and/or -ω. The prevalence of these antibodies is highest in patients with encephalitis (∼40%), and that in individuals with silent WNV infection is as low as that in the general population.
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