PLoS Comput Biol
February 2025
The number of new HIV infections among men who have sex with men (MSM) in the Netherlands has been decreasing, but additional efforts are required to bring it further down. This study aims to assess the impact of increased diagnosis of early HIV infection combined with immediate antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation on reducing HIV transmission among MSM. We developed an agent-based model calibrated to HIV surveillance and sexual behavior data for MSM in the Netherlands in 2017-2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data post-COVID-19 in patients with medical conditions associated with severe disease are lacking. Here, we assess the longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on HRQoL and employment status in individuals at high risk.
Methods: This multicenter prospective cohort study included individuals at high risk for severe disease who were hospitalized or not-hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection (September 2021-February 2024).
Improving our understanding of B cell transition to memory B cells (MBCs) and antibody-secreting cells (ASCs) is crucial for clinical monitoring and vaccine strategies. To explore these dynamics, we compared prepandemic antigen responses (influenza hemagglutinin, respiratory syncytial virus fusion glycoprotein, and tetanus toxoid) with recently encountered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen responses in convalescent COVID-19 patients using spectral flow cytometry. Our analysis revealed the CD43+CD71+IgG+ activated B cell subset, highly enriched for SARS-CoV-2 specificities, as a juncture for ASC and MBC differentiation, with CD86+ phenotypically similar to ASCs and CD86- to IgG+ MBCs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: After analytical treatment interruption (ATI), viral rebound occurs in most people with HIV. The time to viral rebound (TTVR) is likely determined by the properties of the viral reservoir as well as the anti-viral immune response. Soluble biomarkers of immune activation may be predictive of TTVR and plasma viral load (pVL) setpoint after ATI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn stopping the spread of infectious diseases, pathogen genomic data can be used to reconstruct transmission events and characterize population-level sources of infection. Most approaches for identifying transmission pairs do not account for the time passing since the divergence of pathogen variants in individuals, which is problematic in viruses with high within-host evolutionary rates. This prompted us to consider possible transmission pairs in terms of phylogenetic data and additional estimates of time since infection derived from clinical biomarkers.
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