Publications by authors named "H I KALISH"
Background: The immunogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mRNA vaccines is variable in individuals with different inborn errors of immunity or acquired immune deficiencies and is yet unknown in people with idiopathic CD4 lymphopenia (ICL).
Objective: We sought to determine the immunogenicity of mRNA vaccines in patients with ICL with a broad range of CD4 T-cell counts.
Methods: Samples were collected from 25 patients with ICL and 23 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers (HVs) after their second or third SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine dose.
Due to a combination of asymptomatic or undiagnosed infections, the proportion of the United States population infected with SARS-CoV-2 was unclear from the beginning of the pandemic. We previously established a platform to screen for SARS-CoV-2 positivity across a representative proportion of the US population, from which we reported that almost 17 million Americans were estimated to have had undocumented infections in the Spring of 2020. Since then, vaccine rollout and prevalence of different SARS-CoV-2 variants have further altered seropositivity trends within the United States population.
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- Research on COVID-19 vaccination in immune-deficient people largely centers on cancer and organ transplant recipients, showing that 88% developed antispike IgG after the second vaccine dose, increasing to 93% by six months post-third dose.
- However, the antibody levels in immune-deficient patients were significantly lower than those in healthy volunteers, never exceeding one-third of their levels.
- The study suggests that while three doses of the vaccine generate an antibody response, additional doses may be necessary for improved protection, especially against the Omicron BA.1 variant, warranting further investigation into the effectiveness of booster shots.
Most studies of adaptive immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection focus on peripheral blood, which may not fully reflect immune responses at the site of infection. Using samples from 110 children undergoing tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy during the COVID-19 pandemic, we identified 24 samples with evidence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, including neutralizing antibodies in serum and SARS-CoV-2-specific germinal center and memory B cells in the tonsils and adenoids. Single-cell B cell receptor (BCR) sequencing indicated virus-specific BCRs were class-switched and somatically hypermutated, with overlapping clones in the two tissues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Viral infection is a major cause of morbidity in children with mitochondrial disease (MtD). As a result, families with children with MtD are highly adherent to risk mitigation behaviours (RMBs) advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic that can modulate infection risk.
Methods: Deep serologic phenotyping of viral infections was performed via home-based sampling by combining SARS-CoV-2 serologic testing and phage display immunoprecipitation and sequencing.