Publications by authors named "Jan Buer"

Background: FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) has been proposed to enable health data interoperability. So far, its applicability has been demonstrated for selected research projects with limited data.

Objective: This study aimed to design and implement a conceptual medical intelligence framework to leverage real-world care data for clinical decision-making.

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Background: Crohn's disease (CD) significantly affects patients' well-being and is influenced by stress and lifestyle factors, highlighting the importance of improving quality of life in CD management. An imbalance between pro- and anti-inflammatory CD4+ T cell responses is a key factor in CD, and stress has been shown to alter the function of CD4+ T cells. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of a mind-body medicine stress management and lifestyle modification (MBM) program on the CD4+ T cell profile in CD patients.

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Opioid addiction presents a relevant health challenge, with chronic heroin use linked to detrimental effects on various aspects of physical, mental, and sociological health. Opioid maintenance therapy (OMT), particularly using methadone, is the primary treatment option for heroin addiction. Previous studies using blood samples from current heroin addicts and OMT patients have shown immunomodulatory effects of heroin and methadone on T cell function.

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Introduction: Bacterial biofilm formation on medical devices, such as Cochlear implants (CI), can lead to chronic infections. Not only the inner parts of the implant but also the externally located headpiece might be associated with prolonged superficial skin eczema resulting in the inability of wearing the headpiece. In this study, the surface of three CI headpieces from different manufacturers were examined for bacterial biofilm formation.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The gut microbiota is unique to individuals and influenced by health and environmental factors, but differences among individuals, especially men who have sex with men (MSM), are not fully understood.
  • - Research shows that MSM with Western backgrounds often have gut microbiomes similar to those from non-Western populations, frequently dominated by specific bacteria like Prevotellaceae.
  • - The study connects certain sexual practices to variations in microbiota among MSM, using questionnaire data and machine learning to highlight how these practices may alter gut microbiome composition, impacting broader microbiota research.
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Despite effective antibiotic therapy, brain-destructive inflammation often cannot be avoided in pneumococcal meningitis. The causative signals are mediated predominantly through TLR-recruited myeloid differentiation primary response adaptor 88 (MyD88), as indicated by a dramatic pneumococcal meningitis phenotype of Myd88-/- mice. Because lipoproteins and single-stranded RNA are crucial for recognition of Gram-positive bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae by the host immune system, we comparatively analyzed the disease courses of Myd88-/- and Tlr2-/- Tlr13-/- mice.

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  • Influenza A virus (IAV) causes severe respiratory infections and has implications for both public health and cancer progression, highlighting the need to study interactions between immune responses to cancer and infection.
  • Research using mouse models revealed that IAV infection can decrease tumor burden while activating tumor-specific CD8+ T-cells, linking viral infection with anti-tumor effects.
  • Blocking the migration of these activated CD8+ T-cells from tumors to infected lungs negated the anti-tumoral benefits of IAV infection, emphasizing the complexity of immune interactions in these contexts.
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  • * Infected mice showed increased levels of Nrp-1+CD8+ T cells, which were linked to neurological issues in ECM and liver damage during LCMV infection, indicating a strong activation state of these T cells.
  • * Removing Nrp-1 from T cells led to fewer activated T cells in various organs and reduced disease severity, highlighting Nrp-1's role in worsening T cell responses during
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Background: Infective endocarditis (IE) poses a significant health risk, especially in patients with prosthetic heart valves. Despite advances in treatment, mortality rates remain high. This study aims to investigate the antibacterial properties of a copper titanium dioxide (4× Cu-TiO) coating on cardiovascular implants against Staphylococcus aureus, a common causative agent of IE.

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Introduction: Early sepsis is a life-threatening immune dysregulation believed to feature a "cytokine storm" due to activation of pattern recognition receptors by pathogen and danger associated molecular patterns. However, treatments with single toll-like receptor (TLR) blockers have shown no clinical benefit. We speculated that sepsis patients at the time of diagnosis are heterogeneous in relation to their cytokine production and its potential inhibition by a triple cocktail of TLR blockers.

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Article Synopsis
  • CD47 is a protein on cells that helps control how immune cells eat up bad stuff, like cancer cells.
  • Scientists tested blocking CD47 to help immune cells do their job better in cancer and heart damage cases.
  • The study found that blocking CD47 not only helped immune cells remove cancer cells but also helped them clean up dead heart cells after a heart attack, showing they work better together.
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An altered gut microbiota is a possible contributing pathogenic factor in myasthenia gravis (MG), an autoimmune neuromuscular disease. However, the significance of the fungal microbiome is an understudied and neglected part of the intestinal microbiome in MG. We performed a sub-analysis of the MYBIOM study including faecal samples from patients with MG ( = 41), non-inflammatory neurological disorder (NIND, = 18), chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP, = 6) and healthy volunteers (n = 12) by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2).

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  • Skin microbiome dysbiosis, specifically an overabundance of Staphylococcus, is commonly found in patients with actinic keratosis (AK) and squamous skin carcinoma (SCC).
  • The study analyzed 321 samples from 59 AK patients treated with either diclofenac (DIC) gel or cold atmospheric plasma (CAP), monitoring changes in the microbiome before, during, and after treatment.
  • Results showed both treatments reduced the abundance of Staphylococcus, with CAP therapy showing notable differences in the microbiome of responders versus nonresponders, suggesting a potential link between the skin microbiome and treatment efficacy in AK.
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Background Aims: Extracellular vesicles (EVs) harvested from conditioned media of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) suppress acute inflammation in various disease models and promote regeneration of damaged tissues. After successful treatment of a patient with acute steroid-refractory graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) using EVs prepared from conditioned media of human bone marrow-derived MSCs, this study focused on improving the MSC-EV production for clinical application.

Methods: Independent MSC-EV preparations all produced according to a standardized procedure revealed broad immunomodulatory differences.

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Background: he COVID-19 pandemic led to an alteration of algorithms in emergency medicine, which may influence the management of patients with similar symptoms but underlying cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated key differential diagnoses to acute COVID-19 infection and the prevalence and the prognosis of myocardial injury in patients presenting for suspected COIVD-19 infection.

Methods: This prospective observational study includes patients presenting with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection during the pandemic.

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CD47 is an ubiquitously expressed surface molecule with significant impact on immune responses. However, its role for antiviral immunity is not fully understood. Here, we revealed that the expression of CD47 on immune cells seemed to disturb the antiviral immune response as CD47-deficient mice (CD47) showed an augmented clearance of influenza A virus (IAV).

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Acid sphingomyelinase (Asm) and acid ceramidase (Ac) are parts of the sphingolipid metabolism. Asm hydrolyzes sphingomyelin to ceramide, which is further metabolized to sphingosine by Ac. Ceramide generates ceramide-enriched platforms that are involved in receptor clustering within cellular membranes.

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Acid ceramidase (Ac) is part of the sphingolipid metabolism and responsible for the degradation of ceramide. As bioactive molecule, ceramide is involved in the regulation of many cellular processes. However, the impact of cell-intrinsic Ac activity and ceramide on the course of infection remains elusive.

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Rationale: The immune profile of sepsis patients is incompletely understood and hyperinflammation and hypoinflammation may occur concurrently or sequentially. Immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) may counter hypoinflammation but effects are uncertain. We tested the reactivity of septic whole blood to bacteria, Toll-like receptor (TLR) ligands and to ICI.

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Tumor-draining lymph nodes (LNs) play a crucial role during cancer spread and in initiation of anti-cancer adaptive immunity. Neutrophils form a substantial population of cells in LNs with poorly understood functions. Here, we demonstrate that, during head and neck cancer (HNC) progression, tumor-associated neutrophils transmigrate to LNs and shape anti-tumor responses in a stage-dependent manner.

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Background: Pneumonia after thoracic surgery considerably contributes to perioperative morbidity and mortality. So far, the forced expiratory volume in one second and diffusing capacity of the lungs for carbon dioxide are the most common validated prognosticators to estimate individual risk. Beyond functional parameters, modifiable risk factors for respiratory complications like pneumonia are poorly investigated in a prospective way.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses the rise of diseases caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and highlights that Mycobacterium tuberculosis remains a leading infectious cause of death globally.* -
  • Two molecular assays, GenoType CM direct (GTCMd) and VisionArray Myco (VAM), were evaluated for their effectiveness in identifying mycobacterial species from 65 clinical specimens.* -
  • GTCMd demonstrated higher sensitivity and positive predictive value compared to VAM, successfully identifying mycobacteria from additional culture-negative samples, indicating both assays enhance rapid diagnosis.*
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  • Studies show that gut bacteria and fungi influence immune responses in organs like the lungs, which is important during severe COVID-19 infections.
  • An analysis of gut fungi from 30 SARS-CoV-2 positive patients revealed that those with severe COVID-19 had less diversity and more dominance of certain fungal species compared to those with non-severe cases.
  • The compositional shifts in the fungal gut microbiome highlight the need to explore whether these changes result from SARS-CoV-2 infection or contribute to the severity of the illness.
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Due to Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a new group of patients at risk emerged with COVID-19-associated mucormycosis (CAM). Systematic studies, evaluating the prevalence of CAM are missing. To assess CAM prevalence in a tertiary care hospital in Germany, we applied direct microscopy, fungal culture and quantitative realtime in-house PCR targeting Mucorales-specific fragments of 18S and 28S rRNA on respiratory specimens of 100 critically ill COVID-19 patients.

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