Clinical performance of two commercially available rapid antigen tests for influenza, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2 diagnostics.

Unlabelled: Rapid antigen tests (RATs) might provide rapid, low-cost, and easy-to-perform choice to nucleic-acid amplification methods (NAAT) in point-of-care (POC) diagnostics of respiratory infections. The clinical performance of two commercial combo-RATs for influenza A and B, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) POC diagnostics, was assessed. RAT and real-time-PCR (RT-PCR) analysis were performed on 620 patients admitted to the emergency department due to respiratory symptoms.

Identification of urinary tract pathogens after 3-hours urine culture by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.

Complicated urinary tract infections, such as pyelonephritis, may lead to sepsis. Rapid diagnosis is needed to identify the causative urinary pathogen and to verify the appropriate empirical antimicrobial therapy. We describe here a rapid identification method for urinary pathogens: urine is incubated on chocolate agar for 3h at 35°C with 5% CO2 and subjected to MALDI-TOF MS analysis by VITEK MS.

Combined Expression of IFN-γ, IL-17, and IL-4 mRNA by Recall PBMCs Moderately Discriminates Active Tuberculosis from Latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Patients with Miscellaneous Inflammatory Underlying Conditions.

New biomarkers are needed for discriminating active tuberculosis (TB) from latent TB infection (LTBI), especially in vulnerable groups representing the major diagnostic challenge. This pilot study was carried out to explore the diagnostic potential of selected genes, IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-4, and FoxP3, associated with TB immunity and immunopathology. IFN-γ, IL-17, IL-4, and FoxP3 mRNA expression levels were measured by quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) from antigen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients with active TB (n = 25); patients with miscellaneous inflammatory disorders and concomitant LTBI (n = 20), rheumatoid arthritis (RA) being the most predominant in the group (n = 11); and in healthy Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccinees (n = 8).

Capillary electrophoresis as a method to determine underivatized urinary lipoarabinomannans, a biomarker of active tuberculosis caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis is a devastating contagious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This is the first report describing the development of novel capillary electrophoresis methods to detect lipoarabinomannans shed into the blood circulation by replicating bacteria. The novelty of the methods is the detection without derivatization.

Specific and cross-reactive immune response to oral Salmonella Typhi Ty21a and parenteral Vi capsular polysaccharide typhoid vaccines administered concomitantly.

Background: Since protective efficacy of the current typhoid vaccines-oral whole-cell Salmonella Typhi Ty21a and parenteral Vi-capsular polysaccharide preparation-is not optimal, and no vaccines are available against paratyphoid or non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) serotypes, new approaches deserve to be explored. The immunological mechanisms elicited by the two typhoid vaccines are mainly targeted against different structures. We studied whether these vaccines would enhance S.

Cytotoxic response persists in subjects treated for tuberculosis decades ago.

Background: Data exploring the potential use of effector molecules produced by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) in the immunodiagnostics of tuberculosis (TB) are scarce. The present study focused a) to gain an insight into the discriminatory power of CTLs in patients with acute pulmonary or extra-pulmonary TB, or latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI); and b) to evaluate the influence of various anti-TB therapeutic schemes on the immunological profiles of residual CTLs.

Methods: Immunological signatures of antigen-specific CTLs were explored in patients with active pulmonary and extra-pulmonary TB, LTBI and in those treated for TB decades ago by using ELISPOT, intracellular flow cytometry and extracellular CD107a detection.