Predictors of low spike antibody response in patients with systemic rheumatic disease after an initial course of COVID-19 vaccination.

Background: Patients with rheumatic disease may mount a suboptimal serologic response to COVID-19 vaccination. We evaluated predictors of low antibody response in a clinic-based cohort.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using electronic health record (EHR) data at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA.

Risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes associated with rheumatoid arthritis and phenotypic subgroups: a retrospective, comparative, multicentre cohort study.

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis has been associated with severe COVID-19, but few studies have investigated how phenotypes of rheumatoid arthritis affect these associations. We aimed to investigate the associations between rheumatoid arthritis and phenotypes of interstitial lung disease, serostatus, and bone erosions with COVID-19 severity.

Methods: We did a retrospective, comparative, multicentre cohort study at two large health-care systems (Mayo Clinic [19 hospitals and affiliated outpatient centres] and Mass General Brigham [14 hospitals and affiliated outpatient centres]) in the USA.

Electrophoresis-Mediated Characterization of Full and Empty Adeno-Associated Virus Capsids.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) has shown great potential in gene therapy due to its low immunogenicity, lack of pathogenicity to humans, and ability to provide long-term gene expression . However, there is currently a need for fast, high-throughput characterization systems that require low volumes for the determination of its sample composition in terms of full and empty capsids since empty capsids are a natural byproduct of AAV synthesis. To address this need, the following study proposes a high-throughput electrophoresis-mediated microfluidics approach that is independent of sample input concentration to estimate the composition of a given sample by combining its protein and ssDNA information relative to a standard.

Demographic, Lifestyle, and Serologic Risk Factors for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)-associated Bronchiectasis: Role of RA-related Autoantibodies.

Objective: To investigate demographic, lifestyle, and serologic risk factors for isolated rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated bronchiectasis (RA-BR) that is not a result of interstitial lung disease (ILD).

Methods: We performed a case-control study using patients with RA from the Mass General Brigham Biobank. We reviewed the records of all patients with RA meeting the 2010 American College of Rheumatology/European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology criteria with computed tomography (CT) chest imaging to identify RA-BR cases and controls with RA and RA-related lung disease.