Publications by authors named "Marits P"

Inherited deficiency of the RNA lariat-debranching enzyme 1 (DBR1) is a rare etiology of brainstem viral encephalitis. The cellular basis of disease and the range of viral predisposition are unclear. We report inherited DBR1 deficiency in a 14-year-old boy who suffered from isolated SARS-CoV-2 brainstem encephalitis.

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Several genetic and immunological risk factors for severe COVID-19 have been identified, with monogenic conditions relating to 13 genes of type I interferon (IFN) immunity proposed to explain 4.8% of critical cases. However, previous cohorts have been clinically heterogeneous and were not subjected to thorough genetic and immunological analyses.

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This report illustrates a case that would have been missed in the most common screening algorithms used worldwide in newborn screening (NBS) for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Our patient presented with a clinical picture that suggested a severe inborn error of immunity (IEI). The 6-month-old baby had normal T-cell receptor excision circle (TREC) levels but no measurable level of kappa-deleting recombination excision circles (KRECs) in the NBS sample.

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Autosomal recessive IRF7 deficiency was previously reported in three patients with single critical influenza or COVID-19 pneumonia episodes. The patients' fibroblasts and plasmacytoid dendritic cells produced no detectable type I and III IFNs, except IFN-β. Having discovered four new patients, we describe the genetic, immunological, and clinical features of seven IRF7-deficient patients from six families and five ancestries.

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In general, the method of choice for evaluating immunity against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is detection of antibodies against the virus in patient sera. However, this is not feasible in patients who do not produce antibodies, either due to a primary immunodeficiency or secondary to treatment with immunosuppressive drugs. Assessment of the antiviral T cell response is an alternative to serological tests, but most T cell assays are labor-intensive and unsuitable for a clinical routine laboratory.

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Article Synopsis
  • The Swedish newborn screening program began screening for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in August 2019, evaluating 115,786 newborns and children up to two years old using dried blood spots.
  • The screening identified low T cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) in 73 children, leading to 21 diagnoses of T cell lymphopenia, including three confirmed cases of SCID.
  • The screening process showed a 100% sensitivity and 99.94% specificity for identifying SCID, with an estimated incidence rate of 1 in 38,500 newborns in Sweden.
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  • The study analyzes whole genome sequencing data from 4,437 individuals (3,219 patients and 1,218 relatives) at the Genomic Medicine Center Karolinska-Rare Diseases to advance genomics-based diagnostics in Stockholm's healthcare system.
  • Results show that 40% of patients received a molecular diagnosis, with variation in detection rates among different disease groups and involving 754 different causative genes.
  • The initiative also contributes to research by sharing data internationally, leading to the discovery of 17 new disease-causing genes and fostering collaboration among expert teams for complex cases.
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Background: Recently, plateletpheresis donations using a widely used leukoreduction system (LRS) chamber have been associated with T-cell lymphopenia. However, clinical health consequences of plateletpheresis-associated lymphopenia are still unknown.

Study Design And Methods: A nationwide cohort study using the SCANDAT3-S database was conducted with all platelet- and plasmapheresis donors in Sweden between 1996 and 2017.

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A subgroup of patients treated with infliximab lose response to the treatment and one reason for this is the development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA). If used optimally, measuring drug and ADA level could lead to a more personalized and efficient treatment regime, and enable identification of ADA-positive patients before the underlying disease flares or allergic reactions occur. With the use of a drug-tolerant ADA assay which can detect ADA irrespective of drug levels in the sample, we determined the impact of ADA on treatment failure to infliximab.

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Tumour infiltrating B cells and CD38 plasma cells have been correlated with survival in different malignancies but their role in urinary bladder cancer is unclear. IL-10 is a multifunctional cytokine with both anti-inflammatory and immunostimulatory properties, that can be released by regulatory B cells (Bregs). We have stained paraffin-embedded tumour sections from 31 patients with invasive urothelial urinary bladder cancer with respect to CD20 B cells, CD38 cells, IL-10-expressing cells, IgG, C1q and C3a and analysed the impact of these markers on survival.

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: Infliximab-treated patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) may respond insufficiently due to low serum infliximab (sIFX) levels, caused by anti-drug antibodies (ADAs). However, monitoring of sIFX and ADAs is not routinely implemented, and levels for optimal outcome have not been validated. We searched for predictors for sIFX < 0.

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Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) can be caused by deleterious mutations in DCLRE1C, leading to deficient non-homologous end joining by compromising the function of the Artemis protein. This impairs the process of V(D)J recombination of the T- and B-cell receptors and typically results in radiosensitive T, B, NK SCID presenting during the first months of life. We present a case of a 3-year-old girl with two novel compound heterozygous variants in DCLRE1C (c.

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a condition affecting millions of patients around the world, causing pain and disability and often resulting in joint replacement surgery. The aetiology of OA has long been attributed to mechanical wear mainly due to the increased prevalence of OA in load bearing joints among older patients. However, recent studies reveal a complex molecular disease causality in which inflammation, nutritional deficit and angiogenesis lead to the destruction of the joint structure.

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Background: A novel immunodeficiency, frequently accompanied by high serum-IgE, and caused by mutations in the PGM3 gene was described in 2014. To date there are no unique phenotype characteristics for PGM3 deficiency. PGM3 encodes a carbohydrate-modifying enzyme, phosphoglucomutase 3.

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  • Urinary bladder cancer is a prevalent cancer influenced by environmental factors and inflammation, diagnosed mainly through surgery, with treatment options including cystectomy and chemotherapy.
  • This study focused on the immune responses of CD4 T cells in the tumor, lymph nodes, and blood, examining how different signs of lineage commitment relate to disease stage and chemotherapy response.
  • Findings showed that CD4 T cells in tumors had less methylation compared to those in lymph nodes and blood, indicating potential biomarkers for survival and treatment effectiveness in bladder cancer patients.
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Thrombocytopenia presenting during early childhood is most commonly diagnosed as immune/idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), where the antibody-mediated destruction of thrombocytes is often transient. If treatment is indicated, the majority of patients respond to immune-modulation by intravenous immunoglobulin G infusion or systemic corticosteroids. Differential diagnoses to childhood ITP includes thrombocytopenia due to infections, drugs, rheumatologic conditions, immune dysregulation, and inherited bone marrow failures, for example, congenital amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia.

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Regulatory T cells (Treg) have long been considered one-sided suppressors of antitumor immune responses and hence associated with poor patient outcome in cancer. However, evidence is mounting of a paradoxical positive prognostic effect of Tregs on certain malignancies, including urinary bladder cancer (UBC). This discrepancy has partly been attributed to the shear misidentification of Tregs, but also to the inflammatory profile of the tumor.

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The role of trough serum infliximab (s-IFX) and antibodies toward IFX (ATI) during maintenance treatment remains unclear in children. The aim of the present study was to investigate trough s-IFX and ATI to identify any correlation with inflammatory activity and clinical response in a pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cohort. We investigated the s-IFX trough levels in pediatric IBD patients ( = 45) on maintenance IFX treatment.

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  • Cancer treatment often involves chemotherapy, which can weaken the immune system, but combining it with immunotherapy shows promise for better survival rates if planned carefully.
  • This study found that doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug, boosts CD86 expression on B cells, leading to enhanced activation of CD4 T cells when exposed to superantigen, and this effect is blocked by a specific antibody.
  • Additionally, B cells from urinary bladder cancer patients treated with doxorubicin showed increased CD86 expression, indicating a potential approach to improve the effectiveness of combining chemotherapy with immunotherapy through tailored treatment schedules.
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Purpose: To determine whether sentinel node detection (SNd) in muscle-invasive urothelial bladder cancer (MIBC) can be performed in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and determine whether SNd is feasible in all pT stages, including pT0.

Background: Previous published series of SNd in MIBC have not included patients undergoing NAC, and systematic reports of pT0 patients w/wo NAC were absent. Translational immunological tumor research on MIBC focusing on SNd, in the era of NAC, requires technical feasibility.

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Objective: The aim of this study was to determine by computed tomography (CT) whether treatment with tumor-draining lymph-node-derived expanded autologous T lymphocytes results in objective responses and/or improved survival in patients with metastatic urinary bladder cancer (UBC) and to record the toxicity of the treatment.

Materials And Methods: Eighteen patients with metastatic UBC were prospectively selected from two centers. The preoperative staging was T2-T4bN1-2 and/or M0-M1 or MX.

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  • The golden standard for evaluating immunodeficiencies has been using radioactive thymidine in proliferation assays, but new whole blood proliferation assays like FASCIA offer non-radioactive alternatives with added benefits.
  • The study compares FASCIA to traditional methods in patients with severe combined immunodeficiency, assessing the minimum lymphocyte count needed for accurate results and establishing reference values from healthy donors.
  • FASCIA is found to be a rapid, stable, and sensitive method that utilizes small blood samples while effectively measuring lymphocyte responses, showcasing potential for clinical applications.
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