Publications by authors named "Mommert M"

Article Synopsis
  • Few effective biomarkers for diagnosing neonatal sepsis exist, particularly in regions with high sepsis rates and limited resources, highlighting the need for exploring new host response biomarkers.
  • A multicentre study in Abomey-Calavi, South Benin, evaluated the accuracy of various transcriptional and proteic biomarkers alongside clinical characteristics in diagnosing and predicting outcomes of neonatal sepsis among 581 newborns.
  • The study found that while certain biomarkers like PCT, IL-6, and IP-10 were related to sepsis diagnosis, clinical criteria combinations were more effective, and CD74 was the most accurate biomarker for predicting mortality associated with neonatal sepsis.
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Background: Lymphopenia is a hallmark of severe coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). Similar alterations have been described in bacterial sepsis and therapeutic strategies targeting T cell function such as recombinant human interleukin 7 (rhIL-7) have been proposed in this clinical context. As COVID-19 is a viral sepsis, the objectives of this study were to characterize T lymphocyte response over time in severe COVID-19 patients and to assess the effect of ex vivo administration of rhIL-7.

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IFN-I and IFN-III immunity in the nasal mucosa is poorly characterized during SARS-CoV-2 infection. We analyze the nasal IFN-I/III signature, namely the expression of ISGF-3-dependent IFN-stimulated genes, in mildly symptomatic COVID-19 patients and show its correlation with serum IFN-α2 levels, which peak at symptom onset and return to baseline from day 10 onward. Moreover, the nasal IFN-I/III signature correlates with the nasopharyngeal viral load and is associated with the presence of infectious viruses.

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Low concentrations of type-I interferon (IFN) in blood seem to be associated with more severe forms of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, following the type-I interferon response (IR) in early stage disease is a major challenge. We evaluated detection of a molecular interferon signature on a FilmArray® system, which includes PCR assays for four interferon stimulated genes.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Sepsis is a severe condition resulting from an abnormal immune response to infection, and while many aspects of its transcriptome have been studied, a significant portion remains unexplored, potentially revealing insights into its underlying mechanisms.
  • - This study investigates the role of human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) in sepsis, hypothesizing that their transcription could provide valuable information for patient classification and personalized treatment strategies.
  • - Findings indicate that a small percentage (6.9%) of the HERV/MaLR repertoire is active in septic shock patients, with certain genes' expressions linked to immune status, which could help in identifying specific biomarkers for better patient management.
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Background: Septic shock patients exhibit an increased incidence of viral reactivation. Precise timing of such reactivation-as an early marker of immune suppression, or as a consequence of the later-is not known precisely. Here, using a fully designed nucleic acid extraction automated procedure together with tailored commercial PCR kits, we focused on the description of early reactivation within the first week of ICU admission of several herpes viruses and Torque Teno virus (TTV) in 98 septic shock patients.

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Sepsis, which is the leading cause of death in intensive care units (ICU), has been acknowledged as a global health priority by the WHO in 2017. Identification of biomarkers allowing early stratification and recognition of patients at higher risk of death is crucial. One promising biomarker candidate is pentraxin-3 (PTX3); initially elevated and persistently increased plasma concentration in septic patients has been associated with increased mortality.

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Although human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) expression is a growing subject of interest, no study focused before on specific endogenous retroviruses loci activation in severely injured patients. Yet, HERV reactivation is observed in immunity compromised settings like some cancers and auto-immune diseases. Our objective was to assess the transcriptional modulation of HERVs in burn, trauma and septic shock patients.

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Background: Human Endogenous Retroviruses (HERVs) and Mammalian apparent LTR-retrotransposons (MaLRs) represent the 8% of our genome and are distributed among our 46 chromosomes. These LTR-retrotransposons are thought to be essentially silent except in cancer, autoimmunity and placental development. Their Long Terminal Repeats (LTRs) constitute putative promoter or polyA regulatory sequences.

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Background: Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) have received much attention for their implications in the etiology of many human diseases and their profound effect on evolution. Notably, recent studies have highlighted associations between HERVs expression and cancers (Yu et al., Int J Mol Med 32, 2013), autoimmunity (Balada et al.

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Fusion, proliferation, angiogenesis, immune tolerance, and tissue survival are some of the critical functions involved in the physiological and pathological processes of placenta development. Strikingly, some of these properties are shared by envelope glycoproteins of retroviruses. Part of the overall retroviral world, the human retroviral heritage consists of hundred thousands of elements representing a huge amount of genetic material as compared to our 25,000 genes, whereas only a few tenths of retroviral loci still contain envelope genes exhibiting large open reading frames.

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