Proteolytic shedding of CD46 from human hepatocytes indicates liver stress.

Background: Routine liver function tests capture information about the metabolic and inflammatory condition of the liver, but we lack sensitive biomarkers of early hepatocyte stress. In humans, soluble CD46 (sCD46) levels in blood were recently identified as an accurate biomarker of hepatic steatosis. Here, we explore the diagnostic utility of sCD46 in other liver diseases.

Restricting datasets to classifiable samples augments discovery of immune disease biomarkers.

Immunological diseases are typically heterogeneous in clinical presentation, severity and response to therapy. Biomarkers of immune diseases often reflect this variability, especially compared to their regulated behaviour in health. This leads to a common difficulty that frustrates biomarker discovery and interpretation - namely, unequal dispersion of immune disease biomarker expression between patient classes necessarily limits a biomarker's informative range.

Dynamics of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children associated to COVID-19 in Chile: Epidemiologic trends during pandemic, before and after children vaccination.

Background: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated to Covid-19 (MIS-C) is one of the most severe outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 in children. Covid-19 vaccines were successfully implemented in Chile for the pediatric population since 2021, using both mRNA and inactivated platforms. Effectiveness against MIS-C has been reported for mRNA vaccines.

Soluble CD46 as a diagnostic marker of hepatic steatosis.

Background: The increasing prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) incurs substantial morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. Detection and clinical intervention at early stages of disease improves prognosis; however, we are currently limited by a lack of reliable diagnostic tests for population screening and monitoring responses to therapy. To address this unmet need, we investigated human invariant Natural Killer T cell (iNKT) activation by fat-loaded hepatocytes, leading to the discovery that circulating soluble CD46 (sCD46) levels accurately predict hepatic steatosis.