Publications by authors named "Sandra Ciesek"

The consensus-based guideline "hand antisepsis and hand hygiene" for Germany has the following sections: Prevention of nosocomial infections by hygienic hand antisepsis, prevention of surgical site infections by surgical hand antisepsis, infection prevention in the community by hand antisepsis in epidemic or pandemic situations, hand washing, selection of alcohol-based hand rubs and wash lotions, medical gloves and protective gloves, preconditions for hand hygiene, skin protection and skin care, quality assurance of the implementation of hand hygiene measures and legal aspects. The guideline was developed by the German Society for Hospital Hygiene in cooperation with 22 professional societies, 2 professional organizations, the German Care Council, the Federal Working Group for Self-Help of People with Disabilities and Chronic Illness and their Family Members, the General Accident Insurance Institution Austria and the German-speaking Interest Group of Infection Prevention Experts and Hospital Hygiene Consultants.

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  • * Cytomegaloviruses (CMVs) can create sustained immune responses, making them promising candidates as vaccine vectors against COVID-19.
  • * In a study using a recombinant murine CMV (MCMV) vaccine, not only was robust and long-lasting protection against COVID-19 observed in mice, but it also effectively neutralized variants like Omicron BA.1 after just one dose.
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Während einer Pandemie muss Resilienz nicht nur als Eigenschaft des Gesundheitssystems, sondern auch des umgebenden Forschungsumfelds betrachtet werden. Um verlässliche, evidenzbasierte Empfehlungen aus der Universitätsmedizin an die Gesundheitspolitik und die Entscheidungsträger bereitstellen zu können, müssen wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse schnell, integrativ und multidisziplinär generiert, synthetisiert und kommuniziert werden. Die Resilienz der öffentlichen Gesundheitssysteme und der Gesundheitsforschungssysteme sind somit eng verknüpft.

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  • A study was conducted on the frequency and significance of viral infections (viraemia) in children undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, focusing on several viruses including CMV, EBV, adenovirus, HHV6, and HSV.
  • Involving 79 pediatric cancer patients, researchers analyzed 362 blood samples and found an overall positivity rate for viraemia of 9.6% across different stages of treatment.
  • Results indicated that viraemia did not significantly affect clinical outcomes like fever duration or severity of complications, suggesting that routine evaluation for viraemia may not be necessary in asymptomatic children with febrile neutropenia.
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  • TMPRSS2 is an accessory protease that increases the entry of SARS-CoV-2 into cells expressing ACE2, impacting how the virus interacts with host cells during infection.
  • Experiments showed that TMPRSS2 enhances the internalization of the virus, improves early replication rates, and modifies immune responses, depending on the virus variant.
  • The study reveals that TMPRSS2 not only affects viral uptake and replication but also leads to increased cell death and drives the evolution of viral mutations, linking these processes to the effectiveness of the host's immune response.
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  • SARS-CoV-2 is the virus responsible for COVID-19, and accurate diagnostic testing is crucial to manage its spread and treatment effectively.
  • A study was conducted on 30 households to analyze the progression of viral markers (RNA and antigen) soon after infection, noting that viral RNA was found in saliva earlier than in nasal swabs for some individuals.
  • Results showed RNA detection was more sensitive, while antigen detection correlated better with contagiousness, helping to refine the interpretation of SARS-CoV-2 test results for better patient care.
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Background & Aims: Bulevirtide (BLV), a first-in-class entry inhibitor, is approved in Europe for the treatment of chronic hepatitis delta (CHD). BLV monotherapy was superior to delayed treatment at week (W) 48, the primary efficacy endpoint, in the MYR301 study (NCT03852719). Here, we assessed if continued BLV therapy until W96 would improve virologic and biochemical response rates, particularly among patients who did not achieve virologic response at W24.

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  • - The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, along with new variants and long-COVID, poses significant challenges, especially in developing countries where healthcare access is limited.
  • - Previous research has shown that functional inhibitors of acid sphingomyelinase can effectively combat various viral infections, including some early SARS-CoV-2 variants.
  • - A study found that the antidepressants fluoxetine and sertraline can inhibit several SARS-CoV-2 variants in vitro, suggesting they should be considered for large-scale clinical trials as potential COVID-19 treatments.
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Background: Vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is recommended for cancer patients. However, long-term data on the effectiveness in the pediatric setting are lacking.

Methods: Pediatric patients < 18 years on active treatment for cancer and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infection received three doses of an mRNA vaccine.

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The Mpox virus can cause severe disease in the susceptible population with dermatologic and systemic manifestations. Furthermore, ophthalmic manifestations of mpox infection are well documented. Topical trifluridine (TFT) eye drops have been used for therapy of ophthalmic mpox infection in patients, however, its efficacy against mpox virus infection in this scenario has not been previously shown.

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  • Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) receive mRNA vaccines to decrease COVID-19 mortality, but their immune responses to vaccination can vary significantly.
  • A study analyzed immune cells from 58 MM patients during and after vaccination and breakthrough infections, revealing that successful vaccine responders had distinct immune cell profiles with strong cytokine responses.
  • The findings suggest that both vaccinated patients and those who experienced breakthrough infections showed similar immune patterns, highlighting potential avenues for improving vaccination strategies for immunocompromised individuals.
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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has affected nations globally leading to illness, death, and economic downturn. Why disease severity, ranging from no symptoms to the requirement for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, varies between patients is still incompletely understood. Consequently, we aimed at understanding the impact of genetic factors on disease severity in infection with SARS-CoV-2.

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Despite tremendous global efforts since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, still only a limited number of prophylactic and therapeutic options are available. Although vaccination is the most effective measure in preventing morbidity and mortality, there is a need for safe and effective post-infection treatment medication. In this study, we explored a pipeline of 21 potential candidates, examined in the Calu-3 cell line for their antiviral efficacy, for drug repurposing.

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Hemodialysis patients faced an excess morbidity and mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the effect of second-generation mRNA vaccines against Omicron BA.4 and BA.

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Objectives: To evaluate the potential of immunosuppressed patients to mount B-cell and T-cell responses to COVID-19 booster vaccination (third vaccination).

Methods: Patients with primary immunodeficiency (PID), immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) on CD20-depleting treatment with rituximab (RTX), or IMIDs treated with conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs) or biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (bDMARDs) were included and assessed before (baseline visit (BL)) and 2, 4 and 8 weeks after COVID-19 booster vaccination. Serum B-cell responses were assessed by antibody levels against SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (anti-spike IgG antibody (S-AB)) and a surrogate virus neutralisation test (sVNT).

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  • Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) effectively tracks SARS-CoV-2 spread and can serve as an early warning for new pathogens, but it needs efficient sample handling and analysis due to decentralized laboratory setups.
  • An interlaboratory study evaluated various PCR and HTS methods by testing samples spiked with different SARS-CoV-2 variants, showing that labs reported comparable results despite using unique procedures.
  • The results indicated that while all labs could accurately detect viral genome copy numbers, high-throughput sequencing required a minimum concentration of virus and had limitations, demonstrating that decentralized methods can still yield reliable findings in SARS-CoV-2 monitoring.
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  • The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has evolved to produce sublineages that can evade neutralizing antibodies differently, particularly affecting the immune response from mRNA vaccines.
  • Breakthrough infections from the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 variant boost neutralization for some sublineages like BA.4.6 and BF.7 but not for others like BA.2.75.2 and XBB.
  • Despite concerns about B cell immunity failure against certain sublineages, T cell immunity remains strong and effective, potentially helping to prevent severe COVID-19 outcomes even in the face of these emerging variants.
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  • Breakthrough infections of COVID-19, especially with variants like Omicron-BA.5, are becoming more common in vaccinated people, and the immune response to these variants is not well understood.
  • Researchers analyzed the immune responses of hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the Delta and Omicron waves using methods like ELISA and neutralization assays to measure antibodies and cellular immunity.
  • The study found reduced neutralizing antibodies against Omicron variants, with Delta and Omicron-BA.1 infections enhancing immune responses in double-vaccinated patients, but no improvement was observed for those infected with Omicron-BA.5.
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Background: Coinfection with hepatitis D virus (HDV) accelerates the progression of liver disease associated with chronic hepatitis B. Bulevirtide inhibits the entry of HDV into hepatocytes.

Methods: In this ongoing phase 3 trial, patients with chronic hepatitis D, with or without compensated cirrhosis, were randomly assigned, in a 1:1:1 ratio, to receive bulevirtide subcutaneously at 2 mg per day (2-mg group) or 10 mg per day (10-mg group) for 144 weeks or to receive no treatment for 48 weeks followed by bulevirtide subcutaneously at 10 mg per day for 96 weeks (control group).

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Expanding antiviral treatment options against SARS-CoV-2 remains crucial as the virus evolves under selection pressure which already led to the emergence of several drug resistant strains. Broad spectrum host-directed antivirals (HDA) are promising therapeutic options, however the robust identification of relevant host factors by CRISPR/Cas9 or RNA interference screens remains challenging due to low consistency in the resulting hits. To address this issue, we employed machine learning, based on experimental data from several knockout screens and a drug screen.

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  • - SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19, and while both genomic RNA (gRNA) and subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) are produced in infected cells, their roles in measuring active virus replication and predicting infectivity are debated.
  • - Current methods to monitor SARS-CoV-2 infections primarily use RT-qPCR to detect gRNA, but the relationship between viral load and infectivity depends on the assay's performance, as Ct-values may not accurately reflect the presence of active viruses.
  • - A study developed a multiplex RT-qPCR assay detecting both gRNA and sgRNA, finding no significant predictive advantage in using sgRNAs; in fact, gRNA alone was slightly more reliable for determining viral infectivity,
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The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces B and T cell responses, contributing to virus neutralization. In a cohort of 2,911 young adults, we identified 65 individuals who had an asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and characterized their humoral and T cell responses to the Spike (S), Nucleocapsid (N) and Membrane (M) proteins. We found that previous infection induced CD4 T cells that vigorously responded to pools of peptides derived from the S and N proteins.

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Liver cirrhosis is the end stage of all chronic liver diseases and contributes significantly to overall mortality of 2% globally. The age-standardized mortality from liver cirrhosis in Europe is between 10 and 20% and can be explained by not only the development of liver cancer but also the acute deterioration in the patient's overall condition. The development of complications including accumulation of fluid in the abdomen (ascites), bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract (variceal bleeding), bacterial infections, or a decrease in brain function (hepatic encephalopathy) define an acute decompensation that requires therapy and often leads to acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) by different precipitating events.

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