In Switzerland, additional vaccinations against influenza, COVID-19, Streptococcus pneumoniae and varicella zoster virus (VZV), are recommended for patients with chronic lung diseases such as COPD, asthma or interstitial lung disease, since infectious diseases often lead to exacerbation of lung diseases resulting in increased disease burden and mortality. In this review we give an overview on recommended vaccinations for patients with chronic lung diseases, also including vaccinations against pertussis and RSV, which are recommended in international guidelines. While continuous development of vaccines against S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrease-producing bacteria are highly relevant in medicine due to their role in various pathogenic processes and their impact on human health, causing serious medical conditions such as peptic ulcer disease, gastric cancer, and respiratory and urinary tract infections. In this work, we designed fluorescent polymeric particles (PNP_FITC) to enable the detection of urease-producing bacteria by targeting the enzymatic activity of urease. In particular, the PNP_FITC matrix is degraded by urease, leading to a measurable increase in the intensity of the fluorescent signal.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) have impaired vaccine immunogenicity and an excess risk of severe COVID-19. While variant-adapted COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are recommended for vulnerable individuals, their efficacy in patients with CLD has not been studied.
Methods: We present the first evaluation of XBB.
Protection against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and risk of long COVID has been associated with the depletion or over-abundance of specific taxa within the gut microbiome. However, the microbial mechanisms mediating these effects are not yet known. We hypothesized that altered microbial production of tryptophan and its downstream derivatives might contribute to inappropriate immune responses to viral infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Variant-adapted COVID-19 vaccines are recommended for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). However, many patients rely on pre-existing immunity by original vaccines or prior infections.
Aim: To assess whether such immunity sufficiently combats the highly immune-evasive SARS-CoV-2 JN.