Publications by authors named "W S Messer"

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses significant risks for solid organ transplant recipients, who have atypical but poorly characterized immune responses to infection. We aim to understand the host immunologic and microbial features of COVID-19 in transplant recipients by leveraging a prospective multicenter cohort of 86 transplant recipients age- and sex-matched with 172 non-transplant controls. We find that transplant recipients have higher nasal SARS-CoV-2 viral abundance and impaired viral clearance, and lower anti-spike IgG levels.

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The alphavirus chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a serious human pathogen that can cause large-scale epidemics characterized by fever and joint pain and often resulting in chronic arthritis. Infection by alphaviruses including CHIKV and the closely related Semliki Forest virus (SFV) can induce the formation of filopodia-like intercellular long extensions (ILEs). ILEs emanate from an infected cell, stably attach to a neighboring cell, and mediate cell-to-cell viral transmission that is resistant to neutralizing antibodies.

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Hospitalized COVID-19 patients exhibit diverse immune responses during acute infection, which are associated with a wide range of clinical outcomes. However, understanding these immune heterogeneities and their links to various clinical complications, especially long COVID, remains a challenge. In this study, we performed unsupervised subtyping of longitudinal multi-omics immunophenotyping in over 1,000 hospitalized patients, identifying two critical subtypes linked to mortality or mechanical ventilation with prolonged hospital stay and three severe subtypes associated with timely acute recovery.

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While a live-attenuated Yellow fever (YF) vaccine is known to elicit durable immunity, antibody titers may wane after vaccination. This study evaluated the long-term immunity after vaccination against YF among individuals who reside in Korea and received vaccination with YF virus-17D prior to international travel. Serum was collected between December 2018 and December 2019 at the National Medical Center, Republic of Korea from YF vaccine recipients who were vaccinated more than five years prior to sample collection.

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Article Synopsis
  • Chronic viral infections can reactivate during acute illnesses, and this study looked at how SARS-CoV-2 infection affects latent viruses like Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) in over 1,154 hospitalized COVID-19 patients.* -
  • The analysis showed significant reactivation of multiple virus families during the acute stage of COVID-19, which correlated with disease severity, demographics, and clinical outcomes, including higher mortality rates.* -
  • Additionally, persistent viral reactivation after recovery was linked to ongoing symptoms of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), emphasizing the importance of understanding these interactions for better treatment and management strategies.*
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