Immunogenicity and crossreactivity of antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2: utility and limitations in seroprevalence and immunity studies.

COVID-19 patients elicit strong responses to the nucleocapsid (N) protein of SARS-CoV-2 but binding antibodies are also detected in prepandemic individuals, indicating potential crossreactivity with common cold human coronaviruses (HCoV) and questioning its utility in seroprevalence studies. We investigated the immunogenicity of the full-length and shorter fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 N protein, and the crossreactivity of antibodies with HCoV. We identified a C-terminus region in SARS-CoV2 N of minimal sequence homology with HCoV that was more specific for SARS-CoV-2 and highly immunogenic.

Stewardship in sepsis.

Sepsis is the major cause of mortality from any infectious disease worldwide. The goals of antimicrobial stewardship are to achieve optimum clinical outcomes and to ensure cost effectiveness and minimum unintended consequences, including toxic effects, selection of pathogenic organisms, and resistance. The combination of inadequate diagnostic criteria for sepsis with the extraordinary time pressure to provide broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy is troubling from a stewardship perspective.

Antifungal prophylaxis with anidulafungin to minimize drug interactions with an antiepileptic treatment in a hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient.

What Is Known And Objective: Invasive fungal infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). This provides a clear rationale for antifungal prophylaxis in this population. A concern is the potential for drug interactions, given that most of antifungals are metabolized through the P450 cytochrome system.