Article
Virology
Philippe Colson, Gwilherm Penant, Jeremy Delerce, Celine Boschi, Nathalie Wurtz, Marielle Bedotto, Stephanie Branger, Philippe Brouqui, Philippe Parola, Jean-Christophe Lagier, Nadim Cassir, Herve Tissot-Dupont, Matthieu Million, Sarah Aherfi, Bernard La Scola
Summary: A large outbreak of Monkeypox virus (MPXV) infections occurred in nonendemic countries in May 2022. DNA metagenomics using next-generation sequencing was performed on clinical samples from MPXV-infected patients diagnosed between June and July 2022. The study identified 18 MPXV genomes classified in clade IIb, lineage B.1, with four B.1 sublineages. The genomes showed a high number of mutations compared to previous genomes, including nonsynonymous mutations in genes encoding central proteins and the presence of bacterial superinfection in some patients.
JOURNAL OF MEDICAL VIROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Oncology
Divya Natesan, Li Zhang, Henry J. Martell, Tanya Jindal, Patrick Devine, Bradley Stohr, Carlos Espinosa-Mendez, James Grenert, Jessica Van Ziffle, Nancy Joseph, Sarah Umetsu, Courtney Onodera, Michelle Turski, Emily Chan, Arpita Desai, Rahul Aggarwal, Anthony Wong, Sima Porten, Jonathan Chou, Terence Friedlander, Lawrence Fong, Eric J. Small, Alejandro Sweet-Cordero, Vadim S. Koshkin
Summary: This study investigates the prognostic and predictive value of tumor mutational burden (TMB) and APOBEC mutational signatures in advanced urothelial carcinoma (aUC) patients. The results suggest that high TMB and APOBEC mutational signatures are associated with improved overall survival and predict inferior outcomes with chemotherapy treatment.
FRONTIERS IN ONCOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Oncology
Juan A. Santamaria-Barria, Chikako Matsuba, Adam Khader, Anthony J. Scholar, Mary Garland-Kledzik, Trevan D. Fischer, Richard Essner, Matthew P. Salomon, Joshua M. V. Mammen, Melanie Goldfarb
Summary: This study analyzed melanoma samples and identified age-related mutational differences, as well as potential targetable mutations for personalized therapies.
JOURNAL OF SURGICAL ONCOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Dathan M. Byonanebye, Mark N. Polizzotto, Rosalind Parkes-Ratanshi, Joseph Musaazi, Kathy Petoumenos, Barbara Castelnuovo
Summary: This study examined the prevalence and incidence of hypertension in people living with HIV (PLWH) with more than 10 years of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Uganda. The results showed a high rate of hypertension in PLWH who received ART for a long duration. Therefore, HIV programs in sub-Saharan Africa should strengthen hypertension screening for heavily treated PLWH.
Article
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
Kristen Allison Perry-Dow, Tom J. B. de Man, Alison Laufer Halpin, Alicia M. Shams, Laura J. Rose, Judith A. Noble-Wang
Summary: The study aimed to characterize the microbial communities of disinfected healthcare surfaces using next generation sequencing technology. Results showed that disinfectant products may impact the healthcare environment microbiome, with rooms cleaned with bleach containing a higher proportion of gram-positive microbiota compared to those cleaned with a quaternary ammonium compound. Overall agreement between culture and sequence methods for detecting target pathogens ranged from 52%-88%.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INFECTION CONTROL
(2022)
Article
Immunology
Nicolas A. Margot, Vidula Naik, Laurie VanderVeen, Olena Anoshchenko, Renu Singh, Hadas Dvory-Sobol, Martin S. Rhee, Christian Callebaut
Summary: Addition of lenacapavir to optimized background regimen resulted in significant viral suppression in highly treatment-experienced people with multidrug-resistant HIV. However, the unintentional use of lenacapavir as monotherapy led to the development of resistance.
JOURNAL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2022)
Article
Health Care Sciences & Services
Cecilia Pop-Bica, Cristina Alexandra Ciocan, Cornelia Braicu, Antonia Harangus, Marioara Simon, Andreea Nutu, Laura Ancuta Pop, Ondrej Slaby, Atanas G. Atanasov, Radu Pirlog, Nadim Al Hajjar, Ioana Berindan-Neagoe
Summary: This study investigated the genetic profile of lung cancer using TCGA datasets and NGS experiments, revealing differences in mutational landscape among histotypes. The findings suggest that certain genetic alterations may be correlated with patient survival rates.
JOURNAL OF PERSONALIZED MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Ricky K. Hsu, Jennifer S. Fusco, Cassidy E. Henegar, Vani Vannappagari, Andrew Clark, Laurence Brunet, Philip C. Lackey, Gerald Pierone, Gregory P. Fusco
Summary: This study aimed to compare clinical outcomes between heavily treatment-experienced (HTE) and non-HTE people living with HIV (PLWH). The results showed that HTE PLWH had worse treatment outcomes compared to non-HTE PLWH, suggesting the need for additional therapeutic options for this vulnerable population.
BMC INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Zihan Zhou, Peifeng Li, Xianbin Zhang, Juan Xu, Jin Xu, Shui Yu, Dongqing Wang, Wei Dong, Xiujuan Cao, Hongjiang Yan, Mingping Sun, Xiuping Ding, Jun Xing, Peng Zhang, Limin Zhai, Tingyong Fan, Shiyu Tian, Xinhua Yang, Man Hu
Summary: A comprehensive mutational landscape of nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors was drawn in this study, identifying the top 20 most frequently mutated genes and predictors such as N stage, tumor mutational burden (TMB), PIK3CA, and SF3B1. A novel four predictor-based prognostic model was established, showing superior predictive capacity compared to the TNM stage model. Patients with tumors harboring PI3K/AKT or RAS pathway mutations were found to have worse distant metastasis-free survival than those with wild-type counterparts.
MOLECULAR MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Sarah-Jane Anderson, Alexander van Doornewaard, Matthew Turner, Ian Jacob, Andrew Clark, Dominy Browning, Melanie Schroeder
Summary: This study compared the treatment outcomes of heavily treatment-experienced people with multidrug-resistant HIV-1 using an indirect comparison analysis. The results showed that the combination of fostemsavir and optimized background therapy achieved sustained virologic and immunologic responses throughout 96 weeks. These findings support the importance of fostemsavir and OBT as a treatment option for individuals with multidrug-resistant HIV-1.
CLINICAL THERAPEUTICS
(2022)
Article
Genetics & Heredity
Ammal Abbasi, Ludmil B. Alexandrov
Summary: NGS has been crucial in characterizing the genomic landscape and genetic heterogeneity of human cancer, identifying patterns of somatic mutations, and deciphering mutational signatures which serve as molecular footprints of exposures to environmental factors and deficiencies in DNA replication and repair pathways. Different NGS technologies have inherent biases and technical artifacts which can complicate the extraction of reliable mutational signatures.
Article
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Marius Ilie, Jonathan Benzaquen, Veronique Hofman, Elodie Long-Mira, Sandra Lassalle, Jacques Boutros, Christophe Bontoux, Virginie Lespinet-Fabre, Olivier Bordone, Virginie Tanga, Maryline Allegra, Myriam Salah, Julien Fayada, Sylvie Leroy, Matteo Vassallo, Irit Touitou, Johan Courjon, Julie Contenti, Michel Carles, Charles-Hugo Marquette, Paul Hofman
Summary: As new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge, it is important to improve the efficiency and availability of viral genome sequencing, especially in samples with low viral load. In this study, retrospective SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing was performed on 175 positive samples, and the analysis successfully detected Delta and Omicron variants in low viral load samples. The results showed that there was no significant difference in viral load between patients infected with the Omicron variant and those infected with the Delta variant.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES
(2023)
Article
Microbiology
Ellen C. Carbo, Anne Russcher, Margriet E. M. Kraakman, Caroline S. de Brouwer, Igor A. Sidorov, Mariet C. W. Feltkamp, Aloys C. M. Kroes, Eric C. J. Claas, Jutte J. C. de Vries
Summary: In this study, the mNGS approach was used for the identification and load monitoring of transplantation-related DNA viruses in immunocompromised patients. The results showed that the mNGS method performed comparably to qPCR in detection and viral load determination.
Article
Medicine, Research & Experimental
Kailian Zheng, Tao Liu, Jiangman Zhao, Peng Meng, Yun Bian, Chenming Ni, Huan Wang, Yaqi Pan, Shouxin Wu, Hui Jiang, Gang Jin
Summary: This study provided a comprehensive mutational profile of PNET patients and identified distinct mutational features in patients with liver metastasis, suggesting potential targets for drug development in the treatment of PNET.
EXPERIMENTAL AND THERAPEUTIC MEDICINE
(2021)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Jingying Xu, Qian Huang, Jianhua Yu, Shourong Liu, Zongxing Yang, Fei Wang, Yue Shi, Er Li, Zhaoyi Li, Yunlei Xiao
Summary: This study explored the applicability of mNGS as a diagnostic tool for suspected opportunistic infections in HIV patients. The results showed that mNGS had a higher detection rate for fungi and nontuberculous mycobacteria compared to CMTs. The sensitivity of mNGS was high for detecting fungi, bacteria, nontuberculous mycobacteria, and viruses. The combination of mNGS and CMTs may be the best diagnosis strategy.
INFECTION AND DRUG RESISTANCE
(2022)
Article
Parasitology
Serena Marchi, Filippo Dragoni, Adele Boccuto, Olubukola T. Idoko, Maurizio Zazzi, Samba Sow, Aldiouma Diallo, Simonetta Viviani, Emanuele Montomoli, Ilaria Vicenti, Claudia Maria Trombetta
Summary: Genetic and phylogenetic studies have found that Zika virus (ZIKV) has two major lineages, African and Asian, but it is described as a single serotype. This study evaluated the cross-neutralization between ZIKV strains from the African and Asian lineages. The results showed that samples with neutralizing antibodies against the African lineage strain also had neutralizing activity against the Asian lineage strain, although with lower titers. The differences in neutralizing activity were attributed to approximately 120 amino acid differences between the two strains. However, all samples still had neutralizing antibody titers considered to be protective.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Valentina Da Prat, Laura Galli, Paola Cichero, Barbara Castiglioni, Chiara Oltolini, Chiara Tassan Din, Andrea Andolina, Elena Bruzzesi, Andrea Poli, Matteo Moro, Nicasio Mancini, Massimo Clementi, Moreno Tresoldi, Antonella Castagna, Paolo Scarpellini, Marco Ripa
Summary: In a setting with high antibiotic resistance, IDC and RDTs are associated with earlier prescription of appropriate therapy in GNBSIs, without impact on mortality.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
(2023)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Rossana Scutari, Laura Galli, Claudia Alteri, Andrea Poli, Lorenzo Piermatteo, Alba Bigoloni, Carlo Federico Perno, Adriano Lazzarin, Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein, Antonella Castagna, Maria Mercedes Santoro, Nicola Gianotti
Summary: This study investigated HIV-DNA and residual viremia levels over 96 weeks in virologically-suppressed HIV-1-infected individuals. The results showed a small reduction in HIV-DNA and RV levels at W96 in individuals who switched to the E/C/F/TAF arm compared to those who remained on the DTG + 1 RTI arm. However, there were no significant differences between the two arms in the changes in HIV-DNA and HIV-RNA over time.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS
(2023)
Editorial Material
Infectious Diseases
Arturo Ciccullo, Gianmaria Baldin, Gaetana Sterrantino, Giordano Madeddu, Gabriella D'ettorre, Cristina Mussini, Simona Di Giambenedetto
JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL CHEMOTHERAPY
(2023)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Daniele Armenia, Maria M. Santoro, Charlotte Charpentier, Ada Bertoli, Federica Forbici, Vincent Calvez, Diane Descamps, Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein, Anne-Genevieve Marcelin, Philippe Flandre
Summary: This study aimed to evaluate integrase resistance and its predictors in HIV-1 infected individuals who failed a dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy. Major resistance mutations and genotypic susceptibility score were analyzed. The results showed that INSTI resistance was low and mainly related to previous first-generation INSTI exposure. Monitoring integrase resistance is crucial to preserve the efficacy of INSTI class in the future.
JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL CHEMOTHERAPY
(2023)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Tommaso Clemente, Roberta Caccia, Laura Galli, Andrea Galli, Andrea Poli, Giulia Carla Marchetti, Alessandra Bandera, Maurizio Zazzi, Maria Mercedes Santoro, Paola Cinque, Antonella Castagna, Vincenzo Spagnuolo
Summary: This study measured inflammation, immune activation, and microbial translocation biomarkers in four-class drug-resistant (4DR) people living with HIV (PLWH). The results showed that 4DR-PLWH with detectable viremia had the highest biomarker concentrations. The study also found an association between viremia and increased expression of CD38/HLA-DR and PD-1 on CD4+ and CD8+ cells. Therefore, therapeutic approaches to reduce inflammation and T-cell exhaustion in 4DR-PLWH need to be investigated.
JOURNAL OF INFECTION
(2023)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Valeria Cento, Luna Colagrossi, Irene Bossi, Daniele Armenia, Alice Nava, Enrico Piccinelli, Alessandro Maloberti, Elvira Inglese, Elisa Matarazzo, Federica Di Ruscio, Pierpaolo Paba, Fabbio Marcuccilli, Marco Perrone, Gaetano Chiricolo, Claudia Alteri, Francesco Scaglione, Chiara Vismara, Daniela A. Campisi, Diana Fanti, Francesco Romeo, Massimo Andreoni, Fabrizio Oliva, Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein, Cristina Giannattasio, Carlo F. Perno
Summary: This study aimed to investigate the role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The study found that CMV-IgG seroprevalence was high in patients with heart diseases, and the presence of CMV-DNA in coronary circulation may indicate the trigger of ACS. These results suggest that CMV may play a role in the development of ACS.
Article
Virology
Massimiliano Fabbiani, Melissa Masini, Barbara Rossetti, Arturo Ciccullo, Vanni Borghi, Filippo Lagi, Amedeo Capetti, Manuela Colafigli, Francesca Panza, Gianmaria Baldin, Cristina Mussini, Gaetana Sterrantino, Damiano Farinacci, Francesca Montagnani, Mario Tumbarello, Simona Di Giambenedetto
Summary: In this retrospective multicenter study, the efficacy and durability of dolutegravir and darunavir were compared in advanced naive patients with AIDS or late-presenting HIV infection. The results showed that there was no significant difference in treatment efficacy between dolutegravir and darunavir, but dolutegravir had a higher risk of central nervous system toxicity, while darunavir was more likely to lead to treatment simplification.
Article
Immunology
Lorenzo Piermatteo, Stefano D'Anna, Ada Bertoli, Maria Bellocchi, Luca Carioti, Lavinia Fabeni, Mohammad Alkhatib, Simone La Frazia, Miriam Lichtner, Claudio Mastroianni, Giuseppe De Sanctis, Massimo Marignani, Caterina Pasquazzi, Nerio Iapadre, Giustino Parruti, Giuseppina Cappiello, Jacopo Vecchiet, Vincenzo Malagnino, Sandro Grelli, Francesca Ceccherini-Silbertein, Massimo Andreoni, Loredana Sarmati, Valentina Svicher, Romina Salpini
Summary: 17.7% of HBV-D infected patients carry at least one vaccine-escape mutation, and the proportion of patients with complex mutations is increasing over time. Complex mutations are associated with lower HBsAg levels and HBsAg negativity despite HBV-DNA positivity.
EMERGING MICROBES & INFECTIONS
(2023)
Article
Immunology
Ilaria Vicenti, Monica Basso, Nicole Pirola, Beatrice Bragato, Maria Cristina Rossi, Mario Giobbia, Susanna Pascoli, Antonio Vinci, Sara Caputo, Ilenia Varasi, Camilla Biba, Lia Fiaschi, Maurizio Zazzi, Saverio Giuseppe Parisi
Summary: This prospective observational study aimed to determine the response against the B.1 and BA.5 lineages in HIV-infected patients after the third BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine dose. The study found that all subjects had detectable neutralizing antibodies against B.1, but only 88 subjects had antibodies against BA.5. The titers of antibodies to B.1 were significantly higher than those to BA.5, and there was a strong positive correlation between the two.
Article
Infectious Diseases
Barbara Rossetti, Francesca Incardona, Giulia Di Teodoro, Chiara Mommo, Francesco Saladini, Rolf Kaiser, Anders Sonnerborg, Thomas Lengauer, Maurizio Zazzi
Summary: The EuResist cohort, established in 2006, aims to develop a clinical decision-support tool for predicting the most effective antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients based on their clinical and virological data. It has expanded its activities to study antiretroviral treatment resistance and virus evolution. The cohort has retrospectively enrolled HIV patients from 1998 and released a treatment-response prediction system in 2008. With the support of artificial intelligence, EuResist will continue to investigate clinical response to antiretroviral treatment and monitor HIV drug resistance.
TROPICAL MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASE
(2023)
Article
Infectious Diseases
S. Elen, P. Bjorkman, M. Zazzi, M. Bohm, E. Bernal, A. Sonnerborg, O. Elvstam, EuResist Network Study Grp
Summary: This study aims to investigate the longitudinal patterns of viraemia in people with HIV and low-level viraemia (LLV) during antiretroviral therapy (ART) and identify factors associated with viral suppression. The results show that most people with LLV did not experience sustained viral suppression during the 24-month follow-up, which is associated with inferior treatment outcome.
Article
Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Applications
Nicholas I-Hsien Kuo, Federico Garcia, Anders Soennerborg, Michael Boehm, Rolf Kaiser, Maurizio Zazzi, Mark EuResist Network study Grp, Mark Polizzotto, Louisa Jorm, Sebastiano Barbieri
Summary: This study proposes an extension to the GAN framework that incorporates a VAE and an external memory mechanism to overcome the limitations faced by GANs in healthcare. The proposed method generates synthetic data that accurately describe imbalanced class distributions commonly found in clinical variables, with low patient disclosure risk and high utility for downstream machine learning models.
JOURNAL OF BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS
(2023)
Article
Virology
Joseph Fokam, Collins Ambe Chenwi, Valere Tala, Desire Takou, Maria Mercedes Santoro, George Teto, Beatrice Dambaya, Felix Anubodem, Ezechiel Ngoufack Jagni Semengue, Grace Beloumou, Sandrine Djupsa, Edgar Assomo, Charles Fokunang, Claudia Alteri, Serge Billong, Nounouce Pamen Bouba, Rogers Ajeh, Vittorio Colizzi, Dora Mbanya, Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein, Carlo-Federico Perno, Alexis Ndjolo
Summary: This study described the patterns and factors influencing drug resistance in first-line antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon, and highlighted the poor efficacy of certain regimens in two regions of the country. The findings support the urgent need for a transition to NNRTI-sparing regimens, with TDF-3TC-DTG being recommended as the optimal option.
Article
Virology
Maria Concetta Bellocchi, Rossana Scutari, Luca Carioti, Marco Iannetta, Greta Marchegiani, Lorenzo Piermatteo, Luigi Coppola, Simona Tedde, Leonardo Duca, Vincenzo Malagnino, Lorenzo Ansaldo, Neva Braccialarghe, Stefano D'Anna, Maria Mercedes Santoro, Andrea Di Lorenzo, Romina Salpini, Elisabetta Teti, Valentina Svicher, Massimo Andreoni, Loredana Sarmati, Francesca Ceccherini-Silberstein, PTV UTV ID COVID Grp
Summary: In this study, the authors investigated the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in Italy and their association with viral load, N-glycosylation pattern, hospitalization, and vaccination. They found that different variants showed varying rates of hospitalization and that vaccination reduced the occurrence of atypical mutations. However, vaccinated individuals who required hospitalization had increased atypical variability. The study also identified a few samples with different N-glycosylation patterns, and minor atypical mutations were associated with higher viral load and longer duration of infection.
Review
Infectious Diseases
Allison M. Hitchcock, Wesley D. Kufel, Keri A. Mastro Dwyer, Eric F. Sidman
Summary: Lenacapavir is a novel HIV-1 treatment option for patients with multidrug-resistant (MDR) HIV-1 infection. It has a favorable pharmacokinetic profile and has shown good tolerability and efficacy in clinical trials.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS
(2024)
Article
Infectious Diseases
Roberta Gagliardini, Alessandro Tavelli, Stefano Rusconi, Sergio Lo Caputo, Vincenzo Spagnuolo, Maria Mercedes Santoro, Andrea Costantini, Alessandra Vergori, Franco Maggiolo, Andrea Giacomelli, Giulia Burastero, Giordano Madeddu, Eugenia Quiros Roldan, Antonella d'Arminio Monforte, Andrea Antinori, Alessandro Cozzi-Lepri
Summary: This study evaluated multiple treatment failures to modern antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected individuals and found that approximately 4% of them were difficult to treat. The difficult to treat group, compared to the non-difficult to treat group, was characterized by older age, higher prevalence of AIDS, lower CD4+ cell count, and higher risk of treatment failure.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS
(2024)