Confirmation of preeclampsia-like syndrome induced by severe COVID-19 : An Observational Study

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some studies have reported an increased preeclampsia (PE) incidence in pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several explanations for this association have been proposed, including a preeclampsia-like syndrome induced by severe COVID-19. This syndrome was described in a small case series and has not been confirmed in larger studies and its impact in perinatal outcomes has not been studied. The aim of this study was to confirm the preeclampsia-like syndrome due to COVID-19 and to investigate its implications in pregnancy outcomes and prognosis. This was a prospective, observational study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital. Inclusion criteria were pregnant women admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for severe pneumonia due to COVID-19. They were classified in three groups based on clinical and laboratory findings: PE, PE-like syndrome, and women without PE features. The three cohorts were analyzed and compared at three different times: before, during and after severe pneumonia. The main outcomes were incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes and signs and symptoms of PE, such as hypertension, proteinuria, thrombocytopenia, elevated liver enzymes and increased angiogenic factors (soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1 to placental growth factor ratio [sFlt-1/PlGF]). A total of 106 women were admitted to Intensive Care Unit due to severe pneumonia and 68 were included in the study. Of those, 53 (50.0%) did not meet the diagnostic criteria for PE and remained pregnant after pneumonia (non-PE), seven (6.6%) met the diagnostic criteria for PE, had abnormal (>38) sFlt-1/PlGF (PE) and delivered during severe pneumonia, and eight (7.5%) met the diagnostic criteria for PE, had normal (≤38) sFlt-1/PlGF (PE-like) and did not deliver during pneumonia. Despite not having delivered, most PE-related features improved after severe pneumonia in women with PE-like syndrome. Women with PE had significantly poorer outcomes than women with PE-like syndrome or without PE. More than 50% of women with severe COVID-19 and diagnostic criteria for PE may not be PE but a PE-like syndrome, which may affect up to 7.5% of women with severe COVID-19. PE-like syndrome might have similar perinatal outcomes to those of normotensive women with severe pneumonia due to COVID-19. For these reasons, PE-like syndrome should be excluded by using sFlt-1/PlGF in future research and before making clinical decisions

Confirmation of preeclampsia-like syndrome induced by severe COVID-19: an observational study

COVID-19; Preeclampsia; PregnancyCOVID-19; Preeclampsia; EmbarazoCOVID-19; Preeclampsia; EmbaràsBACKGROUND Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some studies have reported an increased preeclampsia incidence in pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several explanations for this association have been proposed, including a preeclampsia-like syndrome induced by severe COVID-19. This syndrome was described in a small case series and has not been confirmed in larger studies, and its effect on perinatal outcomes has not been studied. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to confirm the preeclampsia-like syndrome because of COVID-19 and to investigate its implications on pregnancy outcomes and prognosis. STUDY DESIGN This was a prospective, observational study conducted in a tertiary referral hospital. The inclusion criteria were pregnant women admitted to the intensive care unit for severe pneumonia because of COVID-19. They were classified into 3 groups based on clinical and laboratory findings: preeclampsia, preeclampsia-like syndrome, and women without preeclampsia features. The 3 cohorts were analyzed and compared at 3 different times: before, during, and after severe pneumonia. The main outcomes were incidence of adverse perinatal outcomes and signs and symptoms of PE, such as hypertension, proteinuria, thrombocytopenia, elevated liver enzymes, and increased angiogenic factors (soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1–to–placental growth factor ratio). RESULTS A total of 106 women were admitted to the intensive care unit because of severe pneumonia, and 68 women were included in the study. Of those, 53 (50.0%) did not meet the diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia and remained pregnant after pneumonia (non-preeclampsia); 7 (6.6%) met the diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia, had abnormal (>38) soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1–to–placental growth factor ratio (preeclampsia), and delivered during severe pneumonia, and 8 (7.5%) met the diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia, had normal (≤38) soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1–to–placental growth factor ratio (preeclampsia like), and did not deliver during pneumonia. Despite not having delivered, most preeclampsia-related features improved after severe pneumonia in women with preeclampsia-like syndrome. Women with preeclampsia had significantly poorer outcomes than women with preeclampsia-like syndrome or without preeclampsia. CONCLUSION More than 50% of women with severe COVID-19 and diagnostic criteria for preeclampsia may not be preeclampsia but a preeclampsia-like syndrome, which may affect up to 7.5% of women with severe COVID-19. Preeclampsia-like syndrome might have similar perinatal outcomes to those of normotensive women with severe pneumonia because of COVID-19. For these reasons, preeclampsia-like syndrome should be excluded by using soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase 1–to–placental growth factor ratio in future research and before making clinical decisions

MFG-E8 (LACTADHERIN): a novel marker associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Malaltia d'Alzheimer; Biomarcadors; Microdissecció de captura làserAlzheimer's disease; Biomarkers; Laser capture microdissectionEnfermedad de Alzheimer; Biomarcadores; Microdisección por captura láserBrain accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) is a crucial feature in Alzheimer´s disease (AD) and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), although the pathophysiological relationship between these diseases remains unclear. Numerous proteins are associated with Aβ deposited in parenchymal plaques and/or cerebral vessels. We hypothesized that the study of these proteins would increase our understanding of the overlap and biological differences between these two pathologies and may yield new diagnostic tools and specific therapeutic targets. We used a laser capture microdissection approach combined with mass spectrometry in the APP23 transgenic mouse model of cerebral-β-amyloidosis to specifically identify vascular Aβ-associated proteins. We focused on one of the main proteins detected in the Aβ-affected cerebrovasculature: MFG-E8 (milk fat globule-EGF factor 8), also known as lactadherin. We first validated the presence of MFG-E8 in mouse and human brains. Immunofluorescence and immunoblotting studies revealed that MFG-E8 brain levels were higher in APP23 mice than in WT mice. Furthermore, MFG-E8 was strongly detected in Aβ-positive vessels in human postmortem CAA brains, whereas MFG-E8 was not present in parenchymal Aβ deposits. Levels of MFG-E8 were additionally analysed in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients diagnosed with CAA, patients with AD and control subjects. Whereas no differences were found in MFG-E8 serum levels between groups, MFG-E8 concentration was significantly lower in the CSF of CAA patients compared to controls and AD patients. Finally, in human vascular smooth muscle cells MFG-E8 was protective against the toxic effects of the treatment with the Aβ40 peptide containing the Dutch mutation. In summary, our study shows that MFG-E8 is highly associated with CAA pathology and highlights MFG-E8 as a new CSF biomarker that could potentially be used to differentiate cerebrovascular Aβ pathology from parenchymal Aβ deposition.This work was funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), (PI20/00465), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). The Neurovascular Research Laboratory is part of the INVICTUS + network, ISCIII, Spain (RD16/0019/0021). P.M. held a predoctoral fellowship from the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute. MMV is supported by the BIONIC project (no. 733050822, which has been made possible by ZonMW as part of ‘Memorabel’, the research and innovation program for dementia, as part of the Dutch national ‘Deltaplan for Dementia’:the CAFÉ project (the National Institutes of Health, USA, grant number 5R01NS104147-02), and a grant from the Selfridges Group Foundation (NR170024). The BIONIC project is a consortium of Radboudumc, LUMC, ADX Neurosciences, and Rhode Island University

Lysosomal lipid alterations caused by glucocerebrosidase deficiency promote lysosomal dysfunction, chaperone-mediated-autophagy deficiency, and alpha-synuclein pathology

Mutations in the GBA gene that encodes the lysosomal enzyme β-glucocerebrosidase (GCase) are a major genetic risk factor for Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, we generated a set of differentiated and stable human dopaminergic cell lines that express the two most prevalent GBA mutations as well as GBA knockout cell lines as a in vitro disease modeling system to study the relationship between mutant GBA and the abnormal accumulation of α-synuclein. We performed a deep analysis of the consequences triggered by the presence of mutant GBA protein and the loss of GCase activity in different cellular compartments, focusing primarily on the lysosomal compartment, and analyzed in detail the lysosomal activity, composition, and integrity. The loss of GCase activity generates extensive lysosomal dysfunction, promoting the loss of activity of other lysosomal enzymes, affecting lysosomal membrane stability, promoting intralysosomal pH changes, and favoring the intralysosomal accumulation of sphingolipids and cholesterol. These local events, occurring only at a subcellular level, lead to an impairment of autophagy pathways, particularly chaperone-mediated autophagy, the main α-synuclein degradative pathway. The findings of this study highlighted the role of lysosomal function and lipid metabolism in PD and allowed us to describe a molecular mechanism to understand how mutations in GBA can contribute to an abnormal accumulation of different α-synuclein neurotoxic species in PD pathology.The authors wish to thank Dr. Arango (VHIR) for the PX461 vector and all the Vila lab members for their support. This work was supported by the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria-Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Spain)-FEDER (PI17/00496 and PI20/00728), the Michael J. Fox Foundation, the Silverstein Foundation (MJFF 16182), and the BBVA Foundation (NanoERT). M.M. was supported by an FPU doctoral fellowship (FPU18/05595) from MINECO (Spain); J.R. was supported by a PERIS fellowship (Generalitat de Catalunya); E.P. was supported by a VHIR doctoral fellowship (VHIR, Barcelona).Peer reviewe

Soluble Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 as a Prognostic Biomarker for Disease Progression in Patients Infected with SARS-CoV-2

Predicting disease severity in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 is difficult. Soluble angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (sACE2) arises from the shedding of membrane ACE2 (mACE2), which is a receptor for SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. We evaluated the predictive value of sACE2 compared with known biomarkers of inflammation and tissue damage (CRP, GDF-15, IL-6, and sFlt-1) in 850 patients with and without SARS-CoV-2 with different clinical outcomes. For univariate analyses, median differences between biomarker levels were calculated for the following patient groups (classified by clinical outcome): RT-PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 positive (Groups 1–4); RT-PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 negative following previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (Groups 5 and 6); and ‘SARS-CoV-2 unexposed’ patients (Group 7). Median levels of CRP, GDF-15, IL-6, and sFlt-1 were significantly higher in hospitalized patients with SARS-CoV-2 compared with discharged patients (all p < 0.001), whereas levels of sACE2 were significantly lower (p < 0.001). ROC curve analysis of sACE2 provided cut-offs for predicting hospital admission (≤0.05 ng/mL (positive predictive value: 89.1%) and ≥0.42 ng/mL (negative predictive value: 84.0%)). These findings support further investigation of sACE2, as a single biomarker or as part of a panel, to predict hospitalization risk and disease severity in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Mid-trimester uterine artery Doppler for aspirin discontinuation in pregnancies at high risk for preterm pre-eclampsia : Post-hoc analysis of StopPRE trial

Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UABObjective: To assess whether aspirin treatment can be discontinued in pregnancies with normal uterine artery pulsatility index (≤90th percentile) at 24-28 weeks. Design: Post-hoc analysis of a clinical trial. Setting: Nine maternity hospitals in Spain. Population or Sample: Pregnant individuals at high risk of pre-eclampsia at 11-13 weeks and normal uterine artery Doppler at 24-28 weeks. Methods: All participants received treatment with daily aspirin at a dose of 150 mg. Participants were randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, either to continue aspirin treatment until 36 weeks (control group) or to discontinue aspirin treatment (intervention group), between September 2019 and September 2021. In this secondary analysis, women with a UtAPI >90th percentile at 24-28 weeks were excluded. The non-inferiority margin was set at a difference of 1.9% for the incidence of preterm pre-eclampsia. Main outcome measures: Incidence of preterm pre-eclampsia. Results: Of the 1611 eligible women, 139 were excluded for UtAPI >90th percentile or if UtAPI was not available. Finally, 804 were included in this post-hoc analysis. Preterm pre-eclampsia occurred in three of 409 (0.7%) women in the aspirin discontinuation group and five of 395 (1.3%) women in the continuation group (−0.53; 95% CI −1.91 to 0.85), indicating non-inferiority of aspirin discontinuation. Conclusions: Discontinuing aspirin treatment at 24-28 weeks in women with a UtAPI ≤90th percentile was non-inferior to continuing aspirin treatment until 36 weeks for preventing preterm pre-eclampsia

Cross-sectional evaluation of circulating hepatitis B virus RNA and DNA : Different quasispecies?

Different forms of pregenomic and other hepatitis B virus (HBV) RNA have been detected in patients' sera. These circulating HBV-RNAs may be useful for monitoring covalently closed circular DNA activity, and predicting hepatitis B e-antigen seroconversion or viral rebound after nucleos(t)ide analog cessation. Data on serum HBV-RNA quasispecies, however, is scarce. It is therefore important to develop methodologies to thoroughly analyze this quasispecies, ensuring the elimination of any residual HBV-DNA. Studying circulating HBV-RNA quasispecies may facilitate achieving functional cure of HBV infection. To establish a next-generation sequencing (NGS) methodology for analyzing serum HBV-RNA and comparing it with DNA quasispecies. Thirteen untreated chronic hepatitis B patients, showing different HBV-genotypes and degrees of severity of liver disease were enrolled in the study and a serum sample with HBV-DNA > 5 LogIU/mL and HBV-RNA > 4 Logcopies/mL was taken from each patient. HBV-RNA was treated with DNAse I to remove any residual DNA, and the region between nucleotides (nt) 1255-1611 was amplified using a 3-nested polymerase chain reaction protocol, and analyzed with NGS. Variability/conservation and complexity was compared between HBV-DNA and RNA quasispecies. No HBV-DNA contamination was detected in cDNA samples from HBV-RNA quasispecies. HBV quasispecies complexity showed heterogeneous behavior among patients. The Rare Haplotype Load at 1% was greater in DNA than in RNA quasispecies, with no statistically significant differences (P = 0.1641). Regarding conservation, information content was equal in RNA and DNA quasispecies in most nt positions [218/357 (61.06%)]. In 102 of the remaining 139 (73.38%), HBV-RNA showed slightly higher variability. Sliding window analysis identified 4 hyper-conserved sequence fragments in each quasispecies, 3 of them coincided between the 2 quasispecies: nts 1258-1286, 1545-1573 and 1575-1604. The 2 hyper-variable sequence fragments also coincided: nts 1311-1344 and 1461-1485. Sequences between nts 1519-1543 and 1559-1587 were only hyper-conserved in HBV-DNA and RNA, respectively. Our methodology allowed analyzing HBV-RNA quasispecies complexity and conservation without interference from HBV-DNA. Thanks to this, we have been able to compare both quasispecies in the present study