IgA and IgG antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 vaccinated health workers by a homemade ELISA diagnostic test

Abstract The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has accelerated vaccine development and testing, an important step in its eradication. Health workers were included among the first subjects to be vaccinated, therefore it was necessary to check their immunological status after the first and second dose of vaccine. Serum samples belonging to 24 health workers undergoing vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) were analysed: for 2 of them it was also possible to obtain a serum sample prior to the first dose of vaccine (zero time); antibody dosing was performed in 18 out of 24 after the first and second vaccination dose; in the remaining 6 healthcare workers a serum sample was obtained only after the second dose. In each serum sample, IgA and IgG antibodies to "Spike Receptor Binding Domain" (RBD) and "Nucleocapsid" (N) proteins were searched by ELISA test. Except for the two subjects for whom it was possible to have a serum sample before vaccination, the others were collected on day 18 from the first dose of vaccine and on day 8 from the second dose. Serum samples collected after the first dose of vaccine showed reactivity to anti-RBD IgG in 11 out of 18 healthcare workers and to IgA in 2 subjects. After the second dose all 24 samples showed the presence of anti-S IgG, while 5 revealed a reactivity for anti-S IgA. Three samples showed reactivity towards anti-N IgG. The ELISA test has shown all its effectiveness in controlling post vaccine immunity and in discriminating natural immunity from vaccine induced immunity

Human Papillomavirus Type Distribution and Correlation with Cyto-Histological Patterns in Women from the South of Italy

Human papillomavirus (HPV) type-specific distribution was evaluated in genital samples collected from 654 women from the South of Italy undergoing voluntary screening and correlated with cyto-histological abnormalities. HPV DNA was detected in 45.9% of the samples, 41.7% of which had multiple infection and 89.0% had high-risk HPV infection. The prevalence of HPV infection and the rate of multiple infections decreased with age, suggesting natural selection of HPV types with better fitness. In line with other Italian studies, the most common HPV types were HPV-6 and HPV-16, followed by HPV-51, HPV-31, HPV-53, and HPV-66, in women with both normal and abnormal cytology. Cervical intraepithelial lesions grade 2 or 3 were associated with high-risk HPV-16, HPV-18, HPV-31, and HPV-51 infection. These data indicate that prophylactic HPV vaccination is expected to reduce the burden of HPV-related cervical lesions in this population, but also suggest the potential utility of new vaccines with larger type coverage

Compositional Data Analysis of 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing Results from Hospital Airborne Microbiome Samples

The compositional analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing datasets is applied to characterize the bacterial structure of airborne samples collected in different locations of a hospital infection disease department hosting COVID-19 patients, as well as to investigate the relationships among bacterial taxa at the genus and species level. The exploration of the centered log-ratio transformed data by the principal component analysis via the singular value decomposition has shown that the collected samples segregated with an observable separation depending on the monitoring location. More specifically, two main sample clusters were identified with regards to bacterial genera (species), consisting of samples mostly collected in rooms with and without COVID-19 patients, respectively. Human pathogenic genera (species) associated with nosocomial infections were mostly found in samples from areas hosting patients, while non-pathogenic genera (species) mainly isolated from soil were detected in the other samples. Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus pettenkoferi, Corynebacterium tuberculostearicum, and jeikeium were the main pathogenic species detected in COVID-19 patients’ rooms. Samples from these locations were on average characterized by smaller richness/evenness and diversity than the other ones, both at the genus and species level. Finally, the ρ metrics revealed that pairwise positive associations occurred either between pathogenic or non-pathogenic taxa

Sclerosi multipla. Le alterazioni metaboliche linfocitarie come potenziale strumento di follow-up della patologia

La Sclerosi Multipla (SM) è una malattia infiammatoria cronica demielinizzante, a carattere autoimmune, che colpisce il Sistema Nervoso Centrale (SNC). Nonostante siano stati effettuati una serie di studi allo scopo di chiarire le cause della patologia, alcuni meccanismi patogenetici restano ancora oscuri e l’eziologia rimane sconosciuta. Il modello murino della malattia, l'encefalopatia autoimmune, ha tuttavia permesso di ricondurre il processo di demielinizzazione all'azione dei linfociti T CD4+ che, una volta attivati, sarebbero in grado di penetrare attraverso la barriera ematoencefalica e di causare danno assonale con conseguente morte di cellule neuronali. L’attivazione delle cellule T è accompagnata da uno shift metabolico che prevede il passaggio da un metabolismo ossidativo energeticamente efficiente ad un programma prettamente glicolitico; nelle malattie autoimmuni i dati in letteratura concernenti il fenotipo metabolico dei linfociti T sono piuttosto esigui e, tuttora, non vi sono lavori condotti a tal riguardo nella SM

Level of Human Immunodeficiency Virus DNA in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Correlates with Efficacy of Antiretroviral Therapy

A novel colorimetric assay was developed and validated for accurate quantitation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). We tested 318 sequential samples from 56 subjects, 53 of whom were undergoing dual or triple therapy. Patients were considered responders when viremia levels were below 5,000 HIV RNA copies/ml. The mean DNA copy numbers for untreated and responder subjects were similar (72 and 75, respectively), while it was 4.54-fold higher for nonresponders (339). This report provides strong evidence that HIV DNA levels in PBMCs correlate with therapeutic efficacy and suggests that DNA quantitation is a useful tool to monitor the decay of the HIV reservoir toward disease remission, especially when viremia is undetectable

The Italian severe/uncontrolled asthma registry (RItA): A 12-month clinical follow-up

Background: follow-up studies on registries of severe/uncontrolled asthma (SUA) patients are scanty. Objective: to analyze baseline and follow-up characteristics of SUA patients and their longitudinal patterns. Methods: 180 adult patients (age ≥15 yrs) were investigated at baseline and 12-month follow-up through the Italian SUA registry (RItA). Latent transition analysis (LTA) was performed to detect cross-sectional SUA phenotypes and longitudinal patterns. Risk factors for longitudinal patterns were assessed through logistic regression. Results: a significant/borderline improvement of asthma control outcomes in the last 2-4 weeks emerged at follow-up with respect to baseline for: daily activities limitations (Δ -16%), frequent diurnal symptoms (Δ -25%), uncontrolled asthma symptoms according to ACT (Δ -26%). Last 12-month use of oral corticosteroids was less frequent at follow-up than at baseline (Δ -25%). Health status improvement was confirmed by lung function test results. Through LTA, two longitudinal patterns were detected considering last 12-month control outcomes: "persistence/worsening" (53.9%), "under control/improvement" (46.1%). A lower likelihood of having "persistence/worsening" SUA was exhibited by patients under anti-IgE (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.17-0.84) and inhaled corticosteroids-bronchodilator association treatment (OR 0.13, 95% CI 0.01-1.26, borderline value), while a higher likelihood was shown by older age at first asthma diagnosis (OR 1.04, 95% CI 1.01-1.07). Conclusion: the implementation of a SUA registry, the availability of patient-level data and the application of an innovative longitudinal analysis allowed to observe a general improvement in asthma control, one year after baseline, and a lower risk of SUA "persistence/worsening" in patients under anti-IgE and regular ICS-bronchodilator association use

Circolazione dei genotipi di Human papilloma Virus (HPV) nell\u27infezione cervico-vaginale nel Salento

Uno studio retrospettivo nelle donne della provincia di lecce sottoposto a test di screening dell\u27infezione da HPV nel periodo 2006 - 2008 ? stato effettuato per stimare la prevalenza globale e per classi di et?; identificare e analizzare i genotipi ad alto e basso rischio e valutare la presenza di infezioni singole e multiple.Uno studio retrospettivo nelle donne della provincia di lecce sottoposto a test di screening dell\u27infezione da HPV nel periodo 2006 - 2008 ? stato effettuato per stimare la prevalenza globale e per classi di et?; identificare e analizzare i genotipi ad alto e basso rischio e valutare la presenza di infezioni singole e multiple