Profile of inflammation-associated proteins in early post-transplant samples of patients after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a preliminary study

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) is used as a curative treatment in severe hematological and immunological disorders. Despite clear improvement of the aHSCT outcome, substantial proportion of patients still suffers from severe complications, including graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). The aim of this study was, therefore, to identify inflammation-associated molecules deregulated in the early serum samples of the patients after aHSCT and nominate markers associated with particular aHSCT parameters/complications. Serum concentrations of 92 inflammation-associated proteins were measured in samples obtained from 80 aHSCT patients 14 days after transplantation and from 23 healthy control subjects by a novel sensitive proximity extension assay technology using Proseek Multiplex Inflammation I kit. Serum profiles of inflammatory proteins in patients after aHSCT were substantially different from those observed in control subjects and related to underlying disease status before transplantation. Particularly, the difference between aHSCT patients and controls reached significance level for 57 analytes (40 upregulated, 17 downregulated in aHSCT patients). The concentration of several markers was associated with the level of donor/recipient HLA match (TGF-alpha: P-corr = 0.025, HGF: p(corr) = 0.036) and with complete donor chimerism at day +30 after allografting (DNER: p(corr) = 0.042). None of the markers was significantly associated with acute and chronic GvHD after correction. More than half of investigated proteins significantly differed between the samples from aHSCT patients and healthy control subjects as a consequence of the "cytokine storm'' after aHSCT. Comparisons of patient's subgroups based on specific biological/clinical parameters revealed much less evident differences; nevertheless, we nominated several markers associated with the level of donor/recipient HLA match and post-transplant chimerism.Web of Science64suppl. 1S61S5

Systematic Genomic Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 Virus on Illumina Sequencing Platforms in the Slovak Republic—One Year Experience

To explore a genomic pool of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during the pandemic, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic formed a genomics surveillance workgroup, and the Public Health Authority of the Slovak Republic launched a systematic national epidemiological surveillance using whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Six out of seven genomic centers implementing Illumina sequencing technology were involved in the national SARS-CoV-2 virus sequencing program. Here we analyze a total of 33,024 SARS-CoV-2 isolates collected from the Slovak population from 1 March 2021, to 31 March 2022, that were sequenced and analyzed in a consistent manner. Overall, 28,005 out of 30,793 successfully sequenced samples met the criteria to be deposited in the global GISAID database. During this period, we identified four variants of concern (VOC)—Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.351), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529). In detail, we observed 165 lineages in our dataset, with dominating Alpha, Delta and Omicron in three major consecutive incidence waves. This study aims to describe the results of a routine but high-level SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance program. Our study of SARS-CoV-2 genomes in collaboration with the Public Health Authority of the Slovak Republic also helped to inform the public about the epidemiological situation during the pandemic