A Phase III, randomized study to evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of an MF59®-adjuvanted A/H1N1 pandemic influenza vaccine in HIV-positive adults

AbstractBackground and aimsAntibody responses to vaccines are suboptimal in immunosuppressed HIV-positive individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the potential benefits of MF59® adjuvant or a second A/H1N1 influenza vaccine dose in HIV-positive adults.MethodHIV-positive adults (n=61) and HIV-negative controls (n=93) aged 18–60years received two doses of A/H1N1, either as MF59-adjuvanted A/H1N1 pandemic vaccine, or as part of a unadjuvanted seasonal influenza vaccine containing the pandemic strain. Immunogenicity was assessed against the vaccine strain, A/California/7/2009, by haemagglutination inhibition (HI) assay three weeks after the administration of each vaccine dose. Local and systemic reactions were recorded for three days after each vaccination. Unsolicited adverse events were recorded throughout the six-week study period.ResultsBoth adjuvanted and unadjuvanted vaccines met the European licensure criteria in HIV-positive and HIV-negative study groups after a single dose. Lower antibody titres were observed with both adjuvanted and unadjuvanted vaccine in HIV-positive compared to HIV-negative subjects. A second dose of either vaccine did not compensate for the lower response of HIV-infected subjects. In HIV-positive subjects, CD4+ T cell counts and levels of CD38 expression on CD8+ T cells remained stable throughout the study period. Both vaccine formulations were generally well tolerated, with no increased reactogenicity observed in response to the adjuvanted vaccine.ConclusionAntibody responses in HIV-positive subjects were acceptable but lower than those in healthy control subjects, whether subjects were immunized with one or two doses of adjuvanted or unadjuvanted vaccine. Vaccination did not affect rates of HIV replication, CD4+ T cells counts, or levels of CD38 expression among patients under successful antiretroviral treatment

Abstracts

Resumos, em língua inglesa, dos artigos publicados nesta edição.Resumos, para a língua inglesa, dos artigos publicados nesta edição

DNA Barcoding Bromeliaceae: Achievements and Pitfalls

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>DNA barcoding has been successfully established in animals as a tool for organismal identification and taxonomic clarification. Slower nucleotide substitution rates in plant genomes have made the selection of a DNA barcode for land plants a much more difficult task. The Plant Working Group of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) recommended the two-marker combination <em>rbcL</em>/<em>matK</em> as a pragmatic solution to a complex trade-off between universality, sequence quality, discrimination, and cost.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principal Findings</h3><p>It is expected that a system based on any one, or a small number of plastid genes will fail within certain taxonomic groups with low amounts of plastid variation, while performing well in others. We tested the effectiveness of the proposed CBOL Plant Working Group barcoding <em>markers</em> for land plants in identifying 46 bromeliad species, a group rich in endemic species from the endangered Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest. Although we obtained high quality sequences with the suggested primers, species discrimination in our data set was only 43.48%. Addition of a third marker, <em>trnH–psbA</em>, did not show significant improvement. This species identification failure in Bromeliaceaecould also be seen in the analysis of the GenBank's <em>matK</em> data set. Bromeliaceae's sequence divergence was almost three times lower than the observed for Asteraceae and Orchidaceae. This low variation rate also resulted in poorly resolved tree topologies. Among the three Bromeliaceae subfamilies sampled, Tillandsioideae was the only one recovered as a monophyletic group with high bootstrap value (98.6%). Species paraphyly was a common feature in our sampling.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>Our results show that although DNA barcoding is an important tool for biodiversity assessment, it tends to fail in taxonomy complicated and recently diverged plant groups, such as Bromeliaceae. Additional research might be needed to develop markers capable to discriminate species in these complex botanical groups.</p> </div

Photobiomodulation reduces the cytokine storm syndrome associated with Covid-19 in the zebrafish model

Although the exact mechanism of the pathogenesis of COVID-19 is not fully understood, oxidative stress and the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines have been highlighted as playing a vital role in the pathogenesis of the disease. In this sense, alternative treatments are needed to reduce the inflammation caused by COVID-19. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the potential effect of red PBM as an attractive therapy to downregulate the cytokine storm caused by COVID-19 from a zebrafish model. RT-PCR analyses and protein-protein interaction prediction among SARS-CoV-2 and Danio rerio proteins showed that rSpike was responsible for generating systemic inflammatory processes with significantly increased pro-inflammatory (il1b, il6, tnfa, and nfkbiab), oxidative stress (romo1) and energy metabolism (slc2a1a, coa1) mRNA markers, with a pattern like those observed in COVID-19 cases in humans. On the other hand, PBM treatment decreased the mRNA levels of these pro-inflammatory and oxidative stress markers compared with rSpike in various tissues, promoting an anti-inflammatory response. Conversely, PBM promotes cellular and tissue repair of injured tissues and significantly increases the survival rate of rSpike-inoculated individuals. Additionally, metabolomics analysis showed that the most impacted metabolic pathways between PBM and the rSpike-treated groups were related to steroid metabolism, immune system, and lipids metabolism. Together, our findings suggest that the inflammatory process is an incisive feature of COVID-19, and red PBM can be used as a novel therapeutic agent for COVID-19 by regulating the inflammatory response. Nevertheless, the need for more clinical trials remains, and there is a significant gap to overcome before clinical trials.publishedVersio

Spatial Evaluation and Modeling of Dengue Seroprevalence and Vector Density in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dengue is a major public health problem in many tropical regions of the world, including Brazil, where Aedes aegypti is the main vector. We present a household study that combines data on dengue fever seroprevalence, recent dengue infection, and vector density, in three neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during its most devastating dengue epidemic to date. This integrated entomological–serological survey showed evidence of silent transmission even during a severe epidemic. Also, past exposure to dengue virus was highly associated with age and living in areas of high movement of individuals and social/commercial activity. No association was observed between household infestation index and risk of dengue infection in these areas. Our findings are discussed in the light of current theories regarding transmission thresholds and relative role of mosquitoes and humans as vectors of dengue viruses