Universal hepatitis C virus screening and treatment as part of prenatal care
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The Frequency and Function of NKG2C+CD57+ Adaptive NK Cells in Cytomagalovirus Co-Infected People Living with HIV Decline with Duration of Antiretroviral Therapy
Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection drives the expansion and differentiation of natural killer (NK) cells with adaptive-like features. We investigated whether age and time on antiretroviral therapy (ART) influenced adaptive NK cell frequency and functionality. Flow cytometry was used to evaluate the frequency of adaptive and conventional NK cells in 229 CMV^(+) individuals of whom 170 were people living with HIV (PLWH). The frequency of these NK cell populations producing CD107a, CCL4, IFN-γ...
Humoral Responses against BQ.1.1 Elicited after Breakthrough Infection and SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccination
The Omicron BQ.1.1 variant is now the major SARS-CoV-2 circulating strain in many countries. Because of the many mutations present in its Spike glycoprotein, this variant is resistant to humoral responses elicited by monovalent mRNA vaccines. With the goal to improve immune responses against Omicron subvariants, bivalent mRNA vaccines have recently been approved in several countries. In this study, we measure the capacity of plasma from vaccinated individuals, before and after a fourth dose of...
Phenotypic characterization of single CD4+ T cells harboring genetically intact and inducible HIV genomes
The phenotype of the rare HIV-infected cells persisting during antiretroviral therapies (ART) remains elusive. We developed a single-cell approach that combines the phenotypic analysis of HIV-infected cells with near full-length sequencing of their associated proviruses to characterize the viral reservoir in 6 male individuals on suppressive ART. We show that individual cells carrying clonally expanded identical proviruses display very diverse phenotypes, indicating that cellular proliferation...
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Increases Cardiovascular Risk in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of cardiovascular risk should be targeted in IBD patients with NAFLD, particularly if they have longer IBD duration and ulcerative colitis.
Does opioid agonist treatment reduce overdose mortality risk in people who are older or have physical comorbidities? Cohort study using linked administrative health data in New South Wales, Australia, 2002-17
CONCLUSIONS: Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) appears to reduce mortality risk in people with opioid use disorder who are older or who have physical comorbidities. Opioid overdose mortality during OAT with buprenorphine appears to be lower and reduced in clients with circulatory and respiratory diseases compared with OAT with methadone.
Infection of the Ex Vivo Tonsil Model by HTLV-1 Envelope-Pseudotyped Viruses
Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is the causal agent of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma and HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis. Its tropism is known to be broad in cultured cell lines, while in vivo data support a more selective transmission toward CD4+ T cells and the limited targeting of other hematopoietic cell types. An essential condition for HTLV-1 infection is cell-to-cell contact, to which both virological synapse and viral biofilm have been suggested to...
Genomic Sequencing from Sputum for Tuberculosis Disease Diagnosis, Lineage Determination, and Drug Susceptibility Prediction
Universal access to drug susceptibility testing for newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients is recommended. Access to culture-based diagnostics remains limited, and targeted molecular assays are vulnerable to emerging resistance mutations. Improved protocols for direct-from-sputum Mycobacterium tuberculosis sequencing would accelerate access to comprehensive drug susceptibility testing and molecular typing. We assessed a thermo-protection buffer-based direct-from-sample M. tuberculosis...
Label-Free SERS for Rapid Differentiation of SARS-CoV-2-Induced Serum Metabolic Profiles in Non-Hospitalized Adults
COVID-19 represents a multi-system infectious disease with broad-spectrum manifestations, including changes in host metabolic processes connected to the disease pathogenesis. Understanding biochemical dysregulation patterns as a consequence of COVID-19 illness promises to be crucial for tracking disease course and clinical outcomes. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has attracted considerable interest in biomedical diagnostics for the sensitive detection of intrinsic profiles of unique...
HCV treatment initiation in the era of universal direct acting antiviral coverage - Improvements in access and persistent barriers
CONCLUSION: Treatment initiation rates have increased since the introduction of universal DAA coverage, though barriers such as incarceration persist.
Experience of LGBTQIA2S+ populations with gambling during the COVID-19 pandemic: protocol for a mixed-methods study
INTRODUCTION: Research undertaken since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided us information about the impact of the pandemic on the gambling habits of the general population. However, very little is known about certain subgroups at increased risk of developing gambling disorder, such as the LGBTQIA2S+ population. The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on gambling behaviours among LGBTQIA2S+ individuals. In addition, we want to understand the...
Assessment of the longitudinal humoral response in non-hospitalized SARS-CoV-2-positive individuals at decentralized sites: Outcomes and concordance
INTRODUCTION: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, reagent availability was not uniform, and infrastructure had to be urgently adapted to undertake COVID-19 surveillance.
CD4/CD8 ratio outcome according to the class of the third active drug in antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens: results from the Quebec Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Cohort Study
CONCLUSION: For people treated for HIV, INSTI-based ART appears to be associated with higher CD4/CD8 ratio than NNRTI and PI-based ART.
Influence of letermovir treatment on gut inflammation in people living with HIV on antiretroviral therapy: protocol of the open-label controlled randomised CIAO study
INTRODUCTION: Chronic cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is very frequent in people living with HIV (PLWH). High anti-CMV IgG titres, which may be linked to transient CMV replication, have been associated with earlier mortality, CD8 T-cell expansion, lower CD4/CD8 ratio and increased T-cell senescence. We previously showed that anti-CMV IgG titres correlated with gut permeability in PLWH on antiretroviral therapy (ART), which was associated with microbial translocation, systemic inflammation and...
Spike recognition and neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants elicited after the third dose of mRNA vaccine
Several severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron subvariants have recently emerged, becoming the dominant circulating strains in many countries. These variants contain a large number of mutations in their spike glycoprotein, raising concerns about vaccine efficacy. In this study, we evaluate the ability of plasma from a cohort of individuals that received three doses of mRNA vaccine to recognize and neutralize these Omicron subvariant spikes. We observed that BA.4/5...
Digital cough monitoring - A potential predictive acoustic biomarker of clinical outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients
PURPOSE: Recent developments in the field of artificial intelligence and acoustics have made it possible to objectively monitor cough in clinical and ambulatory settings. We hypothesized that time patterns of objectively measured cough in COVID-19 patients could predict clinical prognosis and help rapidly identify patients at high risk of intubation or death.
Hepatitis A and B vaccine uptake and immunisation among men who have sex with men seeking PrEP: a substudy of the ANRS IPERGAY trial
Vaccination against hepatitis A virus (HAV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) is recommended in men who have sex with men (MSM). We assessed HAV and HBV vaccine uptake in the non-immune participants and their immunisation during follow-up of the ANRS IPERGAY (Intervention Préventive de l'Exposition aux Risques avec et pour les Gays) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) trial.During the ANRS IPERGAY trial among MSM (NCT01473472), vaccination against HAV and HBV was offered free of charge to all non-immune...
Associations between the prevalence of chronic hepatitis B among people who inject drugs and country-level characteristics: An ecological analysis
INTRODUCTION: Globally, hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a leading cause of liver disease. People who inject drugs (PWID) are at greater risk than the general population of contracting HBV. This risk could depend on societal factors in different countries. We investigated the associations between country-level chronic HBV prevalence in PWID with national indicators of development and prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Safety and Tolerability of Oral Cannabinoids in People Living with HIV on Long-Term ART: A Randomized, Open-Label, Interventional Pilot Clinical Trial (CTNPT 028)
CONCLUSIONS: In PLWH, cannabinoids seem generally safe and well-tolerated, though larger studies are needed. Screening for occult liver pathology should be performed and hepatic enzymes monitored, especially with high CBD doses.
Evaluation of Nanopore sequencing for Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug susceptibility testing and outbreak investigation: a genomic analysis
BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium tuberculosis whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been widely used for genotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) and outbreak investigation. For both applications, Illumina technology is used by most public health laboratories; however, Nanopore technology developed by Oxford Nanopore Technologies has not been thoroughly evaluated. The aim of this study was to determine whether Nanopore sequencing data can provide equivalent information to Illumina for transmission...