Sepsis, characterized by a systemic inflammatory state that is usually related to Gram-negative bacterial infection, is a leading cause of death worldwide. Although the annual incidence of sepsis is ...still rising, the exact cause of Gram-negative bacteria-associated sepsis is not clear. Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs), constitutively secreted from Gram-negative bacteria, are nano-sized spherical bilayered proteolipids. Using a mouse model, we showed that intraperitoneal injection of OMVs derived from intestinal Escherichia coli induced lethality. Furthermore, OMVs induced host responses which resemble a clinically relevant condition like sepsis that was characterized by piloerection, eye exudates, hypothermia, tachypnea, leukopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, dysfunction of the lungs, hypotension, and systemic induction of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6. Our study revealed a previously unidentified causative microbial signal in the pathogenesis of sepsis, suggesting OMVs as a new therapeutic target to prevent and/or treat severe sepsis caused by Gram-negative bacterial infection.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We investigated the kinetics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 neutralizing antibodies in 7 asymptomatic persons and 11 patients with pneumonia. The geometric mean titer of ...neutralizing antibodies declined from 219.4 at 2 months to 143.7 at 5 months after infection, indicating a waning antibody response.
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Memory T cell responses have been demonstrated in COVID-19 convalescents, but ex vivo phenotypes of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells have been unclear. We detected SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells by MHC ...class I multimer staining and examined their phenotypes and functions in acute and convalescent COVID-19. Multimer+ cells exhibited early differentiated effector-memory phenotypes in the early convalescent phase. The frequency of stem-like memory cells was increased among multimer+ cells in the late convalescent phase. Cytokine secretion assays combined with MHC class I multimer staining revealed that the proportion of interferon-γ (IFN-γ)-producing cells was significantly lower among SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells than those specific to influenza A virus. Importantly, the proportion of IFN-γ-producing cells was higher in PD-1+ cells than PD-1− cells among multimer+ cells, indicating that PD-1-expressing, SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are not exhausted, but functional. Our current findings provide information for understanding of SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells elicited by infection or vaccination.
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•SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are effector memory cells in convalescents•CCR7+CD45RA+ cells are increased among SARS-CoV-2-specific cells in the late phase•SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells have fewer IFN-γ+ cells than flu-specific cells•PD-1-expressing SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are not exhausted but functional
T cell responses have been demonstrated in COVID-19 patients, but ex vivo phenotypes and functions of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells remain unclear. Rha et al. examined SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells in acute and convalescent COVID-19 patients using MHC class I multimers, finding that PD-1-expressing SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8+ T cells are not exhausted but functional.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Abstract
Background
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was introduced in Korea early with a large outbreak in mid-February. We reviewed the public health interventions used during the COVID-19 ...outbreak and describe the impact on seasonal influenza activity in Korea.
Methods
National response strategies, public health interventions and daily COVID-19–confirmed cases in Korea were reviewed during the pandemic. National influenza surveillance data were compared between 7 sequential seasons. Characteristics of each season, including rate of influenza-like illness (ILI), duration of epidemic, date of termination of epidemic, distribution of influenza virus strain, and hospitalization, were analyzed.
Results
After various public health interventions including enforced public education on hand hygiene, cough etiquette, staying at home with respiratory symptoms, universal mask use in public places, refrain from nonessential social activities, and school closures the duration of the influenza epidemic in 2019/2020 decreased by 6–12 weeks and the influenza activity peak rated 49.8 ILIs/1000 visits compared to 71.9–86.2 ILIs/1000 visits in previous seasons. During the period of enforced social distancing from weeks 9–17 of 2020, influenza hospitalization cases were 11.9–26.9-fold lower compared with previous seasons. During the 2019/2020 season, influenza B accounted for only 4%, in contrast to previous seasons in which influenza B accounted for 26.6–54.9% of all cases.
Conclusions
Efforts to activate a high-level national response not only led to a decrease in COVID-19 but also a substantial decrease in seasonal influenza activity. Interventions applied to control COVID-19 may serve as useful strategies for prevention and control of influenza in upcoming seasons.
We report a case of occupational monkeypox virus infection from a needlestick injury in a healthcare worker in South Korea and review similar reports in the literature during 2022. Postexposure ...prophylactic treatment with a third-generation smallpox vaccine and antiviral agent tecovirimat inhibited local virus spread and alleviated lesion pain.
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6.
Viral Load Kinetics of MERS Coronavirus Infection Oh, Myoung-don; Park, Wan Beom; Choe, Pyoeng Gyun ...
New England journal of medicine/The New England journal of medicine,
09/2016, Volume:
375, Issue:
13
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus continues to circulate in the Middle East. During a recent outbreak in Korea, changes in MERS coronavirus viral load were determined during the course of ...illness in 17 patients.
To the Editor:
The outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection in South Korea involved 186 patients and resulted in 38 deaths, with four large hospital outbreaks accounting for 82% of the total cases.
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Here, we report changes in viral load over time in patients with MERS.
We included all patients who were admitted to three Seoul National University–affiliated hospitals; the institutional review boards of these hospitals approved this study and waived the need for written informed consent on public health grounds. The patients were categorized into a group with severe disease (severe group) or a group . . .
Stretchable organic light-emitting diodes are ubiquitous in the rapidly developing wearable display technology. However, low efficiency and poor mechanical stability inhibit their commercial ...applications owing to the restrictions generated by strain. Here, we demonstrate the exceptional performance of a transparent (molybdenum-trioxide/gold/molybdenum-trioxide) electrode for buckled, twistable, and geometrically stretchable organic light-emitting diodes under 2-dimensional random area strain with invariant color coordinates. The devices are fabricated on a thin optical-adhesive/elastomer with a small mechanical bending strain and water-proofed by optical-adhesive encapsulation in a sandwiched structure. The heat dissipation mechanism of the thin optical-adhesive substrate, thin elastomer-based devices or silicon dioxide nanoparticles reduces triplet-triplet annihilation, providing consistent performance at high exciton density, compared with thick elastomer and a glass substrate. The performance is enhanced by the nanoparticles in the optical-adhesive for light out-coupling and improved heat dissipation. A high current efficiency of ~82.4 cd/A and an external quantum efficiency of ~22.3% are achieved with minimum efficiency roll-off.A transparent twistable and stretchable MoO3/Au/MoO3 electrode is demonstrated by Choi et al. for organic light-emitting diodes. The device fabricated on thin elastomer shows enhanced EQE with minimum efficiency roll-off owing to the improved charge injection and heat dissipation from the substrate.
The objective of the study was to identify distinct patterns in inflammatory immune responses of COVID-19 patients and to investigate their association with clinical course and outcome. Data from ...hospitalized COVID-19 patients were retrieved from electronic medical record. Supervised k-means clustering of serial C-reactive protein levels (CRP), absolute neutrophil counts (ANC), and absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) was used to assign immune responses to one of three groups. Then, relationships between patterns of inflammatory responses and clinical course and outcome of COVID-19 were assessed in a discovery and validation cohort. Unbiased clustering analysis grouped 105 patients of a discovery cohort into three distinct clusters. Cluster 1 (hyper-inflammatory immune response) was characterized by high CRP levels, high ANC, and low ALC, whereas Cluster 3 (hypo-inflammatory immune response) was associated with low CRP levels and normal ANC and ALC. Cluster 2 showed an intermediate pattern. All patients in Cluster 1 required oxygen support whilst 61% patients in Cluster 2 and no patient in Cluster 3 required supplementary oxygen. Two (13.3%) patients in Cluster 1 died, whereas no patient in Clusters 2 and 3 died. The results were confirmed in an independent validation cohort of 116 patients. We identified three different patterns of inflammatory immune response to COVID-19. Hyper-inflammatory immune responses with elevated CRP, neutrophilia, and lymphopenia are associated with a severe disease and a worse outcome. Therefore, targeting the hyper-inflammatory response might improve the clinical outcome of COVID-19.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
We investigated the kinetics of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) neutralizing and spike protein antibody titers over the course of 1 year in 11 patients who were confirmed ...by reverse transcription PCR to have been infected during the outbreak in South Korea in 2015. Robust antibody responses were detected in all survivors who had severe disease; responses remained detectable, albeit with some waning, for <1 year. The duration of viral RNA detection (but not viral load) in sputum significantly correlated with the antibody response magnitude. The MERS S1 ELISA antibody titers correlated well with the neutralizing antibody response. Antibody titers in 4 of 6 patients who had mild illness were undetectable even though most had evidence of pneumonia. This finding implies that MERS-CoV seroepidemiologic studies markedly underestimate the extent of mild and asymptomatic infection. Obtaining convalescent-phase plasma with high antibody titers to treat MERS will be challenging.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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