Persistent facial pustular plaque on the face Gora, Thomas; Kirsten, Henriette; Eder, Ines B. ...
Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft,
December 2021, 2021-Dec, 2021-12-00, 20211201, Volume:
19, Issue:
12
Journal Article
Numbers of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) pulmonary diseases (PD) have been repeatedly reported as increasing over the last decades, particularly in Europe. Sound epidemiological data are however ...missing for most European regions. This study calculated prevalence and incidence of NTM recovered from patients' lungs in Germany, the largest Central European country, over a five-year period. It furthermore determined regional particularities of NTM species and results from susceptibility testing. 22 German NTM laboratories provided their mycobacteriological diagnostic data of 11,430 NTM isolates recovered from 5998 pulmonary patients representing 30% of all notified NTM-PD cases of Germany from 2016 to 2020. NTM incidence and prevalence were calculated for every study year. The presented epidemiological indicators are particularly reliant as TB surveillance data were used as a reference and TB notification reaches almost 100% in Germany. Laboratory incidence and prevalence of NTM recovered from respiratory samples ranged from 4.5-4.9 and from 5.3-5.8/100,000 for the population of Germany, respectively, and did not change over the five-year study period. Prevalence and incidence were stable also when stratifying for facultative pathogenic NTM,
complex (MAIC), and
complex (MABSC). The proportion of NTM with drug susceptibility testing (DST) increased from 27.3% (2016) to 43.8% (2020). The unchanging laboratory NTM prevalence/incidence in Germany represents a "ceiling" of possible NTM-PD notification when diagnostic strategies do not change in the coming years. A notable increase in NTM-DST may indicate better notification of NTM-PD and/or awareness of new clinical guidelines but still remains below clinical needs.
•New model for antimicrobial treatment of Klebsiella pneumoniae septicaemia.•The apidaecin Api137 mediates killing of K. pneumoniae in porcine blood ex vivo.•Cytotoxicity and TNFα induction of Api137 ...treatment are comparable with cefquinome.
Klebsiella pneumoniae is an emerging invasive pathogen in humans and pigs. Resistance against multiple antibiotics in this species is a major health concern and the development of new antibiotics is urgently needed. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of proline-rich antimicrobial peptides (PrAMPs) on the survival of K. pneumoniae strains in porcine blood.
We established a bactericidal assay with K. pneumoniae in fresh blood drawn from 4-week-old piglets. PrAMPs, namely the apidaecins Api137 and Api802 as well as the oncocin Onc112, were added to ex vivo-infected whole blood samples in order to study their bactericidal effects and, in the case of Api137, also immune responses.
A porcine invasive and a human iucA+rmpA+ K. pneumoniae strain showed prominent proliferation in porcine blood. Application of Api137 resulted in a dose-dependent prominent bactericidal effect killing the invasive porcine K. pneumoniae strain. Addition of 8 μg/mL Api137 also resulted in complete killing of the human iucA+rmpA+ strain. Cytotoxicity, haemolysis and induction of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) in K. pneumoniae-infected porcine blood treated with Api137 was comparable with values obtained after application of 10 μg/mL cefquinome.
We describe a new non-rodent model for invasive K. pneumoniae bacteraemia and present promising data for the PrAMP Api137 for the control of infection with hypervirulent K. pneumoniae strains.
Persistent facial pustular plaque on the face Gora, Thomas; Kirsten, Henriette; Eder, Ines B ...
Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft = Journal of the German Society of Dermatology : JDDG,
12/2021, Volume:
19, Issue:
12
Report
A range of safe and effective vaccines against SARS CoV 2 are needed to address the COVID 19 pandemic. We aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine SCB-2019.
This ongoing phase ...2 and 3 double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was done in adults aged 18 years and older who were in good health or with a stable chronic health condition, at 31 sites in five countries (Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, and South Africa). The participants were randomly assigned 1:1 using a centralised internet randomisation system to receive two 0·5 mL intramuscular doses of SCB-2019 (30 μg, adjuvanted with 1·50 mg CpG-1018 and 0·75 mg alum) or placebo (0·9% sodium chloride for injection supplied in 10 mL ampoules) 21 days apart. All study staff and participants were masked, but vaccine administrators were not. Primary endpoints were vaccine efficacy, measured by RT-PCR-confirmed COVID-19 of any severity with onset from 14 days after the second dose in baseline SARS-CoV-2 seronegative participants (the per-protocol population), and the safety and solicited local and systemic adverse events in the phase 2 subset. This study is registered on EudraCT (2020–004272–17) and ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04672395).
30 174 participants were enrolled from March 24, 2021, until the cutoff date of Aug 10, 2021, of whom 30 128 received their first assigned vaccine (n=15 064) or a placebo injection (n=15 064). The per-protocol population consisted of 12 355 baseline SARS-CoV-2-naive participants (6251 vaccinees and 6104 placebo recipients). Most exclusions (13 389 44·4%) were because of seropositivity at baseline. There were 207 confirmed per-protocol cases of COVID-19 at 14 days after the second dose, 52 vaccinees versus 155 placebo recipients, and an overall vaccine efficacy against any severity COVID-19 of 67·2% (95·72% CI 54·3–76·8), 83·7% (97·86% CI 55·9–95·4) against moderate-to-severe COVID-19, and 100% (97·86% CI 25·3–100·0) against severe COVID-19. All COVID-19 cases were due to virus variants; vaccine efficacy against any severity COVID-19 due to the three predominant variants was 78·7% (95% CI 57·3–90·4) for delta, 91·8% (44·9–99·8) for gamma, and 58·6% (13·3–81·5) for mu. No safety issues emerged in the follow-up period for the efficacy analysis (median of 82 days IQR 63–103). The vaccine elicited higher rates of mainly mild-to-moderate injection site pain than the placebo after the first (35·7% 287 of 803 vs 10·3% 81 of 786) and second (26·9% 189 of 702 vs 7·4% 52 of 699) doses, but the rates of other solicited local and systemic adverse events were similar between the groups.
Two doses of SCB-2019 vaccine plus CpG and alum provides notable protection against the entire severity spectrum of COVID-19 caused by circulating SAR-CoV-2 viruses, including the predominating delta variant.
Clover Biopharmaceuticals and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
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