Normalization of C1 Inhibitor in a Patient with Hereditary Angioedema.

Hereditary angioedema is a potentially life-threatening autosomal dominant condition, causing attacks of angioedema due to failure to regulate bradykinin. Nearly all cases of hereditary angioedema are caused by mutations in the gene encoding C1 inhibitor, SERPING1. C1 inhibitor is a multifunctional protein produced in the liver that regulates the kallikrein-kinin system at multiple points. An infant with genetically confirmed hereditary angioedema and low C1 inhibitor levels (but without previous episodes of angioedema) underwent liver transplantation for biliary atresia, an unrelated condition. Liver transplantation led to normalization of the C1 inhibitor level and function. To our knowledge, this represents the first patient to be potentially cured of hereditary angioedema.

Oral Valganciclovir Initiated Beyond 1 Month of Age as Treatment of Sensorineural Hearing Loss Caused by Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to determine if valganciclovir initiated after 1 month of age improves congenital cytomegalovirus-associated sensorineural hearing loss. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial of 6 weeks of oral valganciclovir at US (n = 12) and UK (n = 9) sites. Patients of ages 1 month through 3 years with baseline sensorineural hearing loss were enrolled. The primary outcome was change in total ear hearing between baseline and study month 6. Secondary outcome measures included change in best ear hearing and reduction in cytomegalovirus viral load in blood, saliva, and urine. RESULTS: Of 54 participants enrolled, 35 were documented to have congenital cytomegalovirus infection and were randomized (active group: 17; placebo group: 18). Mean age at enrollment was 17.8 ± 15.8 months (valganciclovir) vs 19.5 ± 13.1 months (placebo). Twenty (76.9%) of the 26 ears from subjects in the active treatment group did not have worsening of hearing, compared with 27 (96.4%) of 28 ears from subjects in the placebo group (P = .09). All other comparisons of total ear or best ear hearing outcomes were also not statistically significant. Saliva and urine viral loads decreased significantly in the valganciclovir group but did not correlate with change in hearing outcome. CONCLUSIONS: In this randomized controlled trial, initiation of antiviral therapy beyond the first month of age did not improve hearing outcomes in children with congenital cytomegalovirus-associated sensorineural hearing loss. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01649869.

Management of neonatal central nervous system viral infections: Knowledge gaps and research priorities.

Congenital CMV, enteroviruses, human parechovirus and herpes simplex virus are all common causes of severe central nervous system (CNS) infection in neonates. The introduction of screening (i.e. newborn hearing screening programme), integration of molecular syndromic testing (i.e. multiplex polymerase chain reaction assays) and increase in sexually transmitted infections (i.e. anogenital herpes) have contributed to increases in each of these infections over the last decade. However, therapeutic options are highly limited in part due to the lack of epidemiological data informing trials. This review will describe our current understanding of the clinical burden and epidemiology of these severe neonatal CNS infections, outline the novel antiviral and vaccines in the pipeline and suggest future research studies which could help develop new therapeutics.

Daily Gender and Cognition: A Person-Specific Behavioral Network Analysis.

Gender is person-specific, and it influences and is influenced by a breadth of multidimensional psychological factors, including cognition. Directionality is important for research on gender and cognition, as debate surrounds, for instance, whether masculine self-concepts precede spatial skills, or whether the reverse is true. In order to provide novel insights into the individualized nature of these relations, a person-specific network approach devised by Peter Molenaar and the first author - group iterative multiple model estimation for multiple solutions (GIMME-MS) - was applied to 75-day intensive longitudinal data on gender self-concept (i.e., femininity-masculinity, instrumentality, and expressivity) and cognition (i.e., mental rotations and verbal recall) from 103 young adults. GIMME-MS estimates individualized networks that contain same-day and next-day directed relations, prioritizing relations common across participants. It is ideal for analyzing behavioral time series with unclear directionality, as it generates multiple solutions from which an optimal one is selected. GIMME-MS revealed notable heterogeneity in the presence, direction, and nature of relations from gender self-concept to cognition (∼26% of participants) and vice versa (∼21% of participants). Findings are wholly novel in revealing the person-specific nature of gender and its cognitive dynamics, yet somehow, unsurprising given the revolutionary corpus of Peter Molenaar.

Impact of Vaccination on Haemophilus influenzae Type b Carriage in Healthy Children Less Than 5 Years of Age in an Urban Population in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: Reduction in detection of asymptomatic carriage of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) can be used to assess vaccine impact. In Nepal, routine vaccination against Hib in children at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age was introduced in 2009. Before vaccine introduction, Hib carriage was estimated at 5.0% among children aged <13 years in Nepal, with higher rates among children under 5. Large-scale evaluation of Hib carriage in children has not been investigated since the introduction of the pentavalent diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis/Hib/hepatitis B (DTP-Hib-HepB) vaccine in Nepal. METHODS: A total of 666 oropharyngeal swabs were collected between August and December 2018 from healthy children between 6 months and 5 years of age attending the vaccination clinic at Patan Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal. Of these 666 swabs, 528 (79.3%) were tested for Hib by culture. Demographic and vaccination data were collected. RESULTS: Among 528 swabs tested for Hib, 100% came from fully vaccinated children. No swabs were positive for Hib (95% confidence interval, .0-.7). The absence of Hib in 2018 suggests vaccine-induced protection against Hib carriage 9 years after vaccine introduction. CONCLUSIONS: Following 3 doses of pentavalent DTP-Hib-HepB vaccine, Hib carriage in children under the age of 5 years in Nepal is no longer common. Ongoing high coverage with Hib vaccine in early childhood is expected to maintain protection against Hib disease in Nepal.

Continuous intravenous anakinra for treating severe secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis/macrophage activation syndrome in critically ill children.

The cytokine storm of secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (sHLH)/macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) can cause life-threatening multiorgan failure. Interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor blockade with anakinra can be effective in the management of sHLH/MAS. Subcutaneous (SC) dosing regimens are widely described; however, intravenous (IV) dosing is advantageous where time-critical intervention is vital and where SC oedema and/or hypoperfusion limits absorption. We review three critically ill children (aged 9, 11 and 17) with sHLH and rapidly progressive multiorgan dysfunction, successfully treated with continuous IV anakinra infusion. This case series significantly enhances the incipient knowledge regarding the safety and efficacy of IV anakinra for life-threatening sHLH.

Outcomes beyond hospital discharge in infants and children with viral meningitis: A systematic review.

Viruses are the commonest cause of childhood meningitis, but outcomes beyond hospital discharge are poorly described. We undertook a systematic literature review of long-term outcomes following paediatric viral meningitis. A search was carried out using MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane Review for studies from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 2018. Studies were included where specific outcome measures were available beyond hospital discharge for children <16 years old with viral meningitis. In total, 3588 papers were identified of which 14 were eligible for inclusion. Four studies reported outcomes in children with nonenterovirus 71 meningitis. A US study of 16 cases demonstrated subtle language difficulties at 3-year follow-up in infants in contrast to an Australian study, which revealed no impairment in language. A Fijian study showed that two out of eight cases had sensorineural hearing loss compared with none in a UK cohort of 668 infants. Three studies evaluated outcomes of enterovirus 71 meningitis in China and Taiwan, two showed cases recovered without sequelae, while one demonstrated an increased risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Two studies including 141 cases of human parechovirus revealed no evidence of neurodevelopmental sequelae. Conversely, an Australian study demonstrated neurodevelopmental sequelae in 11 out of 77 infants with parechovirus meningitis. Most studies identified in this review demonstrated a high proportion of good clinical outcomes following viral meningitis. However, the data are limited, so robustly conducted neurodevelopmental studies are warranted to inform the evidence-based management of viral meningitis beyond hospital discharge.

Inferring B cell specificity for vaccines using a Bayesian mixture model.

BACKGROUND: Vaccines have greatly reduced the burden of infectious disease, ranking in their impact on global health second only after clean water. Most vaccines confer protection by the production of antibodies with binding affinity for the antigen, which is the main effector function of B cells. This results in short term changes in the B cell receptor (BCR) repertoire when an immune response is launched, and long term changes when immunity is conferred. Analysis of antibodies in serum is usually used to evaluate vaccine response, however this is limited and therefore the investigation of the BCR repertoire provides far more detail for the analysis of vaccine response. RESULTS: Here, we introduce a novel Bayesian model to describe the observed distribution of BCR sequences and the pattern of sharing across time and between individuals, with the goal to identify vaccine-specific BCRs. We use data from two studies to assess the model and estimate that we can identify vaccine-specific BCRs with 69% sensitivity. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that statistical modelling can capture patterns associated with vaccine response and identify vaccine specific B cells in a range of different data sets. Additionally, the B cells we identify as vaccine specific show greater levels of sequence similarity than expected, suggesting that there are additional signals of vaccine response, not currently considered, which could improve the identification of vaccine specific B cells.

How to use respiratory viral studies.

Viral respiratory tract infections are the most common infections of childhood. They result in clinical syndromes ranging from mild upper respiratory tract infection to severe lower respiratory tract disease requiring intensive care. Respiratory viruses are most commonly identified from a respiratory swab or nasopharyngeal aspirate by real-time PCR, which has a very high sensitivity and specificity. In this article, we review when and how children should be tested for viral respiratory tract infections and how to interpret the result in context of the clinical picture.

Serotype-Specific Correlates of Protection for Pneumococcal Carriage: An Analysis of Immunity in 19 Countries.

Background: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) provide direct protection against disease in those vaccinated, and interrupt transmission through the prevention of nasopharyngeal (NP) carriage. Methods: We analyzed immunogenicity data from 5224 infants who received PCV in prime-boost schedules. We defined any increase in antibody between the 1-month postpriming visit and the booster dose as an indication of NP carriage ("seroincidence"). We calculated antibody concentrations using receiver operating characteristic curves, and used generalized additive models to compute their protective efficacy against seroincidence. To support seroincidence as a marker of carriage, we compared seroincidence in a randomized immunogenicity trial in Nepal with the serotype-specific prevalence of carriage in the same community. Results: In Nepalese infants, seroincidence of carriage closely correlated with serotype-specific carriage prevalence in the community. In the larger data set, antibody concentrations associated with seroincidence were lowest for serotypes 6B and 23F (0.50 µg/mL and 0.63 µg/mL, respectively), and highest for serotypes 19F and 14 (2.54 µg/mL and 2.48 µg/mL, respectively). The protective efficacy of antibody at these levels was 62% and 74% for serotypes 6B and 23F, and 87% and 84% for serotypes 19F and 14. Protective correlates were on average 2.15 times higher in low/lower middle-income countries than in high/upper middle-income countries (geometric mean ratio, 2.15 [95% confidence interval, 1.46-3.17]; P = .0024). Conclusions: Antibody concentrations associated with protection vary between serotypes. Higher antibody concentrations are required for protection in low-income countries. These findings are important for global vaccination policy, to interrupt transmission by protecting against carriage.

B-cell receptor repertoire sequencing in patients with primary immunodeficiency: a review.

The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) now allows a detailed assessment of the adaptive immune system in health and disease. In particular, high-throughput B-cell receptor (BCR) repertoire sequencing provides detailed information about the functionality and abnormalities of the B-cell system. However, it is mostly unknown how the BCR repertoire is altered in the context of primary immunodeficiencies (PID) and whether findings are consistent throughout phenotypes and genotypes. We have performed an extensive literature search of the published work on BCR repertoire sequencing in PID patients, including several forms of predominantly antibody disorders and combined immunodeficiencies. It is somewhat surprising that BCR repertoires, even from severe clinical phenotypes, often show only mild abnormalities and that diversity or immunoglobulin gene segment usage is generally preserved to some extent. Despite the great variety of wet laboratory and analytical methods that were used in the different studies, several findings are common to most investigated PIDs, such as the increased usage of gene segments that are associated with self-reactivity. These findings suggest that BCR repertoire characteristics may be used to assess the functionality of the B-cell compartment irrespective of the underlying defect. With the use of NGS approaches, there is now the opportunity to apply BCR repertoire sequencing to multiple patients and explore the PID BCR repertoire in more detail. Ultimately, using BCR repertoire sequencing in translational research could aid the management of PID patients by improving diagnosis, estimating functionality of the immune system and improving assessment of prognosis.

LLT1 and CD161 Expression in Human Germinal Centers Promotes B Cell Activation and CXCR4 Downregulation.

Germinal centers (GCs) are microanatomical structures critical for the development of high-affinity Abs and B cell memory. They are organized into two zones, light and dark, with coordinated roles, controlled by local signaling. The innate lectin-like transcript 1 (LLT1) is known to be expressed on B cells, but its functional role in the GC reaction has not been explored. In this study, we report high expression of LLT1 on GC-associated B cells, early plasmablasts, and GC-derived lymphomas. LLT1 expression was readily induced via BCR, CD40, and CpG stimulation on B cells. Unexpectedly, we found high expression of the LLT1 ligand, CD161, on follicular dendritic cells. Triggering of LLT1 supported B cell activation, CD83 upregulation, and CXCR4 downregulation. Overall, these data suggest that LLT1-CD161 interactions play a novel and important role in B cell maturation within the GC in humans.

Studying the antibody repertoire after vaccination: practical applications.

Nearly all licensed vaccines have been developed to confer protection against infectious diseases by stimulating the production of antibodies by B cells, but the nature of a successful antibody response has been difficult to capture. Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology have allowed high-resolution characterization of the antibody repertoire, and of the changes that occur following vaccination. These approaches have yielded important insights into the B cell response, and have raised the possibility of using specific antibody sequences as measures of vaccine immunogenicity. Here, we review recent findings based on antibody repertoire sequencing, and discuss potential applications of these new technologies and of the analyses of the increasing volume of antibody sequence data in the context of vaccine development.

Identification of antigen-specific B cell receptor sequences using public repertoire analysis.

High-throughput sequencing allows detailed study of the BCR repertoire postimmunization, but it remains unclear to what extent the de novo identification of Ag-specific sequences from the total BCR repertoire is possible. A conjugate vaccine containing Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and group C meningococcal polysaccharides, as well as tetanus toxoid (TT), was used to investigate the BCR repertoire of adult humans following immunization and to test the hypothesis that public or convergent repertoire analysis could identify Ag-specific sequences. A number of Ag-specific BCR sequences have been reported for Hib and TT, which made a vaccine containing these two Ags an ideal immunological stimulus. Analysis of identical CDR3 amino acid sequences that were shared by individuals in the postvaccine repertoire identified a number of known Hib-specific sequences but only one previously described TT sequence. The extension of this analysis to nonidentical, but highly similar, CDR3 amino acid sequences revealed a number of other TT-related sequences. The anti-Hib avidity index postvaccination strongly correlated with the relative frequency of Hib-specific sequences, indicating that the postvaccination public BCR repertoire may be related to more conventional measures of immunogenicity correlating with disease protection. Analysis of public BCR repertoire provided evidence of convergent BCR evolution in individuals exposed to the same Ags. If this finding is confirmed, the public repertoire could be used for rapid and direct identification of protective Ag-specific BCR sequences from peripheral blood.

Fifteen-minute consultation: enterovirus meningitis and encephalitis-when can we stop the antibiotics?

Enterovirus (EV) is the most common cause of aseptic meningitis and has a benign course, unlike EV encephalitis, which can result in long-term neurological sequelae. There are no active treatments or prophylactic agents, and management is purely supportive. Obtaining an EV-positive cerebrospinal fluid result usually allows antimicrobial treatment to be stopped. This review will answer some of the common questions surrounding EV meningitis/encephalitis.

Identification of Antigen-Specific B-Cell Receptor Sequences from the Total B-Cell Repertoire.

Advances in next-generation sequencing now allow characterization of the global B-cell receptor (BCR) heavy-chain repertoire at a level that reflects its huge diversity. This technology has provided great insight into the structure of the BCR repertoire and how it responds to specific antigen stimuli. There are numerous potential clinical and research applications of BCR repertoire sequencing, but a major hurdle in the realization of these applications is the identification of the antigen-specific sequences of interest from within the total repertoire. To deconvolute the antigen-specific sequences from total repertoire, either a source of antigen-enriched sequence data is required with which to annotate the total repertoire, or de novo annotation methods must be used based on preconceptions of the features of antigen-specific sequences and their behavior following antigen-specific immune stimulation. We present a review of how these different methods can be applied to identify antigen-specific BCR sequences from the total BCR repertoire.

BCR repertoire sequencing: different patterns of B-cell activation after two Meningococcal vaccines.

Next-generation sequencing was used to investigate the B-cell receptor heavy chain transcript repertoire of different B-cell subsets (naive, marginal zone (MZ), immunoglobulin M (IgM) memory and IgG memory) at baseline, and of plasma cells (PCs) 7 days following administration of serogroup ACWY meningococcal polysaccharide and protein-polysaccharide conjugate vaccines. Baseline B-cell subsets could be distinguished from each other using a small number of repertoire properties (clonality, mutation from germline and complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length) that were conserved between individuals. However, analyzing the CDR3 amino-acid sequence (which is particularly important for antigen binding) of the baseline subsets showed few sequences shared between individuals. In contrast, day 7 PCs demonstrated nearly 10-fold greater sequence sharing between individuals than the baseline subsets, consistent with the PCs being induced by the vaccine antigen and sharing specificity for a more limited range of epitopes. By annotating PC sequences based on IgG subclass usage and mutation, and also comparing them with the sequences of the baseline cell subsets, we were able to identify different signatures after the polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines. PCs produced after conjugate vaccination were predominantly IgG1, and most related to IgG memory cells. In contrast, after polysaccharide vaccination, the PCs were predominantly IgG2, less mutated and were equally likely to be related to MZ, IgM memory or IgG memory cells. High-throughput B-cell repertoire sequencing thus provides a unique insight into patterns of B-cell activation not possible from more conventional measures of immunogenicity.

100 days of Adolescence: Elucidating Externalizing Behaviors Through the Daily Assessment of Inhibitory Control.

Inhibitory control is a transdiagnostic risk factor for externalizing behaviors, particularly during adolescence. Despite advances in understanding links between inhibitory control and externalizing behaviors across youth on average, significant questions remain about how these links play out in the day-to-day lives of individual adolescents. The goals of the current study were to: (1) validate a novel 100-occasion measure of inhibitory control; (2) assess links between day-to-day fluctuations in inhibitory control and individual differences in externalizing behaviors; and (3) illustrate the potential of intensive longitudinal studies for person-specific analyses of adolescent externalizing behaviors. Participants were 106 youth (57.5% female, Mage = 13.34 years; SDage = 1.92) who completed a virtual baseline session followed by 100 daily surveys, including an adapted Stroop Color Word task designed to assess inhibitory control. Results suggested that the novel task was generally reliable and valid, and that inhibitory control fluctuated across days in ways that were meaningfully associated with individual differences in baseline impulsive behaviors. Results of illustrative personalized analyses suggested that inhibitory control had more influence in the daily networks of adolescents who used substances during the 100 days than in a matched set of adolescents who did not. This work marks a path forward in intensive longitudinal research by validating a novel inhibitory control measure, revealing that daily fluctuations in inhibitory control may be a unique construct broadly relevant to adolescent externalizing problems, and at the same time, highlighting that links between daily inhibitory control and impulsive behaviors are adolescent-specific.

Computational mining of B cell receptor repertoires reveals antigen-specific and convergent responses to Ebola vaccination.

Outbreaks of Ebolaviruses, such as Sudanvirus (SUDV) in Uganda in 2022, demonstrate that species other than the Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV), which is currently the sole virus represented in current licensed vaccines, remain a major threat to global health. There is a pressing need to develop effective pan-species vaccines and novel monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics for Ebolavirus disease. In response to recent outbreaks, the two dose, heterologous Ad26.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo vaccine regimen was developed and was tested in a large phase II clinical trial (EBL2001) as part of the EBOVAC2 consortium. Here, we perform bulk sequencing of the variable heavy chain (VH) of B cell receptors (BCR) in forty participants from the EBL2001 trial in order to characterize the BCR repertoire in response to vaccination with Ad26.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo. We develop a comprehensive database, EBOV-AbDab, of publicly available Ebolavirus-specific antibody sequences. We then use our database to predict the antigen-specific component of the vaccinee repertoires. Our results show striking convergence in VH germline gene usage across participants following the MVA-BN-Filo dose, and provide further evidence of the role of IGHV3-15 and IGHV3-13 antibodies in the B cell response to Ebolavirus glycoprotein. Furthermore, we found that previously described Ebola-specific mAb sequences present in EBOV-AbDab were sufficient to describe at least one of the ten most expanded BCR clonotypes in more than two thirds of our cohort of vaccinees following the boost, providing proof of principle for the utility of computational mining of immune repertoires.

Decline in pneumococcal vaccine serotype carriage, multiple-serotype carriage, and carriage density in Nepalese children after PCV10 introduction: A pre-post comparison study.

BACKGROUND: Carriage studies are an efficient means for assessing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine effect in settings where pneumococcal disease surveillance programmes are not well established. In this study the effect of 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV10) introduction on pneumococcal carriage and density among Nepalese children using a bacterial microarray and qPCR was examined. METHODS: PCV10 was introduced into the Nepalese infant immunisation schedule in August 2015. Nasopharyngeal swabs were collected from healthy Nepalese children in Kathmandu between April 2014 and December 2021. Samples were plated on blood agar, incubated overnight, and DNA extracted from plate sweeps. Pneumococcal serotyping was done using the Senti-SPv1.5 microarray (BUGS Bioscience, UK). DNA was extracted from swab media and qPCR performed for pneumococcal autolysin (lytA). RESULTS: A significant decline in prevalence of PCV10 serotypes was observed when comparing pre-PCV10 with post-PCV10 collection periods (36.5 %, 454/1244 vs 10.3 %, 243/2353, p < 0.0001). Multiple-serotype carriage was also observed to significantly decline when comparing pre-PCV10 with post-PCV10 periods (31.4 %, 390/1244 vs 22.2 %, 522/2353, p < 0.0001). Additionally, a significant decline in median pneumococcal density was observed when comparing pre-PCV10 with post-PCV10 periods (3.3 vs 3.25 log10 GE/ml, p = 0.0196). CONCLUSIONS: PCV10 introduction was associated with reduced, prevalence of all PCV10 serotypes, multiple serotype carriage, and pneumococcal carriage density.