Phenotypic changes in low-density lipoprotein particles as markers of adverse clinical outcomes in COVID-19.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) plasma concentration decline is a biomarker for acute inflammatory diseases, including coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Phenotypic changes in LDL during COVID-19 may be equally related to adverse clinical outcomes. METHODS: Individuals hospitalized due to COVID-19 (n = 40) were enrolled. Blood samples were collected on days 0, 2, 4, 6, and 30 (D0, D2, D4, D6, and D30). Oxidized LDL (ox-LDL), and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) activity were measured. In a consecutive series of cases (n = 13), LDL was isolated by gradient ultracentrifugation from D0 and D6 and was quantified by lipidomic analysis. Association between clinical outcomes and LDL phenotypic changes was investigated. RESULTS: In the first 30 days, 42.5% of participants died due to Covid-19. The serum ox-LDL increased from D0 to D6 (p < 0.005) and decreased at D30. Moreover, individuals who had an ox-LDL increase from D0 to D6 to over the 90th percentile died. The plasma Lp-PLA2 activity also increased progressively from D0 to D30 (p < 0.005), and the change from D0 to D6 in Lp-PLA2 and ox-LDL were positively correlated (r = 0.65, p < 0.0001). An exploratory untargeted lipidomic analysis uncovered 308 individual lipids in isolated LDL particles. Paired-test analysis from D0 and D6 revealed higher concentrations of 32 lipid species during disease progression, mainly represented by lysophosphatidyl choline and phosphatidylinositol. In addition, 69 lipid species were exclusively modulated in the LDL particles from non-survivors as compared to survivors. CONCLUSIONS: Phenotypic changes in LDL particles are associated with disease progression and adverse clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients and could serve as a potential prognostic biomarker.

Effect of Remote Ischaemic Conditioning on the Inflammatory Cytokine Cascade of COVID-19 (RIC in COVID-19): a Randomized Controlled Trial.

PURPOSE: Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 may develop a hyperinflammatory, dysregulated cytokine "storm" that rapidly progresses to acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ dysfunction, and even death. Remote ischaemic conditioning (RIC) has elicited anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective benefits by reducing cytokines following sepsis in animal studies. Therefore, we investigated whether RIC would mitigate the inflammatory cytokine cascade induced by COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted a prospective, multicentre, randomized, sham-controlled, single-blind trial in Brazil and South Africa. Non-critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 pneumonia were randomly allocated (1:1) to receive either RIC (intermittent ischaemia/reperfusion applied through four 5-min cycles of inflation (20 mmHg above systolic blood pressure) and deflation of an automated blood-pressure cuff) or sham for approximately 15 days. Serum was collected following RIC/sham administration and analyzed for inflammatory cytokines using flow cytometry. The endpoint was the change in serum cytokine concentrations. Participants were followed for 30 days. RESULTS: Eighty randomized participants (40 RIC and 40 sham) completed the trial. Baseline characteristics according to trial intervention were overall balanced. Despite downward trajectories of all cytokines across hospitalization, we observed no substantial changes in cytokine concentrations after successive days of RIC. Time to clinical improvement was similar in both groups (HR 1.66; 95% CI, 0.938-2.948, p 0.08). Overall RIC did not demonstrate a significant impact on the composite outcome of all-cause death or clinical deterioration (HR 1.19; 95% CI, 0.616-2.295, p = 0.61). CONCLUSION: RIC did not reduce the hypercytokinaemia induced by COVID-19 or prevent clinical deterioration to critical care. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04699227.

RIC in COVID-19-a Clinical Trial to Investigate Whether Remote Ischemic Conditioning (RIC) Can Prevent Deterioration to Critical Care in Patients with COVID-19.

PURPOSE: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has, to date, been diagnosed in over 130 million persons worldwide and is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Several variants of concern have emerged including those in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil. SARS-CoV-2 can cause a dysregulated inflammatory response known as a cytokine storm, which can progress rapidly to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multi-organ failure, and death. Suppressing these cytokine elevations may be key to improving outcomes. Remote ischemic conditioning (RIC) is a simple, non-invasive procedure whereby a blood pressure cuff is inflated and deflated on the upper arm for several cycles. "RIC in COVID-19" is a pilot, multi-center, randomized clinical trial, designed to ascertain whether RIC suppresses inflammatory cytokine production. METHODS: A minimum of 55 adult patients with diagnosed COVID-19, but not of critical status, will be enrolled from centers in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa. RIC will be administered daily for up to 15 days. The primary outcome is the level of inflammatory cytokines that are involved in the cytokine storm that can occur following SARS-CoV-2 infection. The secondary endpoint is the time between admission and until intensive care admission or death. The in vitro cytotoxicity of patient blood will also be assessed using primary human cardiac endothelial cells. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this pilot study will provide initial evidence on the ability of RIC to suppress the production of inflammatory cytokines in the setting of COVID-19. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT04699227, registered January 7th, 2021.

Understanding the Potential Impact of Different Drug Properties on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Transmission and Disease Burden: A Modelling Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The public health impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has motivated a rapid search for potential therapeutics, with some key successes. However, the potential impact of different treatments, and consequently research and procurement priorities, have not been clear. METHODS: Using a mathematical model of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission, COVID-19 disease and clinical care, we explore the public-health impact of different potential therapeutics, under a range of scenarios varying healthcare capacity, epidemic trajectories; and drug efficacy in the absence of supportive care. RESULTS: The impact of drugs like dexamethasone (delivered to the most critically-ill in hospital and whose therapeutic benefit is expected to depend on the availability of supportive care such as oxygen and mechanical ventilation) is likely to be limited in settings where healthcare capacity is lowest or where uncontrolled epidemics result in hospitals being overwhelmed. As such, it may avert 22% of deaths in high-income countries but only 8% in low-income countries (assuming R = 1.35). Therapeutics for different patient populations (those not in hospital, early in the course of infection) and types of benefit (reducing disease severity or infectiousness, preventing hospitalization) could have much greater benefits, particularly in resource-poor settings facing large epidemics. CONCLUSIONS: Advances in the treatment of COVID-19 to date have been focused on hospitalized-patients and predicated on an assumption of adequate access to supportive care. Therapeutics delivered earlier in the course of infection that reduce the need for healthcare or reduce infectiousness could have significant impact, and research into their efficacy and means of delivery should be a priority.

Evolution and epidemic spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil.

Brazil currently has one of the fastest-growing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemics in the world. Because of limited available data, assessments of the impact of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on this virus spread remain challenging. Using a mobility-driven transmission model, we show that NPIs reduced the reproduction number from >3 to 1 to 1.6 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Sequencing of 427 new genomes and analysis of a geographically representative genomic dataset identified >100 international virus introductions in Brazil. We estimate that most (76%) of the Brazilian strains fell in three clades that were introduced from Europe between 22 February and 11 March 2020. During the early epidemic phase, we found that SARS-CoV-2 spread mostly locally and within state borders. After this period, despite sharp decreases in air travel, we estimated multiple exportations from large urban centers that coincided with a 25% increase in average traveled distances in national flights. This study sheds new light on the epidemic transmission and evolutionary trajectories of SARS-CoV-2 lineages in Brazil and provides evidence that current interventions remain insufficient to keep virus transmission under control in this country.

EGFR activating mutations and their association with response to platinum-doublet chemotherapy in Brazilian non-small cell lung cancer patients.

The aim of the study was to analyze the frequency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations in Brazilian non-small cell lung cancer patients and to correlate these mutations with response to benefit of platinum-based chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Our cohort consisted of prospective patients with NSCLCs who received chemotherapy (platinum derivates plus paclitaxel) at the [UNICAMP], Brazil. EGFR exons 18-21 were analyzed in tumor-derived DNA. Fifty patients were included in the study (25 with adenocarcinoma). EGFR mutations were identified in 6/50 (12 %) NSCLCs and in 6/25 (24 %) adenocarcinomas; representing the frequency of EGFR mutations in a mostly self-reported White (82.0 %) southeastern Brazilian population of NSCLCs. Patients with NSCLCs harboring EGFR exon 19 deletions or the exon 21 L858R mutation were found to have a higher chance of response to platinum-paclitaxel (OR 9.67 [95 % CI 1.03-90.41], p = 0.047). We report the frequency of EGFR activating mutations in a typical southeastern Brazilian population with NSCLC, which are similar to that of other countries with Western European ethnicity. EGFR mutations seem to be predictive of a response to platinum-paclitaxel, and additional studies are needed to confirm or refute this relationship.

Mature autologous dendritic cell vaccines in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: a phase I pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Overall therapeutic outcomes of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are poor. The dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy has been developed as a new strategy for the treatment of lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility, safety and immunologic responses in use in mature, antigen-pulsed autologous DC vaccine in NSCLC patients. METHODS: Five HLA-A2 patients with inoperable stage III or IV NSCLC were selected to receive two doses of 5 × 107 DC cells administered subcutaneous and intravenously two times at two week intervals. The immunologic response, safety and tolerability to the vaccine were evaluated by the lymphoproliferation assay and clinical and laboratorial evolution, respectively. RESULTS: The dose of the vaccine has shown to be safe and well tolerated. The lymphoproliferation assay showed an improvement in the specific immune response after the immunization, with a significant response after the second dose (p = 0.005). This response was not long lasting and a tendency to reduction two weeks after the second dose of the vaccine was observed. Two patients had a survival almost twice greater than the expected average and were the only ones that expressed HER-2 and CEA together. CONCLUSION: Despite the small sample size, the results on the immune response, safety and tolerability, combined with the results of other studies, are encouraging to the conduction of a large clinical trial with multiples doses in patients with early lung cancer who underwent surgical treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials: ISRCTN45563569.

Influence of p53 codon 72 exon 4, GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1*B polymorphisms in lung cancer risk in a Brazilian population.

PURPOSE: Glutathione S-transferases (GST) modulates the effects of various cytotoxic and genotoxic agents, particularly those derived from benzo[a]pyrene, which is one of the main tobacco carcinogens. Both the mu 1 (GSTM1) and theta 1 (GSTT1) genes have a null variant allele in which the entire gene is absent. The GSTP1*B allele has an A to G transition at nucleotide 313 (codon 105) in exon 5, causing a change of isoleucine (Ile) to valine (Val), which affects the electrophile binding site of GSTP1 and results in an enzyme with reduced activity. Polymorphisms in these metabolizing enzymes may alter the response to benzo[a]pirene-induced DNA damage. Polymorphisms in p53 may also modulate the risk of lung cancer (LC) carcinogenesis. The aim of our study was to measure the frequency of GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1*B and p53 gene polymorphisms in a Brazilian population and determine the possible contribution of these genetic variations to LC risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Genomic DNA was obtained from 200 Brazilian patients with LC and 264 blood donors (control group). All samples were analyzed by PCR and PCR-RFLP to determine GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1*B and p53 codon 72 genotypes. Multiple logistic regressions were used to adjust for confounding factors in this case-control study. RESULTS: No statistical significance was observed between GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1*B genetic polymorphisms, either isolated or combined, with LC incidence in the studied population. However, our data showed a higher frequency of p53 codon 72 A/P plus P/P genotype in African-Brazilian than Caucasian-Brazilian patients with LC, and we also found a higher frequency of the P/P genotype of the p53 gene in non-smokers compared to smokers with LC. CONCLUSIONS: Genetic polymorphisms of GST and p53 codon 72 did not increase the risk of LC in Brazilian patients. The A/P plus P/P genotype of p53 codon 72 is more common in LC patients with African ethnical background and the P/P genotype more prevalent in non-smoking related LC.