Prolonged Disease Course of COVID-19 in a Patient with CTLA-4 Haploinsufficiency.

Patients with primary immunodeficiencies are especially vulnerable to developing severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) after infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is an important regulator of immune responses, and patients who suffer from CTLA4 haploinsufficiency have hyperactivation of effector T cells and infiltration of various organs. Overexpression of CTLA4 has been associated with a more severe disease course in patients with COVID-19, but there have only been a few reports on the disease course of COVID-19 in patients with CTLA4 haploinsufficiency. We report on a 33-year-old female with a history of immune thrombocytopenia, autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, granulomatous-lymphocytic interstitial lung disease, and common variable immunodeficiency who developed COVID-19. She was admitted and discharged from the hospital several times in the months thereafter and remained symptomatic and had a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR for up to 137 days after the first symptoms. No SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were identified in the patients' serum. The disease was finally controlled after repeated infusions of convalescent plasma and treatment of concurrent bacterial and fungal infections. Genetic analysis revealed a likely pathogenic variant in CTLA4, and CTLA4 expression on regulatory T-cells was low. This case illustrates that patients with primary immunodeficiencies who have a protracted disease course of COVID-19 could benefit from convalescent plasma therapy.

Case series of three adult patients with exceptional clinical presentations of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis.

Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) is a secondary form of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH). MAS-HLH is an underrecognised and life-threatening condition associated with a heterogeneous group of diseases including connective tissue disease and inflammatory disorders. Here, we report three cases of adult patients with MAS-HLH triggered by different entities, including systemic lupus erythematosus, Griscelli syndrome type 2, and Adult onset Still's disease.

Statins for prevention of cardiovascular disease in systemic lupus erythematosus.

OBJECTIVE: In systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cardiovascular disease (CVD) is an important cause of long-term morbidity, which could be affected by statin use. Here we review the evidence for the use of statins for the prevention of CVD in patients with SLE. METHODS: The PubMed database was searched using a query combining SLE and statins. RESULTS: The search yielded nine relevant clinical studies. Seven studies reported on radiological findings that correlate with atherosclerosis and mainly revealed that statin treatment resulted in a slight decrease in progression of carotid intima-media thickness and an increase in flow-mediated vasodilatation. Two studies investigated CVD and mortality. In a group of SLE patients that had received a kidney transplantation, three of 23 statin-treated SLE patients experienced cardiac events compared with four of ten placebo- reated controls. Moreover, in a retrospectively studied cohort of SLE patients with dyslipidaemia, statin treatment in 777 patients was associated with a large decrease in coronary heart disease (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.20), cerebrovascular disease (HR = 0.14), end-stage renal disease (HR = 0.22) and mortality (HR = 0.44) compared with 1317 patients that had not been prescribed statins. However, the latter retrospective study was subject to bias and causality can only be proven in a randomised trial. Statins showed a good safety profile in SLE patients. CONCLUSION: Whilst awaiting new prospective randomised studies, we recommend prescription of statins in SLE patients with increased cardiovascular risk according to the current recommendations for cardiovascular risk management in rheumatoid arthritis.

Distinct SagA from Hospital-Associated Clade A1 Enterococcus faecium Strains Contributes to Biofilm Formation.

Enterococcus faecium is an important nosocomial pathogen causing biofilm-mediated infections. Elucidation of E. faecium biofilm pathogenesis is pivotal for the development of new strategies to treat these infections. In several bacteria, extracellular DNA (eDNA) and proteins act as matrix components contributing to biofilm development. In this study, we investigated biofilm formation capacity and the roles of eDNA and secreted proteins for 83 E. faecium strains with different phylogenetic origins that clustered in clade A1 and clade B. Although there was no significant difference in biofilm formation between E. faecium strains from these two clades, the addition of DNase I or proteinase K to biofilms demonstrated that eDNA is essential for biofilm formation in most E. faecium strains, whereas proteolysis impacted primarily biofilms of E. faecium clade A1 strains. Secreted antigen A (SagA) was the most abundant protein in biofilms from E. faecium clade A1 and B strains, although its localization differed between the two groups. sagA was present in all sequenced E. faecium strains, with a consistent difference in the repeat region between the clades, which correlated with the susceptibility of biofilms to proteinase K. This indicates an association between the SagA variable repeat profile and the localization and contribution of SagA in E. faecium biofilms.

[Vancomycin resistant enterococci in the Netherlands]. / Vancomycineresistente enterokokken in Nederland.

Enterococci (Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium) are relatively avirulent enteric bacteria that usually only cause infections in immunocompromised patients. Antimicrobial treatment, however, is hampered as enterococci are intrinsically resistant to many antibiotics. For years, vancomycin was considered the last available antibiotic. Plasmid-mediated resistance against vancomycin among enterococci was first described in the nineteen-eighties and since then incidences of infection caused by vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) have increased dramatically, especially in the United States. In 2000, three outbreaks of VRE occurred in hospitals in the Netherlands and a set of infection-control measures was proposed to limit further transmission. These measures were based on the simultaneous isolation of VRE from multiple patients. All three outbreaks were controlled by these measures and no new outbreaks in Dutch hospitals have been reported since then. Epidemiological studies have shown that hospital outbreaks on three continents were caused by a subpopulation of E. faecium, which is characterized by the presence of a potential virulence gene (variant esp) and resistance to amoxicillin. This 'hospital strain' of E. faecium has probably been prevalent within hospital settings for some time, but only became clinically relevant when it had acquired vancomycin-resistance. Current advice is to implement the set of infection control measures formulated in 2000, only in those patients colonized by amoxicillin-resistant VRE. The potential dangers of VRE were recently underlined by the proven transmission of the vancomycin-resistance gene from VRE to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in two patients in the United States. It is in the interest of the patients that prevalence of VRE and MRSA in Dutch hospitals should be kept as low as possible.