Elevated Level of Circulating but Not Urine S100A8/A9 Identifies Poor COVID-19 Outcomes.

The alarmin calprotectin (S100A8/A9) is thought to drive a cytokine storm, a hallmark of severe COVID-19. Recent studies report circulating S100A8/A9 levels can distinguish COVID-19 severity but have only been conducted in non-U.S. cohorts and mainly focus on serum S100A8/A9 levels. Thus, we quantified S100A8/A9 in serum and urine samples from a hospital cohort in St. Louis, Missouri, to expand the understanding of S100A8/A9 as a prognostic biomarker for COVID-19. Elevated S100A8/A9 serum levels were observed in ICU patients (n = 49, p = 0.0370) and patients with fatal cases of COVID-19 (n = 76, p = 0.0018). We observed no correlation in the S100A8/A9 levels in matched serum and urine samples. Our results support the association of serum S100A8/A9 levels with COVID-19 severity and suggest that further investigation of urine S100A8/A9 as a COVID-19 biomarker is not warranted.

Volatile profiling distinguishes Streptococcus pyogenes from other respiratory streptococcal species.

Sore throat is one of the most common complaints encountered in the ambulatory clinical setting. Rapid, culture-independent diagnostic techniques that do not rely on pharyngeal swabs would be highly valuable as a point-of-care strategy to guide outpatient antibiotic treatment. Despite the promise of this approach, efforts to detect volatiles during oropharyngeal infection have yet been limited. In our research study, we sought to evaluate for specific bacterial volatile organic compounds (VOC) biomarkers in isolated cultures in vitro, in order to establish proof-of-concept prior to initial clinical studies of breath biomarkers. A particular challenge for the diagnosis of pharyngitis due to Streptococcus pyogenes is the likelihood that many metabolites may be shared by S. pyogenes and other related oropharyngeal colonizing bacterial species. Therefore, we evaluated whether sufficient metabolic differences are present, which distinguish the volatile metabolome of Group A streptococci from other streptococcal species that also colonize the respiratory mucosa, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus intermedius. In this work, we identified 27 discriminatory VOCs (q-values < 0.05), composed of aldehydes, alcohols, nitrogen-containing compounds, hydrocarbons, ketones, aromatic compounds, esters, ethers, and carboxylic acid. From this group of volatiles, we identify candidate biomarkers that distinguish S. pyogenes from other species and establish highly produced VOCs that indicate the presence of S. pyogenes in vitro, supporting future breath-based diagnostic testing for streptococcal pharyngitis. IMPORTANCE Acute pharyngitis accounts for approximately 15 million ambulatory care visits in the United States. The most common and important bacterial cause of pharyngitis is Streptococcus pyogenesis, accounting for 15%-30% of pediatric pharyngitis. Distinguishing between bacterial and viral pharyngitis is key to management in US practice. The culture of a specimen obtained by a throat swab is the standard laboratory procedure for the microbiologic confirmation of pharyngitis; however, this method is time-consuming, which delays appropriate treatment. If left untreated, S. pyogenes pharyngitis may lead to local and distant complications. In this study, we characterized the volatile metabolomes of S. pyogenes and other related oropharyngeal colonizing bacterial species. We identify candidate biomarkers that distinguish S. pyogenes from other species and provide evidence to support future breath-based diagnostic testing for streptococcal pharyngitis.

S100A8/A9 in COVID-19 pathogenesis: Impact on clinical outcomes.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a broad range of clinical manifestations, highlighting the need for specific diagnostic tools to predict disease severity and improve patient prognosis. Recently, calprotectin (S100A8/A9) has been proposed as a potential biomarker for COVID-19, as elevated serum S100A8/A9 levels are associated with critical COVID-19 cases and can distinguish between mild and severe disease states. S100A8/A9 is an alarmin that mediates host proinflammatory responses during infection and it has been postulated that S100A8/A9 modulates the cytokine storm; the hallmark of fatal COVID-19 cases. However, it has yet to be determined if S100A8/A9 is a bona-fide biomarker for COVID-19. S100A8/A9 is widely implicated in a variety of inflammatory conditions, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), as well as pulmonary infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and influenza. Therefore, understanding how S100A8/A9 levels correlate with immune responses during inflammatory diseases is necessary to evaluate its candidacy as a potential COVID-19 biomarker. This review will outline the protective and detrimental roles of S100A8/A9 during infection, summarize the recent findings detailing the contributions of S100A8/A9 to COVID-19 pathogenesis, and highlight its potential as diagnostic biomarker and a therapeutic target for pulmonary infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Development and Testing of a Spray-Dried Tuberculosis Vaccine Candidate in a Mouse Model.

Converting a vaccine into a thermostable dry powder is advantageous as it reduces the resource burden linked with the cold chain and provides flexibility in dosage and administration through different routes. Such a dry powder presentation may be especially useful in the development of a vaccine towards the respiratory infectious disease tuberculosis (TB). This study assesses the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of spray-dried ID93+GLA-SE, a promising TB vaccine candidate, against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in a murine model when administered via different routes. Four administration routes for the spray-dried ID93+GLA-SE were evaluated along with relevant controls-1) reconstitution and intramuscular injection, 2) reconstitution and intranasal delivery, 3) nasal dry powder delivery via inhalation, and 4) pulmonary dry powder delivery via inhalation. Dry powder intranasal and pulmonary delivery was achieved using a custom nose-only inhalation device, and optimization using representative vaccine-free powder demonstrated that approximately 10 and 44% of the maximum possible delivered dose would be delivered for intranasal delivery and pulmonary delivery, respectively. Spray-dried powder was engineered according to the different administration routes including maintaining approximately equivalent delivered doses of ID93 and GLA. Vaccine properties of the different spray-dried lots were assessed for quality control in terms of nanoemulsion droplet diameter, polydispersity index, adjuvant content, and antigen content. Our results using the Mtb mouse challenge model show that both intranasal reconstituted vaccine delivery as well as pulmonary dry powder vaccine delivery resulted in Mtb control in infected mice comparable to traditional intramuscular delivery. Improved protection in these two vaccinated groups over their respective control groups coincided with the presence of cytokine-producing T cell responses. In summary, our results provide novel vaccine formulations and delivery routes that can be harnessed to provide protection against Mtb infection.