Search

Background: Rotavirus (RV) is an enteric pathogen that has devastating impact on childhood morbidity and mortality worldwide. The immunologic mechanism underlying the protection achieved after RV vaccination is not yet fully understood., Methods: We compared the transcriptome of children affected by community-acquired RV infection and children immunized with a live attenuated RV vaccine (RotaTeq ® )., Results: RV vaccination mimics the wild type infection causing similar changes in children's transcriptome, including transcripts associated with cell cycle, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, intussusception, and abnormal morphology of midgut. A machine learning approach allowed to detect a combination of nine-transcripts that differentiates vaccinated from convalescent-naturally infected children (AUC: 90%; 95%CI: 70-100) and distinguishes between acute-infected and healthy control children (in both cases, AUC: 100%; 95%CI: 100-100). We identified a miRNA hsa-mir-149 that seems to play a role in the host defense against viral pathogens and may have an antiviral role., Discussion: Our findings might shed further light in the understanding of RV infection, its functional link to intussusception causes, as well as guide development of antiviral treatments and safer and more effective vaccines. The nine-transcript signature may constitute a marker of vaccine protection and helps to differentiate vaccinated from naturally infected or susceptible children., Competing Interests: FM-T has received honoraria from GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, MSD, Seqirus, and Janssen for taking part in advisory boards and expert meetings, and for acting as speaker in congresses outside the scope of the submitted work. JG-R has received honoraria from GSK, Pfizer, and MSD for taking part in advisory boards and expert meetings, and for acting as speaker in congresses outside the scope of the submitted work. FM-T has also acted as principal investigator in RCTs of the above-mentioned companies as well as Ablynx, Regeneron, Roche, Abbott, Novavax, and MedImmune, with honoraria paid to his institution. The remaining authors declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Gómez-Carballa, Barral-Arca, Cebey-López, Currás-Tuala, Pischedda, Gómez-Rial, Habgood-Coote, Herberg, Kaforou, Martinón-Torres and Salas.)

Background: Emerging evidence indicates a potential role for monocytes in COVID-19 immunopathology. We investigated two soluble markers of monocyte activation, sCD14 and sCD163, in COVID-19 patients, with the aim of characterizing their potential role in monocyte-macrophage disease immunopathology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind., Methods: Fifty-nine SARS-Cov-2 positive hospitalized patients, classified according to ICU or non-ICU admission requirement, were prospectively recruited and analyzed by ELISA for levels of sCD14 and sCD163, along with other laboratory parameters, and compared to a healthy control group., Results: sCD14 and sCD163 levels were significantly higher among COVID-19 patients, independently of ICU admission requirement, compared to the control group. We found a significant correlation between sCD14 levels and other inflammatory markers, particularly Interleukin-6, in the non-ICU patients group. sCD163 showed a moderate positive correlation with the time lapsed from admission to sampling, independently of severity group. Treatment with corticoids showed an interference with sCD14 levels, whereas hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab did not., Conclusions: Monocyte-macrophage activation markers are increased and correlate with other inflammatory markers in SARS-Cov-2 infection, in association to hospital admission. These data suggest a preponderant role for monocyte-macrophage activation in the development of immunopathology of COVID-19 patients., (Copyright © 2020 Gómez-Rial, Currás-Tuala, Rivero-Calle, Gómez-Carballa, Cebey-López, Rodríguez-Tenreiro, Dacosta-Urbieta, Rivero-Velasco, Rodríguez-Núñez, Trastoy-Pena, Rodríguez-García, Salas and Martinón-Torres.)