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Abstract The humoral response of kidney transplant recipients (KTR) to the mRNA vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is generally poor. We evaluated the booster effect of the third dose (D3) of two SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines 6 months after the second dose (D2) in Japanese KTR. The anti-spike (anti-S) antibody titer 1 and 3 months after the D3 was evaluated in 82 Japanese KTR. The primary endpoint was the seropositivity rate, and factors associated with the lack of a response were evaluated in a logistic regression model. Overall, the anti-S antibody seropositivity rate 1 and 3 months after the D3 was 74.7% and 76.0%. The anti-S antibody titers after the first and second doses were higher in patients vaccinated with the mRNA-1273 than with the BNT162b2 vaccine. Among the 38 KTR who were seronegative 5 months after the D2, 18 (47.4%) became seropositive following the D3. Factors associated with a non-response were mycophenolic acid dose, post-transplant duration, hemoglobin, and lymphocyte count. A humoral response 1 and 3 months after the D3 was obtained in ~ 75% of KTR, but 20% were non-responders. Additional studies are needed to clarify the factors hindering a vaccine response.

BackgroundThe mortality rate due to COVID-19 in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) is 16.8 to 32%. Vaccination against COVID-19 is expected to contribute to the prevention of infection, severe disease, and mortality; however, it has been reported that the humoral response to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) mRNA vaccine in KTRs is poor. Vaccination strategies against COVID-19 vary from country to country, and in Japan, the third dose is given 6 months after the second dose. Few studies have evaluated long-term humoral responses after the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. In addition, the superiority of BNT162b2 vaccine and mRNA-1,273 vaccine in KTRs regarding humoral response is controversial.MethodsNinety-four KTRs were administered a second dose of the BNT162b2 or mRNA-1,273 vaccines, and anti-spike (anti-S) and anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels were measured 5 months (149.2 ± 45.5 days) later. The cutoff value of anti-S antibodies was defined ≥50 AU/ml and 1.4 Index for anti-N antibodies. The primary outcome was the rate of seropositivity, and factors associated with an appropriate humoral response were assessed by univariate and multivariate analysis.ResultsOf 94 KTRs, only 45 (47.9%) patients were positive for anti-S antibodies. The median anti-S SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody titers was 35.3 (Interquartile range 3.8 to 159.7). Anti-N SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in all patients were

Abstract The clinical manifestations of COVID‐19 vary broadly, ranging from asymptomatic infection to acute respiratory failure and death. But the predictive biomarkers for characterizing the variability are still lacking. Since emerging evidence indicates that extracellular vesicles (EVs) and extracellular RNAs (exRNAs) are functionally involved in a number of pathological processes, we hypothesize that these extracellular components may be key determinants and/or predictors of COVID‐19 severity. To test our hypothesis, we collected serum samples from 31 patients with mild COVID‐19 symptoms at the time of their admission for discovery cohort. After symptomatic treatment without corticosteroids, 9 of the 31 patients developed severe/critical COVID‐19 symptoms. We analyzed EV protein and exRNA profiles to look for correlations between these profiles and COVID‐19 severity. Strikingly, we identified three distinct groups of markers (antiviral response‐related EV proteins, coagulation‐related markers, and liver damage‐related exRNAs) with the potential to serve as early predictive biomarkers for COVID‐19 severity. As the best predictive marker, EV COPB2 protein, a subunit of the Golgi coatomer complex, exhibited significantly higher abundance in patients remained mild than developed severe/critical COVID‐19 and healthy controls in discovery cohort (AUC 1.00 (95% CI: 1.00‐1.00)). The validation set included 40 COVID‐19 patients and 39 healthy controls, and showed exactly the same trend between the three groups with excellent predictive value (AUC 0.85 (95% CI: 0.73‐0.97)). These findings highlight the potential of EV COPB2 expression for patient stratification and for making early clinical decisions about strategies for COVID‐19 therapy.

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to clarify the rate of late diagnosis of HIV infection and to identify relationships between the reasons for HIV testing and a late diagnosis. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was conducted among HIV-positive patients at the Jikei University Hospital between 2001 and 2014. Patient characteristics from medical records, including age, sex, sexuality, the reason for HIV testing and the number of CD4-positive lymphocytes at HIV diagnosis, were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 459 patients (men, n=437; 95.2%) were included in this study and the median age at HIV diagnosis was 36 years (range, 18-71 years). Late (CD4 cell count

Background: Daptomycin is recommended for complicated skin and skin-structure infections. However, information on the penetration of daptomycin into skin is limited. Therefore, the aim of this in vivo investigation was to determine the pharmacokinetics and skin penetration of daptomycin in rats. Materials and methods: Concentrations of daptomycin were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography. A noncompartmental pharmacokinetic analysis was conducted to estimate the rate and extent of daptomycin penetration from the systemic circulation into skin tissue. Since protein binding of daptomycin in rat serum was 89.3%, the free maximum concentration (Cmax) and free area under the curve from time 0 to infinity (AUC0-∞) for plasma were calculated as follows: fCmax, plasma = (1 - 0.893) × Cmax, plasma, fAUC0-∞, plasma = (1 - 0.893) × AUC0-∞, plasma. Results: The following values (mean ± standard deviation) were obtained: 0.06±0 L/h/kg for total clearance (CLtotal), 0.44±0.06 hours for elimination-rate constant, 1.58±0.23 hours for half-life, 0.14±0.02 L/kg for steady-state volume distribution, and 2.28±0.33 hours for mean residence time. Time to Cmax was 3.0 hours for plasma and skin tissue. Cmax and AUC0-∞ for plasma were 175.8±5.1 µg/mL and 811.8±31.9 µg × h/mL, respectively. Cmax and AUC0-∞ for skin tissue were 19.1±1.7 µg/mL and 113.9±21.8 µg × h/mL, respectively. Furthermore, fCmax and fAUC0-∞ for plasma were 18.8 µg/mL and 86.9 µg × h/mL, respectively. The degrees of skin-tissue penetration, defined as the Cmax, skin tissue/fCmax, plasma ratio and AUC0-∞, skin tissue/fAUC0-∞, plasma ratio, were 1.0 and 1.3, respectively. Conclusion: Daptomycin exhibited good penetration into skin tissue, supporting its use for the treatment of complicated skin and skin-structure infections. However, further studies are needed in infected patients in order to investigate the relationship between the antimicrobial efficacy of daptomycin and its drug concentrations in skin tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]