Project description:Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) represent an emerging global crisis. However, quantifiable risk-factors for PASC and their biological associations are poorly resolved. We executed a deep multi-omic, longitudinal investigation of 309 COVID-19 patients from initial diagnosis to convalescence (2-3 months later), integrated with clinical data, and patient-reported symptoms. We resolved four PASC-anticipating risk factors at the time of initial COVID-19 diagnosis: type 2 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 RNAemia, Epstein-Barr virus viremia, and specific autoantibodies. In patients with gastrointestinal PASC, SARS-CoV-2-specific and CMV-specific CD8+ T cells exhibited unique dynamics during recovery from COVID-19. Analysis of symptom-associated immunological signatures revealed coordinated immunity polarization into four endotypes exhibiting divergent acute severity and PASC. We find that immunological associations between PASC factors diminish over time leading to distinct convalescent immune states. Detectability of most PASC factors at COVID-19 diagnosis emphasizes the importance of early disease measurements for understanding emergent chronic conditions and suggests PASC treatment strategies.
Project description:Study objectivesMast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is an inflammatory and allergic disorder. We determined the prevalence of restless legs syndrome (RLS) in MCAS because each common syndrome may be inflammatory in nature and associated with dysautonomia.MethodsIndividuals with MCAS were evaluated for RLS by two standard questionnaires. Prevalence comparisons included spouse control patients and two prevalence publications. MCAS diagnosis required mast cell (MC) symptoms in ? 2 organs plus ? 1 elevated MC mediators, improvement with MC therapy, and/or increased intestinal MC density. Clinical variables were studied.ResultsThere were 174 patients with MCAS (146 female, 28 male, mean age 44.8 years) and 85 spouse control patients (12 female, 73 male, mean age 50.9 years). Patients with MCAS as a whole had a higher prevalence of RLS (40.8%) than spouse control (12.9%) (P < .0001) Male patients with MCAS had a higher prevalence of RLS (32.1%) than male controls (12.3%, odds ratio [OR] 3.4, confidence interval [CI] 1.2-9.7, P = .025), American men (8.4%, OR 5.2, CI 2.2-12.0, P < .001), and French men (5.8%, OR 7.7, CI 3.4-17.1, P < .001). Female patients with MCAS also had a higher prevalence of RLS (42.5%) than female controls (16.7%) but this did not reach statistical significance perhaps because of the sample size of the female controls. However, female patients with MCAS had a statistically higher prevalence of RLS than American women (10.0%, OR 6.7, CI 4.5-9.7, P < .0001) and French women (10.8%, OR 6.1, CI 4.4-8.6, P < .0001).ConclusionsRLS appears to be associated with MCAS. Effects of mast cell mediators, inflammation, immune mechanisms, dysautonomia, or hypoxia may theoretically activate RLS in MCAS.
Project description:Idiopathic mast cell activation syndrome can be a rare cause for chronic abdominal pain in children. It remains a diagnosis by exclusion that can be particularly challenging due to the vast variety of possible clinical manifestations. We present a 13-year-old boy who suffered from a multitude of unspecific complaints over a long period of time. In this case, an assessment of mast cell-derived metabolites and immunohistochemical analysis of bioptic specimen was worthwhile. After ruling out, primary (oncologic) and secondary causes for mast cell activation, pharmacologic treatment adapted to the patient's salicylate intolerance resulted in a major relief of symptoms.
Project description:For nearly a decade, case reports and series have emerged regarding dysautonomias-particularly postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS)-presenting soon after vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV). We too have observed a number of such cases (all following vaccination with the Gardasil product), and have found several to have detectable mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) as well as histories suggesting that MCAS was likely present long before vaccination. We detail 11 such cases here, posing a hypothesis that HPV vaccination (at least with the Gardasil product) may have triggered or exacerbated MCAS in teenagers previously not recognized to have it. Only recently recognized, MCAS is being increasingly appreciated as a prevalent and chronic multisystem disorder, often emerging early in life and presenting with inflammatory ± allergic phenomena following from known mast cell (MC) mediator effects. There is rising recognition, too, of associations of MCAS with central and peripheral neuropathic disorders, including autonomic disorders such as POTS. Given the recognized potential for many antigens to trigger a major and permanent escalation of baseline MC misbehavior in a given MCAS patient, we hypothesize that in our patients described herein, vaccination with Gardasil may have caused pre-existing (but not yet clinically recognized) MCAS to worsen to a clinically significantly degree, with the emergence of POTS and other issues. The recognition and management of MCAS prior to vaccinations in general may be a strategy worth investigating for reducing adverse events following HPV vaccinations and perhaps even other types of vaccinations.
Project description:Five COVID-19-related ARDS patients who consented to compassionate placenta-derived (pc)-MSC treatment were followed for clinical response and disease progression. Serum samples were collected before and after pc-MSC infusion for quantitative proteomics analysis.
Project description:Here, we describe the case of a COVID-19 patient who developed recurring ventilator-associated pneumonia caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa that acquired increasing levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in response to treatment. Metagenomic analysis revealed the AMR genotype, while immunological analysis revealed massive and escalating levels of T-cell activation. These were both SARS-CoV-2 and P. aeruginosa specific, and bystander activated, which may have contributed to this patient's persistent symptoms and radiological changes.
Project description:BackgroundMast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), a recently recognized nonneoplastic mast cell disease driving chronic multisystem inflammation and allergy, appears prevalent and thus important. We report the first systematic characterization of a large MCAS population.MethodDemographics, comorbidities, symptoms, family histories, physical examination and laboratory findings were reviewed in 298 retrospective and 115 prospective patients with MCAS. Blood samples from prospective subjects were examined by flow cytometry for clonal mast cell disease and tested for cytokines potentially driving the monocytosis frequent in MCAS.ResultsDemographically, white females dominated. Median ages at symptom onset and diagnosis were 9 and 49 years, respectively (range: 0-88 and 16-92, respectively) and median time from symptom onset to diagnosis was 30 years (range: 1-85). Median numbers of comorbidities, symptoms, and family medical issues were 11, 20, and 4, respectively (range: 1-66, 2-84, and 0-33, respectively). Gastroesophageal reflux, fatigue and dermatographism were the most common comorbidity, symptom and examination finding. Abnormalities in routine laboratories were common and diverse but typically modest. The most useful diagnostic markers were heparin, prostaglandin D2, histamine and chromogranin A. Flow cytometric and cytokine assessments were unhelpful.ConclusionsOur study highlights MCAS׳s morbidity burden and challenging heterogeneity. Recognition is important given good survival and treatment prospects.
Project description:We present a multivariate metabotyping approach to assess the functional recovery of nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients and the possible biochemical sequelae of "Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome", colloquially known as long-COVID. Blood samples were taken from patients ca. 3 months after acute COVID-19 infection with further assessment of symptoms at 6 months. Some 57% of the patients had one or more persistent symptoms including respiratory-related symptoms like cough, dyspnea, and rhinorrhea or other nonrespiratory symptoms including chronic fatigue, anosmia, myalgia, or joint pain. Plasma samples were quantitatively analyzed for lipoproteins, glycoproteins, amino acids, biogenic amines, and tryptophan pathway intermediates using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Metabolic data for the follow-up patients (n = 27) were compared with controls (n = 41) and hospitalized severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS-CoV-2 positive patients (n = 18, with multiple time-points). Univariate and multivariate statistics revealed variable patterns of functional recovery with many patients exhibiting residual COVID-19 biomarker signatures. Several parameters were persistently perturbed, e.g., elevated taurine (p = 3.6 × 10-3 versus controls) and reduced glutamine/glutamate ratio (p = 6.95 × 10-8 versus controls), indicative of possible liver and muscle damage and a high energy demand linked to more generalized tissue repair or immune function. Some parameters showed near-complete normalization, e.g., the plasma apolipoprotein B100/A1 ratio was similar to that of healthy controls but significantly lower (p = 4.2 × 10-3) than post-acute COVID-19 patients, reflecting partial reversion of the metabolic phenotype (phenoreversion) toward the healthy metabolic state. Plasma neopterin was normalized in all follow-up patients, indicative of a reduction in the adaptive immune activity that has been previously detected in active SARS-CoV-2 infection. Other systemic inflammatory biomarkers such as GlycA and the kynurenine/tryptophan ratio remained elevated in some, but not all, patients. Correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and orthogonal-partial least-squares discriminant analysis (O-PLS-DA) showed that the follow-up patients were, as a group, metabolically distinct from controls and partially comapped with the acute-phase patients. Significant systematic metabolic differences between asymptomatic and symptomatic follow-up patients were also observed for multiple metabolites. The overall metabolic variance of the symptomatic patients was significantly greater than that of nonsymptomatic patients for multiple parameters (χ2 p = 0.014). Thus, asymptomatic follow-up patients including those with post-acute COVID-19 Syndrome displayed a spectrum of multiple persistent biochemical pathophysiology, suggesting that the metabolic phenotyping approach may be deployed for multisystem functional assessment of individual post-acute COVID-19 patients.
Project description:Although a substantial proportion of severe COVID-19 pneumonia survivors exhibit long-term pulmonary sequalae, the underlying mechanisms or associated local and systemic immune correlates are not known. Here, we have performed high dimensional characterization of the pathophysiological and immune traits of aged COVID-19 convalescents, and correlated the local and systemic immune profiles with pulmonary function and lung imaging. In this cohort of aged COVID-19 convalescents, chronic lung impairment was accompanied by persistent systemic inflammation and respiratory immune alterations. Detailed evaluation of the lung immune compartment revealed dysregulated respiratory CD8+ T cell responses that likely underlie the impaired lung function following acute COVID-19 during aging. Single cell transcriptomic analysis identified the potential pathogenic subsets of respiratory CD8+ T cells causing persistent tissue conditions following COVID-19. Our results have revealed key pathophysiological and immune traits that support the development of lung sequelae following SARS-CoV2 pneumonia during aging, with implications for the treatment of chronic COVID-19 symptoms.
Project description:BackgroundAs the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to progress, awareness about its long-term impacts has been growing. To date, studies on the long-term course of symptoms, factors associated with persistent symptoms, and quality of life after 12 months since recovery from acute COVID-19 have been limited.MethodsA prospective online survey (First: September 8, 2020-September 10, 2020; Second: May 26, 2021-June 1, 2021) was conducted on recovered patients who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 between February 13, 2020 and March 13, 2020 at Kyungpook National University Hospital. Responders aged between 17 and 70 years were included in the study. Overall, 900 and 241 responders were followed up at 6 and 12 months after recovery from COVID-19 in the first and second surveys, respectively. Clinical characteristics, self-reported persistent symptoms, and EuroQol-5-dimension (EQ5D) index score were investigated for evaluating quality of life.ResultsThe median period from the date of the first symptom onset or COVID-19 diagnosis to the time of the survey was 454 (interquartile range [IQR] 451-458) days. The median age of the responders was 37 (IQR 26.0-51.0) years, and 164 (68.0%) responders were women. Altogether, 11 (4.6%) responders were asymptomatic, and 194 (80.5%), 30 (12.4%), and 6 (2.5%) responders had mild, moderate, and severe illness, respectively. Overall, 127 (52.7%) responders still experienced COVID-19-related persistent symptoms and 12 (5.0%) were receiving outpatient treatment for such symptoms. The main symptoms were difficulty in concentration, cognitive dysfunction, amnesia, depression, fatigue, and anxiety. Considering the EQ5D index scores, only 59.3% of the responders did not have anxiety or depression. Older age, female sex, and disease severity were identified as risk factors for persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms.ConclusionCOVID-19-related persistent symptoms improved over time; however, neurological symptoms can last longer than other symptoms. Continuous careful observation of symptom improvement and multidisciplinary integrated research on recovered COVID-19 patients are required.