Zucco, Adrian G.

Immune dysfunction resulting from allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) predisposes one to an elevated risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. Changes in metabolism have been associated with adverse outcomes, and in this study, we explored the associations between metabolic profiles and post-transplantation CMV infection using plasma samples collected 7–33 days after aHSCT. We included 68 aHSCT recipients from Rigshospitalet, Denmark, 50% of whom experienced CMV infection between days 34–100 post-transplantation. First, we investigated whether 12 metabolites selected based on the literature were associated with an increased risk of post-transplantation CMV infection. Second, we conducted an exploratory network-based analysis of the complete metabolic and lipidomic profiles in relation to clinical phenotypes and biological pathways. Lower levels of trimethylamine N-oxide were associated with subsequent CMV infection (multivariable logistic regression: OR = 0.63; 95% CI = [0.41; 0.87]; p = 0.01). Explorative analysis revealed 12 clusters of metabolites or lipids, among which one was predictive of CMV infection, and the others were associated with conditioning regimens, age upon aHSCT, CMV serostatus, and/or sex. Our results provide evidence for an association between the metabolome and CMV infection post-aHSCT that is independent of known risk factors.

Introduction:~ Identifying genetic factors that influence HIV-pathogenesis is critical for understanding disease pathways. Previous studies have suggested a role for the human gene ten-eleven methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 (TET2) in modulating HIV-pathogenesis. Methods:~ We assessed whether genetic variation in TET2 was associated with markers of HIV-pathogenesis using both gene level and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) level association in 8512 HIV-positive persons across five clinical trial cohorts. Results:~ Variation at both the gene and SNP-level of TET2 was found to be associated with levels of HIV viral load (HIV-VL) consistently in the two cohorts that recruited antiretroviral-naïve participants. The SNPs occurred in two clusters of high linkage disequilibrium (LD), one associated with high HIV-VL and the other low HIV-VL, and were predominantly found in Black participants. Conclusion:~ Genetic variation in TET2 was associated with HIV-VL in two large antiretroviral therapy (ART)-naive clinical trial cohorts. The role of TET2 in HIV-pathogenesis warrants further investigation.

Spatial resolution in existing chest x-ray (CXR)-based scoring systems for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia is low, and should be increased for better representation of anatomy, and severity of lung involvement. An existing CXR-based system, the Brixia score, was modified to increase the spatial resolution, creating the MBrixia score. The MBrixia score is the sum, of a rule-based quantification of CXR severity on a scale of 0 to 3 in 12 anatomical zones in the lungs. The MBrixia score was applied to CXR images from COVID-19 patients at a single tertiary hospital in the period May 4th–June 5th, 2020. The relationship between MBrixia score, and level of respiratory support at the time of performed CXR imaging was investigated. 37 hospitalized COVID-19 patients with 290 CXRs were identified, 22 (59.5%) were admitted to the intensive care unit and 10 (27%) died during follow-up. In a Poisson regression using all 290 MBrixia scored CXRs, a higher MBrixia score was associated with a higher level of respiratory support at the time of performed CXR. The MBrixia score could potentially be valuable as a quantitative surrogate measurement of COVID-19 pneumonia severity, and future studies should investigate the score’s validity and capabilities of predicting clinical outcomes.

Objectives:~ The Strategic Timing of AntiRetroviral Treatment (START) and Strategies for Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (SMART) trials demonstrated that ART can partly reverse clinically defined immune dysfunction induced by HIV replication. As control of HIV replication is influenced by the HLA region, we explored whether HLA alleles independently influence the risk of clinical events in HIV+ individuals. Design:~ Cohort study. Methods:~ In START and SMART participants, associations between imputed HLA alleles and AIDS, infection-related cancer, herpes virus-related AIDS events, chronic inflammation-related conditions, and bacterial pneumonia were assessed. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios for the risk of events among allele carriers versus noncarriers. Models were adjusted for sex, age, geography, race, time-updated CD4+ T-cell counts and HIV viral load and stratified by treatment group within trials. HLA class I and II alleles were analyzed separately. The Benjamini–Hochberg procedure was used to limit the false discovery rate to less than 5% (i.e. q value $<$0.05). Results:~ Among 4829 participants, there were 132 AIDS events, 136 chronic inflammation-related conditions, 167 bacterial pneumonias, 45 infection-related cancers, and 49 herpes virus-related AIDS events. Several associations with q value less than 0.05 were found: HLA-DQB1$$06:04 and HLA-DRB1$$13:02 with AIDS (adjusted HR [95% CI] 2.63 [1.5–4.6] and 2.25 [1.4–3.7], respectively), HLA-B$$15:17 and HLA-DPB1$$15:01 with bacterial pneumonia (4.93 [2.3–10.7] and 4.33 [2.0–9.3], respectively), and HLA-A$*$69:01 with infection-related cancer (15.26 [3.5–66.7]). The carriage frequencies of these alleles were 10% or less. Conclusion:~ This hypothesis-generating study suggests that certain HLA alleles may influence the risk of immune dysfunction-related events irrespective of viral load and CD4+ T-cell count.

``To investigate the impact of host genetics on human immunodeficiency virus type 1 control among individuals of different ancestry, we performed genome-wide ass