Clinical Science and Epidemiology
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyAntibody-Secreting Cells To Diagnose Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection in Children in PakistanTuberculosis (TB) in children represents a missed opportunity for diagnosis and preventive therapy. The magnitude or burden of disease in children is not fully understood due to our limitations with respect to exploring sensitive diagnostic algorithms. In a setting of TB endemicity in Pakistan, we carried out a proof-of-concept study to evaluate for the first time the performance of B cell analyses by the use of well-defined diagnostic...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyA Nonfunctional Opsonic Antibody Response Frequently Occurs after Pneumococcal Pneumonia and Is Associated with Invasive DiseaseNumerous reports on the dynamics of antipneumococcal immunity in relation to immunization with pneumococcal vaccines and on the prevalence of naturally acquired immunity in various populations have been published. In contrast, studies on the dynamics of the humoral immune response triggered by pneumococcal infection are scarce. This study provides valuable information that will contribute to fill this knowledge gap. Our main results...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyDiscovery of Bat Coronaviruses through Surveillance and Probe Capture-Based Next-Generation SequencingActive surveillance is both urgent and essential to predict and mitigate the emergence of bat-origin CoV in humans and livestock. However, great genetic diversity increases the chance of homologous recombination among CoVs. Performing targeted PCR, a common practice for many surveillance studies, would not reflect this diversity. NGS, on the other hand, is an expensive methodology and is prone to missing low-abundance CoV sequences....
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyRole of Horizontal Gene Transfer in the Development of Multidrug Resistance in Haemophilus influenzaeHaemophilus influenzae colonizes the respiratory tract in humans and causes both invasive and noninvasive infections. As a threat to treatment, resistance against critically important antibiotics is on the rise in H. influenzae. Identifying mechanisms for horizontal acquisition of resistance genes...
Observation | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyMiddle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Antibodies in Bactrian and Hybrid Camels from DubaiSince its first appearance in 2012, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has affected >25 countries, with >2,400 cases and an extremely high fatality rate of >30%. The total number of mortalities due to MERS is already greater than that due to severe acute respiratory syndrome. MERS coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has been confirmed to be the etiological agent. So far, dromedaries are the only known animal reservoir for MERS-CoV....
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyWhole-Genome-Sequence-Based Characterization of Extensively Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii Hospital OutbreakCarbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) has been implicated in hospital outbreaks worldwide. Here, we present a whole-genome-based investigation of an extensively drug-resistant CRAB outbreak rapidly spreading and causing high incidences of mortality at numerous wards of a large tertiary hospital in Lebanon. This is the first study of its kind in the...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyAnalysis of Global Collection of Group A Streptococcus Genomes Reveals that the Majority Encode a Trio of M and M-Like ProteinsWhile the GAS M protein has been the leading vaccine target for decades, the bacteria encode many other virulence factors of interest for vaccine development. In this work, we show that emm-like genes are encoded in a remarkable majority of GAS genomes and expressed at a level similar to that for the emm gene. In collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, we developed molecular definitions of the...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyDissemination of the blaNDM-5 Gene via IncX3-Type Plasmid among Enterobacteriaceae in ChildrenThe emergence of CRE strains resistant to multiple antibiotics is considered a substantial threat to human health. Therefore, all the efforts to provide a detailed molecular transmission mechanism of specific drug resistance can contribute positively to prevent the further spread of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Although the new superbug harboring blaNDM-5 has been reported in many countries, it was mostly identified...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyOrigin of OXA-23 Variant OXA-239 from a Recently Emerged Lineage of Acinetobacter baumannii International Clone VA. baumannii is a major cause of nosocomial infections all over the world. Although many isolates from developed countries have been studied in terms of their genome sequence, isolates from Latin America have been much less studied. In this study, using a population genomics approach considering the whole genomes of 148 isolates, we describe the recent emergence of...
Research Article | Clinical Science and EpidemiologyMultilaboratory Comparison of Pneumococcal Multiplex Immunoassays Used in Immunosurveillance of Streptococcus pneumoniae across EuropeSerology of Streptococcus pneumoniae is challenging due to existence of multiple clinically relevant serotypes and the introduction of multivalent vaccines in national immunization programs. Multiplex immunoassays (MIAs) are applied as high-throughput cost-effective methods for serosurveillance, and yet laboratories use their own protocols. The aims of this study were...