Volume 221, Issue 7, 1 April 2020

Rapid and accurate sepsis diagnosis and patient stratification are currently challenged by the limits of conventional markers. Fast microbiology and omics analyses offer promising tools to support clinical decisions within a few hours after sample collection.

We report a strategy of delivering c-di-AMP, a STING agonist, from within live BCG. Overproduction of c-di-AMP significantly enhanced the protective efficacy of BCG against tuberculosis. Our findings support the development of BCG-vectored STING agonists as a TB vaccine strategy.

This randomized trial in 90 adults in the United States found that the Chimeric Yellow Fever-Derived Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine (Dengvaxia) primed by the Japanese encephalitis vaccine may have an early benefit in antibody titers and activated CD8⁺ T cells.

Varicella-zoster virus infection of astrocytes produces intracellular amylin, amyloid-β, amyloid, and an extracellular amyloidogenic environment due, in part, to amyloidogenic viral peptides. These findings indicate that infection may contribute to the toxic amyloid burden, accelerating amyloid-associated disease progression.

Differences in population-level consumption of particular antimicrobials may contribute to variations in the level of antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae.

In a Phase 3 trial of letermovir for cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis in hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients, UL56 gene mutations conferring letermovir resistance were identified in 3 subjects among 50 who developed clinically significant CMV infection and had genotyping results.

A dose-dependent increased risk of tuberculosis disease was seen with increasing human cytomegalovirus exposure as measured by immunoglobulin G in this Ugandan cohort. Increased tuberculosis risk was also associated with an inflammatory profile of interferon-induced protein 10 and interleukin 1α.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) DNA persists within the viral reservoir despite therapy. A longitudinal analysis of 60 individuals treated during early HIV infection showed that HIV DNA levels are “set” early in infection and predicted by an activated immune response.

CD30 may be a surrogate marker of early replication or viral transcriptional activity before detection by routine peripheral blood sampling during analytical treatment interruption in people with HIV.

We found that specific HLA alleles predict CD8 and CD4 T-cell activation, independent of HLA associations with viral load. These findings suggest that host genetic variation could affect risk for end-organ diseases through an immune activation mechanism.

We found increased rates of infection-related hospitalization and decreased cellular responses to the tetanus vaccine among HIV-exposed, uninfected compared with HIV-unexposed infants. Incomplete treatment of maternal HIV, but not early infant CMV infection, was associated with decreased vaccine responses.

In this study, we measure the relationship between fine-scale spatiotemporal heterogeneity in exposure to infected and successfully fed malaria vectors, the incidence of malaria, and their interaction with insecticide-treated net use in a population-based cohort.

Pregnant women with HIV have more diverse vaginal communities and altered community structure compared with pregnant uninfected women. However, preterm birth was associated with HIV infections independent of vaginal community state type.