Adding the FcRn antagonist efgartigimod for the prevention of IgG-mediated complications in the peri-transplant period.

Background: The management of IgG-mediated diseases in the peri-allogeneic transplant period remains challenging. Specifically, the presence of donor-specific antibodies (DSA) is a major cause of graft failure and poor graft function; despite improvements in desensitization, it remains an unmet need. Similarly, there is no standard approach for the prevention of delayed RBC transfusion independence and pure red blood cell aplasia caused by IgG isoagglutinins after major ABO-mismatched transplant.

Efficacy and Safety of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Hospitalized Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: There is clinical equipoise for COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) use in patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of CCP compared with placebo in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 receiving noninvasive supplemental oxygen.

Design, Setting, And Participants: CONTAIN COVID-19, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of CCP in hospitalized adults with COVID-19, was conducted at 21 US hospitals from April 17, 2020, to March 15, 2021.

Patterns of leukocyte recovery predict infectious complications after CD19 CAR-T cell therapy in a real-world setting.

Background: Adoptive immunotherapy using CD19-targeted Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) has revolutionized the treatment of relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Data is limited on the propensity of infections and lymphohematopoietic reconstitution after Day 30 (D30) following CAR-T cell therapy. In this study, we evaluated the prevalence and nature of infectious complications in an expanded cohort of DLBCL patients treated with CD19 CAR-T therapy and its association with the dynamics of leukocyte subpopulation reconstitution post-CAR-T cell therapy.

ABO blood type association with SARS-CoV-2 infection mortality: A single-center population in New York City.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a variable clinical course with significant mortality. Early reports suggested higher rates of SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with type A blood and enrichment of type A individuals among COVID-19 mortalities.

Study Design And Methods: The study includes all patients hospitalized or with an emergency department (ED) visit who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 between March 10, 2020 and June 8, 2020 and had a positive test result by nucleic acid test (NAT) performed on a nasopharyngeal swab specimen.

The use of therapeutic plasma exchange as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019: A critical appraisal of the current evidence.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has led to a major pandemic. While vaccine development moves forward, optimal treatment continues to be explored. Efforts include an ever-expanding number of clinical trials along with newly proposed experimental and off-label investigational therapies; one of which is therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE).

Treatment of severe COVID-19 with convalescent plasma in Bronx, NYC.

Convalescent plasma with severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies (CCP) may hold promise as a treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We compared the mortality and clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19 who received 200 mL of CCP with a spike protein IgG titer ≥ 1:2430 (median 1:47,385) within 72 hours of admission with propensity score-matched controls cared for at a medical center in the Bronx, between April 13 and May 4, 2020. Matching criteria for controls were age, sex, body mass index, race, ethnicity, comorbidities, week of admission, oxygen requirement, D-dimer, lymphocyte counts, corticosteroid use, and anticoagulation use.

SARS-CoV-2 PCR cycle threshold at hospital admission associated with patient mortality.

Background: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cycle threshold (Ct) has been suggested as an approximate measure of initial viral burden. The utility of cycle threshold, at admission, as a predictor of disease severity has not been thoroughly investigated.

Methods And Findings: We conducted a retrospective study of SARS-CoV-2 positive, hospitalized patients from 3/26/2020 to 8/5/2020 who had SARS-CoV-2 Ct data within 48 hours of admission (n = 1044).

Treatment of Severe COVID-19 with Convalescent Plasma in the Bronx, NYC.

Convalescent plasma with severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies (CCP) may hold promise as treatment for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). We compared the mortality and clinical outcome of patients with COVID-19 who received 200mL of CCP with a Spike protein IgG titer ≥1:2,430 (median 1:47,385) within 72 hours of admission to propensity score-matched controls cared for at a medical center in the Bronx, between April 13 to May 4, 2020. Matching criteria for controls were age, sex, body mass index, race, ethnicity, comorbidities, week of admission, oxygen requirement, D-dimer, lymphocyte counts, corticosteroids, and anticoagulation use.

Clinically localized type 1 and 2 papillary renal cell carcinomas have similar survival outcomes following surgery.

Purpose: We aimed to determine incidence, pathologic findings, prognostic factors and clinical outcomes for patients with clinically localized papillary RCC.

Methods: Demographic, clinical and pathologic findings were collected on all patients with PRCC undergoing surgery at four academic medical centers. The primary endpoint was cancer-specific survival (CSS).

Kcne2 deletion uncovers its crucial role in thyroid hormone biosynthesis.

Thyroid dysfunction is a global health concern, causing defects including neurodevelopmental disorders, dwarfism and cardiac arrhythmia. Here, we show that the potassium channel subunits KCNQ1 and KCNE2 form a thyroid-stimulating hormone-stimulated, constitutively active, thyrocyte K+ channel required for normal thyroid hormone biosynthesis. Targeted disruption of Kcne2 in mice impaired thyroid iodide accumulation up to eightfold, impaired maternal milk ejection, halved milk tetraiodothyronine (T4) content and halved litter size.

The Na+/I- symporter mediates active iodide uptake in the intestine.

Absorption of dietary iodide, presumably in the small intestine, is the first step in iodide (I(-)) utilization. From the bloodstream, I(-) is actively taken up via the Na(+)/I(-) symporter (NIS) in the thyroid for thyroid hormone biosynthesis and in such other tissues as lactating breast, which supplies I(-) to the newborn in the milk. The molecular basis for intestinal I(-) absorption is unknown.

Expression of the Na+/I- symporter (NIS) is markedly decreased or absent in gastric cancer and intestinal metaplastic mucosa of Barrett esophagus.

Background: The sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) is a plasma membrane glycoprotein that mediates iodide (I-) transport in the thyroid, lactating breast, salivary glands, and stomach. Whereas NIS expression and regulation have been extensively investigated in healthy and neoplastic thyroid and breast tissues, little is known about NIS expression and function along the healthy and diseased gastrointestinal tract.

Methods: Thus, we investigated NIS expression by immunohistochemical analysis in 155 gastrointestinal tissue samples and by immunoblot analysis in 17 gastric tumors from 83 patients.

Interleukin 2 gene transcription is regulated by Ikaros-induced changes in histone acetylation in anergic T cells.

In T cells anergy may be evoked by an unbalanced stimulation of the T-cell receptor in the absence of costimulation. Anergic T cells are unresponsive to new antigen receptor engagement and do not produce interleukin 2. We present evidence that anergizing stimuli induce changes in histone acetylation, which mediates transcriptional repression of interleukin 2 expression.

Na(+)/monocarboxylate transport (SMCT) protein expression correlates with survival in colon cancer: molecular characterization of SMCT.

We report an extensive characterization of the Na(+)/monocarboxylate transporter (SMCT), a plasma membrane protein that mediates active transport of monocarboxylates such as propionate and nicotinate, and we show that SMCT may play a role in colorectal cancer diagnosis. SMCT, the product of the SLC5A8 gene, is 70% similar to the Na(+)/I(-) symporter, the protein that mediates active I(-) uptake in the basolateral surface of thyrocytes and other cells. SMCT was reported in the apical surface of thyrocytes and formerly proposed also to transport I(-) and was called the apical I(-) transporter.