Antiphospholipid antibodies during acute COVID-19 are not associated with long COVID: findings from a retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: Long COVID is a public health issue with complex pathophysiology, potentially involving immunoinflammatory and prothrombotic mechanisms. Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) have been observed in acute COVID-19 and speculated to contribute to long COVID development. Our goal was to determine if the presence of aPL was associated with the progression towards long COVID.

Region-specific gene expression and sex inform about disease susceptibility in the aorta.

Pathology in large vessels frequently develops at specific locations, implying that local stressors and spatially restricted gene expression are likely contributors to disease susceptibility. Here we perform single-cell transcriptomics in the carotids, the aortic arch and the thoracic and abdominal aorta to identify site- and sex-specific differences that could inform about vulnerability. Our findings revealed (1) regionally defined transcriptional profiles, (2) signatures associated with embryonic origins and (3) differential contributions of sex-specific effectors.

CD146: a promising target in respiratory diseases.

Respiratory diseases are major causes of chronic disorders and death worldwide, involving inflammatory, tumoral or infectious processes. It has been proven that vascular mechanisms are key contributors to the pathogenesis of these diseases. For that purpose, it is essential to describe and validate new biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets responsible for lung vascularisation and/or angiogenesis.

Identification of autoantibodies against HIF1a in patients with anorexia nervosa and their potential role in hepatic cytolysis.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe, potentially life-threatening psychiatric disorder characterized by an intense fear of weight gain, a distorted body perception and an extern food restriction leading to an abnormally low body weight. In AN patients, malnutrition is often associated with hepatic cytolysis. A growing body of evidence support an association between AN and auto-immunity.

Pathogenicity and Virulence of Coxiella burnetii: Focus on Q fever.

is responsible for Q fever, a zoonosis that mainly manifests as a mild acute infection and may persist in specific individuals causing severe complications, including endocarditis and vascular infections. Transmission mainly occurs through the inhalation of aerosols, underlining bacterial resistance to environmental stress. is an intracellular gram-negative pathogen that can infect and survive in monocytes and macrophages and replicate within acidic compartments.

GNS561 (ezurpimtrostat), a small basic lipophilic molecule, prevents lupus phenotype in a pristane-induced lupus mouse model.

Background And Purpose: Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune, multisystemic disease affecting all organs in the body. Accrued evidence has elucidated a role for autophagy in the onset and severity of systemic lupus erythematosus. The antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine constitutes the cornerstone of standard of care for systemic lupus erythematosus, together with glucocorticoids and immunosuppressants or biologics, and all accompanied by various side effects.

Soluble CD146 Cooperates with VEGFa to Generate an Immunosuppressive Microenvironment in CD146-Positive Tumors: Interest of a Combined Antibody-Based Therapy.

Tumor development necessitates immune escape through different mechanisms. To counteract these effects, the development of therapies targeting immune checkpoints (ICP) has generated interest as they have produced lasting objective responses in patients with advanced metastatic tumors. However, many tumors do not respond to inhibitors of ICPs, necessitating to further study the underlying mechanisms of exhaustion.

French protocol for the diagnosis and management of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Because Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a rare disease, and due to the significant prognostic impact of early management, a diagnosis confirmed by a physician with experience in SLE is recommended, for example from an expert center. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, existing manifestations should be identified in particular, renal involvement by an assessment of proteinuria, disease activity and severity should be determined, potential complications anticipated, associated diseases searched for, and the patient's socioprofessional and family context noted. Therapeutic management of SLE includes patient education on recognizing symptoms, understanding disease progression as well as when they should seek medical advice.

Biological markers of high risk of thrombotic recurrence in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome: A literature review.

Objectives: This review aims to identify biological markers associated with the risk of recurrence of thrombotic and/or obstetric events in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS).

Methods: A comprehensive review of literature was conducted to evaluate established and potential novel biological markers associated with thrombosis in APS. To this end, a PubMed literature search was conducted for the last twenty years using the following keywords or their combinations: thrombotic risk, recurrence of thrombosis, risk stratification, severity, predictive value.

Comparison of the Capacity of Several Machine Learning Tools to Assist Immunofluorescence-Based Detection of Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibodies.

The success of artificial intelligence and machine learning is an incentive to develop new algorithms to increase the rapidity and reliability of medical diagnosis. Here we compared different strategies aimed at processing microscope images used to detect anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, an important vasculitis marker: (i) basic classifier methods (logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors and decision tree) were used to process custom-made indices derived from immunofluorescence images yielded by 137 sera. (ii) These methods were combined with dimensional reduction to analyze 1733 individual cell images.

Imbalance of TH17/TREG cells in Tunisian patients with systemic sclerosis.

Fibrosis is a pathological manifestation in which connective tissue replaces normal one. It can affect many tissues from the skin to internal organs such as the lungs. Manifestations of pulmonary involvement can be pulmonary arterial hypertension or pulmonary fibrosis.

Anti-Jo-1 autoantibodies: biomarkers of severity and evolution of the disease in antisynthetase syndrome.

Background: Anti-Jo-1 autoantibodies represent essential markers in the diagnosis of antisynthetase syndrome (ASS). In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate whether their concentrations and fluctuations could both respectively reflect the severity and evolution of ASS.

Methods: Between 2015 and 2020, clinical and biological features of ASS patients with at least one positive measure of anti-Jo-1 autoantibody were collected.

Gut microbiota in SLE: from animal models to clinical evidence and pharmacological perspectives.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifactorial autoimmune disease driven by complex interactions between genetics and environmental factors. SLE is characterised by breaking self-immune tolerance and autoantibody production that triggers inflammation and damage of multiple organs. Given the highly heterogeneous nature of SLE, the treatments currently used are still not satisfactory with considerable side effects, and the development of new therapies is a major health issue for better patient management.

Signaling Pathways and Potential Therapeutic Strategies in Cardiac Fibrosis.

Cardiac fibrosis constitutes irreversible necrosis of the heart muscle as a consequence of different acute (myocardial infarction) or chronic (diabetes, hypertension, …) diseases but also due to genetic alterations or aging. Currently, there is no curative treatment that is able to prevent or attenuate this phenomenon that leads to progressive cardiac dysfunction and life-threatening outcomes. This review summarizes the different targets identified and the new strategies proposed to fight cardiac fibrosis.

Anti-cardiolipin IgG autoantibodies associate with circulating extracellular DNA in severe COVID-19.

Whereas the detection of antiphospholipid autoantibodies (aPL) in COVID-19 is of increasing interest, their role is still unclear. We analyzed a large aPL panel in 157 patients with COVID-19 according to the disease severity. We also investigated a potential association between aPL and extracellular DNA (exDNA, n = 85) or circulating markers of neutrophil extracellular traps (NET) such as citrullinated histones H3 (CitH3, n = 49).

CD146 at the Interface between Oxidative Stress and the Wnt Signaling Pathway in Systemic Sclerosis.

CD146 involvement was recently described in skin fibrosis of systemic sclerosis through its regulation of the Wnt pathway. Because the interaction between Wnt and ROS signaling plays a major role in fibrosis, we hypothesized that in systemic sclerosis, CD146 may regulate Wnt/ROS crosstalk. Using a transcriptomic and western blot analysis performed on CD146 wild-type or knockout mouse embryonic fibroblasts, we showed a procanonical Wnt hallmark in the absence of CD146 that is reversed when CD146 expression is restored.

[Antiphospholipid autoantibodies and Covid-19].

Infection with Sars-CoV-2 is at the origin of a viral pandemic responsible for an unprecedented global health and economic crisis. Recently, an autoimmune process has been described in particular in severe forms of Covid-19. However, the role of autoimmunity in the disease remains to be defined.