Search

Background: Despite vaccination, patients receiving anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for multiple sclerosis (MS) or neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) have an increased risk of developing severe or protracted COVID-19. The aim of this study was to describe the effect of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) in patients with MS or NMOSD exposed to anti-CD20 and infected by SARS-CoV-2., Methods: This French national, retrospective cohort study was conducted between November 2020 and June 2023. Patients with MS or NMOSD, under anti-CD20 mAbs, with symptomatic COVID-19 and treated by CCP were screened. Protracted COVID-19 was defined by a duration of symptoms >21 days. The primary endpoint was the overall survival 30 days after CCP administration., Results: Ninety-two patients from 34 hospitals were included, 84 (91%) with MS and 8 (9%) with NMOSD. Overall, 30-day survival was 97% (IC95%: 91-99). SARS-CoV-2 viremia was positive in 47/75 (61%) patients before CCP versus 9/59 (15%) seven days post-CCP. In the 52 patients (57%) with protracted COVID-19, the duration of symptoms before CCP was 51 [28-69] days, including fever in 75% of cases, which disappeared in 100% of patients 7 days post-CCP., Conclusions: CCP could be a therapeutic option in patients exposed to anti-CD20 mAbs for inflammatory demyelinating disease, particularly in those with protracted COVID-19., Competing Interests: Declarations of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: KL has received funds from Gilead, MSD, Janssen, ViiV Healthcare and Abbvie for expert boards and travel grants. None of those funds target COVID-19. CL has received compensation for travel fees, consulting services or speaker honoraria from Biogen, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi and Roche and IIT Research grant from Biogen. AF reports honorariat by Fisher & Paykel for a lecture during SFMU Congress 2022, outside the submitted work. AM is president of an association that has received funding from GSK and Blueprint, hospitality from GSK, Novartis, Sanofi, Janssen, Teva, Shire, Ipsen, training funding from Novartis, LFB, Leo Pharma, and has a contract to speak at scientific events from Leo Pharma. The other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Systemic sclerosis' (SSc) prevalence varies according to geographical location, presumably in link with environmental and genetic factors. We sought to determine SSc prevalence and incidence on Reunion Island, a southern hemisphere territory characterised by multi-ethnic background., Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of SSc cases defined according to ACR/EULAR 2013 classification criteria. Cases were retrieved over the 2005-2021 period through multiple sources, mainly community and hospital follow-up. Patients were assigned to three clinical subsets: sine scleroderma (normal skin) (ss), limited cutaneous (lc) or diffuse cutaneous (dc) SSc. Prospective submission of questionnaires to patients in 2021 enabled determination of patients' self-declared ethnicity and physician-assessed phototype group. Prevalence was calculated for 2021 and mean annual incidence between 2005 and 2021 after adjustment with WHO's standards., Results: Overall, 207 patients were included in the retrospective cohort, including 175 SSc (108 lcSSc, 58 dcSSc and 9 ssSSc) and 32 mixed connective tissue disease. Prevalence and mean annual incidence were estimated to be 30.9 (95 %IC: 26.1-35.8) per 100,000 inhabitants in 2021 and 2.13 (95 %IC: 1.81-2.45) per 100,000 inhabitants/year respectively. The 5- and 10-year survival rates after diagnosis were 0.93 and 0.82 respectively. Phototypes and ethnicity were determined in 102 and 86 patients, respectively. Darker phototypes presented more frequently with pulmonary hypertension, while lighter phototypes had more severe gastro-intestinal manifestations and anti-centromere antibodies positivity., Conclusion: Our study revealed high prevalence and incidence of SSc in Reunion Island which is consistent with the frequently described higher frequency among patients of African origin., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest regarding the present work., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: Receiving gifts from patients could generate an ethical dilemma for physicians and refusing a present may be perceived as an offence., Objective: To differentiate the particular physician characteristics that are associated with receiving gifts from outpatients. To propose a strategy to avoid gifts and thus ethical dilemma., Design: A prospective and multicentric study in France during the month of January 2024., Setting: Public hospitals, private hospitals and family practices across 20 cities in France., Participants: Physicians from 21 medical and surgical specialities. Setting Public hospitals, private hospitals and family practices across 20 cities in France., Interventions: Each physician completed a questionnaire that highlighted their habitual practices during consultations and recorded the gifts they received on a standardized gift calendar., Main Outcomes Measures: Receiving at least one gift during January 2024., Results: In total, 655 physicians were contacted before December 31st, 2023, 109 (16.6%) positively responded, of them 76 (70%) declared receiving at least one gift from patients. An experience>10 years in the current job (P=0.04), being the "Explorer" Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality type (P=0.034), and a frequent delay of over 30minutes at the end of the day of consultations (P=0.048) were statistically associated with a higher likelihood of receiving at least one gift from patients in multivariate analysis. The physicians who received the most gifts per 100 consultations were those with over 10 years experience and those who fell under the MBTI personality role "Explorer": 2.72 (IQR [1.56-7.55], P=0.029) and 3.33 (IQR [2.16-6.43], P=0.028), respectively., Conclusion: After analysing the factors that increase the risk of receiving a gift from a patient, we have surmised the following advice for physicians who do not wish to find themselves in the midst of an ethical dilemma. They should avoid staying in the same service for more than 5 years, try to adopt the MBTI personality type "Analyst" and be on time in their consultations., (Copyright © 2024 Société Nationale Française de Médecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has led to a complete reconfiguration of the therapeutic landscape, with all monoclonal antibodies having lost any neutralization activity. We report here a case series of 75 immunocompromised patients infected by the Omicron variant who benefited from COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP). At Day 28, the overall survival was 76% (95% CI 67-86) with no significant difference in the clinical outcome between patients with hematological malignancies, solid organ transplantation or autoimmune diseases. No safety concern was reported during the course of the study. These results showed that CCP is well tolerated and represents a treatment option for immunocompromised patients who remain highly impacted by the COVID19 epidemic., (© 2024 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

We highlighted in this current paper similar prolonged respiratory presentation with COVID-19 pneumonia in four severely immunocompromised patients currently being treated with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), such as ocrelizumab and rituximab, for multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid polyarthritis. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction on a nasopharyngeal swab specimen was negative in all patients. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. A high titer of post-vaccine COVID-19 convalescent plasma was administered with complete recovery in all patients.

PATHOGENESIS OF SARS-COV-2 INFECTION COVID-19 follows a rather stereotyped and reproducible course. While the first events are mediated by direct viral toxicity, resolution of the infection relies on a finely tuned immune response. In patients with severe forms, defects of the initial immune response have been reported, including insufficient type 1 interferon production or signaling, attenuated or skewed adaptative immune response, sometimes due to viral immune escape properties. These defects induce an hyperinflammatory state featuring hypersecretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, excessive recruitment of immune cells in the lungs and parenchymal lesions, responsible for COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome. Thus, COVID-19 is successively a viral and an inflammatory disease. Clarifying the chronology of these viral and immunological mechanisms allows us to identify a therapeutic logic, which sometimes involves contradictory treatments., Competing Interests: Les auteurs déclarent n’avoir aucun lien d’intérêts.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still ongoing, and considering the lack of efficacy of antiviral strategies to this date, and the reactive hyperinflammation leading to tissue lesions and pneumonia, effective treatments targeting the dysregulated immune response are more than ever required. Immunomodulatory and immunosuppressive drugs have been repurposed in severe COVID-19 with contrasting results. The heterogeneity in the timing of treatments administrations could be accountable for these discrepancies. Indeed, many studies included patients at different timepoints of infection, potentially hiding the beneficial effects of a time-adapted intervention. We aim to review the available data on the kinetics of the immune response in beta-coronaviruses infections, from animal models and longitudinal human studies, and propose a four-step model of severe COVID-19 timeline. Then, we discuss the results of the clinical trials of immune interventions with regards to the timing of administration, and finally suggest a time frame in order to delineate the best timepoint for each treatment., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Mucosal Immunology.)

The malaria parasite, Plasmodium, requires iron for growth, but how it imports iron remains unknown. We characterize here a protein that belongs to the ZIP (Zrt-, Irt-like Protein) family of metal ion transport proteins and have named ZIP domain-containing protein (ZIPCO). Inactivation of the ZIPCO-encoding gene in Plasmodium berghei, while not affecting the parasite's ability to multiply in mouse blood and to infect mosquitoes, greatly impairs its capacity to develop inside hepatocytes. Iron/zinc supplementation and depletion experiments suggest that ZIPCO is required for parasite utilization of iron and possibly zinc, consistent with its predicted function as a metal transporter. This is the first report of a ZIP protein having a crucial role in Plasmodium liver-stage development, as well as the first metal ion transporter identified in Plasmodium pre-erythrocytic stages. Because of the drastic dependence on iron of Plasmodium growth, ZIPCO and related proteins might constitute attractive drug targets to fight against malaria., (© 2014 Institut Pasteur. Published under the terms of the CC BY 4.0 license.)