All Posts

Evaluation of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) T-Cell Mediated Immunity in Children With CMV DNAemia After Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is among the most common infectious complications following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT). The CMV T-cell immunity panel (CMV-TCIP, Viracor) assesses CMV cell-mediated immunity (CMV-CMI); however, its utility among pediatric allo-HCT recipients remains unknown. A retrospective analysis (January 2020–January 2024) among pediatric (≤ 18 years) allo-HCT recipients with CMV DNAemia and at least one CMV-TCIP test was performed.

Hydrogen–Deuterium Back-Exchange for High-Resolution Mass-Spectrometry-Based Metabolite Characterization

Methods for unknown metabolite characterization rely heavily on one or more of the following: spectroscopic approaches; tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS); ion mobility or liquid chromatography; and/or guided intervention through reverse metabolomics, derivatization, etc. The limitations of these methodologies vary widely. Additionally, tandem mass spectrometry is often insufficient for unambiguous identification, and guided interventions can be limited in scope. A complementary approach to high-resolution mass spectrometry that is high-throughput, is robust, and provides nondiscrete data that can rationally inform metabolite structure is desirable. Here, we present an optimized method utilizing sodium bicarbonate for hydrogen–deuterium exchange (HDX) to label slowly exchanging and labile sites over time, after which back-exchange of all labile sites leaves only slowly exchanging sites labeled for subsequent MS analysis.

Ethionamide versus ethambutol-containing first-line regimens for TB meningitis

Ethionamide has emerged as an alternative to ethambutol for the treatment of tuberculous meningitis (TB meningitis). Here, we show that ethionamide- and ethambutol-containing first-line TB regimens achieved similar bactericidal activities in brain tissues and reduction in neuroinflammation in a mouse model of TB meningitis. However, ethionamide, but not ethambutol, achieves brain concentrations above the minimum inhibitory concentration for Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

WHO estimates of the global, regional, and national burden of eight foodborne non-diarrhoeal enteric disease hazards, 2000–21: an updated data synthesis

Foodborne diseases cause substantial illness and death globally. We updated WHO estimates of the burden caused by non-diarrhoeal enteric disease hazards: Brucella spp; Clostridium botulinum; hepatitis A virus; Listeria monocytogenes; Mycobacterium bovis, Mycobacterium caprae, and Mycobacterium orygis; invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica (iNTS); S enterica serotypes Paratyphi A, B, and C; and S enterica serotype Typhi (S Typhi). 2021, with S Typhi replacing iNTS as the leading cause of foodborne DALYs.

WHO estimates of the global, regional, and national burden of 14 foodborne diarrhoeal enteric hazards, 2000–21: an updated data synthesis

Foodborne diseases cause significant illness and death globally. We updated WHO estimates of the burden caused by diarrhoeal hazards commonly transmitted by food: Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, and other thermotolerant Campylobacter species; Cryptosporidium spp; Cyclospora cayetanensis; Entamoeba histolytica; enteroaggregative Escherichia coli; enteropathogenic E coli; enterotoxigenic E coli; Giardia duodenalis; norovirus; rotavirus; non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica; Shiga toxin-producing E coli; Shigella spp; and Vibrio cholerae. We estimated illnesses, deaths, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 194 countries for the period 2000–21 using data from systematic reviews.

Progression of skin-limited pediatric-onset discoid lupus erythematosus to diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus: results of a multicenter, retrospective cohort study

Pediatric skin-limited discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE-only) is rare, with limited data on risk factors for progression to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). To assess incidence, risk factors, and phenotype of pediatric DLE-only progression to SLE. In this 17-site retrospective cohort of pediatric DLE, the primary outcome was time to SLE diagnosis (ACR classification criterion ≥4). Kaplan-Meier estimates for 1-, 2-, and 5-year progression to SLE were generated. Cox proportional hazards modeling identified baseline predictors of progression to SLE. The 1-year progression rate from DLE-only to SLE was 14.4% (95% CI: 9.6–18.9%). Progression to SLE was most strongly associated with baseline ANA positivity (HR 3.71) and older age (HR 1.11/yr). Antiphospholipid antibodies and cytopenias also predicted progression to SLE in multivariable analysis. The SLE phenotype was relatively mild, with most patients developing mucocutaneous and laboratory criteria (22/236, 9%) and few developing other end-organ disease (7/236, 3%).

A generalist biomedical vision-language model via multi-CLIP knowledge distillation

Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining (CLIP) models, which are pretrained on natural images with billions of image-text pairs, exhibit strong zero-shot and cross-modal capabilities. However, their application in biomedicine remains challenging due to limited large-scale image-text data and heterogeneous imaging modalities. Here we show that a generalist biomedical foundation model can be effectively built via multimodal medical knowledge distillation. We introduce MMKD-CLIP, which integrates complementary knowledge from nine biomedical CLIP models. Our two-stage pipeline combines CLIP-style pretraining on 2.9 million biomedical image-text pairs across 26 modalities with large-scale feature-level distillation. We evaluate MMKD-CLIP on 58 datasets spanning nine modalities and six tasks, including classification, retrieval, visual question answering, survival prediction, and cancer diagnosis. MMKD-CLIP performs favorably relative to the teacher models, with results supporting its robustness and cross-domain generalization.

Beyond Breathing: Lung as a Sensory Organ A Report from the NHLBI Workshop on Lung Sensing and its Implication in Diseases

The lung, one the largest branching organs in our body and vital for survival at first breath, is commonly known as the gas-exchange organ. Recent novel findings on lung sensing cells, molecules, and lung-brain crosstalk in the emerging discipline of interoception have highlighted the consideration of the lung as a sensory organ. Acknowledging the central importance of lung sensing to human health and disease, NHLBI convened a workshop to synthesize the past, current, and future of lung sensing research, with in-person presentations by ∼20 interdisciplinary experts and a large virtual audience. Here, we highlight the key topics discussed and summarize a blueprint for the future in this important field.

Surveillance of gastrointestinal viruses of free-ranging and rehabilitated Sea turtles in the United States

Sea turtle populations are imperiled globally, primarily due to anthropogenic threats. However, non-anthropogenic factors, such as infectious diseases, can affect their population stability. Viruses are common causes of gastrointestinal disease in many species, and gastrointestinal signs are regularly observed among sea turtles, but little is known about enteric viruses in sea turtles. Establishing basic knowledge of viral diversity and evolutionary relationships is a necessary step towards understanding potential health impacts. This study investigated the viral genome contents of seventy-seven gastrointestinal specimens from six species of sea turtles with varying health conditions from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States.