Serum chemokine CC-motif ligand 17 is a predictive marker of severe COVID-19 in haemodialysis patients: A retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Maintenance haemodialysis (HD) patients are at higher risk for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Because of a limited number of facilities that can provide inpatient treatment for COVID-19 and HD, it is important to identify HD patients who are at high risk for severe COVID-19. For mild to moderate COVID-19 patients, chemokine CC-motif ligand 17 (CCL17) was reported to be a predictive marker for severe COVID-19; however, the validity of CCL17 among HD patients is unknown. METHODS: This retrospective observational study enrolled 107 HD patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 at hospitalization (mean age 70.1 ± 15.1 years; 71.0% male). Receiver operating characteristic and logistic regression analyses were used to examine the predictive validity of indices for severe COVID-19. RESULTS: During hospitalization, 32 patients developed severe COVID-19. Serum CCL17 collected at admission exhibited a higher area under the curve value (0.818) compared with that of other indicators including lactate dehydrogenase and C-reactive protein for the prediction of severe COVID-19. The optimal cut-off value for CCL17 was 150.5 pg/mL. A multi-variate logistic analysis revealed that CCL17 (above 150.5 pg/mL) was significantly associated with severe COVID-19 (Odds ratio, 0.063; 95% Confidence interval [CI], 0.017-0.227; p < .001) even after adjustment for covariates. The addition of the CCL17 to a model consisting of vaccination status, albumin, blood urea nitrogen, C-reacting protein and lactate dehydrogenase significantly improved classification performance for severe COVID-19 using the net reclassification (1.16, 95% CI: 0.82-1.50, p < .001) and integrated discrimination (0.18, 95% CI: 0.09-0.26, p < .001) improvement. CONCLUSION: CCL17 levels in HD patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 predict risk of developing severe COVID-19.

Reduced antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 patients with newly diagnosed diabetes: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has dramatically impacted global health, and patients with type 2 diabetes have been identified as a high-risk group for COVID-19 infection and the development of severe disease. In response, this study aimed to evaluate whether patients with type 2 diabetes infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) could develop antibody responses in the same manner as patients without diabetes, and whether there is a difference in antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 between patients with diabetes diagnosed prior to hospitalization, and those with newly diagnosed diabetes. METHODS: SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels were quantified using two iFlash 3000 Chemiluminescence Immunoassay analyzer kits (Shenzhen YHLO Biotech Co., Ltd.) to detect IgG antibodies specific for nucleocapsid protein (IgG-N), and specific for the S1 subunit of the spike protein (IgG-S1). In 124 hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 40 patients with type 2 diabetes were matched to 40 patients without diabetes using propensity score matching (PSM). RESULTS: There was no difference in IgG-N and IgG-S1 levels between the patients with diabetes and those without. Of patients with diabetes, 31 patients had known diabetes and nine patients had newly diagnosed diabetes. The median levels of IgG-N at 7-13 days in patients with newly diagnosed diabetes were significantly lower than those in patients with known diabetes (IgG-N; 10.9 vs. 31.0 AU/mL, p = 0.031, IgG-S1; 7.5 vs. 24.4 AU/mL, p = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Even after adjusting for covariates using PSM, COVID-19 patients with type 2 diabetes had comparable antibody responses to patients without diabetes. Patients with newly diagnosed diabetes had lower IgG-N and IgG-S1 production in the second week of the disease compared with those with previously known diabetes.

Special Issue "Clinical Epidemiology of Diabetes and Its Complications".

The purpose of this Special Issue, "Clinical Epidemiology of Diabetes and Its Complications" is to bring more attention to diabetes and its complications and share the latest findings with the medical community [...].

A case of COVID-19 reinfection in a hemodialysis patient: the role of antibody in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Hemodialysis patients are vulnerable to severe and lethal COVID-19, and their protective immunity against COVID-19 is not yet fully understood. Therefore, we report a case of COVID-19 reinfection in a hemodialysis patient 81 days after the first episode and discuss the role of antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 infection. A hemodialysis patient developed asymptomatic COVID-19 due to an outbreak in a hospital on October 29th, 2020. As he was hospitalized and did not develop any symptoms, he was discharged on November 9th. On January 18th, he presented with symptomatic COVID-19 due to close household contact. Then, he developed respiratory failure and was transferred to National Center for Global Health and Medicine if he would need intensive care. He recovered with oxygen inhalation, favipiravir, and steroid treatment, and was discharged on February 12th. To evaluate anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during two hospital stays, we measured immunoglobulin (Ig) G specific for S1 subunit of Spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2 (IgG-S1) , IgG specific for the full-length S protein (anti-Spike IgG) and neutralizing antibodies. No seroconversion occurred 5 days after initial infection, the seroconversion of IgG-S1 was observed 10 days after the second infection. Similar to IgG-S1 antibody titer results, anti-Spike IgG and neutralizing antibodies increased from 12 days after the second infection. In conclusion, we experienced a case of COVID-19 reinfection in a hemodialysis patient 81 days after the first episode and showed the kinetics and role of antibodies in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Further studies are needed to understand SARS-CoV-2 reinfection risk in hemodialysis patients and its clinical significance.

Hemodialysis patients with coronavirus disease 2019: reduced antibody response.

BACKGROUND: Because patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD) have an impaired immune response to pathogens, they are at higher risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, data on antibody production among HD patients with COVID-19 is scarce. Thus, we performed a retrospective cohort study evaluating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus two antibody (SARS-CoV-2) production within 1 month after COVID-19 onset in hospitalized patients on HD. METHODS: SARS-CoV-2-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G levels were quantified using an iFlash 3000 Chemiluminescence Immunoassay analyzer (Shenzhen YHLO Biotech Co., Ltd.) to detect IgG antibodies specific for the S1 subunit of the spike protein (IgG-S1). Propensity score matching was used to balance covariate distribution in HD and non-HD patients. From April 2020 to February 2021, antibody testing was performed on 161 hospitalized patients with symptomatic COVID-19. Of them, 34 HD patients were matched to 68 non-HD patients. RESULTS: After propensity score matching, the median levels of IgG-S1 in the HD patients at 7-13 days after symptom onset were significantly lower than in non-HD patients, especially in those with severe disease. Among all patients, those with severe disease produced lower levels of IgG-S1 at 7-13 days compared with non-severe patients. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 patients with severe disease, especially those undergoing HD, had lower IgG-S1 production in the second week of the disease. Thus, the increased risk of severe COVID-19 in HD patients may be, in part, due to a slow and reduced antibody response.