SARS-CoV-2 Brain Regional Detection, Histopathology, Gene Expression, and Immunomodulatory Changes in Decedents with COVID-19.

Brains of 42 COVID-19 decedents and 107 non-COVID-19 controls were studied. RT-PCR screening of 16 regions from 20 COVID-19 autopsies found SARS-CoV-2 E gene viral sequences in 7 regions (2.5% of 320 samples), concentrated in 4/20 subjects (20%). Additional screening of olfactory bulb (OB), amygdala (AMY) and entorhinal area for E, N1, N2, RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and S gene sequences detected one or more of these in OB in 8/21 subjects (38%). It is uncertain whether these RNA sequences represent viable virus. Significant histopathology was limited to 2/42 cases (4.8%), one with a large acute cerebral infarct and one with hemorrhagic encephalitis. Case-control RNAseq in OB and AMY found more than 5000 and 700 differentially expressed genes, respectively, unrelated to RT-PCR results; these involved immune response, neuronal constituents, and olfactory/taste receptor genes. Olfactory marker protein-1 reduction indicated COVID-19-related loss of OB olfactory mucosa afferents. Iba-1-immunoreactive microglia had reduced area fractions in cerebellar cortex and AMY, and cytokine arrays showed generalized downregulation in AMY and upregulation in blood serum in COVID-19 cases. Although OB is a major brain portal for SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 brain changes are more likely due to blood-borne immune mediators and trans-synaptic gene expression changes arising from OB deafferentation.

Increased Risk of Autopsy-Proven Pneumonia with Sex, Season and Neurodegenerative Disease.

There has been a markedly renewed interest in factors associated with pneumonia, a leading cause of death worldwide, due to its frequent concurrence with pandemics of influenza and Covid-19 disease. Reported predisposing factors to both bacterial pneumonia and pandemic viral lower respiratory infections are wintertime occurrence, older age, obesity, pre-existing cardiopulmonary conditions and diabetes. Also implicated are age-related neurodegenerative diseases that cause parkinsonism and dementia. We investigated the prevalence of autopsy-proven pneumonia in the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders (AZSAND), a longitudinal clinicopathological study, between the years 2006 and 2019 and before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Of 691 subjects dying at advanced ages (mean 83.4), pneumonia was diagnosed postmortem in 343 (49.6%). There were 185 subjects without dementia or parkinsonism while clinicopathological diagnoses for the other subjects included 319 with Alzheimer's disease dementia, 127 with idiopathic Parkinson's disease, 72 with dementia with Lewy bodies, 49 with progressive supranuclear palsy and 78 with vascular dementia. Subjects with one or more of these neurodegenerative diseases all had higher pneumonia rates, ranging between 50 and 61%, as compared to those without dementia or parkinsonism (40%). In multivariable logistic regression models, male sex and a non-summer death both had independent contributions (ORs of 1.67 and 1.53) towards the presence of pneumonia at autopsy while the absence of parkinsonism or dementia was a significant negative predictor of pneumonia (OR 0.54). Male sex, dementia and parkinsonism may also be risk factors for Covid-19 pneumonia. The apolipoprotein E4 allele, as well as obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, congestive heart failure, cardiomegaly and cigarette smoking history, were not significantly associated with pneumonia, in contradistinction to what has been reported for Covid-19 disease.

Prostatic transition zone directed needle biopsies uncommonly sample clinically relevant transition zone tumors.

PURPOSE: We compared prostate cancer detected in transition zone directed needle biopsies with those in corresponding radical prostatectomy specimens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed needle biopsy and radical prostatectomy slides from 61 patients in whom cancer was present on transition zone directed needle biopsy. We assessed needle biopsy cancer features as well as transition zone lesions and dominant tumor sites on radical prostatectomy. RESULTS: Prostate cancer was detected in 25 of 61 left (41%), 23 of 61 right (38%) and 13 of 61 bilateral (21%) transition zone directed needle biopsies. On radical prostatectomy 24 of 61 cases (39.5%) had no tumor in the transition zone, 24 of 61 (39.5%) had nondominant transition zone cancer and 13 of 61 (21%) had a dominant transition zone lesion. Of cases with cancer in the left and right transition zone directed needle biopsy 18 of 38 (47%) and 17 of 36 (47%), respectively, had no transition zone tumor or showed tumor in the contralateral transition zone only at radical prostatectomy. In 8 cases the transition zone directed core was the only one with cancer on needle biopsy and 2 of 8 (25%) such cases showed dominant transition zone cancer at radical prostatectomy. CONCLUSIONS: Cancer identified in transition zone directed needle biopsy cores was not from the transition zone or did not reflect a dominant transition zone lesion in almost 80% of cases. Cancer identified in a left or right transition zone directed needle biopsy did not predict ipsilateral transition zone cancer in almost 50% of cases. These findings suggest that such biopsies do not adequately characterize transition zone tumors. Thus, care should be taken in their interpretation.

Immunohistochemical classification of de novo, transformed, and relapsed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma into germinal center B-cell and nongerminal center B-cell subtypes correlates with gene expression profile and patient survival.

CONTEXT: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be assigned to prognostic subgroups, including germinal center B-cell (GCB) and activated B-cell subgroups, by using gene expression profiling and, reportedly, immunohistochemistry for CD10, Bcl-6, and multiple myeloma-1/interferon regulatory factor-4 (MUM1/IRF4). OBJECTIVE: To compare 2 commercial MUM1/IRF4 antibody formulations for accuracy in subtyping DLBCL against gene expression profiling, compare subtyping to patient survival, and evaluate the usefulness of GCB and non-GCB subtyping in relapsed and transformed DLBCL. DESIGN: Evaluation of 2 commercial MUM1/IRF4 antibodies, ICSTAT/M17 and Mum-1p, by using 40 cases of de novo, relapsed, and transformed DLBCL; and comparison of the results obtained with gene expression profiling and survival. RESULTS: Immunohistochemistry predicted the gene expression profiling subtype 71.8% and 69.2% of the time overall with use of the Mum-1p and ICSTAT/M17 antibodies, respectively, and 100% and 91.7% of the time when MUM1/IRF4 expression determined subtype. Gene expression profiling and immunohistochemistry revealed nearly identical 5-year overall survival rates for the GCB vs non-GCB subtypes (68.0% for GCB vs 24.7% for non-GCB with use of gene expression profiling [P = .03] and 70.2% vs 18.4%, respectively, with use of immunohistochemistry [P < .001]). When de novo, transformed, and relapsed cases were analyzed separately, 5-year overall survival rates were also significantly different. CONCLUSIONS: Immunohistochemistry can be used to subclassify DLBCL, including a very small series of transformed and relapsed cases, into GCB and non-GCB subtypes and predict survival rates similar to those predicted by use of gene expression profiling. The 2 MUM1/IRF4 antibodies performed similarly.