OBJECTIVES Elevated humoral responses to cytomegalovirus (CMV) associate with increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in HIV patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). To better understand the persistence of CMV humoral responses in relation to CVD, we determined trends in CMV antibody levels over the first 10 years on ART. DESIGN We describe longitudinal analyses of plasma from 13 HIV ...

Background: The production of presepsin has been shown to be strongly related to bacterial phagocytosis. The purpose of the present study is to compare the usefulness of presepsin for diagnosing localized skin wound infection with that of conventional infection biomarkers. Methods: We enrolled 29 hemodialysis (HD) patients with skin wound infections of foot gangrene or decubitus (“localized inf...

INTRODUCTION The role of microbial translocation (MT) in HIV patients living with HIV from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is not fully known. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare the patterns of MT in patients from Vietnam, Ethiopia and Sweden. METHODS Cross-sectional samples were obtained from treatment-naïve patients living with HIV-1 and healthy controls from Vietn...

To study vitamin D (25OH D3 ) in relation to (i) microbial translocation (ii) systemic inflammation and (iii) blood lipid markers, in Caucasian, well-controlled HIV patients and healthy controls, plasma and serum samples from n = 97 male, HIV patients on HAART with immeasurable viral load (<20 copies/ml) since median 6.5 years and no concurrent inflammatory or infectious disease and n = 30 heal...

INTRODUCTION Monotherapy with protease-inhibitors (MPI) may be an alternative to cART for HIV treatment. We assessed the impact of this strategy on immune activation, bacterial translocation and inflammation. METHODS We performed a cross-sectional study comparing patients on successful MPI (n=40) with patients on cART (n=20). Activation, senescence, exhaustion and differentiation stage in CD4...

BACKGROUND The soluble CD14 subtype (sCD14-ST: renamed as presepsin) is a novel soluble CD14 molecule that is useful for diagnosing sepsis because sCD14-ST levels increase specifically in sepsis patients. METHODS A fully automated PATHFAST® Presepsin assay system based on a chemiluminescent enzyme immunoassay was developed for detecting presepsin in human whole blood. RESULTS The limit of b...

OBJECTIVE The aim of our study was to assess a possible association between plasma inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, IL-6, soluble CD14) and the extent of fibrosis or cirrhosis using a FibroScan® in HIV/HCV co-infected patients. METHODS This cross-sectional study assessed 60 HIV/HCV co-infected patients who had paired plasma samples and FibroScan® values available. All included patients were cont...

The skin tuberculin test (TST), an example of a delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) reaction, is based on measuring the extent of skin induration to mycobacterial tuberculin (PPD). Little is known about the genetic basis of TST reactivity, widely used for diagnosing TB infection. The study investigated the relationship of the single base change polymorphic variants in CD14 gene (CD14(-159C/T)) ...

Pig farmers are exposed to organic material in pig barns on a daily basis and have signs of an ongoing chronic airway inflammation and increased prevalence of chronic inflammatory airway diseases, predominantly chronic bronchitis. Interestingly, the inflammatory response to acute exposure to organic dust is attenuated in farmers. The aim of the study was to closer characterize innate immunity f...