Selective suppression of de novo SARS-CoV-2 vaccine antibody responses in patients with cancer on B cell-targeted therapy

We assessed vaccine-induced antibody responses to the SARS-CoV-2 ancestral virus and Omicron variant before and after booster immunization in 57 patients with B cell malignancies. Over one-third of vaccinated patients at the pre-booster time point were seronegative, and these patients were predominantly on active cancer therapies such as anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. While booster immunization was able to induce detectable antibodies in a small fraction of seronegative patients, the overall booster benefit was disproportionately evident in patients already seropositive and not receiving active therapy. While ancestral virus- and Omicron variant-reactive antibody levels among individual patients were largely concordant, neutralizing antibodies against Omicron tended to be reduced. Interestingly, in all patients, including those unable to generate detectable antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 spike, we observed comparable levels of EBV- and influenza-reactive antibodies, demonstrating that B cell-targeting therapies primarily impair de novo but not preexisting antibody levels. These findings support rationale for vaccination before cancer treatment.

Autoregressive time series analysis via representatives

In any realization of an autoregressive time series there exist a few observations having a noticeable feature: they express the useful properties of the time series and, therefore, they represent the entire process. Such representative observations (or, simply, representatives) can be determined by an optimization procedure, provided that the absolute value criterion is used instead of the customary least squares. To achieve this, a special kind of optimization operator (optimator) which generate the parameters of the time series is considered. The concepts of strong and weak similarity of the time series are defined in terms of the representatives and sufficient conditions for both strong and weak similarity are derived. It is shown that there exists a subclass of strongly similar processes, say X such that ordinary addition is a binary operation in X. An analogous result is shown to hold for weakly similar autoregressive processes. Some examples illustrating these results are given.

[Immunopathological circumstances in the structure of complications appearing after smallpox vaccination]

Investigations were carried out concerning the dynamics of antivaccinal antibodies and the structure of serum proteins in relation to the clinical manifestations following upon smallpox vaccination. In general, immunity is not apparently influenced by postvaccinal complications may be associated with immunoprotein perturbations, manifested by an increase in the alpha2-globulin fraction and, inconstantly, in the gamma-globulin fraction. Immunoelectrophoretic determinations revealed a relatively constant IgM and IgG deficiency. Postvaccinal dysglobulinemia may accompany various clinical forms, suggesting a temporary deficient immunological response. In one case of agammaglobulinemia, revaccination produced a deep vaccinal ulcer, with extensive necrosis (giant necrotic vaccinia). In order to decipher the substrate of the reaction in the clinical forms with distal manifestations or generalized vaccinia, skin biopsies were performed. The lesional vasculoallergic substrate of the skin lesions does not exclude the local aggression of the vaccinal virus, which was isolated by viral determinations.

[Clinical and biological aspects of chronic brucellosis]

The present study refers to 53 cases of chronic brucellosis admitted to the clinic or followed up in an out-patient unit for ten years (1962-1971). There was a total of 946 days in hospital and 1688 days of occupational disability, about 40% of the patients necessitating repeated hospitalization because of the relapsing course of the disease. This group of cases presented the classical dominant features of an occupational anthropozoonoses (90.5%). Elements of visceral and tissular pathology, obviously conditioned in their structure by the stage of the disease, were found in cardiovascular, hepatic, nervous, osteoarticular, orchitic, ocular, cutaneous localizations, etc. Their associated character particularize the polyvisceral forms. The immunopathology of chronic brucellosis is marked by its dynamics and frequently dissociated character of the sero-allergic diagnostic reactions. Blood proteins behave unequally (hypoalbuminemia, hyperalpha1-, hyperalpha2- and hypergammaglobulinemia). There is still debate about the terapeutic attempts, although sigmamycin associated with cortisone derivatives reduce or temporize the relapsing evolution, opening up new therapeutical perspectives.