Explore the vast range of titles available.

Rapid evolution of seasonal influenza viruses necessitates annual vaccine reformulation to match circulating strains. Healthcare workers (HCWs) and high-risk groups are prioritised for annual influenza vaccination. However, repeated annual vaccination may affect immune protection. This study investigated the hemaglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody responses following influenza infection or repeated seasonal vaccination over four seasons in 250 HCWs with well-defined vaccination histories. Unvaccinated HCWs had high infection rates, with pre-existing antibodies providing protection. Infection or hybrid immunity generated higher antibody responses to A/H3N2 viruses than vaccination alone, whereas vaccination induced more durable A/H1N1 and B virus-specific antibodies. Vaccination boosted seroprotective antibodies, irrespective of previous vaccination histories. Moreover, repeated vaccination with the same virus for more than three consecutive seasons blunted antibody responses, while updating vaccine strains improved immunity. Annual influenza vaccination of HCWs should be strengthened to increase uptake, but next-generation influenza vaccines must improve vaccine immunogenicity, particularly against A/H3N2 viruses.

Exposure of cells to the diarrhetic shellfish poison, okadaic acid, leads to a dramatic reorganization of cytoskeletal architecture and loss of cell-cell contact. When cells are exposed to high concentrations of okadaic acid (100–500 nM), the morphological rearrangement is followed by apoptotic cell death. Okadaic acid inhibits the broad acting Ser/Thr protein phosphatases 1 and 2A, which results in hyperphosphorylation of a large number of proteins. Some of these hyperphosphorylated proteins are most likely key players in the reorganization of the cell morphology induced by okadaic acid. We wanted to identify these phosphoproteins and searched for them in the cellular lipid rafts, which have been found to contain proteins that regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and cell adhesion. By using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture cells treated with okadaic acid (400 nM) could be combined with control cells before the isolation of lipid rafts. Protein phosphorylation events and translocations induced by okadaic acid were identified by mass spectrometry. Okadaic acid was shown to regulate the phosphorylation status and location of proteins associated with the actin cytoskeleton, microtubules and cell adhesion structures. A large number of these okadaic acid-regulated proteins have previously also been shown to be similarly regulated prior to cell proliferation and migration. Our results suggest that okadaic acid activates general cell signaling pathways that induce breakdown of the cortical actin cytoskeleton and cell detachment.

Long-term complications after coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are common in hospitalized patients, but the spectrum of symptoms in milder cases needs further investigation. We conducted a long-term follow-up in a prospective cohort study of 312 patients—247 home-isolated and 65 hospitalized—comprising 82% of total cases in Bergen during the first pandemic wave in Norway. At 6 months, 61% (189/312) of all patients had persistent symptoms, which were independently associated with severity of initial illness, increased convalescent antibody titers and pre-existing chronic lung disease. We found that 52% (32/61) of home-isolated young adults, aged 16–30 years, had symptoms at 6 months, including loss of taste and/or smell (28%, 17/61), fatigue (21%, 13/61), dyspnea (13%, 8/61), impaired concentration (13%, 8/61) and memory problems (11%, 7/61). Our findings that young, home-isolated adults with mild COVID-19 are at risk of long-lasting dyspnea and cognitive symptoms highlight the importance of infection control measures, such as vaccination. Analysis of a prospectively enrolled cohort of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infections in Bergen, Norway, reveals a high proportion of patients who experienced long COVID symptoms at 6 months, despite being relatively young and having only mild to moderate acute COVID-19 symptoms.