@article{BochSpiessHeinzetal.2019, author = {Boch, Tobias and Spiess, Birgit and Heinz, Werner and Cornely, Oliver A. and Schwerdtfeger, Rainer and Hahn, Joachim and Krause, Stefan W. and Duerken, Matthias and Bertz, Hartmut and Reuter, Stefan and Kiehl, Michael and Claus, Bernd and Deckert, Peter Markus and Hofmann, Wolf-Karsten and Buchheidt, Dieter and Reinwald, Mark}, title = {Aspergillus specific nested PCR from the site of infection is superior to testing concurrent blood samples in immunocompromised patients with suspected invasive aspergillosis}, series = {Mycoses}, volume = {62}, journal = {Mycoses}, number = {11}, doi = {10.1111/myc.12983}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-214065}, pages = {1035 -- 1042}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a severe complication in immunocompromised patients. Early diagnosis is crucial to decrease its high mortality, yet the diagnostic gold standard (histopathology and culture) is time-consuming and cannot offer early confirmation of IA. Detection of IA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) shows promising potential. Various studies have analysed its diagnostic performance in different clinical settings, especially addressing optimal specimen selection. However, direct comparison of different types of specimens in individual patients though essential, is rarely reported. We systematically assessed the diagnostic performance of an Aspergillus-specific nested PCR by investigating specimens from the site of infection and comparing it with concurrent blood samples in individual patients (pts) with IA. In a retrospective multicenter analysis PCR was performed on clinical specimens (n = 138) of immunocompromised high-risk pts (n = 133) from the site of infection together with concurrent blood samples. 38 pts were classified as proven/probable, 67 as possible and 28 as no IA according to 2008 European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer/Mycoses Study Group consensus definitions. A considerably superior performance of PCR from the site of infection was observed particularly in pts during antifungal prophylaxis (AFP)/antifungal therapy (AFT). Besides a specificity of 85\%, sensitivity varied markedly in BAL (64\%), CSF (100\%), tissue samples (67\%) as opposed to concurrent blood samples (8\%). Our results further emphasise the need for investigating clinical samples from the site of infection in case of suspected IA to further establish or rule out the diagnosis.}, language = {en} } @article{WallaschekReuterSilkenatetal.2021, author = {Wallaschek, Nina and Reuter, Saskia and Silkenat, Sabrina and Wolf, Katharina and Niklas, Carolin and {\"O}zge, Kayisoglu and Aguilar, Carmen and Wiegering, Armin and Germer, Christoph-Thomas and Kircher, Stefan and Rosenwald, Andreas and Shannon-Lowe, Claire and Bartfeld, Sina}, title = {Ephrin receptor A2, the epithelial receptor for Epstein-Barr virus entry, is not available for efficient infection in human gastric organoids}, series = {PLoS Pathogens}, volume = {17}, journal = {PLoS Pathogens}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1371/journal.ppat.1009210}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259206}, pages = {e1009210}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is best known for infection of B cells, in which it usually establishes an asymptomatic lifelong infection, but is also associated with the development of multiple B cell lymphomas. EBV also infects epithelial cells and is associated with all cases of undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). EBV is etiologically linked with at least 8\% of gastric cancer (EBVaGC) that comprises a genetically and epigenetically distinct subset of GC. Although we have a very good understanding of B cell entry and lymphomagenesis, the sequence of events leading to EBVaGC remains poorly understood. Recently, ephrin receptor A2 (EPHA2) was proposed as the epithelial cell receptor on human cancer cell lines. Although we confirm some of these results, we demonstrate that EBV does not infect healthy adult stem cell-derived gastric organoids. In matched pairs of normal and cancer-derived organoids from the same patient, EBV only reproducibly infected the cancer organoids. While there was no clear pattern of differential expression between normal and cancer organoids for EPHA2 at the RNA and protein level, the subcellular location of the protein differed markedly. Confocal microscopy showed EPHA2 localization at the cell-cell junctions in primary cells, but not in cancer cell lines. Furthermore, histologic analysis of patient tissue revealed the absence of EBV in healthy epithelium and presence of EBV in epithelial cells from inflamed tissue. These data suggest that the EPHA2 receptor is not accessible to EBV on healthy gastric epithelial cells with intact cell-cell contacts, but either this or another, yet to be identified receptor may become accessible following cellular changes induced by inflammation or transformation, rendering changes in the cellular architecture an essential prerequisite to EBV infection.}, language = {en} }