Browsing by Author "Levican, Jorge"

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    Induction of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies by CoronaVac and BNT162b2 vaccines in naive and previously infected individuals
    (2022) Muena, Nicolas A.; Garcia-Salum, Tamara; Pardo-Roa, Catalina; Jose Avendano, Maria; Serrano, Eileen F.; Levican, Jorge; Almonacid, Leonardo, I; Valenzuela, Gonzalo; Poblete, Estefany; Strohmeier, Shirin; Salinas, Erick; Munoz, Andres; Haslwanter, Denise; Dieterle, Maria Eugenia; Jangra, Rohit K.; Chandran, Kartik; Gonzalez, Claudia; Riquelme, Arnoldo; Krammer, Florian; Tischler, Nicole D.; Medina, Rafael A.
    Interpretation The decay of nAbs titres in previously infected individuals over time indicates that vaccination is needed to boost humoral memory responses. Immunization of naydve individuals with two doses of CoronaVac induced nAbs titres that were significantly lower to that of convalescent patients, and similar to vaccination with one dose of BTN162b2. The real life effectiveness for CoronaVac in Chile was higher than estimated; indicating that lower titres and additional cellular immune responses induced by CoronaVac might afford protection in a highly immunized population. Nevertheless, the lower nAb titre induced by two doses of CoronaVac as compared to the BTN162b2 vaccine in naydve individuals, highlights the need of booster immunizations over time to maintain protec-tive levels of antibody, particularly with the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. Funding FONDECYT 1161971, 1212023, 1181799, FONDECYT Postdoctorado 3190706 and 3190648, ANID Becas/ Doctorado Nacional 21212258, PIA ACT 1408, CONICYT REDES180170, Centro Ciencia & Vida, FB210008, Finan-ciamiento Basal para Centros Cient?ficos y Tecnol?ogicos de Excelencia grants from the Agencia Nacional de Inves-tigaci?on y Desarrollo (ANID) of Chile; NIH-NIAD grants U19AI135972, R01AI132633 and contracts HHSN272201400008C and 75N93019C00051; the JPB Foundation, the Open Philanthropy Project grant 2020-215611 (5384); and by anonymous donors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, deci-sion to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Copyright (c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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    Merkel cell polyomavirus in non-small cell lung carcinomas from Chile
    (ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE, 2012) Gheit, Tarik; Pablo Munoz, Juan; Levican, Jorge; Gonzalez, Carolina; Ampuero, Sandra; Parra, Barbara; Gaggero, Aldo; Corvalan, Alejandro H.; Meneses, Manuel; Tommasino, Massimo; Aguayo, Francisco
    Lung cancer is a leading pathology strongly associated with the smoking habit. However, a viral etiology for a subset of patients developing lung cancer has been suggested. Polyomaviruses (PyVs) are small double stranded DNA viruses associated with the development of some human diseases. However, a causal role of these viruses in human cancer has been difficult to demonstrate. In this study, eighty-six non-small cell lung carcinomas (NSCLCs), including adenocarcinomas (AdCs) and squamous cell lung carcinomas (SQCs) from Chile were analyzed for the presence of PyVs using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). All of the specimens were positive for a fragment of the betaglobin gene. We found that 4/86 (4.7%) of lung carcinomas were positive for PyVs. After sequencing and BlastN alignment, all four cases were identified as Merkel cell polyomaviruses (MCV) that corresponded to two AdCs and two SQCs. A non-significant statistical association was found between the presence of MCV and clinic-pathological features of the patients and tumors. In addition, 1/4 (25%) of the carcinomas were actively expressing large T antigen (LT) transcripts, as demonstrated by reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). Thus a possible role of MCV in a very small subset of patients with lung cancer cannot be ruled out and warrants more investigation. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.