RAFAEL RIBEIRO ALMEIDA
Projetos de Pesquisa
Unidades Organizacionais
Instituto do Coração, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina
LIM/19 - Laboratório de Histocompatibilidade e Imunidade Celular, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina
LIM/19 - Laboratório de Histocompatibilidade e Imunidade Celular, Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina
5 resultados
Resultados de Busca
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- Recurrence of COVID-19 associated with reduced T-cell responses in a monozygotic twin pair(2022) V, Mateus de Castro; SANTOS, Keity S.; APOSTOLICO, Juliana S.; FERNANDES, Edgar R.; ALMEIDA, Rafael R.; LEVIN, Gabriel; MAGAWA, Jhosiene Y.; NUNES, Joao Paulo S.; BRUNI, Mirian; YAMAMOTO, Marcio M.; LIMA, Ariane C.; SILVA, Monize V. R.; MATOS, Larissa R. B.; CORIA, Vivian R.; CASTELLI, Erick C.; SCLIAR, Marilia O.; KURAMOTO, Andreia; BRUNO, Fernanda R.; JACINTHO, Lucas C.; NUNES, Kelly; WANG, Jaqueline Y. T.; COELHO, Veronica P.; NETO, Miguel Mitne; MACIEL, Rui M. B.; NASLAVSKY, Michel S.; PASSOS-BUENO, Maria Rita; BOSCARDIN, Silvia B.; ROSA, Daniela S.; KALIL, Jorge; ZATZ, Mayana; CUNHA-NETO, EdecioRecurrence of COVID-19 in recovered patients has been increasingly reported. However, the immune mechanisms behind the recurrence have not been thoroughly investigated. The presence of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) in recurrence/reinfection cases suggests that other types of immune response are involved in protection against recurrence. Here, we investigated the innate type I/III interferon (IFN) response, binding and nAb assays and T-cell responses to severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) with IFN gamma (IFN gamma) enzyme-linked spot assay (ELISPOT) in three pairs of young adult monozygotic (MZ) twins with previous confirmed COVID-19, one of them presenting a severe recurrence four months after the initial infection. Twin studies have been of paramount importance to comprehend the immunogenetics of infectious diseases. Each MZ twin pair was previously exposed to SARS-CoV-2, as seen by clinical reports. The six individuals presented similar overall recovered immune responses except for the recurrence case, who presented a drastically reduced number of recognized SARS-CoV-2 T-cell epitopes on ELISPOT as compared to her twin sister and the other twin pairs. Our results suggest that the lack of a broad T-cell response to initial infection may have led to recurrence, emphasizing that an effective SARS-CoV-2-specific T-cell immune response is key for complete viral control and avoidance of clinical recurrence of COVID-19.
- Epigenetic regulation of transcription factor binding motifs promotes Th1 response in Chagas disease cardiomyopathy(2022) BROCHET, Pauline; IANNI, Barbara Maria; LAUGIER, Laurie; FRADE, Amanda Farage; NUNES, Joao Paulo Silva; TEIXEIRA, Priscila Camillo; MADY, Charles; FERREIRA, Ludmila Rodrigues Pinto; FERRE, Quentin; SANTOS, Ronaldo Honorato Barros; KURAMOTO, Andreia; CABANTOUS, Sandrine; STEFFEN, Samuel; STOLF, Antonio Noedir; POMERANTZEFF, Pablo; FIORELLI, Alfredo Inacio; BOCCHI, Edimar Alcides; PISSETTI, Cristina Wide; SABA, Bruno; CANDIDO, Darlan da Silva; DIAS, Fabricio C.; SAMPAIO, Marcelo Ferraz; GAIOTTO, Fabio Antonio; MARIN-NETO, Jose Antonio; FRAGATA, Abilio; ZANIRATTO, Ricardo Costa Fernandes; SIQUEIRA, Sergio; PEIXOTO, Giselle De Lima; RIGAUD, Vagner Oliveira-Carvalho; BACAL, Fernando; BUCK, Paula; ALMEIDA, Rafael Ribeiro; LIN-WANG, Hui Tzu; SCHMIDT, Andre; MARTINELLI, Martino; HIRATA, Mario Hiroyuki; DONADI, Eduardo Antonio; PEREIRA, Alexandre Costa; RODRIGUES JUNIOR, Virmondes; PUTHIER, Denis; KALIL, Jorge; SPINELLI, Lionel; CUNHA-NETO, Edecio; CHEVILLARD, ChristopheChagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is an endemic parasitic disease of Latin America, affecting 7 million people. Although most patients are asymptomatic, 30% develop complications, including the often-fatal Chronic Chagasic Cardiomyopathy (CCC). Although previous studies have demonstrated some genetic deregulations associated with CCCs, the causes of their deregulations remain poorly described. Based on bulk RNA-seq and whole genome DNA methylation data, we investigated the genetic and epigenetic deregulations present in the moderate and severe stages of CCC. Analysis of heart tissue gene expression profile allowed us to identify 1407 differentially expressed transcripts (DEGs) specific from CCC patients. A tissue DNA methylation analysis done on the same tissue has permitted the identification of 92 regulatory Differentially Methylated Regions (DMR) localized in the promoter of DEGs. An in-depth study of the transcription factors binding sites (TFBS) in the DMRs corroborated the importance of TFBS's DNA methylation for gene expression in CCC myocardium. TBX21, RUNX3 and EBF1 are the transcription factors whose binding motif appears to be affected by DNA methylation in the largest number of genes. By combining both transcriptomic and methylomic analysis on heart tissue, and methylomic analysis on blood, 4 biological processes affected by severe CCC have been identified, including immune response, ion transport, cardiac muscle processes and nervous system. An additional study on blood methylation of moderate CCC samples put forward the importance of ion transport and nervous system in the development of the disease.
- Chagas Disease Megaesophagus Patients Carrying Variant MRPS18B P260A Display Nitro-Oxidative Stress and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Response to IFN-gamma Stimulus(2022) SILVA, Karla Deysiree Alcantara; NUNES, Joao Paulo Silva; ANDRIEUX, Pauline; BROCHET, Pauline; ALMEIDA, Rafael Ribeiro; TAKARA, Andreia Cristina Kazue Kuramoto; PEREIRA, Natalia Bueno; ABEL, Laurent; COBAT, Aurelie; ZANIRATTO, Ricardo Costa Fernandes; LEVY, Debora; BYDLOWSKI, Sergio Paulo; CECCONELLO, Ivan; SEGURO, Francisco Carlos Bernal da Costa; KALIL, Jorge; CHEVILLARD, Christophe; CUNHA-NETO, EdecioChagas disease (CD), caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects 8 million people, and around 1/3 develop chronic cardiac (CCC) or digestive disease (megaesophagus/megacolon), while the majority remain asymptomatic, in the indeterminate form of Chagas disease (ASY). Most CCC cases in families with multiple Chagas disease patients carry damaging mutations in mitochondrial genes. We searched for exonic mutations associated to chagasic megaesophagus (CME) in genes essential to mitochondrial processes. We performed whole exome sequencing of 13 CME and 45 ASY patients. We found the damaging variant MRPS18B 688C > G P230A, in five out of the 13 CME patients (one of them being homozygous; 38.4%), while the variant appeared in one out of 45 ASY patients (2.2%). We analyzed the interferon (IFN)-gamma-induced nitro-oxidative stress and mitochondrial function of EBV-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines. We found the CME carriers of the mutation displayed increased levels of nitrite and nitrated proteins; in addition, the homozygous (G/G) CME patient also showed increased mitochondrial superoxide and reduced levels of ATP production. The results suggest that pathogenic mitochondrial mutations may contribute to cytokine-induced nitro-oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. We hypothesize that, in mutation carriers, IFN-gamma produced in the esophageal myenteric plexus might cause nitro-oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in neurons, contributing to megaesophagus.
- Blood DNA methylation marks discriminate Chagas cardiomyopathy disease clinical forms(2022) BROCHET, Pauline; IANNI, Barbara; NUNES, Joao P. S.; FRADE, Amanda F.; TEIXEIRA, Priscila C.; MADY, Charles; FERREIRA, Ludmila R. P.; KURAMOTO, Andreia; PISSETTI, Cristina W.; SABA, Bruno; CANDIDO, Darlan D. S.; DIAS, Fabricio; SAMPAIO, Marcelo; MARIN-NETO, Jose A.; FRAGATA, Abilio; ZANIRATTO, Ricardo C. F.; SIQUEIRA, Sergio; PEIXOTO, Giselle D. L.; RIGAUD, Vagner O. C.; BUCK, Paula; ALMEIDA, Rafael R.; LIN-WANG, Hui Tzu; SCHMIDT, Andre; MARTINELLI, Martino; HIRATA, Mario H.; DONADI, Eduardo; JUNIOR, Virmondes Rodrigues; PEREIRA, Alexandre C.; KALIL, Jorge; SPINELLI, Lionel; CUNHA-NETO, Edecio; CHEVILLARD, ChristopheChagas disease is a parasitic disease from South America, affecting around 7 million people worldwide. Decades after the infection, 30% of people develop chronic forms, including Chronic Chagas Cardiomyopathy (CCC), for which no treatment exists. Two stages characterized this form: the moderate form, characterized by a heart ejection fraction (EF) >= 0.4, and the severe form, associated to an EF < 0.4. We propose two sets of DNA methylation biomarkers which can predict in blood CCC occurrence, and CCC stage. This analysis, based on machine learning algorithms, makes predictions with more than 95% accuracy in a test cohort. Beyond their predictive capacity, these CpGs are located near genes involved in the immune response, the nervous system, ion transport or ATP synthesis, pathways known to be deregulated in CCCs. Among these genes, some are also differentially expressed in heart tissues. Interestingly, the CpGs of interest are tagged to genes mainly involved in nervous and ionic processes. Given the close link between methylation and gene expression, these lists of CpGs promise to be not only good biomarkers, but also good indicators of key elements in the development of this pathology.
- Reduced T Cell and Antibody Responses to Inactivated Coronavirus Vaccine Among Individuals Above 55 Years Old(2022) MEDEIROS, Giuliana X.; SASAHARA, Greyce Luri; MAGAWA, Jhosiene Y.; NUNES, Joao Paulo S.; BRUNO, Fernanda R.; KURAMOTO, Andreia C.; ALMEIDA, Rafael R.; FERREIRA, Marcelo A.; SCAGION, Guilherme P.; CANDIDO, Erika D.; LEAL, Fabyano B.; OLIVEIRA, Danielle B. L.; DURIGON, Edison L.; SILVA JR., Roberto Carlos V.; ROSA, Daniela S.; BOSCARDIN, Silvia B.; COELHO, Veronica; KALIL, Jorge; SANTOS, Keity S.; CUNHA-NETO, EdecioCoronaVac is an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine that has been rolled out in several low and middle-income countries including Brazil, where it was the mainstay of the first wave of immunization of healthcare workers and the elderly population. We aimed to assess the T cell and antibody responses of vaccinated individuals as compared to convalescent patients. We detected IgG against SARS-CoV-2 antigens, neutralizing antibodies against the reference Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 strain and used SARS-CoV-2 peptides to detect IFN-g and IL-2 specific T cell responses in a group of CoronaVac vaccinated individuals (N = 101) and convalescent (N = 72) individuals. The frequency among vaccinated individuals, of whom 96% displayed T cell and/or antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2, is comparable to 98.5% responses of convalescent individuals. We observed that among vaccinated individuals, men and individuals 55 years or older developed significantly lower anti-RBD, anti-NP and neutralization titers against the Wuhan strain and antigen-induced IL-2 production by T cells. Neutralizing antibody responses for Gamma variant were even lower than for the Wuhan strain. Even though some studies indicated CoronaVac helped reduce mortality among elderly people, considering the appearance of novel variants of concern, CoronaVac vaccinated individuals above 55 years old are likely to benefit from a heterologous third dose/booster vaccine to increase immune response and likely protection.