Brigitte Rina Aninda Sidharta

Medical laboratory professionals are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, making vaccination a critical preventive strategy. Hence, the Indonesian Government prioritized laboratory professionals for vaccination with inactivated vaccines. The immunogenicity of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines involves both humoral and cellular immune responses. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibody levels and cellular immune markers, including NK cells count, absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), and CD4+/CD8+ T cell ratio following COVID-19 vaccination. An observational cross-sectional study conducted at Dr. Moewardi Hospital, Indonesia, from February 2021 to October 2022. This study included 50 laboratory professionals who had received the first and second doses of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine. A weak yet statistically significant positive correlation between NK cells count and Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibody (p=0.026; r=0.315) was identified. A moderate positive correlation with statistical significance was also observed between the CD4+/CD8+ ratio and the absolute number of lymphocytes with Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibody (p=0.002; r=0.421, and p <0.001; r=0.481), respectively. These findings indicated that the first and second doses of the inactivated vaccine stimulated humoral immune response more strongly than a cellular immune response in this population. These findings can be utilized in selecting the vaccine types for healthcare professionals to prevent potential infections from new SARS-CoV-2 variants even after the COVID-19 pandemic has been declared over.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that needs to be urgently addressed through the formation of antibodies, such as vaccination. Automated SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests in hospitals are limited due to maintenance issues and high costs. This study aimed to determine the agreement of SARS-CoV-2 antibody test results using the FIA and ECLIA methods in post-COVID-19 infection and Sinovac vaccination. An observational analytical study with a cross-sectional approach was conducted at Dr. Moewardi Hospital from September to November 2022. The FIA method (FRENDTM NanoEntek) and ECLIA method (Cobas e411) were employed, revealing significant differences and strong correlations in both the COVID-19 infection group (r=0.9999, p<0.0001) and the Sinovac vaccination group (r=0.997, p<0.0001). The Passing and Bablok test showed systematic, proportional, and random differences in both the COVID-19 infection group (95% CI = -65.60 to -41.97; 95% CI = 3.42 to 3.70; 95% CI = -4.76 to 4.76) and the Sinovac vaccination group (95% CI = -21.71 to -8.69; 95% CI = 2.23 to 2.96; 95% CI = -12.37 to 12.37). In conclusion, there is no method of agreement between the results of SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing using the FIA and ECLIA methods in both post-COVID-19 infection and post-Sinovac vaccination groups

Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection causes inflammation of the liver, which has a high prevalence in both Indonesia and the world. Serum HBV deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is important in determining the initiation therapy for Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) patients. However, it has several limitations. Precore protein 22 kilodalton (p22cr) is synthesized from the HBV gene in hepatocytes, representing covalently closed circle (ccc) DNA. This study aimed to analyze the diagnostic performance of p22cr levels on HBV DNA in CHB patients. An observational analytic study with a cross-sectional approach was conducted on 83 CHB patients who were examined at the Clinical Pathology Laboratory of Dr. Moewardi General Academic Hospital in December 2020. Blood plasma samples were taken for HBV DNA and p22cr examination by using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), respectively. The cut-off level of p22cr was determined by the Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) with the widest area Under the Curve (AUC). Sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), Negative Predictive Value (NPV), Positive Likelihood Ratio (PLR), Negative Likelihood Ratio (NLR), and accuracy were calculated for the diagnostic performance of p22cr. The cut-off point of p22cr on HBV DNA > 20,000 IU/mL was 7.440 ng/mL with AUC 0.693 (p=0.003). The diagnostic performance of p22cr levels on HBV DNA obtained 44.44% sensitivity, 82.98% specificity, 66.67% PPV, 66.10% NPV, 2.61 PLR, 0.67 NLR, and 66.27% accuracy. P22cr level has a good specificity so it can be an alternative examination of HBV DNA in making decisions on therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Further research needs to be done using HBcrAg and excluding elderly patients.

BACKGROUND: Cisplatin is one of the most potent chemotherapy drugs to treat various types of cancer, however the use of cisplatin has some the adverse effect, such as the increase of oxidative stress and inflammation by malondialdehyde (MDA) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) activation. Since the dosing of cisplatin is critical, we observed the effect of single and multiple doses of cisplatin injection on rats’ inflammation and oxidative stress level.METHODS: Total of 27 male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 9 sub-groups, each consisted of 3 rats. The baseline sub-group received no treatments; Group 1 (sub-group 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4) were administered one single dose of 5 mg/kg BW/intravenously (i.v) of cisplatin; and Group 2 (sub-group 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, and 2.4) were given 0.2 mg/kg BW/i.v of cisplatin twice a week for two months. Rats were observed for their body weight, NF-kB, and MDA level based on the assigned group. RESULTS: Body weight loss was observed in the 1st week after treatment for Group 1, and 7th week for Group 2. Group 1 and Group 2 showed increasing level of NF-kB and MDA since the 1st observation, which was the 1st week and 5th week, respectively. NF-kB and MDA and levels were also significantly increasing in both groups for every week of observation (p<0.05).CONCLUSION: Cisplatin injection either in single or divided dose can induce inflammation and oxidative stress thus decrease the body weight. However, dividing cisplatin in smaller dose can delay the inflammation effect on subjects.KEYWORDS: cisplatin dose, MDA, NF-kB, body weight, inflammation, oxidative stress