In utero exposure to anti-TNFα drugs does not seem to be associated with increased short-term or long-term risk of severe infections in children.

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The lack of antiviral cellular immune responses in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection suggests that T-cell vaccines may provide therapeutic benefit. Due to the central role that dendritic cells (DC) play in the activation of T-cell responses, our aim was to carry out a therapeutic vaccination clinical trial in HCV patients using DC. Five patients with chronic HCV infection were vaccinated with three doses of 5 × 106 or 107 autologous DC transduced with a recombinant adenovirus encoding NS3 using the adapter protein CFh40L, which facilitates DC transduction and maturation. No significant adverse effects were recorded after vaccination. Treatment caused no changes in serum liver enzymes nor in viral load. Vaccination induced weak but consistent expansion of T-cell responses against NS3 and adenoviral antigens. Patients’ DC, as opposed to murine DC or DC from healthy subjects, secreted high IL-10 levels after transduction, inducing the activation of IL-10–producing T cells. IL-10 blockade during vaccine preparation restored its ability to stimulate anti-NS3 Th1 responses. Thus, vaccination with adenovirus-transduced DC is safe and induces weak antiviral immune responses. IL-10 associated with vaccine preparation may be partly responsible for these effects, suggesting that future vaccines should consider concomitant inhibition of this cytokine.

Background The COVID‐19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges in all fields of society with social, economic, and health‐related consequences worldwide. In this context, gastroenterology patients and healthcare systems and professionals have seen their routines changed and were forced to adapt, adopting measures to minimize the risk of infection while guaranteeing continuous medical care to chronic patients. Objective At this point, it is important to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on this field to further improve the quality of the services provided in this context. Methods/Results/Conclusion We performed a literature review that summarizes the main aspects to consider in gastroenterology, during the pandemic crisis, and includes a deep discussion on the main changes affecting gastroenterology patients and healthcare systems, anticipating the pandemic recovery scenario with future practices and policies.

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