Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospital admission and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to identify the cytokines responsible for lung damage and mortality. We prospectivel Show more
Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospital admission and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to identify the cytokines responsible for lung damage and mortality. We prospectively recruited 108 COVID-19 patients between March and April 2020 and divided them into four groups according to the severity of respiratory symptoms. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers were used for normalization of the results. Multiple cytokines showed statistically significant differences between mild and critical patients. High HGF levels were associated with the critical group (OR = 3.51; Show less
To describe the clinical, biochemical, and genetic features of patients with congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) identified in Spain during the last 20 years. Patients were selected among thos Show more
To describe the clinical, biochemical, and genetic features of patients with congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) identified in Spain during the last 20 years. Patients were selected among those presenting with multisystem disease of unknown etiology. The isoforms of transferrin and of ApoC3 and dolichols were analyzed in serum; phosphomannomutase and mannosephosphate isomerase activities were measured in fibroblasts. Conventional or massive parallel sequencing (customized panel or Illumina Clinical-Exome Sequencing TruSight One Gene Panel) was used to identify genes and mutations. Ninety-seven patients were diagnosed with 18 different CDG. Eighty-nine patients had a type 1 transferrin profile; 8 patients had a type 2 transferrin profile, with 6 of them showing an alteration in the ApoC3 isoform profile. A total of 75% of the patients had PMM2-CDG presenting with a heterogeneous mutational spectrum. The remaining patients showed mutations in any of the following genes: MPI, PGM1, GFPT1, SRD5A3, DOLK, DPGAT1, ALG1, ALG6, RFT1, SSR4, B4GALT1, DPM1, COG6, COG7, COG8, ATP6V0A2, and CCDC115. Based on literature and on this population-based study of CDG, a comprehensive scheme including reported clinical signs of CDG is offered, which will hopefully reduce the timeframe from clinical suspicion to genetic confirmation. The different defects of CDG identified in Spain have contributed to expand the knowledge of CDG worldwide. A predominance of PMM2 deficiency was detected, with 5 novel PMM2 mutations being described. Show less