scholarly journals Heparin binding protein in severe COVID-19—A prospective observational cohort study

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0249570
Author(s):  
Lisa Mellhammar ◽  
Louise Thelaus ◽  
Sixten Elén ◽  
Jane Fisher ◽  
Adam Linder

Background and aims Neutrophil-derived heparin binding protein (HBP; also known as azurocidin or CAP-37) is a key player in bacterial sepsis and a promising biomarker in severe infections. The aims of this study were to assess whether HBP is involved in the pathophysiology of COVID-19 and, if so, whether it can be used to predict severe disease preferably using a point-of-care test. Methods This was a prospective convenience sample study of biomarkers in patients admitted to Skåne University hospital in Sweden with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis. Plasma samples and clinical data were collected within 72h after admission, during hospital stay and at discharge. Plasma HBP concentrations samples were measured both with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and with a novel dry immunofluorescence analyzer (Joinstar) point-of-care test. Results Thirty-five COVID-19 patients were enrolled in the study. Twenty-nine patients had blood samples taken within 72h after admission. We compared the highest HBP value taken within 72h after admission in patients who eventually developed organ dysfunction (n = 23) compared to those who did not (n = 6), and found that HBP was significantly elevated in those who developed organ dysfunction (25.0 ng/mL (interquartile range (IQR) 16.6–48.5) vs 10.6 ng/mL (IQR 4.8–21.7 ng/mL), p = 0.03). Point-of-care test measurements correlated well with ELISA measurements (R = 0.83). HBP measured by the POC device predicted development of COVID-induced organ dysfunction with an AUC of 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.70–1.0). Conclusions HBP is elevated prior to onset of organ dysfunction in patients with severe COVID-19 using a newly developed point-of-care test and hence HBP could be used in a clinical setting as a prognostic marker in COVID-19.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Mellhammar ◽  
Louise Thelaus ◽  
Sixten Elén ◽  
Jane Fisher ◽  
Adam Linder

Abstract Background: The pathophysiology of severe COVID-19 has been implicated to involve neutrophil activation in the blood and in the lungs and endothelial dysfunction. Heparin binding protein (HBP) is a neutrophil protein that plays an important role in bacterial sepsis and is a promising biomarker in severe infections. Syndecans and glypicans are potential markers of sheeding of the glycocalyx and endothelial dysfunction.The primary aims of this study were to assess whether HBP or syndecans and glypicans are involved in the pathophysiology of COVID-19 and if so, whether they can be used to predict severe disease preferably using a point-of-care test (POC) that can substitute more time-consuming analysis with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Methods: A prospective convenience sample study of biomarkers. The main cohort consisted of patients admitted to hospital with a confirmed COVID-19 diagnosis. Samples and clinical data were collected at admission, during admission and at discharge and samples were analyzed with ELISA kit (Axis-Shield Diagnostics) for measuring HBP concentration and a novel dry immunofluorescence analyzer (Jet-iStar 800) (Joinstar) for point-of-care testing.Results: Thirty-five COVID-19 patients were prospectively enrolled in the study. HBP was significantly elevated in COVID-19 patients with organ dysfunction (n= 23) compared to those without organ dysfunction (n=6), 24.7 ng/mL (95% CI 17.3-48.4) vs 10.6 ng/mL (95% CI 6.2-17.1 ng/mL), p=0.03. Syndecan-1 and Glypican-4 were not significantly elevated in patients with organ dysfunction. Syndecan-1, 62.1 ng/mL (44.4-102.0) vs 57.5 ng/mL (95% CI 46.0- 63.7), p=0.44 and glypican-4, 3292.4 pg/mL (95% CI 1707.5- 6790.6) vs 3962.7 pg/mL (95% CI 2653.6- 5823.5), p=0.80. The point-of-care (POC) HBP test showed good correlation to the standard ELISA with an R-value of 0.83. HBP measured by the POC device predicted development of COVID-induced organ dysfunction within 72 hours with an AUC of 0.88.Conclusions: The neutrophil-derived HBP is elevated prior to onset of organ dysfunction in patients with severe COVID-19 using a newly developed point-of-care test and hence HBP could be used in a clinical setting as a prognostic marker in COVID-19.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magnus Paulsson ◽  
Louise Thelaus ◽  
Kristian Riesbeck ◽  
Ingemar Qvarfordt ◽  
Margaretha E. Smith ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is difficult to diagnose using clinical criteria and no biomarkers have yet been proved to be sufficiently accurate. The use of the neutrophil-derived Heparin-binding protein (HBP) as a biomarker for pneumonia was investigated in this exploratory case–control study in two intensive care units at a tertiary referral hospital. Methods Patients with clinical signs of pneumonia were recruited and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) or bronchial wash (BW) samples were collected. Mechanically ventilated and lung healthy subjects were recruited as controls. HBP was measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results BALF was collected from 14 patients with pneumonia and 14 healthy controls. Median HBP in BALF pneumonia samples was 14,690 ng/ml and controls 16.2 ng/ml (p < 0.0001). BW was collected from 10 pneumonia patients and 10 mechanically ventilated controls. Median HBP in BW pneumonia was 9002 ng/ml and controls 7.6 ng/ml (p < 0.0001). Conclusions These data indicate that HBP concentrations is significantly higher in lower airway samples from patients with pneumonia than control subjects and is a potentially useful biomarker for diagnosis of VAP.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Sterner ◽  
Jane Fisher ◽  
Louise Thelaus ◽  
Carolin Ketteler ◽  
Špela Lemež ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundSurgical trauma and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) cause an inflammatory response, difficult to differentiate from postoperative infections. Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is released from neutrophils and has been shown to predict infection-related organ dysfunction and disease progression to severe sepsis. In order to explore the potential of HBP as a biomarker for postoperative infections and asess possible confounding effects of concomitant medications, this study aimed to investigate the pre-, intra- and postoperative dynamics of HBP in cardiac surgery with CPB.Methods Thirty patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB were included, of which 15 underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and 15 underwent complex procedures with longer CPB duration. Ten patients undergoing lung surgery without CPB were also included as a conventional surgery reference group. HBP was measured at nine different perioperative time points.Results Our results showed that HBP levels were not affected by surgical trauma by itself. An increase in HBP levels was observed immediately following heparin administration and further increased during CPB. Prior to protaminization, we measured higher peak HBP-levels in the complex group (345.7 (287.8-472.6) ng/mL) compared with the CABG group (152.7 (85.3-204.0) ng/mL, p<0.001). HBP decreased rapidly following cessation of CPB and simultaneous protamine administration. Delay of protamine administration revealed that protamine, and not the cessation of CPB is primarily responsible for the rapidly reduced HBP concentration. At the arrival to the ICU, the median HBP levels were 24.8 (15.6-38.1) ng/mL for CABG patients compared with 50.5 (36.5-104.6) ng/mL for complex surgery patients (p=0.004). One day after surgery, HBP levels in all three groups were below the proposed cutoff of 30 ng/mL, previously found to predict development of organ dysfunction during infection, while other biomarkers for infections remained elevated.ConclusionsHBP levels are elevated by administration of heparin and the use of CPB but reduced by protamine administration. At postoperative day one, HBP levels were below the threshold for infection with organ dysfunction, indicating that postoperative HBP measurement may be a better screening tool for postoperative infections than other biomarkers of infections that remain elevated after surgery.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 2378-2386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Linder ◽  
Ryan Arnold ◽  
John H. Boyd ◽  
Marko Zindovic ◽  
Igor Zindovic ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niklas Sterner ◽  
Jane Fisher ◽  
Louise Thelaus ◽  
Carolin Ketteler ◽  
Spela Lemez ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Surgical trauma and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) cause an inflammatory response, difficult to differentiate from postoperative infections. Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is released from neutrophils and has been shown to predict infection-related organ dysfunction and disease progression to severe sepsis. The aim of this study was to investigate the pre-, intra- and postoperative dynamics of HBP in cardiac surgery using CPB, in order to explore the usefulness of HBP as a biomarker for postoperative infections. Methods and Results Thirty patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB were included, of which 15 underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and 15 underwent complex procedures with longer CPB time. A reference group of ten patients undergoing lung surgery without CPB was also included. HBP was measured at nine different time points during surgery. Our results showed that HBP levels were not affected by surgical trauma itself. An increase in HBP levels was observed immediately following heparin administration and further increased during CPB. Prior to protaminization, we measured higher peak in HBP-levels in the complex group 345.7 (287.8-472.6) ng/mL compared with the CABG group 152.7 (85.3-204.0) ng/mL, p <0.001. HBP decreased rapidly following end of CPB and simultaneous protamine administration. Delay of protamine administration revealed that protamine, and not the cessation of CPB is primarily responsible for the rapidly reduced HBP concentration. At the arrival to the ICU, the median HBP levels were 24.8 (15.6-38.1) ng/mL for CABG patients compared with 50.5 (36.5-104.6) ng/mL for complex surgery patients ( p =0.004). One day after surgery HBP levels in all three groups were below the proposed cutoff of 30 ng/mL previously found to predict development organ dysfunction during infection. There was a statistically significant correlation between CPB duration and peak HBP concentration (r=0.598, p =0.002). Conclusions HBP levels are elevated by administration of heparin and the use of CPB. However, at postoperative day one, HBP levels normalized regardless of surgical complexity, indicating that postoperative HBP measurement may be used as a screening tool for postoperative infections in cardiac surgery.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Sjöbeck ◽  
Hanna Sternby ◽  
Heiko Herwald ◽  
Henrik Thorlacius ◽  
Sara Regnér

Abstract Background Most patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) experience mild, self-limiting disease with little or no need for hospital care. However, 20–25% of patients develop a more severe and potentially life-threatening condition with progressive systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and multiorgan failure, resulting in high morbidity and mortality rates. Predicting disease severity at an early stage is important, as immediate supportive care has been demonstrated to reduce the incidence of SIRS and organ failure, improving patient outcome. Several studies have demonstrated elevated levels of heparin-binding protein (HBP) in patients with sepsis and septic shock, and HBP is believed to play a part in endothelial dysfunction leading to vascular leakage. As HBP levels increase prior to other known biomarkers, HBP has emerged as a promising early predictor of severe sepsis with organ dysfunction. Methods Patients admitted to Skåne University Hospital in Malmö between 2010 and 2013 fulfilling the criteria for AP were identified in the emergency department and prospectively enrolled in this study. The primary outcome was measured levels of HBP upon hospital admission in patients with confirmed AP. Correlations among HBP concentrations, disease severity and fluid balance were considered secondary endpoints. The correlation between HBP levels and fluid balance were analysed using Pearson correlation, and the ability of HBP to predict moderately severe/severe AP was assessed using a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results The overall median HBP level in this study was 529 (307–898) ng/ml. There were no significant group differences in HBP levels based on AP severity. Fluid balance differed significantly between patients with mild versus moderately severe and severe pancreatitis, but we found no correlation between HBP concentration and fluid balance. Conclusions HBP levels are dramatically increased in patients with AP, and these levels far exceed those previously reported in other conditions. In this study, we did not observe any significant correlation between HBP levels and disease severity or the need for intravenous fluid. Additional studies on HBP are needed to further explore the role of HBP in the pathogenesis of AP and its possible clinical implications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas Tverring ◽  
Niklas Nielsen ◽  
Josef Dankiewicz ◽  
Adam Linder ◽  
Fredrik Kahn ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Heparin-binding protein (HBP) is a neutrophil-derived pro-inflammatory protein, an inducer of endothelial dysfunction and vascular permeability and a promising prognostic biomarker in sepsis. This exploratory study aims to describe the kinetics of plasma HBP during septic shock and investigate an association between repeated measures of HBP concentration and cardiovascular organ dysfunction severity. Methods We included patients at or above 18 years with suspected septic shock on admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) during 2014 and 2016 to 2018. Plasma samples were collected from ICU admission and every 4 h for 72 h or until death or ICU discharge and batch analysed for HBP. Mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and noradrenaline dose (NA dose) were recorded at each sampling time point, and systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) was recorded when available from non-invasive monitoring. The association between HBP, NA dose, MAP and SVRI was assessed respectively using mixed-effects linear regression models. Procalcitonin (PCT) was used as a comparator. Results A total of 24 patients were included. The kinetics of plasma HBP was highly variable over time, with occasional >2-fold increases and decreases in between 4-h measurements. Every 100 ng/mL increase in HBP corresponded to a 30% increase in NA dose in a crude model (95% CI 3 to 60%, p = 0.03, nobs = 340), a 1.4-mmHg decrease in MAP in an adjusted model (95% CI − 1 to − 2.3 mmHg, p = 0.04) or a 99 dyne s cm−5 m−2 decrease in SVRI in another adjusted model (95% CI − 36 to − 162, p = 0.002, npat = 13). PCT had a stronger association to NA dose than HBP in a crude model but was not significantly associated to NA dose, MAP or SVRI in any time-adjusted model. Conclusions Plasma HBP displayed a highly variable kinetic pattern during septic shock and was significantly associated to cardiovascular organ dysfunction severity over time.


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