A novel machine learning framework – Mal-ID – can decipher an individual’s immune system’s record of past infections and diseases, according to a new study, providing a powerful tool with the potential for diagnosing autoimmune disorders, viral infections, and vaccine responses with precision. Traditional clinical diagnostic methods for autoimmune diseases or other immunological pathologies tend to rely on a combination of physical examination, patient history, and various laboratory testing for cellular or molecular abnormalities – a lengthy process often complicated by initial misdiagnoses and ambiguous systems. These approaches make limited use of data from the patient’s individual adaptive immune system’s B cell receptors (BCRs) and T cell receptors (TCRs). In response to pathogens, vaccines, and other antigenic stimuli, BCR and TCR repertoires undergo changes through clonal expansion, somatic mutation, and selective reshaping of immune cell populations. Sequencing BCRs and TCRs could provide a comprehensive diagnostic tool, potentially enabling simultaneous detection of infectious, autoimmune, and immune-mediated diseases in a single test. However, the extent to which immune receptor repertoire sequencing alone can reliably and broadly classify diseases remains uncertain.

To address this, Maxim Zaslavsky and colleagues developed Mal-ID (MAchine Learning for Immunological Diagnosis) – a 3-model machine learning framework that analyzes immune receptor datasets to identify signatures of infectious and immunological diseases and vaccine responses in patients. Zaslavsky et al. trained Mal-ID on BCR and TCR data systematically collected from 593 individuals, including patients with COVID-19, HIV, and type-1 diabetes, as well as influenza vaccine recipients and healthy controls. According to the findings, Mal-ID effectively distinguished six distinct disease states in 550 paired BCR and TCR samples with a multiclass AUROC score of 0.986, indicating exceptionally high classification accuracy. This metric reflects the model’s ability to rank positive cases above negative ones across all disease comparisons. Although the model was successful in differentiating COVID-19, HIV, lupus, T1D, and healthy individuals – illustrating its potential as a powerful diagnostic tool – Zaslavsky et al. note that the approach still needs to be refined, using clinical information, before it could be used with confidence in clinical applications.

Paxlovid does not significantly reduce COVID-19 hospitalization and mortality among vaccinated older adults. The study questions the assumption that Paxlovid’s effectiveness in reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in unvaccinated adults also applies to vaccinated adults.

International researchers warn that the ongoing mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has the potential to spread across borders more rapidly. The mpox virus has mutated, and the new variant, clade 1b, has become more infectious.

The new post-pandemic national hospital occupancy average is 75% -- a full 11 percentage points higher than the pre-pandemic average, largely due to a reduction in staffed hospital beds. This puts the U.S. on track for a severe shortage of hospital beds by 2032 unless action is taken. 

The rise in human life expectancy has slowed down across Europe since 2011, according to research from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

A new study, published in The Lancet Public Health, reveals that the food we eat, physical inactivity and obesity are largely to blame, as well as the Covid pandemic.

Of all the countries studied, England experienced the biggest slowdown in life expectancy.

It means that rather than looking forward to living longer than our parents or grandparents, we may find that we are dying sooner.

The team says that in order to extend our old age, we need to prioritise healthier lifestyles in our younger years – with governments urged to invest in bold public health initiatives.

Vaccinations alone may not be enough to protect people with compromised immune systems from infection, even if the vaccine has generated the production of antibodies, new research from the University of Cambridge has shown. The findings, published today in Science Advances, suggest that such individuals will need regular vaccine boosters to protect them and reduce the risk of infections that could be severe and also lead to new ‘variants of concern’ emerging.