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Bryan David Kraft

Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
Medicine, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine
Box 3315 DUMC, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications


SARS-CoV-2 viremia but not respiratory viral load is associated with respiratory complications in patients with severe COVID-19.

Journal Article BMC Pulm Med · July 29, 2024 BACKGROUND: Severe COVID-19 carries a high morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have shown an association between COVID-19 severity and SARS-CoV-2 viral load (VL). We sought to measure VL in multiple compartments (urine, plasma, lower respiratory trac ... Full text Link to item Cite

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Respiratory Failure: A Narrative Review

Journal Article Journal of Clinical Medicine · July 1, 2024 Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for respiratory failure in the intensive care unit continues to have an expanded role in select patients. While acute respiratory distress syndrome remains the most common indication, extracorporeal membrane oxyg ... Full text Cite

Advanced Respiratory Support Days as a Novel Marker of Mortality in COVID-19 Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Requiring Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Journal Article ASAIO J · May 1, 2024 Emerging evidence suggests prolonged use of noninvasive respiratory support may increase mortality of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated acute respiratory distress syndrome who require extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). U ... Full text Link to item Cite

T-cell count and T-cell telomere length in patients with severe COVID-19.

Journal Article Front Immunol · 2024 Lymphocyte telomere length (TL) is highly variable and shortens with age. Short telomeres may impede TL-dependent T-cell clonal expansion with viral infection. As SARS-CoV-2 infection can induce prolonged and severe T-cell lymphopenia, infected adults, and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ischemic priapism due to coagulopathy of severe COVID-19 infection

Journal Article Journal of Clinical Urology · November 1, 2023 Initially thought to be a primarily respiratory disease process, the hypercoagulable state associated with COVID-19 has been associated with myriad clinical sequelae. We report a case of stuttering ischemic priapism associated with COVID-19, and describe a ... Full text Cite

Alveolar Mitochondrial Quality Control During Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Conference Lab Invest · September 2023 Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a leading cause of respiratory failure and death in patients in the intensive care unit. Experimentally, acute lung injury resolution depends on the repair of mitochondrial oxidant damage by the mitochondrial q ... Full text Link to item Cite

U-Shaped Association Between Carboxyhemoglobin and Mortality in Patients With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome on Venovenous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Journal Article Crit Care Explor · August 2023 BACKGROUND: Carbon monoxide (CO) is an endogenous signaling molecule that activates cytoprotective programs implicated in the resolution of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and survival of critical illness. Because CO levels can be measured in bl ... Full text Link to item Cite

Management of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome: a primer.

Journal Article Crit Care · July 18, 2023 This narrative review explores the physiology and evidence-based management of patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and refractory hypoxemia, with a focus on mechanical ventilation, adjunctive therapies, and veno-venous extracorp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Feasibility Study of Cord Tissue Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in COVID-19-Related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome.

Journal Article Stem Cells Transl Med · April 17, 2023 BACKGROUND: Treatment options for patients with COVID-19-related acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are desperately needed. Allogeneic human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hCT-MSCs) have potential therapeutic benefits in these cr ... Full text Link to item Cite

Timing of Intubation in COVID-19: When It Is Too Early and When It Is Too Late

Journal Article Critical Care Explorations · February 13, 2023 The timing of initiating mechanical ventilation in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome due to COVID-19 remains controversial. At the outset of the pandemic, "very early"intubation was recommended in patients requiring oxygen flows above 6 L p ... Full text Cite

Age and Comorbidities Predict COVID-19 Outcome, Regardless of Innate Immune Response Severity: A Single Institutional Cohort Study.

Journal Article Crit Care Explor · December 2022 UNLABELLED: The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed over eight hundred thousand lives in the United States alone, with older individuals and those with comorbidities being at higher risk of severe disease and death. Although severe acute respiratory syndrome cor ... Full text Link to item Cite

Abstract 12 Phase I Study of Cord Tissue Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in COVID-19–Related Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Conference Stem Cells Translational Medicine · September 6, 2022 AbstractIntroductionSARS-CoV-2 infection results in the COVID-19 disease that caused a global pandemic. In severe cases, COVID-19 lead ... Full text Cite

It’s about the patients: Practical antibiotic stewardship in outpatient settings in the United States

Journal Article Frontiers in Medicine · July 27, 2022 Antibiotic-resistant pathogens cause over 35,000 preventable deaths in the United States every year, and multiple strategies could decrease morbidity and mortality. As antibiotic stewardship requirements are being deployed for the outpatient setting, commu ... Full text Cite

Differential chromatin accessibility in peripheral blood mononuclear cells underlies COVID-19 disease severity prior to seroconversion.

Journal Article Sci Rep · July 9, 2022 SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers profound and variable immune responses in human hosts. Chromatin remodeling has been observed in individuals severely ill or convalescing with COVID-19, but chromatin remodeling early in disease prior to anti-spike protein IgG ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Suppression of Fibrinolysis and Hypercoagulability, Severity of Hypoxemia, and Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Journal Article Anesthesiology · July 1, 2022 BACKGROUND: COVID-19 causes hypercoagulability, but the association between coagulopathy and hypoxemia in critically ill patients has not been thoroughly explored. This study hypothesized that severity of coagulopathy would be associated with acute respira ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cryo-EM structures of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 spike.

Journal Article Cell Rep · June 28, 2022 The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron BA.2 sub-lineage has gained in proportion relative to BA.1. Because spike (S) protein variations may underlie differences in their pathobiology, here we determine cryoelectron microsc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combining Heparin and a FX/Xa Aptamer to Reduce Thrombin Generation in Cardiopulmonary Bypass and COVID-19.

Journal Article Nucleic Acid Ther · June 2022 Known limitations of unfractionated heparin (UFH) have encouraged the evaluation of anticoagulant aptamers as alternatives to UFH in highly procoagulant settings such as cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Despite progress, these efforts have not been totally su ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Differential chromatin accessibility in peripheral blood mononuclear cells underlies COVID-19 disease severity prior to seroconversion.

Journal Article Res Sq · April 7, 2022 SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers profound and variable immune responses in human hosts. Chromatin remodeling has been observed in individuals severely ill or convalescing with COVID-19, but chromatin remodeling early in disease prior to anti-spike protein IgG ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

DAMPs/PAMPs induce monocytic TLR activation and tolerance in COVID-19 patients; nucleic acid binding scavengers can counteract such TLR agonists.

Journal Article Biomaterials · April 2022 Millions of COVID-19 patients have succumbed to respiratory and systemic inflammation. Hyperstimulation of toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling is a key driver of immunopathology following infection by viruses. We found that severely ill COVID-19 patients in ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Nuclear respiratory factor-1 negatively regulates TGF-β1 and attenuates pulmonary fibrosis.

Journal Article iScience · January 21, 2022 The preclinical model of bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis is useful to study mechanisms related to human pulmonary fibrosis. Using BLM in mice, we find low HO-1 expression. Although a unique Rhenium-CO-releasing molecule (ReCORM) up-regulates HO-1, NRF-1, C ... Full text Link to item Cite

Treatment of Acanthamoeba Encephalitis.

Journal Article Am J Med · January 2022 Full text Link to item Cite

Effects of high-intensity interval training with hyperbaric oxygen.

Journal Article Front Physiol · 2022 Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO2) has been proposed as a pre-conditioning method to enhance exercise performance. Most prior studies testing this effect have been limited by inadequate methodologies. Its potential efficacy and mechanism of action remain unknown. We ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Rapid test to assess the escape of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern.

Journal Article Sci Adv · December 3, 2021 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants are concerning in the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Here, we developed a rapid test, termed CoVariant-SCAN, that detects neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) capable of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heparin-based blood purification attenuates organ injury in baboons with Streptococcus pneumoniae pneumonia.

Journal Article Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol · August 1, 2021 Bacterial pneumonia is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide despite the use of antibiotics, and novel therapies are urgently needed. Building on previous work, we aimed to 1) develop a baboon model of severe pneumococcal pneumonia and sepsis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immunofibrotic drivers of impaired lung function in postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Journal Article JCI Insight · July 22, 2021 BACKGROUNDIndividuals recovering from COVID-19 frequently experience persistent respiratory ailments, which are key elements of postacute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC); however, little is known about the underlying biological factors that may dir ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Multiplexed, quantitative serological profiling of COVID-19 from blood by a point-of-care test.

Journal Article Sci Adv · June 2021 Highly sensitive, specific, and point-of-care (POC) serological assays are an essential tool to manage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we report on a microfluidic POC test that can profile the antibody response against multiple severe acute resp ... Full text Link to item Cite

Immuno-fibrotic drivers of impaired lung function in post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).

Journal Article medRxiv · April 21, 2021 INTRODUCTION: Subjects recovering from COVID-19 frequently experience persistent respiratory ailments; however, little is known about the underlying biological factors that may direct lung recovery and the extent to which these are affected by COVID-19 sev ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy to prevent central airway stenosis after lung transplantation.

Journal Article J Heart Lung Transplant · April 2021 BACKGROUND: Central airway stenosis (CAS) is a severe airway complication after lung transplantation associated with bronchial ischemia and necrosis. We sought to determine whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), an established treatment for tissue ische ... Full text Link to item Cite

Key Pathogenic Factors in Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Coagulopathy and Acute Lung Injury Highlighted in a Patient With Copresentation of Acute Myelocytic Leukemia: A Case Report.

Journal Article A A Pract · March 30, 2021 The role of concurrent illness in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is unknown. Patients with leukemia may display altered thromboinflammatory responses. We report a 53-year-old man presenting with acute leukemia and COVID-19 who developed thrombotic com ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Abstract P102: Elevated Von Willebrand Factor in Patients Presenting With Large-Vessel Occlusion Stroke as First Symptom of COVID-19 Mirrors Levels in Patients With COVID-19 Requiring ICU-Level Care

Conference Stroke · March 2021 Introduction: COVID-19 is a coagulopathic disease marked by elevated d-dimers, fibrinogen, and von Willebrand factor (vWF) levels accompanying arterial and venous thrombosis. While the majority of thr ... Full text Cite

Dysregulated transcriptional responses to SARS-CoV-2 in the periphery.

Journal Article Nat Commun · February 17, 2021 SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown to trigger a wide spectrum of immune responses and clinical manifestations in human hosts. Here, we sought to elucidate novel aspects of the host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection through RNA sequencing of peripheral bloo ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Chromatin remodeling in peripheral blood cells reflects COVID-19 symptom severity.

Journal Article bioRxiv · December 9, 2020 SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers highly variable host responses and causes varying degrees of illness in humans. We sought to harness the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) response over the course of illness to provide insight into COVID-19 physiology. ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Multiplexed, quantitative serological profiling of COVID-19 from a drop of blood by a point-of-care test.

Journal Article medRxiv · November 7, 2020 Highly sensitive, specific, and point-of-care (POC) serological assays are an essential tool to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we report on a microfluidic, multiplexed POC test that can profile the antibody response against multiple SARS-CoV-2 antigen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dysregulated transcriptional responses to SARS-CoV-2 in the periphery support novel diagnostic approaches.

Journal Article medRxiv · July 26, 2020 In order to elucidate novel aspects of the host response to SARS-CoV-2 we performed RNA sequencing on peripheral blood samples across 77 timepoints from 46 subjects with COVID-19 and compared them to subjects with seasonal coronavirus, influenza, bacterial ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Demonstrate Mitochondrial Damage Clearance During Sepsis.

Journal Article Crit Care Med · May 2019 OBJECTIVES: Metabolic derangements in sepsis stem from mitochondrial injury and contribute significantly to organ failure and mortality; however, little is known about mitochondrial recovery in human sepsis. We sought to test markers of mitochondrial injur ... Full text Link to item Cite

Nonhuman primate species as models of human bacterial sepsis.

Journal Article Lab Anim (NY) · February 2019 Sepsis involves a disordered host response to systemic infection leading to high morbidity and mortality. Despite intense research, targeted sepsis therapies beyond antibiotics have remained elusive. The cornerstone of sepsis research is the development of ... Full text Link to item Cite

ABL kinase inhibition promotes lung regeneration through expansion of an SCGB1A1+ SPC+ cell population following bacterial pneumonia.

Journal Article Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · January 29, 2019 Current therapeutic interventions for the treatment of respiratory infections are hampered by the evolution of multidrug resistance in pathogens as well as the lack of effective cellular targets. Despite the identification of multiple region-specific lung ... Full text Link to item Cite

A phase I trial of low-dose inhaled carbon monoxide in sepsis-induced ARDS.

Journal Article JCI Insight · December 6, 2018 BACKGROUND: Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a prevalent disease with significant mortality for which no effective pharmacologic therapy exists. Low-dose inhaled carbon monoxide (iCO) confers cytoprotection in preclinical models of sepsis and ... Full text Link to item Cite

Severe Pneumococcal Pneumonia Causes Cardiac and Skeletal Muscle Injuries in Baboons

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE · January 1, 2018 Link to item Cite

Mitochondrial quality control in alveolar epithelial cells damaged by S. aureus pneumonia in mice.

Journal Article Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol · October 1, 2017 Mitochondrial damage is often overlooked in acute lung injury (ALI), yet most of the lung's physiological processes, such as airway tone, mucociliary clearance, ventilation-perfusion (Va/Q) matching, and immune surveillance require aerobic energy provision ... Full text Link to item Cite

Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Demonstrate Reversible Mitochondrial Distress In Patients With Sepsis

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE · January 1, 2017 Link to item Cite

Safety of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for management of central airway stenosis after lung transplant.

Journal Article Clin Transplant · September 2016 BACKGROUND: Central airway stenosis (CAS) is common after lung transplantation and causes significant post-transplant morbidity. It is often preceded by extensive airway necrosis, related to airway ischemia. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is useful for i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Diagnosis of Capnocytophaga canimorsus Sepsis by Whole-Genome Next-Generation Sequencing.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · September 2016 We report the case of a 60-year-old man with septic shock due to Capnocytophaga canimorsus that was diagnosed in 24 hours by a novel whole-genome next-generation sequencing assay. This technology shows great promise in identifying fastidious pathogens, and ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Hypoxic Gene Expression of Donor Bronchi Linked to Airway Complications after Lung Transplantation.

Journal Article Am J Respir Crit Care Med · March 1, 2016 RATIONALE: Central airway stenosis (CAS) after lung transplantation has been attributed in part to chronic airway ischemia; however, little is known about the time course or significance of large airway hypoxia early after transplantation. OBJECTIVES: To e ... Full text Link to item Cite

Related or not? Development of spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a patient with chronic, well-controlled HIV: A case report and review of the literature.

Journal Article SAGE Open Med Case Rep · 2016 BACKGROUND: We report a novel case of a rare disease: spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in a patient with well-controlled HIV. We explore the relationship between spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and HIV. CASE REPORT: A 66-year-old man with long-s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Heme Oxygenase-1 Is Cardioprotective Against Hyperoxia

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE · January 1, 2016 Link to item Cite

Effects of inhaled CO administration on acute lung injury in baboons with pneumococcal pneumonia.

Journal Article Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol · October 15, 2015 Inhaled carbon monoxide (CO) gas has therapeutic potential for patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome if a safe, evidence-based dosing strategy and a ventilator-compatible CO delivery system can be developed. In this study, we used a clinically ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Regulation of Proresolving Lipid Mediator Profiles in Baboon Pneumonia by Inhaled Carbon Monoxide.

Journal Article Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol · September 2015 Strategies for the treatment of bacterial pneumonia beyond traditional antimicrobial therapy have been limited. The recently discovered novel genus of lipid mediators, coined "specialized proresolving mediators" (SPMs), which orchestrate clearance of recru ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pneumonia

Chapter · April 6, 2015 With foundations in evidence-based practice, this essential resource reviews respiratory assessment, respiratory therapeutics, respiratory diseases, basic sciences and their application to respiratory care, the respiratory care profession, ... ... Cite

Cell-cell interactions and bronchoconstrictor eicosanoid reduction with inhaled carbon monoxide and resolvin D1.

Journal Article Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol · November 15, 2014 Polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN)-mediated acute lung injury from ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in critical care medicine. Here, we report that inhaled low-dose carbon monoxide (CO) and intravenous resolvin D1 ... Full text Link to item Cite

Development of a novel preclinical model of pneumococcal pneumonia in nonhuman primates.

Journal Article Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol · May 2014 Pneumococcal pneumonia is a leading cause of bacterial infection and death worldwide. Current diagnostic tests for detecting Streptococcus pneumoniae can be unreliable and can mislead clinical decision-making and treatment. To address this concern, we deve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Comparative effectiveness and safety of drug therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Journal Article Chest · May 2014 BACKGROUND: Current treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) have been shown to improve dyspnea, 6-min walk distance (6MWD), and pulmonary hemodynamics, but few studies were designed to compare treatment regimens or assess the impact of treatme ... Full text Link to item Cite

Redox Regulated Mitophagy in the Lung during Murine Sepsis

Conference Free Radical Biology and Medicine · November 2013 Full text Cite

Pneumococcal Pneumonia And Sepsis In Baboons Mirrors The Human Disease

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF RESPIRATORY AND CRITICAL CARE MEDICINE · January 1, 2013 Link to item Cite

Schizophrenia, gluten, and low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diets: a case report and review of the literature.

Journal Article Nutr Metab (Lond) · February 26, 2009 We report the unexpected resolution of longstanding schizophrenic symptoms after starting a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet. After a review of the literature, possible reasons for this include the metabolic consequences from the elimination of gluten from ... Full text Link to item Cite

Highly conserved gene expression profiles in humans with allergic rhinitis altered by immunotherapy.

Journal Article Clin Exp Allergy · December 2005 BACKGROUND: Atopic diseases, resulting from hypersensitivity to a wide variety of allergens, affect 10-20% of the population. Immunotherapy is an effective treatment for atopic diseases, but its mechanisms are not fully understood. OBJECTIVE: We studied ge ... Full text Link to item Cite

A gene expression signature for recent onset rheumatoid arthritis in peripheral blood mononuclear cells.

Journal Article Ann Rheum Dis · November 2004 BACKGROUND: In previous studies the presence of a distinct gene expression pattern has been shown in peripheral blood cells from patients with autoimmune disease. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether other specific signatures might be used to identify subsets o ... Full text Link to item Cite