Scholars@Duke
Julie Steinbrink

Julie Steinbrink

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Medicine, Infectious Diseases

Selected Publications

Epidemiology of Infections in Lung Transplant Recipients Treated With Belatacept.

Journal Article Transpl Infect Dis · 2025 BACKGROUND: Belatacept is a costimulatory blocker that can be used to prevent and treat rejection in lung transplant recipients (LuTRs). The epidemiology of infections in belatacept-treated LuTRs has not been systematically evaluated. METHODS: We performed ... Full text Link to item Cite

Kaposi Sarcoma of the Cardiac Allograft in a Heart Transplant Recipient

Journal Article Annals of Internal Medicine Clinical Cases · November 1, 2024 Kaposi sarcoma (KS) is a neoplasm derived from human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8)–infected cells that often presents with mucocutaneous, gastrointestinal, or pulmonary lesions. We report an unusual case of KS involving a cardiac allograft in a heart transplant re ... Full text Cite

Incidence of opportunistic viral infections in hepatitis C virus nucleic acid test negative recipients of kidneys from hepatitis C virus nucleic acid test positive donors.

Journal Article Transpl Infect Dis · October 2024 BACKGROUND: In kidney transplantation, concerns have been raised regarding increased incidence of viral opportunistic infections in hepatitis C virus (HCV) nucleic acid test (NAT)-negative (-) recipients who received HCV NAT-positive (+) donor kidneys, spe ... Full text Link to item Cite

Defining the Landscape of Educational Experiences in Transplant Infectious Diseases: A National Survey of Infectious Diseases Fellows in the United States.

Journal Article Open Forum Infect Dis · September 2024 BACKGROUND: Transplant infectious diseases (TID) is a growing area of expertise within infectious diseases (ID), but TID training is not standardized. Previous surveys of fellows identified opportunities to improve TID education resources but did not explo ... Full text Link to item Cite

Description of Cryptococcosis Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Disease Survey Through the Mycosis Study Group Education and Research Consortium (MSG-19).

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · February 17, 2024 BACKGROUND: Invasive fungal infections have been described throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Cryptococcal disease after infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been reported in several isolated case reports and 1 lar ... Full text Link to item Cite

Bridging the gap: assessing CMV DNAemia in kidney transplant recipients with previous solid organ transplants.

Journal Article Front Transplant · 2024 Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection poses a significant threat to solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients and can lead to various complications and adverse outcomes. In an effort to prevent CMV infection, it is common to utilize prophylactic strategies, includ ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pathogen class-specific transcriptional responses derived from PBMCs accurately discriminate between fungal, bacterial, and viral infections.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2024 Immune responses during acute infection often contain canonical elements which are shared across the responses to an array of agents within a given pathogen class (i.e., respiratory viral infection). Identification of these shared, canonical elements acros ... Full text Link to item Cite

Real-world Experiences in the Transplantation of Hepatitis C-NAAT-positive Organs.

Journal Article Transplant Direct · November 2023 BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT)-positive donors have increased the organ pool. Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) have led to high rates of treatment success and sustained virologic response (SVR) in recipients with ... Full text Link to item Cite

Antiviral Treatment Failures After Transplantation of Organs From Donors With Hepatitis C Infection: A Report of 4 Cases.

Journal Article Am J Kidney Dis · September 2023 The transplantation of organs from donors with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection into uninfected recipients has expanded the available organ donor pool. With the advancement of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), high rates of cure among transplant recipients ... Full text Link to item Cite

C5a-licensed phagocytes drive sterilizing immunity during systemic fungal infection.

Journal Article Cell · June 22, 2023 Systemic candidiasis is a common, high-mortality, nosocomial fungal infection. Unexpectedly, it has emerged as a complication of anti-complement C5-targeted monoclonal antibody treatment, indicating a critical niche for C5 in antifungal immunity. We identi ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transcriptional responses define dysregulated immune activation in Hepatitis C (HCV)-naïve recipients of HCV-infected donor kidneys.

Journal Article PLoS One · 2023 Renal transplantation from hepatitis C (HCV) nucleic acid amplification test-positive (NAAT-positive) donors to uninfected recipients has greatly increased the organ donation pool. However, there is concern for adverse outcomes in these recipients due to d ... Full text Link to item Cite

Misinformation and Disinformation: The Potential Disadvantages of Social Media in Infectious Disease and How to Combat Them.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · May 15, 2022 Although the use of social media to spread misinformation and disinformation is not a new concept, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has further highlighted the dangers that misinformation can pose to public health. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transcriptional Profiles Elucidate Differential Host Responses to Infection with Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii.

Journal Article J Fungi (Basel) · April 22, 2022 Many aspects of the host response to invasive cryptococcal infections remain poorly understood. In order to explore the pathobiology of infection with common clinical strains, we infected BALB/cJ mice with Cryptococcus neoformans, Cryptococcus gattii, or s ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cytomegalovirus prevention in thoracic organ transplantation: A single-center evaluation of letermovir prophylaxis.

Journal Article J Heart Lung Transplant · April 2022 BACKGROUND: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is common following thoracic organ transplantation and causes substantial morbidity and mortality. Letermovir is a novel antiviral agent used off-label in this population for CMV prevention. Our goal was to under ... Full text Link to item Cite

Delayed mortality among solid organ transplant recipients hospitalized for COVID-19.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · February 25, 2022 INTRODUCTION: Most studies of solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients with COVID-19 focus on outcomes within one month of illness onset. Delayed mortality in SOT recipients hospitalized for COVID-19 has not been fully examined. METHODS: We used data from a ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Changing trends in mortality among solid organ transplant recipients hospitalized for COVID-19 during the course of the pandemic.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · January 2022 Mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 has declined over the course of the pandemic. Mortality trends specifically in solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR) are unknown. Using data from a multicenter registry of SOTR hospitalized for COVID-19 ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Validation of a Host Gene Expression Test for Bacterial/Viral Discrimination in Immunocompromised Hosts.

Journal Article Clin Infect Dis · August 16, 2021 BACKGROUND: Host gene expression has emerged as a complementary strategy to pathogen detection tests for the discrimination of bacterial and viral infection. The impact of immunocompromise on host-response tests remains unknown. We evaluated a host-respons ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Clinical characteristics and outcomes of toxoplasmosis among transplant recipients at two US academic medical centers.

Journal Article Transpl Infect Dis · August 2021 Toxoplasma gondii can cause severe opportunistic infection in immunocompromised individuals, but diagnosis is often delayed. We conducted a retrospective review of solid organ transplant (SOT) and hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients with t ... Full text Link to item Cite

COVID-19 in hospitalized lung and non-lung solid organ transplant recipients: A comparative analysis from a multicenter study.

Journal Article Am J Transplant · August 2021 Lung transplant recipients (LTR) with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have higher mortality than non-lung solid organ transplant recipients (SOTR), but direct comparisons are limited. Risk factors for mortality specifically in LTR have not been exp ... Full text Link to item Cite

The host transcriptional response to Candidemia is dominated by neutrophil activation and heme biosynthesis and supports novel diagnostic approaches.

Journal Article Genome Med · July 5, 2021 BACKGROUND: Candidemia is one of the most common nosocomial bloodstream infections in the United States, causing significant morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients, but the breadth of the host response to Candida infections in human patients rema ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Mucormycosis.

Journal Article Infect Dis Clin North Am · June 2021 Mucormycosis is a rare but aggressive fungal disease that mainly affects patients with poorly controlled diabetes mellitus and those who are severely immunocompromised, including patients with hematological malignancies and solid organ transplant recipient ... Full text Link to item 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

Vascular Composite Allografts (VCA): New Transplants, New Infections

Chapter · January 1, 2021 Vascularized composite allografts, or VCA transplants, are allotransplants that incorporate multiple tissues transplanted as a single functional unit, most commonly hands or face. They are, by definition, transplants aimed at improving quality of life rath ... Full text Cite

Infectious complications of vascularized composite allograft transplantation.

Journal Article Curr Opin Organ Transplant · August 2020 PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Vascularized composite allograft (VCA) transplants constitute multiple tissues transplanted together as one functional unit. These procedures are increasing in frequency and complexity, yet data about graft survival, quality of life, and ... 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

A transcriptional signature accurately identifies Aspergillus Infection across healthy and immunosuppressed states.

Journal Article Transl Res · May 2020 Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a major cause of critical illness in immunocompromised (IC) patients. However, current fungal tests are limited. Disease-specific gene expression patterns in circulating host cells show promise as novel diagnostics, however i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Viremic Hepatitis B Donors: A Case of Why It's Time to Further Expand the Donor Pool for Thoracic Transplant

Conference The Journal of heart and lung transplantation : the official publication of the International Society for Heart Transplantation · April 1, 2020 INTRODUCTION: In light of a national shortage of thoracic organs, patients with end stage lung disease need an expanded donor pool. There are approximately 847,000 persons with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the U.S. Previously, transplantation of HBV ... Full text Cite

The robust and rapid role of molecular testing in precision fungal diagnostics: A case report.

Journal Article Med Mycol Case Rep · March 2020 Diagnosis of invasive fungal disease remains an ongoing challenge for clinicians, while continuously evolving treatment regimens increase patient risk for invasive infection. This case highlights how molecular testing led to the diagnosis of co-infection w ... Full text Link to item Cite

Real-World Experiences in the Transplantation of Hepatitis C Positive Kidneys

Conference AMERICAN JOURNAL OF TRANSPLANTATION · 2020 Cite

Utility of predictive tools for risk stratification of elderly individuals with all-cause acute respiratory infection.

Journal Article Infection · August 2019 PURPOSE: A number of scoring tools have been developed to predict illness severity and patient outcome for proven pneumonia, however, less is known about the utility of clinical prediction scores for all-cause acute respiratory infection (ARI), especially ... Full text Link to item Cite

Identifying causes of persistent HIV viremia in adult patients at an academic medical center.

Journal Article SAGE Open Med · 2019 OBJECTIVES: Despite many advances in medicine, not all individuals with HIV are able to achieve complete virologic suppression. This retrospective study identifies variables associated with persistent HIV viremia in an academic clinic. METHODS: We studied ... Full text Link to item Cite

Manifestations and outcomes of nocardia infections: Comparison of immunocompromised and nonimmunocompromised adult patients.

Journal Article Medicine (Baltimore) · October 2018 Nocardia is a ubiquitous environmental pathogen that causes infection primarily following inhalation into the lungs. It is generally thought to cause infection primarily in immunocompromised patients, but nonimmunocompromised individuals are also at risk o ... Full text Link to item Cite

Mycobacterium marinum remains an unrecognized cause of indolent skin infections.

Journal Article Cutis · November 2017 We identified 5 patients who had cutaneous lesions with cultures that yielded Mycobacterium marinum. It was discovered that all 5 patients had a home aquarium, and infection was preceded by trauma to the hand. However, the association between the developme ... Link to item Cite

TWISTED CYSTER

Conference JOURNAL OF GENERAL INTERNAL MEDICINE · 2015 Cite