0000000000384884
AUTHOR
Sara Li Muli
showing 4 related works from this author
Is Italian population protected from Poliovirus? Results of a seroprevalence survey in Florence, Italy
2018
ABSTRACT Objectives: Periodical assessments of population susceptibility to polioviruses (PV) is essential for evaluating population protection and planning appropriate vaccination strategies. The aim of the current work was to assess serological protective titers against all three polioviruses in the general population of Florence. Methods: A convenience sample of 328 sera, collected in 2009 in Florence (Central Italy) was analyzed. Samples were considered protective if neutralizing antibodies were detected at dilutions ≥1:8, according to the WHO protocols. Results: The immune coverage was 75.3%, 69.2% and 46% for PV1, PV2 and PV3, respectively. The protective titers of neutralizing antibo…
Performance evaluation of a newly developed molecular assay for the accurate diagnosis of gastroenteritis associated with norovirus of genogroup II
2018
The performance of a newly proposed fully automated cassette-based sample-to-results solution for norovirus (NoV) detection, InGenius Norovirus ELITe MGB®, was evaluated. A total of 120 selected archival stool samples from children hospitalized for acute gastroenteritis were used to compare the results to a reference real-time RT-PCR. The InGenius NoV assay showed optimal diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 95.7%) and was able to correctly detect the entire wide panel of epidemiologically relevant genotypes tested. These preliminary results suggest that the InGenius NoV assay can be recommended as a valuable method for accurate diagnosis of NoV GII infection in epidemic and…
Norovirus GII.17 as Major Epidemic Strain in Italy, Winter 2015–16
2017
In winter 2015-16, norovirus GII.17 Kawasaki 2014 emerged as a cause of sporadic gastroenteritis in children in Italy. Median patient age was higher for those with GII.17 than GII.4 infection (55 vs. 24 months), suggesting limited cross-protection for older children.
Molecular evolutionary analysis of type-1 human astroviruses identifies putative sites under selection pressure on the capsid protein
2017
Human astroviruses (HAstV) are important enteric pathogens that can be classified into eight sero/genotypes (HAstV-1 to -8). Although the various HAstV types show global spread, type-1 strains tend to be predominant. Molecular analysis of the genomic region encoding the capsid protein (ORF2) has revealed discrete sequence variation, with different lineages within each HAstV type and at least three major lineages have been identified within HAstV-1. Longitudinal epidemiological surveillance has revealed temporal shift of the various HAstV-1 lineages. Metadata analysis of HAstV-1 sequences available in the databases also revealed temporal shifts of the circulation of HAstV-1 lineages, suggest…