Search results for "Immunologic"

Overcoming Barriers to the Effective Management of Severe Asthma in Italy.

2021

Pierluigi Paggiaro,1 Simona Barbaglia,2 Stefano Centanni,3,4 Davide Croce,5 Enrico Desideri,6 Saffi Giustini,7,8 Claudio Micheletto,9 Antonino Musarra,10 Nicola Scichilone,11 Ugo Trama,12 Maria Teresa Zedda,7,13 Giorgio Walter Canonica14 1Department of Surgery, Medicine, Molecular Biology, and Critical Care, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; 2Associazione Nazionale Pazienti “Respiriamo Insieme”, Padova, Italy; 3Department of Health Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy; 4Respiratory Unit, ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, Milan, Italy; 5Center for Health Economics, Social and Health Care Management, LIUC-Università Cattaneo, Castellanza, I…

Pdl1 Is a Putative Lipase that Enhances Photorhabdus Toxin Complex Secretion

2012

The Toxin Complex (TC) is a large multi-subunit toxin first characterized in the insect pathogens Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus, but now seen in a range of pathogens, including those of humans. These complexes comprise three protein subunits, A, B and C which in the Xenorhabdus toxin are found in a 4∶1∶1 stoichiometry. Some TCs have been demonstrated to exhibit oral toxicity to insects and have the potential to be developed as a pest control technology. The lack of recognisable signal sequences in the three large component proteins hinders an understanding of their mode of secretion. Nevertheless, we have shown the Photorhabdus luminescens (Pl) Tcd complex has been shown to associate with th…

The role of the reporting framework MIATA within current efforts to advance immune monitoring

2014

The ER-Membrane Transport System Is Critical for Intercellular Trafficking of the NSm Movement Protein and Tomato Spotted Wilt Tospovirus.

2015

Plant viruses move through plasmodesmata to infect new cells. The plant endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is interconnected among cells via the ER desmotubule in the plasmodesma across the cell wall, forming a continuous ER network throughout the entire plant. This ER continuity is unique to plants and has been postulated to serve as a platform for the intercellular trafficking of macromolecules. In the present study, the contribution of the plant ER membrane transport system to the intercellular trafficking of the NSm movement protein and Tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) is investigated. We showed that TSWV NSm is physically associated with the ER membrane in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. An…

Exceptional Heterogeneity in Viral Evolutionary Dynamics Characterises Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection.

2016

The treatment of HCV infection has seen significant progress, particularly since the approval of new direct-acting antiviral drugs. However these clinical achievements have been made despite an incomplete understanding of HCV replication and within-host evolution, especially compared with HIV-1. Here, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of HCV within-host evolution during chronic infection by investigating over 4000 viral sequences sampled longitudinally from 15 HCV-infected patients. We compare our HCV results to those from a well-studied HIV-1 cohort, revealing key differences in the evolutionary behaviour of these two chronic-infecting pathogens. Notably, we find an exceptional level o…

An unusually high substitution rate in transplant-associated BK polyomavirus in vivo is further concentrated in HLA-C-bound viral peptides

2018

Infection with human BK polyomavirus, a small double-stranded DNA virus, potentially results in severe complications in immunocompromised patients. Here, we describe the in vivo variability and evolution of the BK polyomavirus by deep sequencing. Our data reveal the highest genomic evolutionary rate described in double-stranded DNA viruses, i.e., 10−3–10−5 substitutions per nucleotide site per year. High mutation rates in viruses allow their escape from immune surveillance and adaptation to new hosts. By combining mutational landscapes across viral genomes with in silico prediction of viral peptides, we demonstrate the presence of significantly more coding substitutions within predicted cog…

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Different Testing Strategies that Use Antibody Levels to Detect Chronic Hepatitis C in Blood Donors.

2016

Aim. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of seven hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing strategies in blood donors. Methods. Three of the seven strategies were based on HCV diagnosis and reporting guidelines in Mexico and four were from previous and current recommendations outlined by the CDC. The strategies that were evaluated determine antibody levels according to the signal-to-cut-off (S/CO) ratio and use reflex Immunoblot (IMB) or HCV RNA tests to confirm true positive (TP) cases of chronic HCV infection. Costs were calculated from the perspective of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). A decision tree model was developed to estimate the expected number of true positive cas…

Home-based HIV testing: Using different strategies among transgender women in Argentina.

2019

Background In Argentina, HIV prevalence among transgender women (TGW) has been reported at 34%. The stigma is one of the most important factors limiting their access to healthcare services. The aims of this study were to compare different HIV testing methodologies, to determine the factors associated with HIV diagnosis and to determine the feasibility of a home-based HIV testing service for TGW. Methods A multidisciplinary team performed home-based HIV testing interventions in four cities of Argentina. Participants self-identified as TGW, older than 14 years and with a negative or unknown HIV status. Blood samples were screened by two rapid tests (RT), one based on antibodies (Determine™ HI…

Anti-prothrombin autoantibodies enriched after infection with SARS-CoV-2 and influenced by strength of antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 proteins

2021

Antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL), assumed to cause antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), are notorious for their heterogeneity in targeting phospholipids and phospholipid-binding proteins. The persistent presence of Lupus anticoagulant and/or aPL against cardiolipin and/or β2-glycoprotein I have been shown to be independent risk factors for vascular thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity in APS. aPL production is thought to be triggered by–among other factors–viral infections, though infection-associated aPL have mostly been considered non-pathogenic. Recently, the potential pathogenicity of infection-associated aPL has gained momentum since an increasing number of patients infected with Severe Acu…

Unraveling the role of the secretor antigen in human rotavirus attachment to histo-blood group antigens

2019

25 Páginas, 7 figuras, 2 tablas