Search results for "Unity"

Does Autoimmunity Play a Role in the Immunopathogenesis of Vasculitis Associated With Chronic Chagas Disease?

2021

Chagas disease (CD) is a chronic systemic vector-borne infection caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It has spread from Latin America through migration, becoming a global issue (Perez-Molina and Molina, 2018). Its prevalence is ∼7 million people worldwide, of whom 30-40% will develop severe chronic complications such as cardiomyopathy or megaviscerae, with a considerable impact on morbimortality (WHO, 2020; WHO, 2021). The parasite is transmitted after metacyclic trypomastigotes in the feces of a triatomine insect enter the host through the bite wound. They penetrate cells and transform into amastigotes, where they multiply by binary fission and differentiate again into circulating t…

Replicating phages in the epidermal mucosa of the eel (Anguilla anguilla)

2015

In this work, we used the eel (Anguilla anguilla) as an animal model to test the hypothesis of Barr et al. (2013a,b) about the putative role of the epidermal mucosa as a phage enrichment layer. To this end, we analyzed the microbial content of the skin mucus of wild and farmed eels by using a metagenomic approach. We found a great abundance of replicating phage genomes (concatemers) in all the samples. They were assembled in four complete genomes of three Myovirus and one Podovirus. We also found evidences that ΦKZ and Podovirus phages could be part of the resident microbiota associated to the eel mucosal surface and persist on them over the time. Moreover, the viral abundance estimated by …

Generation of immune responses against hepatitis C virus by dendritic cells containing NS5 protein-coated microparticles.

2009

ABSTRACTDendritic cells (DCs) internalize and process antigens as well as activate cellular immune responses. The aim of this study was to determine the capacity of DCs that contain antigen-coated magnetic beads to induce immunity against the nonstructural hepatitis C virus (HCV) antigen 5 (NS5). Splenocytes derived from Fms-like tyrosine kinase receptor 3 (Flt3) ligand-pretreated BALB/c mice were incubated with magnetic beads coated with HCV NS5, lipopolysaccharide (LPS), and/or anti-CD40; purified; and used for immunization. Cellular immunity was measured using cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) and T-cell proliferation assays, intracellular cytokine staining, and a syngeneic tumor challenge us…

The Fish Pathogen Vibrio vulnificus Biotype 2: Epidemiology, Phylogeny, and Virulence Factors Involved in Warm-Water Vibriosis

2015

ABSTRACT Vibrio vulnificus biotype 2 is the etiological agent of warm-water vibriosis, a disease that affects eels and other teleosts, especially in fish farms. Biotype 2 is polyphyletic and probably emerged from aquatic bacteria by acquisition of a transferable virulence plasmid that encodes resistance to innate immunity of eels and other teleosts. Interestingly, biotype 2 comprises a zoonotic clonal complex designated as serovar E that has extended worldwide. One of the most interesting virulence factors produced by serovar E is RtxA1 3 , a multifunctional protein that acts as a lethal factor for fish, an invasion factor for mice, and a survival factor outside the host. Two practically id…

Methodology and significance of the detection of liver-kidney-microsomal (lkm) autoantibodies in autoimmune-type chronic active hepatitis

1987

Liver-kidney-microsomal (LKM) autoantibodies are diagnostic markers for a subgroup of HBsAg-negative chronic active hepatitis, presumably owing to autoimmunity. They were originally detected by indirect immunofluorescence and can now be evaluated by radioimmunoassay, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunoblotting. In immunoblotting LKM-positive sera react strongly with a 50-kilodalton (KD) polypeptide band of microsomes. In immunoelectron microscopy, LKM-positive sera show a binding with membranes of the endoplasmic reticulum. The LKM antigen was further identified on various isoenzymes of cytochrome P-450. Immunofluorescence is still the method of choice for screening sera routinely…

Significant autoimmune markers of autoimmune liver disorders: Current status

1987

Recent Advances on the Innate Immune Response to Coxiella burnetii.

2021

Coxiella burnetii is an obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium and the causative agent of a worldwide zoonosis known as Q fever. The pathogen invades monocytes and macrophages, replicating within acidic phagolysosomes and evading host defenses through different immune evasion strategies that are mainly associated with the structure of its lipopolysaccharide. The main transmission routes are aerosols and ingestion of fomites from infected animals. The innate immune system provides the first host defense against the microorganism, and it is crucial to direct the infection towards a self-limiting respiratory disease or the chronic form. This review reports the advances in understanding…

Efficacy of a genetically engineered Candida albicans tet-NRG1 strain as an experimental live attenuated vaccine against hematogenously disseminated …

2009

ABSTRACT We report on the efficacy of the genetically engineered Candida albicans tet-NRG1 strain as an experimental live, attenuated vaccine against disseminated candidiasis in both immunocompetent and immunodeficient mice mostly dependent on T-cell immunity. This experimental vaccination model may represent an important tool to unravel the mechanisms of protective immunity during candidiasis.

Decomposition of Microbial Necromass Is Divergent at the Individual Taxonomic Level in Soil

2021

The turnover of microbial biomass plays an important part in providing a significant source of carbon (C) to soil organic C. However, whether the decomposition of microbial necromass (non-living microbial biomass) in the soil varies at the individual taxa level remains largely unknown. To fill up these gaps, we compared the necromass decomposition of bacterial and archaeal taxa by separating live microbial biomass with 18O-stable isotope probing from dead microbial biomass in soil. Our results showed that most of the microbial necromass at the operational taxonomic unit level (88.51%), which mainly belong to Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Gemmatimonadetes, and Proteobacteria, decomposed sig…

Los convenios internacionales y la promoción internacional del turismo sostenible

2020

Tourism has become one of the world’s most thriving industries and is a major source of environmental degradation. Therefore, since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the international community has adopted several international conventions at the sub-regional and global levels aimed at promoting the sustainable development of tourism. The latest manifestation of this common concern has been the adoption in September 2019 of the Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics, which aims to give new impetus to international and domestic efforts towards responsible, sustainable and accessible tourism. El turismo se ha convertido actualmente en una de las industrias más…