Search results for "pathogen"
showing 10 items of 1657 documents
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…
Unmet needs and challenges in gastric cancer: The way forward
2014
AbstractAlthough the incidence of gastric cancer has fallen steadily in developed countries over the past 50years, outcomes in Western countries remain poor, primarily due to the advanced stage of the disease at presentation. While earlier diagnosis would help to improve outcomes for patients with gastric cancer, better understanding of the biology of the disease is also needed, along with advances in therapy. Indeed, progress in the treatment of gastric cancer has been limited, mainly because of its genetic complexity and heterogeneity. As a result, there is an urgent need to apply precision medicine to the management of the disease in order to ensure that individuals receive the most appr…
New active drugs against liver stages of Plasmodium predicted by molecular topology.
2008
ABSTRACT We conducted a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) study based on a database of 127 compounds previously tested against the liver stage of Plasmodium yoelii in order to develop a model capable of predicting the in vitro antimalarial activities of new compounds. Topological indices were used as structural descriptors, and their relation to antimalarial activity was determined by using linear discriminant analysis. A topological model consisting of two discriminant functions was created. The first function discriminated between active and inactive compounds, and the second identified the most active among the active compounds. The model was then applied sequentially t…
Infection risks of city canal swimming events in the Netherlands in 2016.
2018
Introduction Swimming events in city canals are gaining popularity in the Netherlands, even though canal water is usually not officially designated for recreational use. Knowledge regarding the risk of infection after swimming in canals is limited. An outbreak was reported in 2015 following a canal swimming event in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Local governments were concerned about the health risks of such events. In order to assess the safety of canal swimming, the Public Health Service (PHS) prospectively investigated two city canal swimming events in 2015. In 2016, we repeated this study, aiming to prospectively determine the risks of infection during two urban swimming events, the Utrecht…
Simultaneous occurrence of covert infections with small RNA viruses in the lepidopteran Spodoptera exigua
2014
Viral covert infections in invertebrates have been traditionally attributed to sublethal infections that were not able to establish an acute infection. Recent studies are revealing that, although true for some viruses, other viruses may follow the strategy of establishing covert or persistent infections without producing the death of the host. Recently, and due to the revolution in the sequencing technologies, a large number of viruses causing covert infections in all type of hosts have been identified.The beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a worldwide pest that causes significant losses to agricultural and ornamental plant industries. In a previous project we used…
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…
Human norovirus binding to select bacteria representative of the human gut microbiota
2016
Recent reports describe the ability of select bacterial strains to bind human norovirus, although the specificity of such interactions is unknown. The purpose of this work was to determine if a select group of bacterial species representative of human gut microbiota bind to human norovirus, and if so, to characterize the intensity and location of that binding. The bacteria screened included naturally occurring strains isolated from human stool (Klebsiella spp., Citrobacter spp., Bacillus spp., Enterococcus faecium and Hafnia alvei) and select reference strains (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter cloacae). Binding in PBS was evaluated to three human norovirus strains (GII.4 New Orleans 2…
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…