All Posts Tagged With: "Infectious Diseases"

Linda’s comments:  Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, is transmitted to humans by bite of Ixodes scapularis ticks. The mechanisms by which the bacterium is transmitted from vector to host are poorly understood.  Now we need to educate alternative docs….

Link: http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.ppat.1002079

Excerpt:

Using a yeast surface display approach, 
a tick gut protein named TRE31 was identified to interact with BBE31. 
Silencing tre31 also decreased the B. burgdorferi burden in the tick 
hemolymph. Delineating the specific spirochete and arthropod ligands 
required for B. burgdorferi movement in the tick may lead to new 
strategies to interrupt the life cycle of the Lyme disease agent.

Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=21113897&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

Infectious diseases can affect the previously healthy adolescent as well as
severely immuno-compromised intensive care unit patients. The effects may be
merely annoying, but in many cases they can become life-threatening. The
immediate impact of infectious diseases on everyday life can be seen with
Helicobacter pylori, which infects more than 50% of the global population,
or Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes a major tick-borne disease in Europe
and America. On the other hand, in less-developed countries, infections
causing diarrhea are still among the most important causes of death –
especially in children. Research in Medical Microbiology ranges from
attempts to better understand the physiology and ecology of the causative
agents to epidemiological typing of clinical isolates. It covers the mutual
interactions of pathogenic microbes as well as the interplay between
microorganism and host. Among the most pressing problems in medical
microbiology is the emerging of antibiotic resistances. In recent years,
both Gram-positive bacteria – with the first description of vancomycin
resistant Staphylococcus aureus – as well as Gram-negative species – e.g.
with the emergence of extended spectrum beta-lactamases – have seen new and
dramatic occurrences of resistance.
Consequently, the detection and characterization of new antimicrobial
compounds is, more than ever, an important task. All these topics are
covered by the research articles compiled in this Special Issue of the
Journal of Basic Microbiology. Further, the publication of this Special
Issue should underline the importance of “Basic Microbiology” for “Medical
Microbiology”: The sometimes existing gap between basic research and
application needs to be bridged urgently and in a time-saving manner as
often as possible. We are convinced that only combined efforts of experts in
both areas will allow us to tackle future’s problems in infectious diseases
efficiently ((c) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim).

Full article: http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Vitamins/vitamin_d_deficiency_is_why_you_get_flu_0703100554.html

Excerpt:

A new study led by researchers at the University of Copenhagen has confirmed that vitamin D plays an important role in activating immune defenses against infectious diseases like flu.

Vitamin D deficiency has already been linked to a wide spectrum of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, autoimmune disease and many others.

The study published in the latest edition of Nature Immunology discovers that activation of T-cells to fight infections needs definite help from vitamin D.

Carsten Geisler and colleagues, study authors, explained the role vitamin D plays in the immune responses as follows.

First when the naive T cell recognizes foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses with T cell receptor (TCR), it sends activating signals (1) to the vitamin D receptor gene. The VDR gene then starts producing DVR protein, which binds vitamin D in the T cell (3) and becomes activated. Then the vitamin D bound and activated DVR gets into the cell nucleus and activates the gene for PLC-gamma1 (5), which in turn produces PLC-gamma1 protein (6) and “the T cells can get started”.

Excerpt:

Results

We demonstrate that B. garinii OspA serotype 4 (ST4) PBi resist complement-mediated killing by binding of FHL-1. To identify the primary ligands of FHL-1 four CspA orthologs from B. garinii ST4 PBi were cloned and tested for binding to human CFH and FHL-1. Orthologs BGA66 and BGA71 were found to be able to bind both complement regulators but with different intensities. In addition, all CspA orthologs were tested for binding to mammalian and avian CFH. Distinct orthologs were able to bind to CFH of different animal origins.

Conclusions

B. garinii ST4 PBi is able to evade complement killing and it can bind FHL-1 to membrane expressed proteins. Recombinant proteins BGA66 can bind FHL-1 and human CFH, while BGA71 can bind only FHL-1. All recombinant CspA orthologs from B. garinii ST4 PBi can bind CFH from different animal origins. This partly explains the wide variety of animals that can be infected by B. garinii

Full article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18621561

Excerpt:

The number of known Bartonella species is rapidly growing. Some of them are responsible for distinct infectious diseases and show different prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility profiles. Not only have some vectors of Bartonella not been fully characterized, but also intermediate hosts are actually much more numerous and diverse than previously thought. Among these, dogs differ from cats because they tend to suffer an overt disease similar to humans, thus providing the base for a useful animal indicator and research model. Among the debilitating conditions with an unclear impact on the course of these infections, specific conditions (e.g., homelessness, alcoholism) have been linked to a much higher prevalence and to high risk of unfavorable outcome. Due to the limited arsenal of antibiotics effective in vivo on this peculiar intracellular pathogen, the risk/benefit balance of antibiotic therapy is sometimes difficult to draw. In this evolving picture, the recent discoveries of new species highlights the importance of basic molecular biology resources that would bring major public health benefits if available in endemic areas, and specifically in many areas of Peru and Bolivia.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, January 26, 2010  

Vitamins and Teenagers: A Personal Statement
by Stephen H. Brown, PhD

(OMNS, Jan 26, 2010) In our house, vitamin supplements sit on the counter in open bowls like nuts, dried fruits, or jelly beans.

Colds, respiratory illnesses, intestinal viruses, mono, and other infectious diseases are constantly present in American schools. In response, my teenage kids have placed four bowls on the kitchen counter – a large one in the middle full of vitamin C surrounded by three smaller bowls of niacin, vitamin D, and thiamine tablets. They help themselves to the vitamins when they feel the need, and many of their friends have adopted the idea as well. Regularly, the kids report that the vitamins actually work. The most frequent comments are, “Wow, I can breath through my nose again!”, and “I was sure I was getting sick yesterday but I feel fine today.” Continued

Tick-borne encephalitis is an infection of the CNS caused by a tick-borne
encephalitis virus transmitted by ticks. It is more common in adults than in
children. During the last 30 years, the incidence of the disease increased
continuously in almost all endemic European countries except Austria. Many
factors are responsible for the increased incidence. However, in Austria, the
incidence of tick-borne encephalitis decreased dramatically since the
introduction of a well-organized vaccination campaign against tick-borne
encephalitis. The diagnosis of tick-borne encephalitis is based on clinical
criteria and laboratory confirmation of infection. Other tick-borne diseases,
such as Lyme borreliosis and human granulocytic anaplasmosis, should be
considered in children with tick-borne encephalitis since endemic areas for all
three diseases overlap. Continued

Background.Standard 2‐tiered immunoglobulin G (IgG) testing has performed well in late Lyme disease (LD), but IgM testing early in the illness has been problematic. IgG VlsE antibody testing, by itself, improves early sensitivity, but may lower specificity. We studied whether elements of the 2 approaches could be combined to produce a second‐tier IgG blot that performs well throughout the infection. Continued

Passage through Ixodes scapularis ticks enhances the virulence of a weakly pathogenic isolate of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Adusumilli S, Booth CJ, Anguita J, Fikrig E. Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America; Section of Comparative Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America; Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United States of America.

Continued

Infect Immun. 2009 Oct 12; [Epub ahead of print]

Passage through Ixodes scapularis ticks enhances the virulence of a weakly
pathogenic isolate of Borrelia burgdorferi.

Adusumilli S, Booth CJ, Anguita J, Fikrig E.

Section of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University
School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America; Section of
Comparative Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven,
Connecticut, United States of America; Department of Veterinary and Animal
Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, United
States of America. Continued