Listeria monocytogenes in Milk Products

peer-reviewedMilk and milk products are frequently identified as vectors for transmission of Listeria monocytogenes. Milk can be contaminated at farm level either by indirect external contamination from the farm environment or less frequently by direct contamination of the milk from infection in the animal. Pasteurisation of milk will kill L. monocytogenes, but post-pasteurisation contamination, consumption of unpasteurised milk and manufacture of unpasteurised milk products can lead to milk being the cause of outbreaks of listeriosis. Therefore, there is a concern that L. monocytogenes in milk could lead to a public health risk. To protect against this risk, there is a need for awareness surrounding the issues, hygienic practices to reduce the risk and adequate sampling and analysis to verify that the risk is controlled. This review will highlight the issues surrounding L. monocytogenes in milk and milk products, including possible control measures. It will therefore create awareness about L. monocytogenes, contributing to protection of public health

Functional loss of IκBε leads to NF-κB deregulation in aggressive chronic lymphocytic leukemia

NF-κB is constitutively activated in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL); however, the implicated molecular mechanisms remain largely unknown. Thus, we performed targeted deep sequencing of 18 core complex genes within the NF-κB pathway in a discovery and validation CLL cohort totaling 315 cases. The most frequently mutated gene was NFKBIE (21/315 cases; 7%), which encodes IκBε, a negative regulator of NF-κB in normal B cells. Strikingly, 13 of these cases carried an identical 4-bp frameshift deletion, resulting in a truncated protein. Screening of an additional 377 CLL cases revealed that NFKBIE aberrations predominated in poor-prognostic patients and were associated with inferior outcome. Minor subclones and/or clonal evolution were also observed, thus potentially linking this recurrent event to disease progression. Compared with wild-type patients, NFKBIE-deleted cases showed reduced IκBε protein levels and decreased p65 inhibition, along with increased phosphorylation and nuclear translocation of p65. Considering the central role of B cell receptor (BcR) signaling in CLL pathobiology, it is notable that IκBε loss was enriched in aggressive cases with distinctive stereotyped BcR, likely contributing to their poor prognosis, and leading to an altered response to BcR inhibitors. Because NFKBIE deletions were observed in several other B cell lymphomas, our findings suggest a novel common mechanism of NF-κB deregulation during lymphomagenesis

Distinct innate immunity pathways to activation and tolerance in subgroups of chronic lymphocytic leukemia with distinct immunoglobulin receptors

Subgroups of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have distinct expression profiles of Toll-like receptor (TLR) pathway-associated genes. To test the hypothesis that signaling through innate immunity receptors may influence the behavior of the malignant clone, we investigated the functional response triggered by the stimulation of TLRs and NOD2 in 67 CLL cases assigned to different subgroups on the basis of immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) gene usage, IGHV gene mutational status or B-cell receptor (BcR) stereotypy. Differences in the induction of costimulatory molecules and/or apoptosis were observed in mutated versus unmutated CLL. Different responses were also identified in subsets with stereotyped BcRs, underscoring the idea that "subset-biased" innate immunity responses may occur independently of mutational status. Additionally, differential modulation of kinase activities was induced by TLR stimulation of different CLL subgroups, revealing a TLR7-tolerant state for cases belonging to stereotyped subset #4. The distinct patterns of TLR/NOD2 functional activity in cells from CLL subgroups defined by the molecular features of the clonotypic BcRs might prove relevant for elucidating the immune mechanisms underlying CLL natural history and for defining subgroups of patients who might benefit from treatment with specific TLR ligands

Support-Induced Effects of LaFeO3Perovskite on the Catalytic Performances of Supported Pt Catalysts in DeNOxApplications

International audienceA comparative investigation of the catalytic performance in the simultaneous conversion of NOx and N2O has been achieved on supported nanosized Pt particles interacting with conventional alumina and perovskite based materials. Particular attention has been paid to successive thermal treatments under reductive and oxidative atmospheres which induce bulk and surface reconstructions. Those modifications considerably alter the catalytic behavior of Pt in interaction with LaFeO3 or γ-Al2O3 in terms of activity and selectivity toward the selective transformation of NOx to nitrogen at low temperature. Changes in physicochemical properties have been examined using appropriate techniques, such as H2-temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) of CO adsorption. It has been found that oxidic Pt4+ species initially stabilized on LaFeO3 lead after subsequent H2 reduction to the formation of metallic nano-Pt particles in stronger interaction than on γ-Al2O3 support and then become more resistant to sintering during thermal aging in 1000 ppm NO, 1000 ppm N2O, 3 vol % O2, 0.5 vol % H2O, and 0.5 vol % H2 at 500 °C. Correlatively, significant improvements have been observed in the selective reduction of NOx to nitrogen. This study opens new prospects in the development of supported catalysts containing low Pt loadings because of the existence of stronger interactions with perovskite supports

Targeted next-generation sequencing in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a high-throughput yet tailored approach will facilitate implementation in a clinical setting

Next- generation sequencing has revealed novel recurrent mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, particularly in patients with aggressive disease. Here, we explored targeted re- sequencing as a novel strategy to assess the mutation status of genes with prognostic potential. To this end, we utilized HaloPlex targeted enrichment technology and designed a panel including nine genes: ATM, BIRC3, MYD88, NOTCH1, SF3B1 and TP53, which have been linked to the prognosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and KLHL6, POT1 and XPO1, which are less characterized but were found to be recurrently mutated in various sequencing studies. A total of 188 chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with poor prognostic features ( unmutated IGHV, n= 137; IGHV3- 21 subset # 2, n= 51) were sequenced on the HiSeq 2000 and data were analyzed using well- established bioinformatics tools. Using a conservative cutoff of 10% for the mutant allele, we found that 114/ 180 ( 63%) patients carried at least one mutation, with mutations in ATM, BIRC3, NOTCH1, SF3B1 and TP53 accounting for 149/ 177 ( 84%) of all mutations. We selected 155 mutations for Sanger validation ( variant allele frequency, 10- 99%) and 93% ( 144/ 155) of mutations were confirmed; notably, all 11 discordant variants had a variant allele frequency between 11- 27%, hence at the detection limit of conventional Sanger sequencing. Technical precision was assessed by repeating the entire HaloPlex procedure for 63 patients; concordance was found for 77/ 82 ( 94%) mutations. In summary, this study demonstrates that targeted next- generation sequencing is an accurate and reproducible technique potentially suitable for routine screening, eventually as a stand- alone test without the need for confirmation by Sanger sequencing

Targeted next-generation sequencing in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A high-throughput yet tailored approach will facilitate implementation in a clinical setting

Next-generation sequencing has revealed novel recurrent mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, particularly in patients with aggressive disease. Here, we explored targeted re-sequencing as a novel strategy to assess the mutation status of genes with prognostic potential. To this end, we utilized HaloPlex targeted enrichment technology and designed a panel including nine genes: ATM, BIRC3, MYD88, NOTCH1,SF3B1 and TP53, which have been linked to the prognosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and KLHL6, POT1 and XPO1, which are less characterized but were found to be recurrently mutated in various sequencing studies. A total of 188 chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with poor prognostic features (unmutated IGHV, n=137;IGHV3-21 subset #2, n=51) were sequenced on the HiSeq 2000 and data were analyzed using well-established bioinformatics tools. Using a conservative cutoff of 10% for the mutant allele, we found that 114/180 (63%) patients carried at least one mutation, with mutations in ATM, BIRC3, NOTCH1, SF3B1 and TP53 accounting for 149/177 (84%) of all mutations. We selected 155 mutations for Sanger validation (variant allele frequency, 10–99%) and 93% (144/155) of mutations were confirmed; notably, all 11 discordant variants had a variant allele frequency between 11–27%, hence at the detection limit of conventional Sanger sequencing. Technical precision was assessed by repeating the entire HaloPlex procedure for 63 patients; concordance was found for 77/82 (94%) mutations. In summary, this study demonstrates that targeted next-generation sequencing is an accurate and reproducible technique potentially suitable for routine screening, eventually as a stand-alone test without the need for confirmation by Sanger sequencing. © 2015 Ferrata Storti Foundation