Knowledge, Perception of Risk and Behavior in Relation to Zoonoses in Adults of the City of Córdoba

INTRODUCCIÓN: Muchas de las actuales enfermedades emergentes y reemergentes en seres humanos son transmitidas por animales. OBJETIVOS: Analizar los conocimientos, la percepción de riesgo y los comportamientos en relación con las zoonosis en adultos de 18 años o más. MÉTODOS: Se realizó un estudio cuantitativo, transversal y correlacional mediante una encuesta en la ciudad de Córdoba en 2015. El muestreo fue aleatorio, polietápico y estratificado. El análisis de datos fue descriptivo y bivariado con una prueba de chi cuadrado. RESULTADOS: El 59% declaró tener animales domésticos. El 94% respondió que el ser humano puede contraer algún tipo de enfermedad a través del contacto con los animales. Sin embargo, apenas el 14% conocía el concepto de enfermedades zoonóticas y un bajo porcentaje podía explicar la forma de transmisión de las principales zoonosis urbanas. Se observó asociación entre variables sociodemográficas y el conocimiento y percepción de riesgo de zoonosis, así como entre el conocimiento y percepción de riesgo de zoonosis y comportamientos de riesgo/preventivos. CONCLUSIONES: El conocimiento sobre las enfermedades zoonóticas y la percepción de riesgo influyen independientemente en los comportamientos de riesgo/preventivos. A través de futuras investigaciones, se debería ahondar en el estudio de la percepción de riesgo con la finalidad de mejorar el impacto de las medidas preventivas.INTRODUCTION: Many of the current emerging and reemerging diseases in humans are transmitted by animals. OBJECTIVES: To analyze knowledge, risk perception and behavior in relation to zoonoses in adults aged 18 and over. METHODS: A quantitative, cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted through a survey in the city of Córdoba in 2015. The sampling was random, multistage and stratified. Data analysis was descriptive and bivariate by Chi-square test. RESULTS: A total of 59% said they had domestic animals, and 94% answered that human beings can contract diseases through contact with animals. However, only 14% knew what zoonotic diseases are, and a small percentage was able to explain the way of transmission of the most common urban zoonoses. There was an association between sociodemographic variables and variables related to knowledge and risk perception of zoonotic diseases, as well as between knowledge and risk perception of zoonotic diseases and risk/prevention behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about zoonoses and risk perception have independent influence on risk/prevention behaviors. Future researches should deeply explore risk perception, in order to improve the impact of preventive actions.Fil: Villacé, María Belén. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud; ArgentinaFil: López, Laura. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud; ArgentinaFil: Amieva, María José. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud; ArgentinaFil: Belfiore, Sandra. Provincia de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud; ArgentinaFil: Estario, Marcelo. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimento. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria; ArgentinaFil: Acosta, Laura Débora. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad; Argentin

New Species in the Old World: Europe as a Frontier in Biodiversity Exploration, a Test Bed for 21st Century Taxonomy

The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a science in crisis, lacking manpower and funding, a politically acknowledged problem known as the Taxonomic Impediment. Using data from the Fauna Europaea database and the Zoological Record, we show that contrary to general belief, developed and heavily-studied parts of the world are important reservoirs of unknown species. In Europe, new species of multicellular terrestrial and freshwater animals are being discovered and named at an unprecedented rate: since the 1950s, more than 770 new species are on average described each year from Europe, which add to the 125,000 terrestrial and freshwater multicellular species already known in this region. There is no sign of having reached a plateau that would allow for the assessment of the magnitude of European biodiversity. More remarkably, over 60% of these new species are described by non-professional taxonomists. Amateurs are recognized as an essential part of the workforce in ecology and astronomy, but the magnitude of non-professional taxonomist contributions to alpha-taxonomy has not been fully realized until now. Our results stress the importance of developing a system that better supports and guides this formidable workforce, as we seek to overcome the Taxonomic Impediment and speed up the process of describing the planetary biodiversity before it is too late

The European union’s 2010 target: Putting rare species in focus

P. 167-185The European Union has adopted the ambitious target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010. Several indicators have been proposed to assess progress towards the 2010 target, two of them addressing directly the issue of species decline. In Europe, the Fauna Europaea database gives an insight into the patterns of distribution of a total dataset of 130,000 terrestrial and freshwater species without taxonomic bias, and provide a unique opportunity to assess the feasibility of the 2010 target. It shows that the vast majority of European species are rare, in the sense that they have a restricted range. Considering this, the paper discusses whether the 2010 target indicators really cover the species most at risk of extinction. The analysis of a list of 62 globally extinct European taxa shows that most contemporary extinctions have affected narrow-range taxa or taxa with strict ecological requirements. Indeed, most European species listed as threatened in the IUCN Red List are narrow-range species. Conversely, there are as many wide-range species as narrow-range endemics in the list of protected species in Europe (Bird and Habitat Directives). The subset of biodiversity captured by the 2010 target indicators should be representative of the whole biodiversity in terms of patterns of distribution and abundance. Indicators should not overlook a core characteristic of biodiversity, i.e. the large number of narrow-range species and their intrinsic vulnerability. With ill-selected indicator species, the extinction of narrowrange endemics would go unnoticedS

Evaluación de la respuesta de anticuerpos neutralizantes a la vacuna Sputnik V en una cohorte en Córdoba y evaluación de las propiedades neutralizantes de anticuerpos naturales y vacunales frente a la variante Manaos

Se evaluó la respuesta de anticuerpos tipo IgG totales anti S y anticuerpos neutralizantes (AcNT) a la vacuna Sputnik V en 800 muestras tomadas a una cohorte de 285 personas en la ciudad de Córdoba. Las muestras fueron tomadas en tres momentos diferentes: una muestra basal previo a lo colocación de la vacuna (en los casos en que fue posible), una muestra luego de la primera dosis de la vacuna (día 14) y una muestra luego de la segunda dosis correspondiente (día 42 desde la 1er dosis). El promedio de la edad de las personas que conforman la cohorte es de 39,24 (±9,76), con un mínimo de 20 años y un máximo de 65 años. El 26,67% de ellos (n=76) tuvieron exposición previa al virus SARS-CoV-2. La determinación de anticuerpos tipo IgG contra la proteína S del virus se realizó mediante las técnicas COVIDAR IgG (Laboratorio Lemos S.R.L.) y SARS-CoV-2 IgG II Quant (Abbott). Las muestras que resultaron discordantes o negativas se evaluaron por inmunofluorescencia indirecta “in house” (IFI). La capacidad neutralizante de los 2 anticuerpos en las muestras de las personas vacunadas se evaluó por una técnica de Neutralización por reducción de placas (TNRP) frente al virus salvaje SARS-CoV-2 (hCoV19/Argentina/PAIS-G0001/2020, GISAID ID: EPI_ISL_499083) utilizando células Vero Cl76 (ATCC CRL-587). Los anticuerpos neutralizantes fueron titulados, estableciéndose como el título a la máxima dilución del plasma con capacidad de neutralizar al menos el 80% de las Unidades Formadoras de Placa (UFP) inoculadas, como previamente ha sido descripto (Blanco y col., 2021).Fil: Rodríguez, Rodolfo. Gobierno de Córdoba. Instituto Provincial de Investigación y Planificación Sanitaria; Argentina.Fil: Caeiro, Juan Pablo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba; Argentina.Fil: Caeiro, Juan Pablo. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Medicina; Argentina.Fil: Juri, Hugo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Rectorado; Argentina.Fil: Juri, Hugo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina.Fil: Juri, Hugo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina.Fil: Pizzi, Rogelio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas; Argentina.Fil: Gallego, Sandra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Blanco, Sebastián. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Konigheim, Brenda. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Spinsanti, Lorena. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Díaz, Adrian. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Aguilar, Juan. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Beranek, Mauricio. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Rivarola, María Elisa. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Nates, Silvia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Ré, Viviana. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Pisano, Belén. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Instituto de Virología “Dr. J.M. Vanella”; Argentina.Fil: Mangeaud, Arnaldo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales; Argentina.Fil: Díaz, Miguel. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Collino, César. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Barrera, Aldo Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Álvarez, Alejandra. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Ravera, Lorena. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Zappia, Liliana. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Brarda, Canela. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Eynard Asua, Josefina. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Toledo, Claudia. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Barrientos Alvarado, Carla Daniela. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina.Fil: Sabbatini, Julia. Gobierno de Córdoba. Ministerio de Salud. Hospital Rawson; Argentina

Investigating orphan cytochromes P450 from Mycobacterium tuberculosis : the search for potential drug targets

Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease that the World Health Organisation (WHO) regards as a global pandemic. There is a great need for new drugs to combat this threat. Drug resistant strains of the causative agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), have increased the urgency of this quest for novel anti-mycobacterial medicines. Publication of the Mtb genome sequence revealed a large number of cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes [Cole, S. T. et al. 1998]. These mono-oxygenase enzymes have been studied for many years and are responsible for metabolic functions in every kingdom of life. Research on the Mtb P450s to date has highlighted several of them as having critcal roles within the organism. CYP121 and CYP128 have been implicated as essential through gene knockout studies. It has been demonstrated that CYP125 is not essential for viability. However, it is part of a gene cluster highly important for Mtb infectivity and virulence. Due to the prospective importance of P450s to Mtb, this group of enzymes is under investigation as a source of novel drug targets. CYP142 was discovered as a potential drug target after it was located to a gene cluster involved in cholesterol catabolism during Mtb dormancy. As part of this PhD project, it was demonstrated that CYP142 performs an almost identical role to that reported for CYP125. These enzymes both perform C27 hydroxylation and carboxylation of the cholesterol side chain. However, variations in the level of oxidation have been identified, dependent upon the redox system with which these P450s are associated. A crystal structure of CYP142 showing high similarity in active site architecture to CYP125 supports the physiological role of CYP142 in cholesterol catabolism. Combining this with in vitro data which demonstrates that CYP142 possesses high affinity for a range of azole anti-fungal agents [Ahmad, Z. et al. 2005, 2006] supports the suggestion that it is a candidate target for the next generation of anti-mycobacterial drugs. CYP144 was highlighted as being important during the latent phase of Mtb growth, a phase that is not targeted by any of the current antimycobacterials. Work performed as part of this PhD has shown that many characteristics of CYP144 are highly comparable to those reported for other MtbP450s. CYP144 shows high affinity and specificity towards many azole molecules. Econazole, clotrimazole and miconazole have repeatedly been shown to bind to MtbP450s, including CYP144 and CYP142, with high affinity and are excellent potential candidates as novel anti-mycobacterial agents. An N-terminally truncated form of CYP144, CYP144-T, has been investigated in the pursuit of a CYP144 crystal structure. It is hoped that this will enable the elucidation of a physiological role for CYP144. Both CYP142 and CYP144 have demonstrated biochemical and biophysical characteristics that contribute to our knowledge of P450 enzymes. This PhD has established that CYP142 exhibits an equilibrium between P450 and P420 species in its CO-bound, ferrous form. A conversion from P420, and stabilisation of P450, upon substrate binding was also demonstrated. CYP144 displays unusual azole coordination characteristics when examined by EPR and removal of the CYP144 gene from Mtb increased sensitivity of the strain to clotrimazole. Studies of these enzymes has advanced knowledge of P450 and Mtb redox chemistry, established roles for the MtbP450 cohort and identified the potential of anti-mycobacterial drugs and associated targets.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Effects of eight neuropsychiatric copy number variants on human brain structure

Many copy number variants (CNVs) confer risk for the same range of neurodevelopmental symptoms and psychiatric conditions including autism and schizophrenia. Yet, to date neuroimaging studies have typically been carried out one mutation at a time, showing that CNVs have large effects on brain anatomy. Here, we aimed to characterize and quantify the distinct brain morphometry effects and latent dimensions across 8 neuropsychiatric CNVs. We analyzed T1-weighted MRI data from clinically and non-clinically ascertained CNV carriers (deletion/duplication) at the 1q21.1 (n = 39/28), 16p11.2 (n = 87/78), 22q11.2 (n = 75/30), and 15q11.2 (n = 72/76) loci as well as 1296 non-carriers (controls). Case-control contrasts of all examined genomic loci demonstrated effects on brain anatomy, with deletions and duplications showing mirror effects at the global and regional levels. Although CNVs mainly showed distinct brain patterns, principal component analysis (PCA) loaded subsets of CNVs on two latent brain dimensions, which explained 32 and 29% of the variance of the 8 Cohen’s d maps. The cingulate gyrus, insula, supplementary motor cortex, and cerebellum were identified by PCA and multi-view pattern learning as top regions contributing to latent dimension shared across subsets of CNVs. The large proportion of distinct CNV effects on brain morphology may explain the small neuroimaging effect sizes reported in polygenic psychiatric conditions. Nevertheless, latent gene brain morphology dimensions will help subgroup the rapidly expanding landscape of neuropsychiatric variants and dissect the heterogeneity of idiopathic conditions

Megalencephalic Leukoencephalopathy with Subcortical Cysts Disease-Linked MLC1 Protein Favors Gap-Junction Intercellular Communication by Regulating Connexin 43 Trafficking in Astrocytes

Astrocytes, the most numerous cells of the central nervous system, exert critical functions for brain homeostasis. To this purpose, astrocytes generate a highly interconnected intercellular network allowing rapid exchange of ions and metabolites through gap junctions, adjoined channels composed of hexamers of connexin (Cx) proteins, mainly Cx43. Functional alterations of Cxs and gap junctions have been observed in several neuroinflammatory/neurodegenerative diseases. In the rare leukodystrophy megalencephalic leukoencephalopathy with subcortical cysts (MLC), astrocytes show defective control of ion/fluid exchanges causing brain edema, fluid cysts, and astrocyte/myelin vacuolation. MLC is caused by mutations in MLC1, an astrocyte-specific protein of elusive function, and in GlialCAM, a MLC1 chaperon. Both proteins are highly expressed at perivascular astrocyte end-feet and astrocyte-astrocyte contacts where they interact with zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) and Cx43 junctional proteins. To investigate the possible role of Cx43 in MLC pathogenesis, we studied Cx43 properties in astrocytoma cells overexpressing wild type (WT) MLC1 or MLC1 carrying pathological mutations. Using biochemical and electrophysiological techniques, we found that WT, but not mutated, MLC1 expression favors intercellular communication by inhibiting extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2)-mediated Cx43 phosphorylation and increasing Cx43 gap-junction stability. These data indicate MLC1 regulation of Cx43 in astrocytes and Cx43 involvement in MLC pathogenesis, suggesting potential target pathways for therapeutic interventions