CC9 Livestock-Associated Staphylococcus aureus Emerges in Bloodstream Infections in French Patients Unconnected With Animal Farming

We report 4 bloodstream infections associated with CC9 agr type II Staphylococcus aureus in individuals without animal exposure. We demonstrate, by microarray analysis, the presence of egc cluster, fnbA, cap operon, lukS, set2, set12, splE, splD, sak, epiD, and can, genomic features associated with a high virulence potential in human

Supplementary Material for: What is it like to be in Alcohol Addiction Recovery? A Dialectical Phenomenological Analysis

Introduction: Currently, there is no scientific consensus on the concept of alcohol addiction recovery beyond substance use control. This conceptual issue challenges the implementation of therapeutic strategies and mental health policies that are unrestricted to symptomatic remission. Aiming to contribute to its definition, this study aimed to examine the recovery experience of individuals with alcohol addiction using Dialectical Phenomenological Psychopathology (DPP) as a theoretical and methodological framework. Methods: A dialectical phenomenological analysis was conducted through an examination of online interviews with eight Brazilian, São Paulo state citizens who were self-declared to be undergoing alcohol addiction recovery (or who declared that they had completely recovered). Results: Participants’ reports generated eight categories that were subdivided into two groups. The first indicated experiential elements of recovery, such as changes in self-relation, changes in interpersonal relations, changes in time relations, giving new meanings to suffering and alcohol use, and recovery as a continuous process. The second group referred to how the participants interpreted recovery according to their worldviews: as a spiritual experience, moral reformation, and mentality change. Conclusion: These categories can be understood through the lens of DPP as a process of change in the subjects’ being in the world, characterized by the continued management of their existential imbalances in the dimensions of spatiality, temporality, selfhood, and intersubjectivity. The results are preliminary when it comes to conceptualizing recovery but may help future studies to develop recovery-oriented therapeutic strategies

Membrane interaction of TNF is not sufficient to trigger increase in membrane conductance in mammalian cells

Tumor necrosis factor TNF can trigger increases in membrane conductance of mammalian cells in a receptor-independent manner via its lectin-like domain. A lectin-deficient TNF mutant, lacking this activity, was able to bind to artificial liposomes in a pH-dependent manner, but not to insert into the bilayer, just like wild type TNF. A peptide mimicking the lectin-like domain, which can still trigger increases in membrane currents in cells, failed to interact with liposomes. Thus, the capacity of TNF to trigger increases in membrane conductance in mammalian cells does not correlate with its ability to interact with membranes, suggesting that the cytokine does not form channels itself, but rather interacts with endogenous ion channels or with plasma membrane proteins that are coupled to ion channels