Raw genome sequence data for 13 isogenic Aspergillus fumigatus strains isolated over a 2 year period from a patient with chronic granulomatous disease

EB, AB and AW are supported by the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award (grant 097377), and the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Aberdeen (grant MR/N006364/1). AB was also supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Research Council (BB/K017365/1) and the Medical Research Council (MR/M026663/1). The work in this paper is funded by a BBSRC EASTBIO grant (BB/M010996/1) awarded to AW. The funders had no role in study design, data interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

IL-10 overexpression predisposes to invasive aspergillosis by suppressing antifungal immunity

© 2017 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & ImmunologyProinflammatory immune responses are critically required for antimicrobial host defenses; however, excessive inflammation has the potential to damage host tissues thereby paradoxically contributing to the progression of infection. A central negative regulator of inflammatory responses is IL-10, an immunosuppressive cytokine with a wide variety of functions across multiple cell types. Although the role of IL-10 during infection appears to vary for different microorganisms, a largely detrimental role has been attributed to this cytokine during fungal disease. Given the variable risk of infection and its outcome among patients with comparable predisposing factors, susceptibility to invasive aspergillosis (IA) is thought to rely largely on genetic predisposition. The initial investigation of genetic variability at the IL10 locus led to the identification of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) influencing its transcriptional activity; thus, IL-10 may be a reasonable candidate for the genetic regulation of susceptibility to IA in high-risk patients.Supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013), the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) (contracts IF/00735/2014 to A.C., IF/01390/2014 to E.T., IF/00021/2014 to R.S., and SFRH/BPD/96176/2013 to C.C.), the Conselho de Reitores das Universidades Portuguesas (CRUP), Portugal (Ações Integradas Luso-Alemãs A-43/16), the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) (project-ID 57212690), the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (Madrid, Spain) (grant #PI12/02688) and the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics (grant #0315900A).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Acute Cardiac Failure due to Intra-Atrial Mass Caused by Zygomycetes in an Immunocompromised Paediatric Patient

Cardiac zygomycosis can be a critical condition with sudden onset of severe congestive heart failure followed by severe hemodynamic deterioration. We report a fatal course of disseminated fungal infection with a massive intra-atrial thrombosis caused by a zygomycete, in a five year old boy treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. In addition, we discuss the literature concerning infections caused by zygomycetes involving the heart. Prognosis is poor. A high index of suspicion and an aggressive diagnostic and therapeutic approach with the prompt start of preemptive antifungal therapy are key factors to improve outcome

Epidemiology and antifungal resistance in invasive aspergillosis according to primary disease - review of the literature

Aspergilli, less susceptible to antifungals emerge and resistance to azoles have been found mainly in Aspergillus fumigatus; this has launched a new phase in handling aspergillosis. Resistant strains have currently been reported from Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, UK and the USA. Centres in the UK (Manchester) and The Netherlands (Nijmegen) have described particularly high frequencies (15 and 10% respectively), and a significant increase in azole resistance in recent years. The reason of this high incidence may be due to long term azole therapy in patients with chronic aspergillosis in Manchester, and due to high use of agricultural azoles in Nijmegen. The primary underlying mechanism of resistance is as a result of alterations in the cyp51A target gene, with a variety of mutations found in clinical isolates and one genotype identified in the environmental (LH98). Reports on well documented in vitro and in vivo resistance to echinocandins are rare for Aspergillus species and resistance may be under-diagnosed as susceptibility testing is less frequently performed due to technical reasons

Influence of Agriculture on Aquatic Invertebrate Communities of Temporary Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA

We evaluated the influence of intensive agriculture on invertebrate communities of temporary wetlands as indicated by aquatic invertebrate resting eggs, shells, and cases remaining after wetlands dried. To facilitate the comparison, we sampled 19 wetlands within cropland areas and 19 wetlands within grassland areas. We found resting eggs, shells, and cases of significantly more taxa and greater numbers of cladoceran resting eggs (ephippia), planorbid and physid snail shells, and ostracod shells in wetlands within grasslands than in croplands. We also successfully incubated greater numbers of cladocerans and ostracods from soil samples collected from grassland sites. We were unable to detect differences in the viability of cladoceran ephippia between grassland and cropland wetlands, but our sample size was small due to an absence of ephippia in most cropland wetlands sampled; 74% of the cropland wetlands were devoid of cladoceran ephippia whereas ephippia were well represented in nearly all of our grassland sites. Our results corroborate findings of other investigators that prairie pothole wetlands have been negatively impacted by human activities. Our study demonstrates that aquatic invertebrates of temporary wetlands have been negatively impacted by intensive agriculture and suggests that future studies need to assess the influence of agricultural practices on wetland-dependant wildlife

Influence of Agriculture on Aquatic Invertebrate Communities of Temporary Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North Dakota, USA

We evaluated the influence of intensive agriculture on invertebrate communities of temporary wetlands as indicated by aquatic invertebrate resting eggs, shells, and cases remaining after wetlands dried. To facilitate the comparison, we sampled 19 wetlands within cropland areas and 19 wetlands within grassland areas. We found resting eggs, shells, and cases of significantly more taxa and greater numbers of cladoceran resting eggs (ephippia), planorbid and physid snail shells, and ostracod shells in wetlands within grasslands than in croplands. We also successfully incubated greater numbers of cladocerans and ostracods from soil samples collected from grassland sites. We were unable to detect differences in the viability of cladoceran ephippia between grassland and cropland wetlands, but our sample size was small due to an absence of ephippia in most cropland wetlands sampled; 74% of the cropland wetlands were devoid of cladoceran ephippia whereas ephippia were well represented in nearly all of our grassland sites. Our results corroborate findings of other investigators that prairie pothole wetlands have been negatively impacted by human activities. Our study demonstrates that aquatic invertebrates of temporary wetlands have been negatively impacted by intensive agriculture and suggests that future studies need to assess the influence of agricultural practices on wetland-dependant wildlife

Learning probability spaces for classification and recognition of patterns with or without supervision

Learning probability spaces for classification and recognition of patterns with or without supervisio

Antifungal Resistance and New Strategies to Control Fungal Infections

Despite improvement of antifungal therapies over the last 30 years, the phenomenon of antifungal resistance is still of major concern in clinical practice. In the last 10 years the molecular mechanisms underlying this phenomenon were extensively unraveled. In this paper, after a brief overview of currently available antifungals, molecular mechanisms of antifungal resistance will be detailed. It appears that major mechanisms of resistance are essential due to the deregulation of antifungal resistance effector genes. This deregulation is a consequence of point mutations occurring in transcriptional regulators of these effector genes. Resistance can also follow the emergence of point mutations directly in the genes coding antifungal targets. In addition we further describe new strategies currently undertaken to discover alternative therapy targets and antifungals. Identification of new antifungals is essentially achieved by the screening of natural or synthetic chemical compound collections. Discovery of new putative antifungal targets is performed through genome-wide approaches for a better understanding of the human pathogenic fungi biology

Grand Valley Magazine, vol. 15, no. 2 Fall 2015

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/gv_magazine/1055/thumbnail.jp