From biobank to “bioteca”: An innovative project to share decision-making and research processes

Le biobanche, come è noto, sono luoghi di raccolta e custodia sistematica di materiali biologici e informazioni da utilizzare per finalità di ricerca. A partire dalla fine degli anni Novanta del secolo scorso, in ambito sia statunitense sia europeo, le ricerche sui materiali umani, quanto a requisiti di consenso e di protezione dei dati, sono state equiparate alle ricerche su soggetti umani.1,2 A dispetto di questo intento di tutela, tutavia, le modalità di consenso e controllo relative alla donazione dei materiali biologici sono state oggetto di controversie. I modelli di governance delle biobanche, sovente poco trasparenti e prevalentemente improntati a finalità di profitto, hanno faticato a guadagnare la fiducia dei donatori.

Equine transport and changes in Equid Herpesvirus' status

The risk of respiratory disease in the transported horse can increase as a consequence of immunosuppression and stress associated primarily with opportunistic bacterial proliferation and viral reactivation. This study examines the ecology of equid herpesviruses (EHV) in these horses, exploring reactivation and changes in infection and shedding associated with transport, and any potential contributions to transport- related respiratory disease. Twelve horses were subjected to an 8-h road-transport event. Antibodies to EHV-1 and EHV-4 were detected by ELISA in serum collected prior to, immediately after and 2 weeks post transport. Respiratory tract endoscopy and tracheal washes were collected prior to and 5 days after transportation. Nasal swabs collected prior to, immediately after, 1 and 5 days following transport were screened for EHV-1,-2,-4,-5 using qPCR. Six horses had persistent neutrophilic airway infiltrates post transportation, indicative of subclinical respiratory disease. No horses were qPCR positive for either of the alphaherpesviruses (i.e., EHV-1/-4) nor did any seroconvert to either virus. Four out of nine horses positive for either EHV-2 or EHV-5 on qPCR prior to transport developed neutrophilic airway inflammation. Five horses showed increasingly positive readings on qPCR (i.e., reduced Cq) for EHV-2 after transportation and seven out of eleven horses positive for EHV-2 after transport shared strains of high sequence similarity with other horses in the study. One EHV- 2 virus detected in one horse after transport was genetically different which may be due to reactivation. The clinical significance of EHV-2 and EHV-5 remains in question. However these results indicate that transportation may lead to increased shedding, transmission and reactivation of EHV-2 and EHV-5 but not EHV-1/-4. Unlike previous work focusing on the role of alphaherpesviruses, this research suggests that investigation of the gammaherpesviruses (i.e., EHV-2/-5) in transport-related disease should not be dismissed, particularly given that these viruses can encode suppressive immunomodulators that may affect host health

Investigating the process of ethical approval in citizen science research. The case of public health

Undertaking citizen science research in Public Health involving human subjects poses significant challenges concerning the traditional process of ethical approval. It requires an extension of the ethics of protection of research subjects in order to include the empowerment of citizens as citizen scientists. This paper investigates these challenges and illustrates the ethical framework and the strategies developed within the CitieS-Health project. It also proposes first recommendations generated from the experiences of five citizen science pilot studies in environmental epidemiology within this project

First complete genome sequence of infectious laryngotracheitis virus

BACKGROUND: Infectious laryngotracheitis virus (ILTV) is an alphaherpesvirus that causes acute respiratory disease in chickens worldwide. To date, only one complete genomic sequence of ILTV has been reported. This sequence was generated by concatenating partial sequences from six different ILTV strains. Thus, the full genomic sequence of a single (individual) strain of ILTV has not been determined previously. This study aimed to use high throughput sequencing technology to determine the complete genomic sequence of a live attenuated vaccine strain of ILTV. RESULTS: The complete genomic sequence of the Serva vaccine strain of ILTV was determined, annotated and compared to the concatenated ILTV reference sequence. The genome size of the Serva strain was 152,628 bp, with a G + C content of 48%. A total of 80 predicted open reading frames were identified. The Serva strain had 96.5% DNA sequence identity with the concatenated ILTV sequence. Notably, the concatenated ILTV sequence was found to lack four large regions of sequence, including 528 bp and 594 bp of sequence in the UL29 and UL36 genes, respectively, and two copies of a 1,563 bp sequence in the repeat regions. Considerable differences in the size of the predicted translation products of 4 other genes (UL54, UL30, UL37 and UL38) were also identified. More than 530 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified. Most SNPs were located within three genomic regions, corresponding to sequence from the SA-2 ILTV vaccine strain in the concatenated ILTV sequence. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first complete genomic sequence of an individual ILTV strain. This sequence will facilitate future comparative genomic studies of ILTV by providing an appropriate reference sequence for the sequence analysis of other ILTV strains

Equine Transport and Changes in Equid Herpesvirus' Status

The risk of respiratory disease in the transported horse can increase as a consequence of immunosuppression and stress associated primarily with opportunistic bacterial proliferation and viral reactivation. This study examines the ecology of equid herpesviruses (EHV) in these horses, exploring reactivation and changes in infection and shedding associated with transport, and any potential contributions to transport-related respiratory disease. Twelve horses were subjected to an 8-h road-transport event. Antibodies to EHV-1 and EHV-4 were detected by ELISA in serum collected prior to, immediately after and 2 weeks post transport. Respiratory tract endoscopy and tracheal washes were collected prior to and 5 days after transportation. Nasal swabs collected prior to, immediately after, 1 and 5 days following transport were screened for EHV-1,-2,-4,-5 using qPCR. Six horses had persistent neutrophilic airway infiltrates post transportation, indicative of subclinical respiratory disease. No horses were qPCR positive for either of the alphaherpesviruses (i.e., EHV-1/-4) nor did any seroconvert to either virus. Four out of nine horses positive for either EHV-2 or EHV-5 on qPCR prior to transport developed neutrophilic airway inflammation. Five horses showed increasingly positive readings on qPCR (i.e., reduced Cq) for EHV-2 after transportation and seven out of eleven horses positive for EHV-2 after transport shared strains of high sequence similarity with other horses in the study. One EHV-2 virus detected in one horse after transport was genetically different which may be due to reactivation. The clinical significance of EHV-2 and EHV-5 remains in question. However these results indicate that transportation may lead to increased shedding, transmission and reactivation of EHV-2 and EHV-5 but not EHV-1/-4. Unlike previous work focusing on the role of alphaherpesviruses, this research suggests that investigation of the gammaherpesviruses (i.e., EHV-2/-5) in transport-related disease should not be dismissed, particularly given that these viruses can encode suppressive immunomodulators that may affect host health

Nuovi territori per l'etica nella ricerca scientifica

Questo volume si colloca all’interno di una riflessione più complessiva sulle sfide per l’etica alla luce delle trasformazioni che nel corso dei decenni si stanno avendo nelle diverse relazioni tra ricercatori/professionisti sanitari e cittadini/pazienti/soggetti di ricerca. Nello specifico, il volume indaga la responsabilità morale del ricercatore di fronte alle sfide della scienza contemporanea, con attenzione all’ambito della ricerca biomedica che coinvolge materiale biologico di origine umana e dati correlati

Cambiamento climatico e mantenimento del territorio locale. Responsabilità morale collettiva e individuale

Il testo esamina la responsabilità morale nell'affrontare situazioni complesse come quella del cambiamento climatico. In particolare si esamina la responsabilità morale in riferimento sia al ruolo degli Stati sia al ruolo del singolo individuo. Nell'argomentazione si pone rilievo al mantenimento del territorio locale e alla centralità della coltivazione di 'virtù verdi'