Cause and Possible Treatments of Foot Lesions in Captive Syrian Hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus)

Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) run extensively in exercise wheels. This running may cause paw lesions. Three treatments of these wounds (topical application of vitamin E, wheel blocking, and a combination of both) were compared using both sexes. A pretreatment period with or without wheels lasted 15 days and the ensuing treatment period lasted 45 days. At the end of the pre-treatment period, none of the animals without wheels had paw wounds, whereas at least 75% of the females and 100% of the males with wheels did. Females had fewer and smaller wounds than males at this point. At the end of the treatment period, no effect of vitamin E could be discerned, but significant wound healing occurred after wheel blocking in both males and females. Wheel blocking is an easy way to prevent or treat paw wounds, but it presents problems in terms of animal welfare, as wheels are an important cage enrichment for hamsters

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome associated with COVID-19: An Emulated Target Trial Analysis.

RATIONALE: Whether COVID patients may benefit from extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) compared with conventional invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) remains unknown. OBJECTIVES: To estimate the effect of ECMO on 90-Day mortality vs IMV only Methods: Among 4,244 critically ill adult patients with COVID-19 included in a multicenter cohort study, we emulated a target trial comparing the treatment strategies of initiating ECMO vs. no ECMO within 7 days of IMV in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (PaO2/FiO2 <80 or PaCO2 ≥60 mmHg). We controlled for confounding using a multivariable Cox model based on predefined variables. MAIN RESULTS: 1,235 patients met the full eligibility criteria for the emulated trial, among whom 164 patients initiated ECMO. The ECMO strategy had a higher survival probability at Day-7 from the onset of eligibility criteria (87% vs 83%, risk difference: 4%, 95% CI 0;9%) which decreased during follow-up (survival at Day-90: 63% vs 65%, risk difference: -2%, 95% CI -10;5%). However, ECMO was associated with higher survival when performed in high-volume ECMO centers or in regions where a specific ECMO network organization was set up to handle high demand, and when initiated within the first 4 days of MV and in profoundly hypoxemic patients. CONCLUSIONS: In an emulated trial based on a nationwide COVID-19 cohort, we found differential survival over time of an ECMO compared with a no-ECMO strategy. However, ECMO was consistently associated with better outcomes when performed in high-volume centers and in regions with ECMO capacities specifically organized to handle high demand. This article is open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Multicenter evaluation of the Toxoplasma gondii Real-TM (Sacace) kit performance for the molecular diagnosis of toxoplasmosis

International audienceABSTRACT The molecular detection of Toxoplasma gondii DNA is a key tool for the diagnosis of disseminated and congenital toxoplasmosis. This multicentric study from the Molecular Biology Pole of the French National Reference Center for toxoplasmosis aimed to evaluate Toxoplasma gondii Real-TM PCR kit (Sacace). The study compared the analytical and clinical performances of this PCR assay with the reference PCRs used in proficient laboratories. PCR efficiencies varied from 90% to 112%; linearity zone extended over four log units (R 2 > 0.99) and limit of detection varied from 0.01 to ≤1 Tg/mL depending on the center. Determined on 173 cryopreserved DNAs from a large range of clinical specimens, clinical sensitivity was 100% [106/106; 95 confidence interval (CI): 96.5%–100%] and specificity was 100% (67/67; 95 CI: 94.6%–100%). The study revealed two potential limitations of the Sacace PCR assay: the first was the inconsistency of the internal control (IC) when added to the PCR mixture. This point was not found under routine conditions when the IC was added during the extraction step. The second is a lack of practicality, as the mixture is distributed over several vials, requiring numerous pipetting operations. Overall, this study provides useful information for the molecular diagnosis of toxoplasmosis; the analytical and clinical performances of the Sacace PCR kit were satisfactory, the kit having sensitivity and specificity similar to those of expert center methods and being able to detect low parasite loads, at levels where multiplicative analysis gives inconsistently positive results. Finally, the study recommends multiplicative analysis in particular for amniotic fluids, aqueous humor, and other single specimens

Comparative genomics of emerging pathogens in the Candida glabrata clade

BACKGROUND: Candida glabrata follows C. albicans as the second or third most prevalent cause of candidemia worldwide. These two pathogenic yeasts are distantly related, C. glabrata being part of the Nakaseomyces, a group more closely related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although C. glabrata was thought to be the only pathogenic Nakaseomyces, two new pathogens have recently been described within this group: C. nivariensis and C. bracarensis. To gain insight into the genomic changes underlying the emergence of virulence, we sequenced the genomes of these two, and three other non-pathogenic Nakaseomyces, and compared them to other sequenced yeasts. RESULTS: Our results indicate that the two new pathogens are more closely related to the non-pathogenic N. delphensis than to C. glabrata. We uncover duplications and accelerated evolution that specifically affected genes in the lineage preceding the group containing N. delphensis and the three pathogens, which may provide clues to the higher propensity of this group to infect humans. Finally, the number of Epa-like adhesins is specifically enriched in the pathogens, particularly in C. glabrata. CONCLUSIONS: Remarkably, some features thought to be the result of adaptation of C. glabrata to a pathogenic lifestyle, are present throughout the Nakaseomyces, indicating these are rather ancient adaptations to other environments. Phylogeny suggests that human pathogenesis evolved several times, independently within the clade. The expansion of the EPA gene family in pathogens establishes an evolutionary link between adhesion and virulence phenotypes. Our analyses thus shed light onto the relationships between virulence and the recent genomic changes that occurred within the Nakaseomyces.This work was supported by funding from the European Research Council/nunder the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007- 2013)/ERC Grant Agreement n.310325, a Grant from the Qatar National Research Fund grant (NPRP 5-298-3-086), and by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (BIO2012-37161). CF’s research is/nfunded in part by an “Attractivité” grant from the University Paris Sud. GA is/na recipient of a Marie Curie grant (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF-No.274223). SB, HD and RA are recipients of, respectively, a shared post-doctoral grant and a Ph. D. grant, from the Région Ile-de-France’s DIM Malinf program. JAC was supported by the Ph.D. Program in Computational Biology of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal (sponsored by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Siemens SA, and Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia; SFRH/BD/33528/2008