Serum levels of inflammatory cytokines in Rift Valley fever patients are indicative of severe disease

BACKGROUND : Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a mosquito-borne viral zoonosis affecting domestic and wild ruminants, camels and humans. Outbreaks of RVF are characterized by a sudden onset of abortions and high mortality amongst domestic ruminants. Humans develop disease ranging from a mild flu-like illness to more severe complications including hemorrhagic syndrome, ocular and neurological lesions and death. During the RVF outbreak in South Africa in 2010/11, a total of 278 human cases were laboratory confirmed, including 25 deaths. The role of the host inflammatory response to RVF pathogenesis is not completely understood. METHODS : Virus load in serum from human fatal and non-fatal cases was determined by standard tissue culture infective dose 50 (TCID50) titration on Vero cells. Patient serum concentration of chemokines and cytokines involved in inflammatory responses (IL-8, RANTES, CXCL9, MCP-1, IP-10, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF and IL-12p70) was determined using cytometric bead assays and flow cytometry. RESULTS : Fatal cases had a 1-log10 higher TCID50/ml serum concentration of RVF virus (RVFV) than survivors (p < 0.05). There were no significant sequence differences between isolates recovered from fatal and non-fatal cases. Chemokines and pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines were detected at significantly increased (IL-8, CXCL9, MCP-1, IP-10, IL-10) or decreased (RANTES) levels when comparing fatal cases to infected survivors and uninfected controls, or when comparing combined infected patients to uninfected controls. CONCLUSIONS : The results suggest that regulation of the host inflammatory responses plays an important role in the outcome of RVFV infection in humans. Dysregulation of the inflammatory response contributes to a fatal outcome. The cytokines and chemokines identified in this study that correlate with fatal outcomes warrant further investigation as markers for disease severity.The Poliomyelitis Research Foundation (PRF), grant number 12/10. PJvV is further supported by a grant from the Incentive Funding for Rated Researchers program of the National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa. This work is based on the research supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (Grant specific unique reference number UID 85544).http://www.virologyj.comam201

Die invloed van pH (soos bewerkstellig deur kalsium- en swaeltoedienings) op die ioonopname en plantsamestelling, groei en produksie van Lupinus angustifolius var. S.E. Blou no. 1

Skripsie (M. Sc. Agric.) -- Universiteit van Stellenbosch, 1964.Rugtitel: Die invloed van grondsuurheid op lupiene.Full text to be digitised and attached to bibliographic record

A multifaceted retrospective analysis of the association between Zolpidem administration and increased brain perfusion and function in neurologically compromised patients

This project represents one of the foundation steps to a collaboration between the Department of Human Physiology, University of Pretoria and the Nuclear Medicine Department at Steve Biko Academic hospital. Following the initial discovery of the surprising effect zolpidem has on patients in persistent vegetative states in 1999 by Dr H.W. Nel - namely that zolpidem administration results in a significant qualitative increase in brain function, to the extent that patients were able to once again communicate and respond appropriately to their surroundings - much data has been collected by both Dr Nel as well as the Nuclear Medicine Department of Steve Biko Hospital. Over the course of twelve years SPECT scans have been carried out on patients of various pathologies both before and after a course of zolpidem. To this day, both assessment and follow up of these and new patients is still being done by the Nuclear Medicine Department and Dr Nel. As this vast collection of data grows it has become increasingly daunting for a single research team to consolidate all this information into a usable form and an outside team has been deemed necessary to facilitate this process. The primary goal of this study was to quantify the neurological perfusion changes following zolpidem administration within responder patients. This was achieved through reprocessing and semi-quantification of the existing SPECT scan records held by the Pretoria Academic Hospital. Within the group of responder patients (n = 29), 22 patients (~76%) presented a significant increase in perfusion within at least one lesion with a range of 4.5 - 46.1% (mean = 11.9%). In opposition to this finding non-responsive lesion perfusion decreased with a significant mean change of -14.5%. For both sets the p-value was determined to be <0.01. Of all lesions measured (n = 85) 32% displayed increased perfusion after zolpidem administration, whereas 30.6% presented with a perfusion decrease. It was determined that only one lesion is required to respond to zolpidem in a positive manner to facilitate positive functional improvements with a given patient. In a small minority of patients post-zolpidem functional improvements seems to be connected to wide-spread cortical changes as opposed to singular lesional improvements. This study provides further evidence of zolpidem’s paradoxical action in a subset of brain damaged individuals. Unique quantification of results allows for additional insight and provides further understanding the physiological changes associated with zolpidem administration.Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2014.tm2015PhysiologyMScUnrestricte