Concomitant diagnosis of immune deficiency and Pseudomonas sepsis in a 19 month old with ecthyma gangrenosum by host whole-genome sequencing.

X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA, OMIM#300300) is a rare monogenic primary immunodeficiency caused by mutations in the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) gene. XLA is characterized by insufficient immunoglobulin levels and susceptibility to life-threatening bacterial infections. We report on a patient that presented with ecthyma gangrenosum and septicemia. Rapid trio whole-genome sequencing (rWGS) revealed an apparently de novo hemizygous pathogenic variant (c.726dupT; p.Ile243TyrfsTer15) in the BTK gene. Metagenomic analysis of rWGS sequences that did not align to the human genome revealed 770 aligned to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 genome. The patient was diagnosed with XLA and pseudomonal sepsis

The Otterbein Miscellany - May 1965

https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/miscellany/1011/thumbnail.jp

The Otterbein Miscellany - May 1971

https://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/miscellany/1000/thumbnail.jp

Autocrine Regulation of Pulmonary Inflammation by Effector T-Cell Derived IL-10 during Infection with Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection is the leading viral cause of severe lower respiratory tract illness in young infants. Clinical studies have documented that certain polymorphisms in the gene encoding the regulatory cytokine IL-10 are associated with the development of severe bronchiolitis in RSV infected infants. Here, we examined the role of IL-10 in a murine model of primary RSV infection and found that high levels of IL-10 are produced in the respiratory tract by anti-viral effector T cells at the onset of the adaptive immune response. We demonstrated that the function of the effector T cell -derived IL-10 in vivo is to limit the excess pulmonary inflammation and thereby to maintain critical lung function. We further identify a novel mechanism by which effector T cell-derived IL-10 controls excess inflammation by feedback inhibition through engagement of the IL-10 receptor on the antiviral effector T cells. Our findings suggest a potentially critical role of effector T cell-derived IL-10 in controlling disease severity in clinical RSV infection

A Mixed Blessing: Market-Mediated Religious Authority in Neopaganism

This research explores how marketplace dynamics affect religious authority in the context of Neopagan religion. Drawing on an interpretivist study of Wiccan practitioners in Italy, we reveal that engagement with the market may cause considerable, ongoing tensions, based on the inherent contradictions that are perceived to exist between spirituality and commercial gain. As a result, market success is a mixed blessing that can increase religious authority and influence, but is just as likely to decrease authority and credibility. Using an extended case study method, we propose a theoretical framework that depicts the links between our informants’ situated experiences and the macro-level factors affecting religious authority as it interacts with market-mediated dynamics at the global level. Overall, our study extends previous work in macromarketing that has looked at religious authority in the marketplace) and how the processes of globalization are affecting religion

Coherence Potentials: Loss-Less, All-or-None Network Events in the Cortex

Transient associations among neurons are thought to underlie memory and behavior. However, little is known about how such associations occur or how they can be identified. Here we recorded ongoing local field potential (LFP) activity at multiple sites within the cortex of awake monkeys and organotypic cultures of cortex. We show that when the composite activity of a local neuronal group exceeds a threshold, its activity pattern, as reflected in the LFP, occurs without distortion at other cortex sites via fast synaptic transmission. These large-amplitude LFPs, which we call coherence potentials, extend up to hundreds of milliseconds and mark periods of loss-less spread of temporal and amplitude information much like action potentials at the single-cell level. However, coherence potentials have an additional degree of freedom in the diversity of their waveforms, which provides a high-dimensional parameter for encoding information and allows identification of particular associations. Such nonlinear behavior is analogous to the spread of ideas and behaviors in social networks