124 research outputs found
Approaching ancient disease from a One Health perspective: Interdisciplinary review for the investigation of zoonotic brucellosis
Today, brucellosis is the most common global bacterial zoonosis, bringing with it a range of significant health and economic consequences, yet it is rarely identified from the archaeological record. Detection and understanding of past zoonoses could be improved by triangulating evidence and proxies generated through different approaches. The complex socio‐ecological systems that support zoonoses involve humans, animals, and pathogens interacting within specific environmental and cultural contexts, and as such there is a diversity of potential datasets that can be targeted. To capture this, in this paper we consider how to approach the study of zoonotic brucellosis in the past from a One Health perspective, one which explicitly acknowledges the health link between people, animals and environments (both physical and cultural). One Health research is explicitly interdisciplinary and conceptually moves away from an anthropocentric approach, allowing the component parts to be considered in holistic and integrated ways to deliver more comprehensive understanding. To this end, in this paper we review the methods, selected evidence and potential for past brucellosis identification and understanding, focussing on osteological markers in humans and animals, historical, biomolecular and epidemiological approaches. We also present an agenda and potential for future research
Possible Brucellosis in an Early Hominin Skeleton from Sterkfontein, South Africa
We report on the paleopathological analysis of the partial skeleton of the late Pliocene hominin species Australopithecus africanus Stw 431 from Sterkfontein, South Africa. A previous study noted the presence of lesions on vertebral bodies diagnosed as spondylosis deformans due to trauma. Instead, we suggest that these lesions are pathological changes due to the initial phases of an infectious disease, brucellosis. The macroscopic, microscopic and radiological appearance of the lytic lesions of the lumbar vertebrae is consistent with brucellosis. The hypothesis of brucellosis (most often associated with the consumption of animal proteins) in a 2.4 to 2.8 million year old hominid has a host of important implications for human evolution. The consumption of meat has been regarded an important factor in supporting, directing or altering human evolution. Perhaps the earliest (up to 2.5 million years ago) paleontological evidence for meat eating consists of cut marks on animal remains and stone tools that could have made these marks. Now with the hypothesis of brucellosis in A. africanus, we may have evidence of occasional meat eating directly linked to a fossil hominin
A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression of the impact of diurnal intermittent fasting during Ramadan on body weight in healthy subjects aged 16 years and above
The Role of Purported Mucoprotectants in Dealing with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Functional Diarrhea, and Other Chronic Diarrheal Disorders in Adults
Chronic diarrhea is a frequent presenting symptom, both in primary care medicine and in specialized gastroenterology units. It is estimated that more than 5% of the global population suffers from chronic diarrhea. and that about 40% of these subjects are older than 60 years. The clinician is frequently faced with the need to decide which is the best therapeutic approach for these patients. While the origin of chronic diarrhea is diverse, impairment of intestinal barrier function, dysbiosis. and mucosal micro-inflammation are being increasingly recognized as underlying phenomena characterizing a variety of chronic diarrheal diseases. In addition to current pharmacological therapies, there is growing interest in alternative products such as mucoprotectants, which form a mucoadhesive film over the epithelium to reduce and protect against the development of altered intestinal permeability, dysbiosis, and mucosal micro-inflammation. This manuscript focuses on chronic diarrhea in adults, and we will review recent evidence on the ability of these natural compounds to improve symptoms associated with chronic diarrhea and to exert protective effects for the intestinal barrier
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Azotobacter genomes: the genome of Azotobacter chroococcum NCIMB 8003 (ATCC 4412)
The genome of the soil-dwelling heterotrophic N2-fixing Gram-negative bacterium Azotobacter chroococcum NCIMB 8003 (ATCC 4412) (Ac-8003) has been determined. It consists of 7 circular replicons totalling 5,192,291 bp comprising a circular chromosome of 4,591,803 bp and six plasmids pAcX50a, b, c, d, e, f of 10,435 bp, 13,852, 62,783, 69,713, 132,724, and 311,724 bp respectively. The chromosome has a G+C content of 66.27% and the six plasmids have G+C contents of 58.1, 55.3, 56.7, 59.2, 61.9, and 62.6% respectively. The methylome has also been determined and 5 methylation motifs have been identified. The genome also contains a very high number of transposase/inactivated transposase genes from at least 12 of the 17 recognised insertion sequence families. The Ac-8003 genome has been compared with that of Azotobacter vinelandii ATCC BAA-1303 (Av-DJ), a derivative of strain O, the only other member of the Azotobacteraceae determined so far which has a single chromosome of 5,365,318 bp and no plasmids. The chromosomes show significant stretches of synteny throughout but also reveal a history of many deletion/insertion events. The Ac-8003 genome encodes 4628 predicted protein-encoding genes of which 568 (12.2%) are plasmid borne. 3048 (65%) of these show > 85% identity to the 5050 protein-encoding genes identified in Av-DJ, and of these 99 are plasmid-borne. The core biosynthetic and metabolic pathways and macromolecular architectures and machineries of these organisms appear largely conserved including genes for CO-dehydrogenase, formate dehydrogenase and a soluble NiFe-hydrogenase. The genetic bases for many of the detailed phenotypic differences reported for these organisms have also been identified. Also many other potential phenotypic differences have been uncovered. Properties endowed by the plasmids are described including the presence of an entire aerobic corrin synthesis pathway in pAcX50f and the presence of genes for retro-conjugation in pAcX50c. All these findings are related to the potentially different environmental niches from which these organisms were isolated and to emerging theories about how microbes contribute to their communities
Genome Degradation in Brucella ovis Corresponds with Narrowing of Its Host Range and Tissue Tropism
Brucella ovis is a veterinary pathogen associated with epididymitis in sheep. Despite its genetic similarity to the zoonotic pathogens B. abortus, B. melitensis and B. suis, B. ovis does not cause zoonotic disease. Genomic analysis of the type strain ATCC25840 revealed a high percentage of pseudogenes and increased numbers of transposable elements compared to the zoonotic Brucella species, suggesting that genome degradation has occurred concomitant with narrowing of the host range of B. ovis. The absence of genomic island 2, encoding functions required for lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis, as well as inactivation of genes encoding urease, nutrient uptake and utilization, and outer membrane proteins may be factors contributing to the avirulence of B. ovis for humans. A 26.5 kb region of B. ovis ATCC25840 Chromosome II was absent from all the sequenced human pathogenic Brucella genomes, but was present in all of 17 B. ovis isolates tested and in three B. ceti isolates, suggesting that this DNA region may be of use for differentiating B. ovis from other Brucella spp. This is the first genomic analysis of a non-zoonotic Brucella species. The results suggest that inactivation of genes involved in nutrient acquisition and utilization, cell envelope structure and urease may have played a role in narrowing of the tissue tropism and host range of B. ovis
Phytoplankton variability in relation to some environmental factors in the eastern coast of Suez Gulf, Egypt
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