Archéologie d’un parasite du cheval

Oxyuris equi, l’oxyure du cheval, est un vers parasite spécifique des équidés régulièrement mis en évidence lors des études paléoparasitologiques. Nous proposons ici une synthèse originale entre les mentions de ce parasite connues dans la bibliographie et les textes anciens, avec des données inédites issues de nos recherches en paléoparasitologie. Cette compilation des données montre que la plus ancienne observation de l’oxyure du cheval date du milieu du Ier millénaire avant notre ère en Asie centrale, et du second âge du Fer en Europe de l’Ouest. Les mouvements de populations au moment de la conquête romaine, les échanges commerciaux et l’avancée des troupes à travers l’Empire romain ont pu contribuer à diffuser le parasite en Europe de l’Ouest. Il apparaît également que l’oxyure du cheval n’est pas détecté sur le continent américain avant l’époque contemporaine. Le rôle des migrations européennes autour du xve siècle est discuté pour expliquer l’observation tardive d’Oxyuris equi sur le continent américain. L’absence d’observation de ce parasite avant l’âge du Fer en Eurasie peut également s’expliquer par son écologie, un échantillonnage non favorable, voire la relative rareté des restes de chevaux sur les sites archéologiques.The intestinal pinworm Oxyuris equi is a parasite that specifically affects horses and that is regularly picked up in parasitological analyses. Here we give an overview combining references to these parasites in the literature and in ancient sources with hitherto unpublished results from our own palaeo-parasitological studies. This reveals that the earliest case of horse pinworm dates to the middle of the first millennium BC in central Asia, and to the Later Iron Age in western Europe. Population movements at the time of the Roman conquest, trade and exchange, and the movement of troops within the Roman empire may have contributed to the spread of this parasite in western Europe. It seems that the horse pinworm does not appear in America before the modern period. The role European emigration around the fifteenth century may have played in the late introduction of Oxyuris equi on the American continent is also discussed. The absence of evidence for pinworms before the Iron Age in Eurasia may perhaps be explained by its ecology, by unfavourable sampling conditions, or even by the rarity of finds of horses on archaeological sites.Oxyuris equi, la oxiuriasis equina, es una enfermedad parasitaria propia de los équidos transmitida por un gusano de la cual se encuentran regularmente evidencias a través de estudios paleoparasitológicos. En el presente texto se propone una síntesis original de las menciones de dicho parásito encontradas en la bibliografía y los textos antiguos, además de datos inéditos recabados durante nuestras investigaciones en paleoparasitología. El acerbo de datos muestra que las observaciones más antiguas de la oxiuriasis equina remontan a mediados del primer milenio antes de nuestra era en Asia central y a la Segunda Edad del Hierro en Europa occidental. Los desplazamientos de población durante la conquista romana, así como los intercambios comerciales y el avance de las tropas a través del Imperio romano, pudieron contribuir a la difusión de este parásito en Europa occidental. Se observa además que no existen rastros de oxiuriasis equina en el continente americano antes del período contemporáneo. Con el fin de explicar la observación tardía de Oxyuris equi en dicho continente, se discute el papel desempeñado por las migraciones europeas alrededor del siglo XV. Por lo demás, el hecho de que no se hayan encontrado rastros del parásito antes de la Edad del Hierro en Eurasia puede deberse a su ecología, a muestrarios poco favorables, e incluso a la presencia relativamente escasa de restos de caballos en los sitios arqueológicos

Paléoparasitologie et immunologie. L’exemple d’Entamoeba histolytica

Afin de développer l’éventail des parasitoses mises en évidence en contextes archéologiques, et compléter les référentiels paléoparasitologiques, l’immunologie a été employée pour détecter la présence d’antigènes de l’amibe pathogène de l’homme Entamoeba histolytica. Provenant de différents sites à travers le monde, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf échantillons ont été testés. Les résultats complètent les connaissances sur la répartition géographique et les migrations des parasites au cours de l’histoire, et ouvrent de nouvelles perspectives à la Paléoparasitologie tant dans la détection des différentes formes parasitaires que dans les possibilités d’exploitation de ce domaine de recherche. Mais les résultats obtenus soulèvent de nombreuses questions concernant le potentiel de détection des outils immunologiques, la conservation des antigènes, ainsi que sur le rôle des processus taphonomiques dans la perte du signal antigénique.To diversify the parasitoses found in archaeological contexts, and to complete the paleoparasitological data, immunology were used to detect antigens of the human pathogenic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica. Collected from different worldwide sites, ninety-nine samples were tested. The results complete the knowledge about the geographic distribution and the migration of parasites throughout history, and open new perspectives to the Paleoparasitology concerning the detection of parasitic remains, and the possibilities of research. But these results raise many questions about the detection potential of the immunological techniques, the antigen conservation, and the role of taphonomy in the loss of antigenic signal

Parasitism in Kansas in the 1800s - A glimpse to the past through the analysis of grave sediments from Meadowlark cemetery.

International audienceDuring the excavations of the XIX century Meadowlark cemetery (Manhattan, Kansas, US), samples of sediments were taken from around five skeletons, and analyzed to detect intestinal parasites. No helminth eggs were found, but immunological ELISA tests for Entamoeba histolytica were positive in three samples. The immunological techniques have been successfully used in paleoparasitology to detect protozoan infections. Amoebiasis could have been a severe disease in the past, especially where poor sanitary conditions prevailed, and there is evidence that this cemetery may have been used in a situation where poor sanitary conditions may have prevailed. The presence of this protozoan in US during the late XIX century gives information on the health of the population and provides additional data on the parasite's evolution since its appearance in the New World

Paleoparasitological remains revealed by seven historic contexts from "Place d'Armes", Namur, Belgium.

International audienceHuman occupation for several centuries was recorded in the archaeological layers of "Place d'Armes", Namur, Belgium. Preventive archaeological excavations were carried out between 1996/1997 and seven historical strata were observed, from Gallo-Roman period up to Modern Times. Soil samples from cesspools, latrines, and structures-like were studied and revealed intestinal parasite eggs in the different archaeological contexts. Ascaris lumbricoides, A. suum, Trichuris trichiura, T. suis. Taenia sp., Fasciola hepatica, Diphyllobothrium sp., Capillaria sp. and Oxyuris equi eggs were found. Paleoparasitology confirmed the use of structures as latrines or cesspit as firstly supposed by the archaeologists. Medieval latrines were not only used for rejection of human excrements. The finding of Ascaris sp. and Trichuris sp. eggs may point to human's or wild swine's feces. Gallo-Roman people used to eat wild boar. Therefore, both A. suum and T. suis, or A. lumbricoides and T. trichuris, may be present, considering a swine carcass recovered into a cesspit. Careful sediment analysis may reveal its origin, although parasites of domestic animals can be found together with those of human's. Taenia sp. eggs identified in latrine samples indicate ingestion of uncooked beef with cysticercoid larvae. F. hepatica eggs suggest the ingestion of raw contaminated vegetables and Diphyllobothrium sp. eggs indicate contaminated fresh-water fish consumption. Ascaris sp. and Trichuris sp. eggs indicate fecal-oral infection by human and/or animal excrements

Multi-proxy analyses of a mid-15th century Middle Iron Age Bantu-speaker palaeo-faecal specimen elucidates the configuration of the ‘ancestral’ sub-Saharan African intestinal microbiome

Funder: Ministère des Affaires Etrangères; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003763Abstract: Background: The archaeological incidence of ancient human faecal material provides a rare opportunity to explore the taxonomic composition and metabolic capacity of the ancestral human intestinal microbiome (IM). Here, we report the results of the shotgun metagenomic analyses of an ancient South African palaeo-faecal specimen. Methods: Following the recovery of a single desiccated palaeo-faecal specimen from Bushman Rock Shelter in Limpopo Province, South Africa, we applied a multi-proxy analytical protocol to the sample. The extraction of ancient DNA from the specimen and its subsequent shotgun metagenomic sequencing facilitated the taxonomic and metabolic characterisation of this ancient human IM. Results: Our results indicate that the distal IM of the Neolithic ‘Middle Iron Age’ (c. AD 1460) Bantu-speaking individual exhibits features indicative of a largely mixed forager-agro-pastoralist diet. Subsequent comparison with the IMs of the Tyrolean Iceman (Ötzi) and contemporary Hadza hunter-gatherers, Malawian agro-pastoralists and Italians reveals that this IM precedes recent adaptation to ‘Western’ diets, including the consumption of coffee, tea, chocolate, citrus and soy, and the use of antibiotics, analgesics and also exposure to various toxic environmental pollutants. Conclusions: Our analyses reveal some of the causes and means by which current human IMs are likely to have responded to recent dietary changes, prescription medications and environmental pollutants, providing rare insight into human IM evolution following the advent of the Neolithic c. 12,000 years ago. E_CXsNG9ctE_c_B9sn31A9Video Abtract

Deep-Learning Assessed Muscular Hypodensity Independently Predicts Mortality in DLBCL Patients Younger Than 60 Years.

[en] BACKGROUND: Muscle depletion (MD) assessed by computed tomography (CT) has been shown to be a predictive marker in solid tumors, but has not been assessed in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Despite software improvements, MD measurement remains highly time-consuming and cannot be used in clinical practice. METHODS: This study reports the development of a Deep-Learning automatic segmentation algorithm (DLASA) to measure MD, and investigate its predictive value in a cohort of 656 diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients included in the GAINED phase III prospective trial (NCT01659099). RESULTS: After training on a series of 190 patients, the DLASA achieved a Dice coefficient of 0.97 ± 0.03. In the cohort, the median skeletal muscle index was 50.2 cm2/m2 and median muscle attenuation (MA) was 36.1 Hounsfield units (HU). No impact of sarcopenia was found on either progression free survival (PFS) or overall survival (OS). Muscular hypodensity, defined as MA below the tenth percentile according to sex, was associated with a lower OS and PFS, respectively (HR = 2.80 (95% CI 1.58-4.95), p < 0.001, and HR = 2.22 (95% CI 1.43-3.45), p < 0.001). Muscular hypodensity appears to be an independent risk factor for mortality in DLBCL and because of DLASA can be estimated in routine practice

Multidifferential study of identified charged hadron distributions in ZZ-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at s=\sqrt{s}=13 TeV

Jet fragmentation functions are measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions for charged pions, kaons, and protons within jets recoiling against a $Z$ boson. The charged-hadron distributions are studied longitudinally and transversely to the jet direction for jets with transverse momentum 20 $< p_{\textrm{T}} < 100$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $2.5 < \eta < 4$. The data sample was collected with the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.64 fb$^{-1}$. Triple differential distributions as a function of the hadron longitudinal momentum fraction, hadron transverse momentum, and jet transverse momentum are also measured for the first time. This helps constrain transverse-momentum-dependent fragmentation functions. Differences in the shapes and magnitudes of the measured distributions for the different hadron species provide insights into the hadronization process for jets predominantly initiated by light quarks.Comment: All figures and tables, along with machine-readable versions and any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://cern.ch/lhcbproject/Publications/p/LHCb-PAPER-2022-013.html (LHCb public pages

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection