Alcohol use as a risk factor for tuberculosis – a systematic review

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has long been evident that there is an association between alcohol use and risk of tuberculosis. It has not been established to what extent this association is confounded by social and other factors related to alcohol use. Nor has the strength of the association been established. The objective of this study was to systematically review the available evidence on the association between alcohol use and the risk of tuberculosis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on a systematic literature review, we identified 3 cohort and 18 case control studies. These were further categorized according to definition of exposure, type of tuberculosis used as study outcome, and confounders controlled for. Pooled effect sizes were obtained for each sub-category of studies.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pooled relative risk across all studies that used an exposure cut-off level set at 40 g alcohol per day or above, or defined exposure as a clinical diagnosis of an alcohol use disorder, was 3.50 (95% CI: 2.01–5.93). After exclusion of small studies, because of suspected publication bias, the pooled relative risk was 2.94 (95% CI: 1.89–4.59). Subgroup analyses of studies that had controlled for various sets of confounders did not give significantly different results and did not explain the significant heterogeneity that was found across the studies.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The risk of active tuberculosis is substantially elevated in people who drink more than 40 g alcohol per day, and/or have an alcohol use disorder. This may be due to both increased risk of infection related to specific social mixing patterns associated with alcohol use, as well as influence on the immune system of alcohol itself and of alcohol related conditions.</p

Traits associated with innate and adaptive immunity in pigs: heritability and associations with performance under different health status conditions

There is a need for genetic markers or biomarkers that can predict resistance towards a wide range of infectious diseases, especially within a health environment typical of commercial farms. Such markers also need to be heritable under these conditions and ideally correlate with commercial performance traits. In this study, we estimated the heritabilities of a wide range of immune traits, as potential biomarkers, and measured their relationship with performance within both specific pathogen-free (SPF) and non-SPF environments. Immune traits were measured in 674 SPF pigs and 606 non-SPF pigs, which were subsets of the populations for which we had performance measurements (average daily gain), viz. 1549 SPF pigs and 1093 non-SPF pigs. Immune traits measured included total and differential white blood cell counts, peripheral blood mononuclear leucocyte (PBML) subsets (CD4+ cells, total CD8α+ cells, classical CD8αβ+ cells, CD11R1+ cells (CD8α+ and CD8α-), B cells, monocytes and CD16+ cells) and acute phase proteins (alpha-1 acid glycoprotein (AGP), haptoglobin, C-reactive protein (CRP) and transthyretin). Nearly all traits tested were heritable regardless of health status, although the heritability estimate for average daily gain was lower under non-SPF conditions. There were also negative genetic correlations between performance and the following immune traits: CD11R1+ cells, monocytes and the acute phase protein AGP. The strength of the association between performance and AGP was not affected by health status. However, negative genetic correlations were only apparent between performance and monocytes under SPF conditions and between performance and CD11R1+ cells under non-SPF conditions. Although we cannot infer causality in these relationships, these results suggest a role for using some immune traits, particularly CD11R1+ cells or AGP concentrations, as predictors of pig performance under the lower health status conditions associated with commercial farms

Funny Old Girls: Representing older women in British television comedy

This essay considers representations of aging women in sitcom - such as The Golden Girls (NBC 1985-1992) and Annette Crosbie as Margaret Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave (BBC 1990-2000) – in order to establish how aging femininity is policed through sitcom’s accounts of proper and improper behaviours for older women. The debate then examines the transvestite performance of age and femininity, both by male actors cross-dressing as women and by young female actors cross-dressing as old women. Examples include Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke’s performances as the ‘Randy Old Ladies’ from Harry Enfield and Chums (BBC, 1994-1997), Catherine Tate as ‘Nan’ in The Catherine Tate Show (BBC, 2004-2009) and Brendan O’Carroll’s performance as Agnes Brown in Mrs Brown’s Boys (BBC, 2011- ). These more radical and outrageous accounts of older women in television comedy offer on the one hand a liberating and transgressive vision of aging, but also tend to reiterate cultural stereotypes regarding age and femininity as ‘inappropriate’. The essay examines how television comedy embodies and exposes cultural ambivalences about older women

PathoCHIP Identification of Genes Critical in Host/Pathogen Interactions During H parasuis Infection

Galina, L.; Blanco, I.; Canals, A.; Dornan, S.; Sargent, C.; Huang, L.; Mellencamp, Martha; Spehr, V.; Seltzer, P.; Ullrich, J.; Evans, G.. (2002). PathoCHIP Identification of Genes Critical in Host/Pathogen Interactions During H parasuis Infection. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/160438

Host Response to PRRS Infection and Opportunities to Exploit Host Genetic Variation

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is the most economically important disease in pig populations worldwide. Research to date, both 'in-vitro' and 'in-vivo', has failed to provide industry with a reliable or effective method to combat this devastating viral disease. Epidemiological models have been applied to viral infections and have demonstrated that selection for resistance can impact on reducing the likelihood of epidemics. Such studies have identified that PRRS is a suitable target for genetic studies of host resistance to disease (Bishop and MacKenzie, 2003). Key components to any selection programs include characterising genetic variation andidentifying genetic markers or Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL)associated with any resistance to, or tolerance of, the pathogen. The first step in the identification of these markers is to quantify the traits of interest and highlight genetic variation. The work described here also serves as a proof of concept that 'in-vitro' pre-screening can be used to identify breeds differing in response to PRRS virus (PRRSV) infection - an earlier study showed that Landrace alveolar macrophages were more resistant/tolerant than other breeds to the H2 PRRSV infection (Ait-Ali et al., 2006). This objective of this study was to infect gilts with PRRSV and assess the phenotypic consequences of infection. In addition, this study supplied RNA for gene expression studies (reported elsewhere)

Effects of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection on the performance of pregnant gilts and growing pigs

This study examined the effects of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) infection on (1) pregnant and (2) growing Landrace and crossbred (Large White × Pietrain) pigs. First, recently pregnant gilts were spilt into a control and a challenged group, which was inoculated with the PRRSV, and phenotypic effects were recorded. In the Landrace breed, infected gilts had a significantly reduced number of fetuses (8.9 versus 11.8), but there were insufficient data to make the same comparison in crossbred gilts. The Landrace had a smaller suppression of weight gain during pregnancy than the crossbred line [56% (0.66 to 0.29 kg/day) versus 85% (0.45 to 0.07 kg/day) reduction], suggesting greater tolerance of the PRRSV infection. Second, impacts on growing pigs were examined with the same deliberate challenge methodology. Some pigs appeared not to become infected from the initial inoculation, but were possibly subsequently infected by cohorts. However, there were indications of Landrace line resistance in terms of an increased time to seroconvert, with weight gain patterns also suggesting Landrace tolerance. In summary, this study demonstrated that breeds differ consistently in phenotypic impacts of PRRSV infection