Prevalence of Vaccine Type Infections in Vaccinated and Non-Vaccinated Young Women: HPV-IMPACT, a Self-Sampling Study.

Background: The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program for young girls aged 11⁻26 years was introduced in Switzerland in 2008. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of high- and low-risk HPV in a population of undergraduate students using self-sampling for monitoring the HPV vaccination program's effect. Undergraduate women aged between 18⁻31 years, attending the Medical School and University of Applied Sciences in Geneva, were invited to participate in the study. Included women were asked to perform vaginal self-sampling for HPV testing using a dry cotton swab. A total of 409 students participated in the study-aged 18⁻31 years-of which 69% of the participants were vaccinated with Gardasil HPV vaccine and 31% did not received the vaccine. About HPV prevalence, 7.2% of unvaccinated women were HPV 16 or 18 positive, while 1.1% of vaccinated women were infected by HPV 16 or 18 (p < 0.01). Prevalence of HPV 6 and 11 was 8.3% in non-vaccinated women versus 2.1% in vaccinated women (p < 0.02). We observed no cross-protection for the other HPV genotypes of a low- and high-risk strain. Prevalence of HPV 6/11/16/18 was lower in vaccinated women versus unvaccinated women. Continued assessment of HPV vaccine effectiveness in real population is needed

Performance of the DNA-citoliq liquid-based cytology system compared with conventional smears

To evaluate the performance of a new, manual, simplified liquid-based system, DNA-Citoliq (Digene Brasil), employed under routine conditions as compared to conventional smears collected from six collaborating private laboratories. Methods: A panel of cytopathologists, who served as the gold standard diagnosis, adjudicated discordant opinions. Results: Of 3206 pairs of slides considered valid for comparison, there were 3008 in full agreement (93.8%), 112 (3.5%) with one diagnostic category discrepancies, and 86 (2.7%) discordant cases. Among the 288 borderline+ by either method, DNA-Citoliq detected abnormalities in 243 (84.4%), and conventional smears (CS) detected abnormalities in 178 (61.8%) (McNemar test, P < 0.000), a 36.5% increased detection of borderline+ cases. Conclusions: For mild dyskaryosis, DNA-Citoliq detected 176 cases and CS 125 cases (McNemar test, P < 0.000); and for moderate+severe dyskaryosis 66 versus 32 cases respectively (McNemar test, P < 0.000)

Human papillomavirus (HPV) contamination of gynaecological equipment.

OBJECTIVE: The gynaecological environment can become contaminated by human papillomavirus (HPV) from healthcare workers' hands and gloves. This study aimed to assess the presence of HPV on frequently used equipment in gynaecological practice. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 179 samples were taken from fomites (glove box, lamp of a gynaecological chair, gel tubes for ultrasound, colposcope and speculum) in two university hospitals and in four gynaecological private practices. Samples were collected with phosphate-buffered saline-humidified polyester swabs according to a standardised pattern, and conducted twice per day for 2 days. The samples were analysed by a semiquantitative real-time PCR. Statistical analysis was performed using Pearson's χ(2) test and multivariate regression analysis. RESULTS: Thirty-two (18%) HPV-positive samples were found. When centres were compared, there was a higher risk of HPV contamination in gynaecological private practices compared with hospitals (OR 2.69, 95% CI 1.06 to 6.86). Overall, there was no difference in the risk of contamination with respect to the time of day (OR 1.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 4.69). When objects were compared, the colposcope had the highest risk of contamination (OR 3.02, 95% CI 0.86 to 10.57). CONCLUSIONS: Gynaecological equipment and surfaces are contaminated by HPV despite routine cleaning. While there is no evidence that contaminated surfaces carry infectious viruses, our results demonstrate the need for strategies to prevent HPV contamination. These strategies, based on health providers' education, should lead to well-established cleaning protocols, adapted to gynaecological rooms, aimed at eliminating HPV material

Characteristics of HPV-unvaccinated undergraduate health students in Switzerland, a cross sectional study.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, intended for young women aged 11-14 years old, has been introduced in Switzerland in 2007. Ten years after its introduction, only a few studies have explored the reasons associated with uptake and non-uptake of the vaccination. Our objective was to identify the sociodemographic characteristics of a population of vaccinated and unvaccinated undergraduate healthcare female students, to define the reasons of non-uptake of vaccination, and compare our findings with those found in other Swiss cantons. Between January and November 2017, women studying in Health Sciences School and Medical School in Geneva, aged 18-31 years old, were recruited in a large trial assessing HPV prevalence. As part of a smaller, observational study nested in this larger trial, women were invited to complete a questionnaire. Self-reported HPV vaccination uptake or non-uptake, as well as knowledge and attitude about HPV vaccination were assessed. T-Test and Chi square test were used to compare characteristics of vaccinated and unvaccinated women. Overall, 409 women were recruited in the study. The majority of them (69.1%) reported having been vaccinated for HPV, while 30.9% of them had never received any dose of the HPV vaccine. The only factor associated with a higher vaccination rate was the participants' origin, as women from Geneva were more represented in the vaccinated group than women from other Swiss regions or countries. Unvaccinated women were more likely to consider HPV vaccination as less important than the vaccinated ones (50.4% vs 3.5% p &lt; 0.001). Although no typical profile can be established in this studied population of unvaccinated women, a lack of information was a major reason of non-uptake of vaccination among the study participants. An effort by health authorities and carefully designed messages are essential to increase the population's awareness over cervical cancer and its prevention. The trial was registered under cliniclatrials.gov with the identifier: NCT03474211

Factors affecting field performance of pheromone traps for tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne and tobacco moth, Ephestia elutella

Tobacco beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae), is one of the most serious insect pests of stored tobacco and traps baited with the female-produced sex pheromone, serricornin, are used for monitoring the pest. In two trapping experiments carried out in tobacco warehouses in Greece, two commercially-available trap and lure systems for L. serricorne were found to be equally effective in terms of numbers of beetles trapped. In contrast to previous reports, anhydroserricornin was unattractive and lures containing serricornin and anhydroserricornin were less attractive than lures containing serricornin only. The sex pheromone of the other main insect pest of tobacco, Ephestia elutella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), could be added to the lures without affecting the attractiveness of either pheromones to their respective species. Lures remained attractive for at least four weeks under field conditions, and, in laboratory tests, release of pheromone could still be detected after 30 days at 27°C. The stereoisomeric composition of the serricornin in the two commercial lures was similar with high proportions of the attractive (4S,6S,7S)-isomer. The proportion of the (4S,6S,7R)-isomer was low and this is known to reduce the attractiveness

Structural Insights into Viral Determinants of Nematode Mediated Grapevine fanleaf virus Transmission

Many animal and plant viruses rely on vectors for their transmission from host to host. Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), a picorna-like virus from plants, is transmitted specifically by the ectoparasitic nematode Xiphinema index. The icosahedral capsid of GFLV, which consists of 60 identical coat protein subunits (CP), carries the determinants of this specificity. Here, we provide novel insight into GFLV transmission by nematodes through a comparative structural and functional analysis of two GFLV variants. We isolated a mutant GFLV strain (GFLV-TD) poorly transmissible by nematodes, and showed that the transmission defect is due to a glycine to aspartate mutation at position 297 (Gly297Asp) in the CP. We next determined the crystal structures of the wild-type GFLV strain F13 at 3.0 Å and of GFLV-TD at 2.7 Å resolution. The Gly297Asp mutation mapped to an exposed loop at the outer surface of the capsid and did not affect the conformation of the assembled capsid, nor of individual CP molecules. The loop is part of a positively charged pocket that includes a previously identified determinant of transmission. We propose that this pocket is a ligand-binding site with essential function in GFLV transmission by X. index. Our data suggest that perturbation of the electrostatic landscape of this pocket affects the interaction of the virion with specific receptors of the nematode's feeding apparatus, and thereby severely diminishes its transmission efficiency. These data provide a first structural insight into the interactions between a plant virus and a nematode vector

Complex Interplay of Evolutionary Forces in the ladybird Homeobox Genes of Drosophila melanogaster

Tandemly arranged paralogous genes lbe and lbl are members of the Drosophila NK homeobox family. We analyzed population samples of Drosophila melanogaster from Africa, Europe, North and South America, and single strains of D. sechellia, D. simulans, and D. yakuba within two linked regions encompassing partial sequences of lbe and lbl. The evolution of lbe and lbl is highly constrained due to their important regulatory functions. Despite this, a variety of forces have shaped the patterns of variation in lb genes: recombination, intragenic gene conversion and natural selection strongly influence background variation created by linkage disequilibrium and dimorphic haplotype structure. The two genes exhibited similar levels of nucleotide diversity and positive selection was detected in the noncoding regions of both genes. However, synonymous variability was significantly higher for lbe: no nonsynonymous changes were observed in this gene. We argue that balancing selection impacts some synonymous sites of the lbe gene. Stability of mRNA secondary structure was significantly different between the lbe (but not lbl) haplotype groups and may represent a driving force of balancing selection in epistatically interacting synonymous sites. Balancing selection on synonymous sites may be the first, or one of a few such observations, in Drosophila. In contrast, recurrent positive selection on lbl at the protein level influenced evolution at three codon sites. Transcription factor binding-site profiles were different for lbe and lbl, suggesting that their developmental functions are not redundant. Combined with our previous results on nucleotide variation in esterase and other homeobox genes, these results suggest that interplay of balancing and directional selection may be a general feature of molecular evolution in Drosophila and other eukaryote genomes