Aislamiento de bacterias patógenas de polen comercial

En los últimos años el consumo de polen apícola se ha incrementado en la Argentina, pero una deficiencia en el procesamiento para su comercialización puede generar serios daños a la salud de la población. Bacillus cereus, Corynebacterium spp, Lactobacillus, Pseudomonas, Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus y Clostridium, forman parte de la microbiota normal de las abejas Apis mellifera y que pueden ser trasmitidas en el polen colectado. El polen para su comercialización requiere un procesamiento desde su cosecha, secado y envasado, que permite eliminar la mayor parte de patógenos. Una deficiencia en el procesamiento puede generar la trasmisión de bacterias patógenas de humanos como Bacillus cereus que causa efectos gastrointestinales mientras que Corynebacterium spp., causa infecciones urinaria, respiratorias, de piel entre otras. El objetivo de este estudio fue aislar, identificar bacterias patógenas de humanos y analizar su relación filogenética. Para el aislamiento se pesó 1g de polen comercial de las provincias de Entre Ríos y Santiago del Estero, y posteriormente fue triturado en un mortero estéril, sembrado en medio agar-MYPGP y cultivado por 24hs a 37ºC. Para la identificación se utilizó el marcador molecular 16S, todas las secuencias fueron analizadas usando MEGA6 y BioEdit. Las secuencias genéticas fueron comparadas con Blastn a partir de secuencias de la base de datos NCBI antes de la construcción del árbol. El análisis filogenético fue realizado usando el programa TNT y MEGA6. Se identificaron Bacillus cereus y Corynebacterium sanguinis de las muestras analizadas cuyas secuencias arrojaron 700pb y 879pb, las secuencias fueron depositadas en base de datos de GenBank bajo los siguientes números de acceso MT032498 y MT032496. El análisis filogenético fue soportado con valores de bootstrap y de Jack-knife del 100% con otras secuencias de dicha base. Este trabajo trae una aproximación preliminar al aislamiento e identificación de bacterias patógenas en polen comercial.Fil: Tejerina, Marcos Raul. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Puca Real, Carla Adriana. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Ramos, Andrea Carolina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta; ArgentinaFil: Benitez Ahrendts, Marcelo Rafael. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Ecorregiones Andinas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaXII Jornada Científico Técnicas de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias-UNJu.San Salvador de JujuyArgentinaUniversidad Nacional de Jujuy. Facultad de Ciencias Agraria

Association between opioid agonist therapy use and HIV testing uptake among people who have recently injected drugs:a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Globally, nearly one in five people who inject drugs (PWID) are living with HIV, and the rate of new HIV infections in PWID is increasing in some settings. Early diagnosis is crucial for effective HIV control. We reviewed the evidence on the association between opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and HIV testing uptake among PWID. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review searching MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and PsycINFO for studies published from January 2000 to March 2019. Reference lists and conference proceedings were hand-searched. Observational and intervention studies were eligible for inclusion. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias in Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Meta-analyses were conducted using random-effects models. RESULTS: Of 13 373 records identified, 11 studies from Australia, Europe, Malaysia and the United States were included. All studies had at least a serious risk of bias, largely due to confounding and selection bias, making it difficult to draw causal conclusions from the evidence. Ten studies provided data on the association between current OAT use and recent HIV testing. Six showed a positive association, while four provided little evidence of an association: pooled odds ratio (OR) = 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.28-2.27. Looking at having ever been on OAT and having ever been HIV tested, seven studies showed a positive association and three showed either weak or no evidence of an association: pooled OR = 3.82, 95% CI = 2.96-4.95. CONCLUSIONS: Opioid agonist therapy may increase uptake of HIV testing among people who inject drugs, providing further evidence that opioid agonist therapy improves the HIV treatment care cascade

The inflammatory protein Pentraxin 3 in cardiovascular disease

The acute phase protein Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) plays a non-redundant role as a soluble pattern recognition receptor for selected pathogens and it represents a rapid biomarker for primary local activation of innate immunity and inflammation. Recent evidence indicates that PTX3 exerts an important role in modulating the cardiovascular system in humans and experimental models. In particular, there are conflicting points concerning the effects of PTX3 in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) since several observations indicate a cardiovascular protective effect of PTX3 while others speculate that the increased plasma levels of PTX3 in subjects with CVD correlate with disease severity and with poor prognosis in elderly patients. In the present review, we discuss the multifaceted effects of PTX3 on the cardiovascular system focusing on its involvement in atherosclerosis, endothelial function, hypertension, myocardial infarction and angiogenesis. This may help to explain how the specific modulation of PTX3 such as the use of different dosing, time, and target organs could help to contain different vascular diseases. These opposite actions of PTX3 will be emphasized concerning the modulation of cardiovascular system where potential therapeutic implications of PTX3 in humans are discussed

Association between opioid agonist therapy use and HIV testing uptake among people who have recently injected drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Globally, nearly one in five people who inject drugs (PWID) are living with HIV, and the rate of new HIV infections in PWID is increasing in some settings. Early diagnosis is crucial for effective HIV control. We reviewed the evidence on the association between opioid agonist therapy (OAT) and HIV testing uptake among PWID. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review searching MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and PsycINFO for studies published from January 2000 to March 2019. Reference lists and conference proceedings were hand-searched. Observational and intervention studies were eligible for inclusion. Risk of bias was assessed using the Risk of Bias in Non-Randomised Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I) tool. Meta-analyses were conducted using random-effects models. RESULTS: Of 13 373 records identified, 11 studies from Australia, Europe, Malaysia and the United States were included. All studies had at least a serious risk of bias, largely due to confounding and selection bias, making it difficult to draw causal conclusions from the evidence. Ten studies provided data on the association between current OAT use and recent HIV testing. Six showed a positive association, while four provided little evidence of an association: pooled odds ratio (OR) = 1.71, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.28-2.27. Looking at having ever been on OAT and having ever been HIV tested, seven studies showed a positive association and three showed either weak or no evidence of an association: pooled OR = 3.82, 95% CI = 2.96-4.95. CONCLUSIONS: Opioid agonist therapy may increase uptake of HIV testing among people who inject drugs, providing further evidence that opioid agonist therapy improves the HIV treatment care cascade

Caloric Restriction Promotes Immunometabolic Reprogramming Leading to Protection from Tuberculosis

There is a strong relationship between metabolic state and susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection, with energy metabolism setting the basis for an exaggerated immuno-inflammatory response, which concurs with MTB pathogenesis. Herein, we show that controlled caloric restriction (CR), not leading to malnutrition, protects susceptible DBA/2 mice against pulmonary MTB infection by reducing bacterial load, lung immunopathology, and generation of foam cells, an MTB reservoir in lung granulomas. Mechanistically, CR induced a metabolic shift toward glycolysis, and decreased both fatty acid oxidation and mTOR activity associated with induction of autophagy in immune cells. An integrated multi-omics approach revealed a specific CR-induced metabolomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic signature leading to reduced lung damage and protective remodeling of lung interstitial tightness able to limit MTB spreading. Our data propose CR as a feasible immunometabolic manipulation to control MTB infection, and this approach offers an unexpected strategy to boost immunity against MTB

Personalized In Vitro and In Vivo Cancer Models to Guide Precision Medicine

Precision medicine is an approach that takes into account the influence of individuals' genes, environment, and lifestyle exposures to tailor interventions. Here, we describe the development of a robust precision cancer care platform that integrates whole-exome sequencing with a living biobank that enables high-throughput drug screens on patient-derived tumor organoids. To date, 56 tumor-derived organoid cultures and 19 patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models have been established from the 769 patients enrolled in an Institutional Review Board-approved clinical trial. Because genomics alone was insufficient to identify therapeutic options for the majority of patients with advanced disease, we used high-throughput drug screening to discover effective treatment strategies. Analysis of tumor-derived cells from four cases, two uterine malignancies and two colon cancers, identified effective drugs and drug combinations that were subsequently validated using 3-D cultures and PDX models. This platform thereby promotes the discovery of novel therapeutic approaches that can be assessed in clinical trials and provides personalized therapeutic options for individual patients where standard clinical options have been exhausted.Significance: Integration of genomic data with drug screening from personalized in vitro and in vivo cancer models guides precision cancer care and fuels next-generation research. Cancer Discov; 7(5); 462-77. ©2017 AACR.See related commentary by Picco and Garnett, p. 456This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 443