Autoimmunity to phosphatidylserine and anemia in African Trypanosome infections

Funding: This work was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) institutional training grants 5T32AI100853-03 and 5T32AI007180 to J.R.C. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Inducible Germline IgMs Bridge Trypanosome Lytic Factor Assembly and Parasite Recognition

Acknowledgments This work was supported by NSF Bread award IOS-1249166 and Hunter College (J.R.); CUNY Science Scholarship (J.V.); Hunter College HHMI UGRAD Science Education grant 52007535 (E.H.); NIH/NIAID award AI085973 (N.P.); Wellcome Trust award 082786 (J.S.). We thank George Cross and Ana Rodriguez for the parasite lines and VSG preparations used in this study.Peer reviewedPostprin

Evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of prototype rapid tests for human African trypanosomiasis

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Failure to establish HIV care: characterizing the no show phenomenon

It is estimated that up to one-third of persons with known human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in the United States are not engaged in care. We evaluated factors associated with patients\u27 failure to establish outpatient HIV care at our clinic and found that females, racial minorities, and patients lacking private health insurance were more likely to be no shows. At the clinic level, longer waiting time from the call to schedule a new patient visit to the appointment date was associated with failure to establish care. Because increased numbers of patients will be in need of outpatient HIV care as a result of recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines advocating routine HIV testing, it is imperative that strategies to improve access are developed to overcome the no show phenomenon

Mycobiota and Aflatoxin B1 in Feed for Farmed Sea Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax)

Thesafety characteristics of feed used in fish and crustacean aquaculture systems are an essential tool to assure the productivity of those animal exploitations. Safety of feed may be affected by different hazards, including biological and chemical groups. The aim of this preliminary study was to evaluate fungi contamination and the presence of aflatoxins in 87 samples of feed for sea bass, collected in Portugal. Molds were found in 35 samples (40.2%) in levels ranging from 1 to 3.3 log10 CFU∙g−1. Six genera of molds were found. Aspergillus flavus was the most frequent, found in all positive samples, with a range from 2 to 3.2 log10 CFU∙g−1. Aspergillus niger was found in 34 samples (39.1%), ranging from 1 to 2.7 log10 CFU∙g−1. Aspergillus glaucus was found in 26 samples (29.9%) with levels between 1 and 2.4 log10 CFU∙g−1. Penicillium spp. and Cladosporium spp. were both found in 25 samples (28.7%). Fusarium spp. was found in 22 samples (25.3%), ranging from 1 to 2.3 log10 CFU∙g−1. All feed samples were screened for aflatoxins using a HPLC technique, with a detection limit of 1.0 μg∙kg−1. All samples were aflatoxin negative

LXR Deficiency Confers Increased Protection against Visceral Leishmania Infection in Mice

Leishmania spp. are protozoan single-cell parasites that are transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected sand fly, and can cause a wide spectrum of disease, ranging from self-healing skin lesions to potentially fatal systemic infections. Certain species of Leishmania that cause visceral (systemic) disease are a source of significant mortality worldwide. Here, we use a mouse model of visceral Leishmania infection to investigate the effect of a host gene called LXR. The LXRs have demonstrated important functions in both cholesterol regulation and inflammation. These processes, in turn, are closely related to lipid metabolism and the development of atherosclerosis. LXRs have also previously been shown to be involved in protection against other intracellular pathogens that infect macrophages, including certain bacteria. We demonstrate here that LXR is involved in susceptibility to Leishmania, as animals deficient in the LXR gene are much more resistant to infection with the parasite. We also demonstrate that macrophages lacking LXR kill parasites more readily, and make higher levels of nitric oxide (an antimicrobial mediator) and IL-1β (an inflammatory cytokine) in response to Leishmania infection. These results could have important implications in designing therapeutics against this deadly pathogen, as well as other intracellular microbial pathogens

Beyond Core Indicators of Retention in HIV Care: Missed Clinic Visits Are Independently Associated With All-Cause Mortality

Background. The continuum of care is at the forefront of the domestic human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) agenda, with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recently releasing clinical core indicators. Core indicators for retention in care are calculated based on attended HIV care clinic visits. Beyond these retention core indicators, we evaluated the additional prognostic value of missed clinic visits for all-cause mortality