RNA-Containing Cytoplasmic Inclusion Bodies in Ciliated Bronchial Epithelium Months to Years after Acute Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki Disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed nations. The KD etiologic agent is unknown but likely to be a ubiquitous microbe that usually causes asymptomatic childhood infection, resulting in KD only in genetically susceptible individuals. KD synthetic antibodies made from prevalent IgA gene sequences in KD arterial tissue detect intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies (ICI) resembling viral ICI in acute KD but not control infant ciliated bronchial epithelium. The prevalence of ICI in late-stage KD fatalities and in older individuals with non-KD illness should be low, unless persistent infection is common.Lung tissue from late-stage KD fatalities and non-infant controls was examined by light microscopy for the presence of ICI. Nucleic acid stains and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were performed on tissues that were strongly positive for ICI. ICI were present in ciliated bronchial epithelium in 6/7 (86%) late-stage KD fatalities and 7/27 (26%) controls ages 9-84 years (p = 0.01). Nucleic acid stains revealed RNA but not DNA within the ICI. ICI were also identified in lung macrophages in some KD cases. TEM of bronchial epithelium and macrophages from KD cases revealed finely granular homogeneous ICI.These findings are consistent with a previously unidentified, ubiquitous RNA virus that forms ICI and can result in persistent infection in bronchial epithelium and macrophages as the etiologic agent of KD

Continued high incidence of children with severe influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 admitted to paediatric intensive care units in Germany during the first three post-pandemic influenza seasons, 2010/11–2012/13

Background Previous influenza surveillance at paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in Germany indicated increased incidence of PICU admissions for the pandemic influenza subtype A(H1N1)pdm09. We investigated incidence and clinical characteristics of influenza in children admitted to PICUs during the first three post-pandemic influenza seasons, using active screening. Methods We conducted a prospective surveillance study in 24 PICUs in Bavaria (Germany) from October 2010 to September 2013. Influenza cases among children between 1 month and 16 years of age admitted to these PICUs with acute respiratory infection were confirmed by PCR analysis of respiratory secretions. Results A total of 24/7/20 influenza-associated PICU admissions were recorded in the post-pandemic seasons 1/2/3; incidence estimates per 100,000 children were 1.72/0.76/1.80, respectively. Of all 51 patients, 80 % had influenza A, including 65 % with A(H1N1)pdm09. Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 was almost absent in season 2 (incidence 0.11), but dominated PICU admissions in seasons 1 (incidence 1.35) and 3 (incidence 1.17). Clinical data was available for 47 influenza patients; median age was 4.8 years (IQR 1.6–11.0). The most frequent diagnoses were influenza-associated pneumonia (62 %), bronchitis/bronchiolitis (32 %), secondary bacterial pneumonia (26 %), and ARDS (21 %). Thirty-six patients (77 %) had underlying medical conditions. Median duration of PICU stay was 3 days (IQR 1–11). Forty-seven per cent of patients received mechanical ventilation, and one patient (2 %) extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; 19 % were treated with oseltamivir. Five children (11 %) had pulmonary sequelae. Five children (11 %) died; all had underlying chronic conditions and were infected with A(H1N1)pdm09. In season 3, patients with A(H1N1)pdm09 were younger than in season 1 (p = 0.020), were diagnosed more often with bronchitis/bronchiolitis (p = 0.004), and were admitted to a PICU later after the onset of influenza symptoms (p = 0.041). Conclusions Active screening showed a continued high incidence of A(H1N1)pdm09-associated PICU admissions in the post-pandemic seasons 1 and 3, and indicated possible underestimation of incidence in previous German studies. The age shift of severe A(H1N1)pdm09 towards younger children may be explained by increasing immunity in the older paediatric population. The high proportion of patients with underlying chronic conditions indicates the importance of consistent implementation of the current influenza vaccination recommendations for risk groups in Germany

The metagenomic approach and causality in virology

Nowadays, the metagenomic approach has been a very important tool in the discovery of new viruses in environmental and biological samples. Here we discuss how these discoveries may help to elucidate the etiology of diseases and the criteria necessary to establish a causal association between a virus and a disease

Phonons radiated by moving dislocations in disordered alloys

Lattice dynamics calculations together with the Green's function techniques for disordered systems are used to describe the phonon spectrum radiated by a moving dislocation in a random alloy. The attenuation of these waves by scattering at the impurities and by excitation of local modes is evaluated. Large amplitude vibrations of the impurities are predicted and modification of the diffusion behaviour in the neighbourhood of the dislocation is suggested.Nous utilisons la dynamique de réseau et les fonctions de Green de phonons pour systèmes désordonnés pour décrire le spectre de phonons irradiés par une dislocation en mouvement dans un alliage désordonné. Nous évaluons l'atténuation de ces ondes par dispersion sur les impuretés et par excitation des modes localisés. Nous prédisons de larges amplitudes de vibration de ces impuretés et nous suggérons une modification du comportement diffusif autour des dislocations

SOLUTION HARDENING IN DISORDERED ALLOYS : A LATTICE DYNAMICS APPROACH

On introduit une dislocatin vis dans un crystal cubique simple par la méthode de force de Kanzaki. Une fonction de Green moyenné pour l'alliage est utilisée pour obtenir le champ des déplacements. La contrainte de Peierls comme fonction de concentration et des parametres du soluté est discutée.A screw dislocation in a simple cubic crystal is created using the Kanzaki force method. A configurational averaged Green's fuction for the alloy is used to obtain the displacement field. The Peierls stress as a function of concentration and of solute parameters is discussed

Ab initio comparative study of the Cu-In and Cu-Sn intermetallic phases in Cu-In-Sn alloys

The present paper reports a comparative account of the structural, cohesive and thermodynamic stability properties of the binary intermetallic phases (IPs) occurring in the Cu-In and the Cu-Sn phase diagrams, both at low and at high temperatures, based upon systematic density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations. Using the projector augmented wave method and the exchange and correlation functions of Perdew and Wang in the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), as well as the local-density-approximation (LDA) with the Ceperley and Alder exchange and correlation potentials, we determine the lattice-parameters, molar volume, bulk modulus and its pressure derivative, the electronic density of states (DOS) and the energy of formation (EOF) from the elements of the δ-Cu 7In 3 (aP40), γ-Cu 9In 4 (cP52) and CuIn 2 (tI12) compounds of the Cu-In system. Moreover, DFT-GGA calculations were performed for the compounds: γ-Cu 4Sn (cF16), ξ-Cu 10Sn 3 (hP26), -Cu 3Sn both in the (oP8) structure and the (oP80) superstructure, η′-Cu 6Sn 5 (mC44) and η-Cu 5Sn 4 both in the η 1 (mP36) and η 2 (mC54) structural forms. In addition, the hypothetical structures obtained by replacing In (or Sn) by Sn (or In) are studied, because of their relevance in the CALPHAD modeling of the Cu-In-Sn phase diagram. The work includes a discussion of the composition dependence of the structural and equation-of-state parameters, the electronic DOS, the EOF of the compounds and the differences between the results of the GGA or LDA calculations and the measured values. Besides, various quantities expressing the relative stability of the IPs are introduced and compared with experimental data and with indirect information obtained in a CALPHAD-type two-sublattice modeling of the Cu-In-Sn phase diagram. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.fv.Fil: Ramos De Debiaggi, S.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Deluque Toro, Crispulo Enrique. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Facultad de Ingeniería; ArgentinaFil: Cabeza, Gabriela Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Guillermet, Armando Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentin

Specificity and sensitivity of 3rd generation EIA for detection of HCV antibodies among intravenous drug-users

Abstract: Serum samples from 487 ambulatory I.V. drug users were screened for HIV and HCV antibodies to determine the prevalence of coinfection in this high risk group for AIDS. For anti-HCV antibody screening we first used a 3rd generation EIA using, as antigen synthetic peptides which were not subjected to false positive results due to antibodies against superoxide dismutase or against yeast proteins (which may copurify with the recombinant proteins employed in the first and second generation test). The specimens that were positive in the screening test were confirmed by a more specific EIA system that detect antibodies to proteins encoded by structural (HCV-st EIA) and non structural (HCV-nst-EIA) regions of the HCV genome. A second confirmation assay was also performed: sera were run in presence or absence of blocking reagents which inhibits antibodies to C200 and C22 HCV epitopes for binding to the solid phase. The sensitivity of the HCV EIA screening for human HCV antibody detection revealed a 100% positivity for HCV infection. The confirmatory strategy presented in this paper revealed an HCV EIA specificity of 98.6%. In this work we demonstrated a significantly higher prevalence (p < 0.001) of HCV exposure in HIV infected individuals compared to the general population. Our experimental data also confirmed that HBV infection in drug-users at high risk for HIV infection was significantly associated with HCV infection (p < 0.001). In contrast, the acquisition of HIV by sexual contact was not a statistically significant risk factor for HCV coinfection. Infection with hepatitic C and B viruses should be considered among the possible etiologies of hepatitis, especially in HIV positive with an IVDU history