Local differences in time and extent of mass mortality in Blackbirds ("Turdus merula" L.) after emergence of Usutu virus (USUV; Flaviviridae) in Vienna, Austria

Das Usutu Virus ( = USUV; Flaviviridae), vorher nur in Afrika nachgewiesen, wo es keine fatalen Auswirkungen auf Vögel oder Säugetiere hatte, verursachte erstmals im Sommer 2001 in Wien und Umgebung ein dramatisches Amselsterben. Andere Vogelarten schienen nicht vergleichbar betroffen zu sein. Als Überträger fungieren wahrscheinlich Stechmücken (Culicidae). Die Epidemie erreichte im Sommer 2003 einen Höhepunkt, anschließend entwickelte sich Immunität: Der Anteil Usutu-positiver Totfunde ging rasch zurück, zunehmend viele lebende Vögel besitzen seither Usutu-spezifische Antikörper im Blutserum. Dank unserer vor und nach dem Ereignis erhobenen Amseldichten können wir die Verluste von Teilpopulationen quantitativ belegen und nachweisen, dass es darin in Ausmaß und Zeitraum auffallend kleinräumige Unterschiede gibt. Die Zählungen wurden von den Autoren unabhängig und mit verschiedenen Methoden durchgeführt: Steiner erhob ab 1993 mittels 324 Transektzählungen (TZ) von Sept bis Juni in vier ökologisch z.T. verschiedenen Probeflächen innerhalb des Wiener Siedlungsgebietes am linken Donauufer 1993-97 und 2002-07 relative Vogeldichten (Tab.1). Holzer zählte in den Wintern 2000/01 und 2003/04 Vögel innerhalb von 41 Innenhöfen (IHZ) in zwei Flächen (eine überlappte gering mit einer von Steiner untersuchten, die zweite lag auf der anderen Donauseite), wobei eine praktisch vollständige Erfassung der Amseln möglich war (Abb.1 und 2). Die Ergebnisse bezüglich des Winterbestandes decken sich weitestgehend: Die Amseldichten waren zwischen 85 und 89% (TZ Mühlschüttel, Tab.4) bzw. 88% (IHZ, Abb.1) zurückgegangen. Für die Erhebung der Brutbestände liegen nur Zahlen aus TZ vor, als methodisch günstigster Zeitraum wurde dafür der April gewählt; Tab.5 gibt relative Abundanzen (Amseln je 1.000 m Transektlänge) an, Tab.6 Ergebnisse von Signifikanztests. In den vier Flächen war die Brutzeitdichte im gleichen Verhältnis zurückgegangen wie die im Winter (Tab.3 und 5). Aus dem für die Art am wenigsten geeigneten Teilgebiet Donaufeld liegt zwischen 2004 und 06 keine Amselfeststellung vor (Tab.1); Aussagen von zwei interessierten Familien, die am Transekt Futterstellen betreiben, erhärten diesen Befund. Erste Vögel zeigten sich dort erst wieder 2007. Auch die geringen Restbestände der übrigen drei Flächen konnten sich bis 2007 nicht erholen. Anders verlief die Entwicklung in Kaisermühlen, das nur 2,0-2,6 km von den anderen Donau-nahen Flächen entfernt liegt. Hier wurde 1998/99 und ab 2002 gezählt (35 TZ): Der Aprilbestand war 2002 um ein Drittel zurückgegangen, 2005 weniger drastisch als in den anderen Flächen eingebrochen und bereits 2006 wieder in alter Dichte vorhanden (Tab.2 und 5). Noch weniger stark wurden die Amseln der sechsten TZFläche (Wiener Innenstadt 70 TZ) betroffen, die Aprildichte war dort erst 2004 etwa auf die Hälfte reduziert und hatte sich zwei Jahre später wieder erholt (Tab.2 und 5). In beiden Fällen ging der Bestand zur Brutzeit erst zumindest ein Jahr nach Zusammenbruch des Winterbestandes zurück (Tab.3). Aus unseren Befunden lässt sich schließen, dass sich vier der untersuchten Amsel-Teilpopulationen als isolierte Standvögel verhielten, da ein winterlicher Zuzug dort praktisch nicht stattfand (in allen Monaten gleichmäßiger Rückgang) und zwischen nahe liegenden Flächen kein wesentlicher Austausch zur Auffüllung der Bestände erfolgte. Die Amseldichte dieser Flächen verblieb zumindest bis 2007 trotz der ab 2004 in Ostösterreich zunehmenden Immunität gegen USUV auf extrem niederem Niveau. Möglicherweise reduzierten überstandene USUV-Infektionen die Fitness überlebender Vögel und setzten solcherart deren Fortpflanzungerfolg herab. – Für die Bestände der restlichen beiden Gebiete hat dies offenbar geringere oder keine Bedeutung. Wenn in anderen Teilen Mitteleuropas in den Sommermonaten Totfunde von Amseln gehäuft auftreten, sollten diese mit genauer Fundortangabe versehen unverzüglich Virologen übermittelt oder bis dahin tiefgekühlt zwischengelagert werden.USUV, previously known from Africa only, never before had been associated with fatal disease in vertebrates. Beginning with summer 2001, it caused mass mortality from mid-July to September in Blackbirds of Vienna and surroundings. From 2003 to 05 herd immunity developed and the proportion of USUV-positive dead Blackbirds decreased. As we have counted urban birds before and after summer 2001, we analysed population decrease of the species quantitatively. We used different methods: Steiner counted birds from September to June in established transects in six urban areas, beginning with 1993. Holzer in two districts recorded absolute numbers of birds in courts completely enclosed by buildings, in winters 2000/01 and 2003/04 respectively. For transect-counts density in January and February was considered to be typical for winter, in April for breeding time. To an unexpected scale, we found differences between subpopulations in time and extent of mortality: In six of the eight areas, with nearest distances from 0,2 to 2,9 km to river Danube, results are identical, regardless of method. In all months and subpopulations in 2002 decrease was between 58 and 94%, in one area after 2002 the species disappeared completely for four years, as late as 2007 two birds had been found again. As decrease in all months was very similar (Tab.4) it can be concluded, that the birds are strictly resident. Four of these subpopulations investigated at breeding time also, were unable for six years to increase their very low densities – in spite of herd immunity developing in Vienna after 2003. Reduced fitness of surviving individuals could explain this phenomenon. In remaining two areas, one being situated close to river Danube and to the six cited above, decrease was recorded (1) first in winter, in April in later years only, (2) decrease was not as dramatically, (3) increase to original densities occurred within one or two years. As USUV meanwhile emerged in Hungary, northern Italy and Switzerland, in case of mass mortality in summer, it is recommended to store dead birds in frozen condition or to bring it to a veterinary institution immediately

Study of Field-Induced Magnetic Order in Singlet-Ground-State Magnet CsFeCl3_3

The field-induced magnetic order in the singlet-ground-state system CsFeCl$_3$ has been studied by measuring magnetization and neutron diffraction. The field dependence of intensity for the neutron magnetic reflection has clearly demonstrated that the field-induced ordered phase is described by the order parameter $$. A condensate growth of magnons is investigated through the temperature dependence of $M_z$ and $M_{\perp}$, and this ordering is discussed in the context of a magnon Bose-Einstein condensation. Development of the coherent state and the static correlation length has been observed in the incommensurate phase in the field region of $5 H_{\rm c}$, a satellite peak was found in coexistence with the commensurate peak at the phase boundary around 10 T, which indicates that the tilt of the c-axis would be less than $\sim 0.5^{\circ}$ in the whole experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Usefulness of the GenMark ePlex RPP assay for the detection of respiratory viruses compared to the FTD21 multiplex RT-PCR

Cartridge-based multiplex panels covering numerous pathogens offer an advantage of minimal hands-on-time and short time to result to commercial RT-PCR assays. In this study, we evaluated the performance of the ePlex respiratory pathogen panel (RPP) compared to the Fast Track Diagnostics Respiratory pathogens 21 multiplex RT-PCR assay (FTD21) using 400 clinical respiratory samples. Discrepant results were further analysed by a reference nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) and a composite reference approach was used for final interpretation. Discordant results were observed in 56 targets corresponding to 54 samples. Sensitivities and specificities were 85.5% and 99.9% for the ePlex RPP and 95.8% and 99.7% for the FTD21 system, respectively. Altogether, the ePlex RPP is a valuable tool for the rapid detection of a number of different respiratory viruses with the exception of the coronavirus family (low sensitivity ranging from 50-80%) and samples with a low pathogen load (Ct values >33)

Severe depression is associated with increased microglial quinolinic acid in subregions of the anterior cingulate gyrus: evidence for an immune-modulated glutamatergic neurotransmission? (vol 8 pg 94, 2011)

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.AbstractN/

HCoV- and SARS-CoV-2 Cross-Reactive T Cells in CVID Patients

The inability of patients with CVID to mount specific antibody responses to pathogens has raised concerns on the risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but there might be a role for protective T cells in these patients. SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells have been reported for SARS-CoV-2 unexposed healthy individuals. Until now, there is no data on T cell immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection in CVID. This study aimed to evaluate reactive T cells to human endemic corona viruses (HCoV) and to study pre-existing SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in unexposed CVID patients. We evaluated SARS-CoV-2- and HCoV-229E and -OC43 reactive T cells in response to seven peptide pools, including spike and nucleocapsid (NCAP) proteins, in 11 unexposed CVID, 12 unexposed and 11 post COVID-19 healthy controls (HC). We further characterized reactive T cells by IFNγ, TNFα and IL-2 profiles. SARS-CoV-2 spike-reactive CD4+ T cells were detected in 7 of 11 unexposed CVID patients, albeit with fewer multifunctional (IFNγ/TNFα/IL-2) cells than unexposed HC. CVID patients had no SARS-CoV-2 NCAP reactive CD4+ T cells and less reactive CD8+ cells compared to unexposed HC. We observed a correlation between T cell reactivity against spike of SARS-CoV-2 and HCoVs in unexposed, but not post COVID-19 HC, suggesting cross-reactivity. T cell responses in post COVID-19 HC could be distinguished from unexposed HC by higher frequencies of triple-positive NCAP reactive CD4+ T cells. Taken together, SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells are detectable in unexposed CVID patients albeit with lower recognition frequencies and polyfunctional potential. Frequencies of triple-functional reactive CD4+ cells might provide a marker to distinguish HCoV cross-reactive from SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell responses. Our data provides evidence, that anti-viral T cell immunity is not relevantly impaired in most CVID patients

Mental health issues in unaccompanied refugee minors

Previous studies about unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) showed that they are a highly vulnerable group who have greater psychiatric morbidity than the general population. This review focuses on mental health issues among URMs. Articles in databases PsycINFO, Medline and PubMed from 1998 to 2008 addressing this topic were reviewed. The literature had a considerable emphasis on the assessment of PTSD symptoms. Results revealed higher levels of PTSD symptoms in comparison to the norm populations and accompanied refugee minors. In several studies, age and female gender predicted or influenced PTSD symptoms. The existing literature only permits limited conclusions on this very hard to reach population. Future research should include the analysis of long-term outcomes, stress management and a more thorough analysis of the whole range of psychopathology. Additionally, the development of culturally sensitive norms and standardized measures for diverse ethnic groups is of great importance

Disease Severity, Fever, Age, and Sex Correlate With SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibody Responses

Clinical trials on the use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma remain inconclusive. While data on safety is increasingly available, evidence for efficacy is still sparse. Subgroup analyses hint to a dose-response relationship between convalescent plasma neutralizing antibody levels and mortality. In particular, patients with primary and secondary antibody deficiency might benefit from this approach. However, testing of neutralizing antibodies is limited to specialized biosafety level 3 laboratories and is a time- and labor-intense procedure. In this single center study of 206 COVID-19 convalescent patients, clinical data, results of commercially available ELISA testing of SARS-CoV-2 spike-IgG and -IgA, and levels of neutralizing antibodies, determined by plaque reduction neutralization testing (PRNT), were analyzed. At a medium time point of 58 days after symptom onset, only 12.6% of potential plasma donors showed high levels of neutralizing antibodies (PRNT50 >= 1:320). Multivariable proportional odds logistic regression analysis revealed need for hospitalization due to COVID-19 (odds ratio 6.87; p-value 0.0004) and fever (odds ratio 3.00; p-value 0.0001) as leading factors affecting levels of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers in convalescent plasma donors. Using penalized estimation, a predictive proportional odds logistic regression model including the most important variables hospitalization, fever, age, sex, and anosmia or dysgeusia was developed. The predictive discrimination for PRNT50 >= 1:320 was reasonably good with AUC: 0.86 (with 95% CI: 0.79-0.92). Combining clinical and ELISA-based pre-screening, assessment of neutralizing antibodies could be spared in 75% of potential donors with a maximal loss of 10% of true positives (PRNT50 >= 1:320)

SARS-CoV-2 T Cell Response in Severe and Fatal COVID-19 in Primary Antibody Deficiency Patients Without Specific Humoral Immunity

Morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 is increased in patients with inborn errors of immunity (IEI). Age and comorbidities and also impaired type I interferon immunity were identified as relevant risk factors. In patients with primary antibody deficiency (PAD) and lack of specific humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2, clinical disease outcome is very heterogeneous. Despite extensive clinical reports, underlying immunological mechanisms are poorly characterized and levels of T cellular and innate immunity in severe cases remain to be determined. In the present study, we report clinical and immunological findings of 5 PAD patients with severe and fatal COVID-19 and undetectable specific humoral immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Reactive T cells to SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) and nucleocapsid (NCAP) peptide pools were analyzed comparatively by flow cytometry in PAD patients, convalescents and naive healthy individuals. All examined PAD patients developed a robust T cell response. The presence of polyfunctional cytokine producing activated CD4(+) T cells indicates a memory-like phenotype. An analysis of innate immune response revealed elevated CD169 (SIGLEC1) expression on monocytes, a surrogate marker for type I interferon response, and presence of type I interferon autoantibodies was excluded. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detectable in peripheral blood in three severe COVID-19 patients with PAD. Viral clearance in blood was observed after treatment with COVID-19 convalescent plasma/monoclonal antibody administration. However, prolonged mucosal viral shedding was observed in all patients (median 67 days) with maximum duration of 127 days. PAD patients without specific humoral SARS-CoV-2 immunity may suffer from severe or fatal COVID-19 despite robust T cell and normal innate immune response. Intensified monitoring for long persistence of SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding and (prophylactic) convalescent plasma/specific IgG as beneficial treatment option in severe cases with RNAemia should be considered in seronegative PAD patients

Evidence for a wide extra-astrocytic distribution of S100B in human brain

BACKGROUND: S100B is considered an astrocytic in-situ marker and protein levels in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or serum are often used as biomarker for astrocytic damage or dysfunction. However, studies on S100B in the human brain are rare. Thus, the distribution of S100B was studied by immunohistochemistry in adult human brains to evaluate its cell-type specificity. RESULTS: Contrary to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which selectively labels astrocytes and shows only faint ependymal immunopositivity, a less uniform staining pattern was seen in the case of S100B. Cells with astrocytic morphology were primarily stained by S100B in the human cortex, while only 20% (14–30%) or 14% (7–35%) of all immunopositive cells showed oligodendrocytic morphology in the dorsolateral prefrontal and temporal cortices, respectively. In the white matter, however, most immunostained cells resembled oligodendrocytes [frontal: 75% (57–85%); temporal: 73% (59–87%); parietal: 79% (62–89%); corpus callosum: 93% (86–97%)]. S100B was also found in ependymal cells, the choroid plexus epithelium, vascular endothelial cells, lymphocytes, and several neurones. Anti-myelin basic protein (MBP) immunolabelling showed an association of S100B with myelinated fibres, whereas GFAP double staining revealed a distinct subpopulation of cells with astrocytic morphology, which solely expressed S100B but not GFAP. Some of these cells showed co-localization of S100B and A2B5 and may be characterized as O2A glial progenitor cells. However, S100B was not detected in microglial cells, as revealed by double-immunolabelling with HLA-DR. CONCLUSION: S100B is localized in many neural cell-types and is less astrocyte-specific than GFAP. These are important results in order to avoid misinterpretation in the identification of normal and pathological cell types in situ and in clinical studies since S100B is continuously used as an astrocytic marker in animal models and various human diseases