Brief Report: Out of Sight Out of Mind - Preventable Childhood Kidney Disease in the Far North

APSGN is an immune-mediated kidney disease that occurs after a Streptococcus pyogenes skin or throat infection in children and contributes to chronic kidney disease later in life. It is a disease of poverty and regrettably common in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. There have been seven documented APSGN outbreaks across Far North Queensland in the last nine years. Despite this disease being notifiable in both Western Australia and the Northern Territory, Queensland is yet to acknowledge the importance of early notification in the management of APSGN. Notification-driven publication of APSGN incidence should help raise its profile and stimulate better public health policy

A low burden of severe illness: the COVID-19 Omicron outbreak in the remote Torres and Cape region of Far North Queensland

A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was declared in the remote Torres and Cape region of Far North Queensland soon after the Queensland border opened for quarantine-free domestic travel in December 2021, with a total of 7,784 cases notified during the first ten-month outbreak period. We report a crude attack rate among residents of 25.6% (95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 25.1–26.1%), a hospitalisation rate of 1.6% (95% CI: 1.3–1.9%) and a crude case fatality rate of 0.05% (95% CI: 0.01–0.13%). Hospitalisation and case fatality rates were similar among First Nations and non-Indigenous people, with double dose COVID-19 vaccination rates higher among First Nations than non-Indigenous people by the end of the outbreak period. We attribute the low burden of severe illness to local community leadership, community engagement, vaccination coverage and recency, and community participation in a local culturally considered COVID-19 care-in-the-home program

Obituary for Paul Bacon

Paul Bacon, Emeritus Professor of Rheumatology and the first Professor of Rheumatology in Birmingham UK, died peacefully on Friday 12 January 2018 after a short illness. Positive and organized until the end, he was able to say goodbye to his family and friends who came to visit him and his wife Jean over the Christmas period at their retirement home in Lancashire

Mycolactone subverts immunity by selectively blocking the Sec61 translocon

Mycolactone, an immunosuppressive macrolide released by the human pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans, was previously shown to impair Sec61-dependent protein translocation, but the underlying molecular mechanism was not identified. In this study, we show that mycolactone directly targets the alpha subunit of the Sec61 translocon to block the production of secreted and integral membrane proteins with high potency. We identify a single-amino acid mutation conferring resistance to mycolactone, which localizes its interaction site near the lumenal plug of Sec61 alpha. Quantitative proteomics reveals that during T cell activation, mycolactone-mediated Sec61 blockade affects a selective subset of secretory proteins including key signal-transmitting receptors and adhesion molecules. Expression of mutant Sec61 alpha in mycolactone-treated T cells rescued their homing potential and effector functions. Furthermore, when expressed in macrophages, the mycolactone-resistant mutant restored IFN-gamma receptor-mediated antimicrobial responses. Thus, our data provide definitive genetic evidence that Sec61 is the host receptor mediating the diverse immunomodulatory effects of mycolactone and identify Sec61 as a novel regulator of immune cell functions.Peer reviewe

Inhibition of lymphoproliferation by hyperlipoproteinemic plasma

incorporation by cultured nmononuclear leukocytes. This previously unreported abnormality affected mononuclear leukocytes from patients with type IV or V hyperlipoproteinemia and from normal subjects. Patient cells incorporated [3H]thymidine normally when washed and incubated in medium containing normal plasma. Both spontaneous incorporation and stimulated incorporation in response to various mitogens and antigens were inhibited. The inhibitory effect was identified with the chylomicron and very low density lipoprotein fractions isolated from plasma and was concentration-dependent. Lectin used to stinmulate cultured cells and [3H]thymidine used to measure responses were not bound to the lipoproteins in appreciable amounts. ['H]-Thymidine incorporation correlated well with morphologic evidence of lymphoproliferation. The mechanism of the inhibitory effect of type IV or V hyperlipoproteinemic plasma upon the response tested was not identified but may be related to interaction between lipoproteins and the cell membranes. We suggest that these lipoproteins may also interfere with the function of other cells