Detection of medically important Candida species by absolute quantitation real-time polymerase chain reaction

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most important causes of disability and mortality in the world. Although cigarette smoking and environmental pollutants have been recognized as the major causes of COPD, the role of infection in the pathogenesis and progression of COPD has also been reported. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to find the relationship between Helicobacter Pylori infection and COPD through anti H. pylori IgG serology, real time PCR of bronchoalveolar lavage and trans bronchial biopsy urease tests. Patients and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 60 adults with COPD. After obtaining the patient’s history, physical examination, spirometry and confirmation of COPD diagnosis by pulmonologist, subjects were selected through convenience sampling. In order to determine the severity and prognosis of disease, the global initiative for chronic obstructive lung disease (GOLD) criteria and BODE index were used. Subjects underwent bronchoscopy for obtaining bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples and biopsy was performed. Biopsy and BAL samples were investigated respectively by urease test and real time PCR. Moreover, patients’ serum samples were serologically studied for detection of anti H. pylori IgG. Results: Mean age of the participants was 60.65 ± 9.15 years, and 25% were female and 75% were male. The prevalence rate of H. pylori in COPD patients was 10% according to real time PCR, 88.3% according to the serology test and 0% based on the urease test. According to the results of PCR and considering the severity of disease based on the GOLD criteria, from those with a positive PCR, one patient (16.6%) had very severe obstruction, three (50%) had severe obstruction and two patients (33.3%) had moderate obstruction. The relationship between H. pylori presence (based on PCR) and disease severity and prognosis was not statistically significant. Conclusions: These findings can justify the hypothesis of direct injury and chronic inflammation via inhalation and aspiration resulting in H. pylori colonization. In fact, it is thought that H. Pylori infection, beside the host genetic vulnerability and other environmental risk factors might make the patient susceptible to COPD or lead to COPD worsening. Although we found H. pylori infection in some patients with COPD, the results of this study, could not explain the pathogenic mechanisms of COPD

In vitro modulation of probiotic bacteria on the biofilm of Candida glabrata

A conspicuous new concept of pathogens living as the microbial societies in the human host rather than free planktonic cells has raised considerable concerns among scientists and clinicians. Fungal biofilms are communities of cells that possess distinct characteristic such as increased resistance to the immune defence and antimycotic agents in comparison to their planktonic cells counterpart. Therefore, inhibition of the biofilm may represent a new paradigm for antifungal development. In this study, we aim to evaluate the in vitro modulation of vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC)-causing Candida glabrata biofilms using probiotic lactobacilli strains. Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 were shown to have completely inhibited C. glabrata biofilms and the results were corroborated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which revealed scanty structures of the mixed biofilms of C. glabrata and probiotic lactobacilli strains. In addition, biofilm-related C. glabrata genes EPA6 and YAK1 were downregulated in response to the probiotic lactobacilli challenges. The present study suggested that probiotic L. rhamnosus GR-1 and L. reuteri RC-14 strains inhibited C. glabrata biofilm by partially impeding the adherence of yeast cells and the effect might be contributed by the secretory compounds produced by these probiotic lactobacilli strains. Further investigations are required to examine and identify the biofilm inhibitory compounds and the mechanism of probiotic actions of these lactobacilli strains

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

The hidden paintings of Angkor Wat

The temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia is one of the most famous monuments in the world and is noted for its spectacular bas-relief friezes depicting ceremonial and religious scenes. Recent work reported here has identified an entirely new series of image

Circular Earthwork Krek 52/62: Recent Research on the Prehistory of Cambodia

Since 1996 research on circular earthworks in the red soil region of eastern Cambodia and adjacent Vietnam has intensified. Several as yet undocumented Mimotien sites have broadened the knowledge about the regional distribution, location, and the layout of this site group. Within the scope of a German teaching program at the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, intensive fieldwork at Krek 52/62 and soundings at Phoum Beng, Phoum Kampoan, and the Groslier site yielded more detailed information on the function and the dating of circular earthworks. Typically, the structures are situated on the top of a slight slope and are composed of an outer wall, an inner trench, and an inner central platform lower than the surrounding surface. The rampart could not be used as a water storage system. The elevation at the edge of the inner plateau can no longer be interpreted as intentional construction, but now is explained as the accumulation of an occupational layer. The circular earthworks possess one or two entrances that are constructed either as simple pathways or as complicated bridged systems. Both the profile of the sites (a steep inner side of the outer wall and a shallow inner ditch) and the absence of artifacts usable as weapons argue against the former interpretation as fortifications. Rather, the artifact assemblages of the sites supply evidence for villages of rice farmers. Fragments of lithophones belong to the archaeological assemblages of two circular earthworks. The dating of the sites to the Neolithic is questioned. First attempts of radiocarbon dating of the organic temper of the pottery did not yield clear results. However, a glass bracelet fragment found in situ well within the occupational layer of Krek 52/62 gives evidence for the first millennium B.C. date. KEYWORDS: Cambodia, red soil region, circular earthworks, Mimotien, early glass, lithophones

Method for detecting and identifying candida species.

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3D space analysis of dental models

10.1117/12.428100Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering4319564-573PSIS

The Hoabinhian from Laang Spean Cave in its stratigraphic, chronological, typo-technological and environmental context (Cambodia, Battambang province)

International audienceCambodian Palaeolithic prehistory is largely obscured by the prestigious tradition of major classical (pre)Angkorian studies and is still little known. Renewed excavations in Laang Spean Cave by the French-Cambodian prehistoric mission since 2009 now provide new stratigraphic, chronocultural and archaeozoological results concerning the Hoabinhian techno-complex. At Laang Spean Cave this cultural milestone has been dated between 11,000 and 5000 years BP and is situated between a Neolithic level with burials and a Palaeolithic level with chert flakes and cores. It completes the median part of the stratigraphy of the site with an infilling currently over 5 m thick, although the bedrock has not, as of yet, been reached. The characterization of the Laang Spean Hoabinhian occupation and its environmental context allows for i) the establishment of a first chronostratigraphic estimate, ii) regional comparisons in Southeast Asia and iii) renewed discussions concerning the technical behaviour and means of subsistence of the last hunter–gatherers at the very end of the Late Pleistocene

Probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 exhibit strong antifungal effects against vulvovaginal candidiasis-causing Candida glabrata isolates

Aims: This study investigates the antagonistic effects of the probiotic strains Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 and Lactobacillus reuteri RC-14 against vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC)-causing Candida glabrata. Methods and Results: Growth inhibitory activities of Lact. rhamnosus GR-1 and Lact. reuteri RC-14 strains against C. glabrata were demonstrated using a spot overlay assay and a plate-based microtitre assay. In addition, these probiotic lactobacilli strains also exhibited potent candidacidal activity against C. glabrata, as demonstrated by a LIVE/DEAD yeast viability assay performed using confocal laser scanning microscopy. The metabolic activities of all C. glabrata strains were completely shut down in response to the challenges by the probiotic lactobacilli strains. In addition, both probiotic lactobacilli strains exhibited strong autoaggregation and coaggregation phenotypes in the presence of C. glabrata, which indicate that these lactobacilli strains may exert their probiotic effects through the formation of aggregates and, thus the consequent prevention of colonization by C. glabrata. Conclusions: Probiotic Lact. rhamnosus GR-1 and Lact. reuteri RC-14 strains exhibited potent antagonistic activities against all of the tested C. glabrata strains. These lactobacilli exhibited antifungal effects, including those attributed to their aggregation abilities, and their presence caused the cessation of growth and eventual cell death of C. glabrata. Significance and Impact of the Study: This is the first study to report on the antagonistic effects of these probiotic lactobacilli strains against the non-Candida albicans Candida (NCAC) species C. glabrata

Laang Spean cave (Battambang province): A tale of occupation in Cambodia from the Late Upper Pleistocene to Holocene

Discovered and initially excavated by Cécile and Roland Mourer in the 1960s, Laang Spean cave was re-excavated in 2009 by the Franco-Cambodian Prehistoric Mission (MNHN-Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Phnom Penh). The large amount of archaeological remains collected during the previous excavations has been complemented by new discoveries, and a more complete sequence has been documented. The cultural layers included lithic artefacts, potteries, animal bones, and human burials. Three mains distinguishable occupational layers are recognized: Neolithic, Hoabinhian and Pre-Hoabinhian level. A solid chronological framework has been established by applying independent age techniques (14C and OSL dating) to a 5 m thick sequence. Laang Spean is the only prehistoric site associated with Hoabinhian stone tools discovered in a well defined stratigraphy in Cambodia. The chronological results and the amount and characteristics of the lithic series provide cultural, environmental, and spatial context for the Hoabinhian technocomplex in comparison to other sites in Mainland South East Asia