Rheumatoid Arthritis is an Autoimmune Disease Triggered by Proteus Urinary Tract Infection

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic and disabling polyarthritic disease, which affects mainly women in middle and old age

The Action of Streptomycins on the Chloroplast System of Euglena gracilis

Five streptomycins bleached the chloroplast system of Euglena gracilis; the most effective were those which contained an aldehyde group in the streptose moiety: streptomycin and hydroxystreptomycin. Derivatives containing a secondary alcohol group in place of the aldehyde (dihydro-, dihydrodesoxy-, dihydrohydroxystreptomycin) require higher concentrations to elicit the same effect. Hydroxylamine reversed the bleaching effects of streptomycin and hydroxystreptomycin but not of dihydro-, dihydrodesoxy-or dihydrohydroxystreptomycin. These observations suggest that the aldehyde group of the streptomycins contributes to the action of these antibiotics on Euglena chloroplasts; the action of hydroxylamine would be to either remove the antibiotic from its site of action or to render it ineffective in vivo by reaction with the aldehyde group

Presence of Mycoplasma fermentans in the bloodstream of Mexican patients with rheumatoid arthritis and IgM and IgG antibodies against whole microorganism

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increasing evidence incriminates bacteria, especially <it>Mycoplasma fermentans</it>, as possible arthritogenic agents in humans. The purpose of this study was to investigate <it>M. fermentans </it>in the bloodstream of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Two hundred and nineteen blood samples from patients with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome, and healthy individuals were screened by bacterial culture and direct PCR in order to detect mycoplasmas; IgM and IgG against <it>M. fermentans </it>PG18 were also detected by ELISA and Immunoblotting assays in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and healthy individuals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Blood samples from patients with antiphospholipid syndrome and healthy individuals were negative for mycoplasma by culture or direct PCR. In blood samples from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were detected by direct PCR <it>M. fermentans </it>in 2/50 (2%), <it>M. hominis </it>in 2/50 (2%) and <it>U. urealyticum </it>in 1/50 (0.5%). In patients with RA <it>M. fermentans </it>was detected by culture in 13/87 blood samples and in 13/87 by direct PCR, however, there was only concordance between culture and direct PCR in six samples, so <it>M. fermentans </it>was detected in 20/87(23%) of the blood samples from patients with RA by either culture or PCR. Antibody-specific ELISA assay to <it>M. fermentans </it>PG18 was done, IgM was detected in sera from 40/87 patients with RA and in sera of 7/67 control individuals, IgG was detected in sera from 48/87 RA patients and in sera from 7/67 healthy individuals. Antibody-specific immunoblotting to <it>M. fermentans </it>PG18 showed IgM in sera from 35/87 patients with RA and in sera from 4/67 healthy individuals, IgG was detected in sera from 34/87 patients and in sera from 5/67 healthy individuals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our findings show that only <it>M. fermentans </it>produce bacteremia in a high percentage of patients with RA. This finding is similar to those reported in the literature. IgM and IgG against <it>M. fermentans </it>PG18 were more frequent in patients with RA than healthy individuals.</p

The Induction with Foley OR Misoprostol (INFORM) Study dataset. A dataset of 602 women with hypertensive disease in pregnancy, in India, randomised to either Foley catheter or oral misoprostol for induction of labour

Objectives: Induction of labour (IOL), or starting labour artificially, can be a lifesaving intervention for pregnant women and their babies, and rates are rising significantly globally. As rates increase, it becomes increasingly important to fully evaluate all available data, especially that from low income settings where the potential benefits and harms are greater. The goal of this paper is to describe the datasets collected as part of the Induction with Foley OR Misoprostol (INFORM) Study, a randomised trial comparing two of the recommended methods of cervical ripening for labour induction, oral misoprostol and Foley catheter, in women being induced for hypertension in pregnancy, at two sites in India during 2013-15. Data description: This dataset includes comprehensive data on 602 women who underwent IOL for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy. Women were randomly assigned to cervical ripening with oral misoprostol or a transcervical Foley catheter in two government hospitals in India. The main dataset has 367 variables including monitoring during the induction of labour, medications administered, timing and mode of delivery, measures of neonatal morbidity and mortality, maternal mortality and morbidity, maternal satisfaction and health economic data. The dataset is anonymised and available on ReShare

Skewed Exposure to Environmental Antigens Complements Hygiene Hypothesis in Explaining the Rise of Allergy

The Hygiene Hypothesis has been recognized as an important cornerstone to explain the sudden increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergic diseases in modernized culture. The recent epidemic of allergic diseases is in contrast with the gradual implementation of Homo sapiens sapiens to the present-day forms of civilization. This civilization forms a gradual process with cumulative effects on the human immune system, which co-developed with parasitic and commensal Helminths. The clinical manifestation of this epidemic, however, became only visible in the second half of the twentieth century. In order to explain these clinical effects in terms of the underlying IgE-mediated reactions to innocuous environmental antigens, the low biodiversity of antigens in the domestic environment plays a pivotal role. The skewing of antigen exposure as a cumulative effect of reducing biodiversity in the immediate human environment as well as in changing food habits, provides a sufficient and parsimonious explanation for the rise in allergic diseases in a highly developed and helminth-free modernized culture. Socio-economic tendencies that incline towards a further reduction of environmental biodiversity may provide serious concern for future health. This article explains that the “Hygiene Hypothesis”, the “Old Friends Hypothesis”, and the “Skewed Antigen Exposure Hypothesis” are required to more fully explain the rise of allergy in modern societies

Modulation of the peripheral blood transcriptome by the ingestion of probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk in healthy, young men

The metabolic health benefits of fermented milks have already been investigated using clinical biomarkers but the development of transcriptomic analytics in blood offers an alternative approach that may help to sensitively characterise such effects. We aimed to assess the effects of probiotic yoghurt intake, compared to non-fermented, acidified milk intake, on clinical biomarkers and gene expression in peripheral blood. To this end, a randomised, crossover study was conducted in fourteen healthy, young men to test the two dairy products. For a subset of seven subjects, RNA sequencing was used to measure gene expression in blood collected during postprandial tests and after two weeks daily intake. We found that the postprandial response in insulin was different for probiotic yoghurt as compared to that of acidified milk. Moreover changes in several clinical biomarkers were associated with changes in the expression of genes representing six metabolic genesets. Assessment of the postprandial effects of each dairy product on gene expression by geneset enrichment analysis revealed significant, similar modulation of inflammatory and glycolytic genes after both probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk intake, although distinct kinetic characteristics of the modulation differentiated the dairy products. The aryl hydrocarbon receptor was a major contributor to the down-regulation of the inflammatory genesets and was also positively associated with changes in circulating insulin at 2h after yoghurt intake (p = 0.05). Daily intake of the dairy products showed little effect on the fasting blood transcriptome. Probiotic yoghurt and acidified milk appear to affect similar gene pathways during the postprandial phase but differences in the timing and the extent of this modulation may lead to different physiological consequences. The functional relevance of these differences in gene expression is supported by their associations with circulating biomarkers

Self-Reactivities to the Non-Erythroid Alpha Spectrin Correlate with Cerebral Malaria in Gabonese Children

BACKGROUND: Hypergammaglobulinemia and polyclonal B-cell activation commonly occur in Plasmodium sp. infections. Some of the antibodies produced recognize self-components and are correlated with disease severity in P. falciparum malaria. However, it is not known whether some self-reactive antibodies produced during P. falciparum infection contribute to the events leading to cerebral malaria (CM). We show here a correlation between self-antibody responses to a human brain protein and high levels of circulating TNF alpha (TNFα), with the manifestation of CM in Gabonese children. METHODOLOGY: To study the role of self-reactive antibodies associated to the development of P. falciparum cerebral malaria, we used a combination of quantitative immunoblotting and multivariate analysis to analyse correlation between the reactivity of circulating IgG with a human brain protein extract and TNFα concentrations in cohorts of uninfected controls (UI) and P. falciparum-infected Gabonese children developing uncomplicated malaria (UM), severe non-cerebral malaria (SNCM), or CM. RESULTS/CONCLUSION: The repertoire of brain antigens recognized by plasma IgGs was more diverse in infected than in UI individuals. Anti-brain reactivity was significantly higher in the CM group than in the UM and SNCM groups. IgG self-reactivity to brain antigens was also correlated with plasma IgG levels and age. We found that 90% of CM patients displayed reactivity to a high-molecular mass band containing the spectrin non-erythroid alpha chain. Reactivity with this band was correlated with high TNFα concentrations in CM patients. These results strongly suggest that an antibody response to brain antigens induced by P. falciparum infection may be associated with pathogenic mechanisms in patients developing CM