Plos One
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Climate change affects the survival and transmission of arthropod vectors as well as the development rates of vector-borne pathogens. Increased international travel is also an important factor in the spread of vector-borne diseases (VBDs) such as dengue, West Nile, yellow fever, chikungunya, and malaria. Dengue is the most important vector-borne viral disease. An estimated 2.5 billion people are at risk of infection in the world and there are approximately 50 million dengue infections and an estimated 500,000 individuals are hospitalized with dengue haemorrhagic fever annually. The Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) is one of the vectors of dengue virus, and populations already exist on Jeju Island, South Korea. Currently, colder winter temperatures kill off Asian tiger mosquito populations and there is no evidence of the mosquitos being vectors for the dengue virus in this location. However, dengue virus-bearing mosquito vectors can inflow to Jeju Island from endemic area such as Vietnam by increased international travel, and this mosquito vector's survival during colder winter months will likely occur due to the effects of climate change. ⋯ Our results suggest that mosquito vectors or virus-bearing vectors can transmit from epidemic regions of Southeast Asia to Jeju Island and can survive during colder winter months. Therefore, Jeju Island is no longer safe from vector borne diseases (VBDs) due to the effects of globalization and climate change, and we should immediately monitor regional climate change to identify newly emerging VBDs.
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Brain tumors (gliomas) contain large populations of infiltrating macrophages and recruited microglia, which in experimental murine glioma models promote tumor formation and progression. Among the barriers to understanding the contributions of these stromal elements to high-grade glioma (glioblastoma; GBM) biology is the relative paucity of tools to characterize infiltrating macrophages and resident microglia. In this study, we leveraged multiple RNA analysis platforms to identify new monocyte markers relevant to GBM patient outcome. ⋯ These studies establish F11R as a novel monocyte prognostic marker for GBM critical for defining a subpopulation of stromal cells for future potential therapeutic intervention.
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To develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a Chinese questionnaire which assesses the barriers and enablers to commencing insulin in primary care patients with poorly controlled Type 2 diabetes. ⋯ The Chinese Attitudes to Starting Insulin Questionnaire (Ch-ASIQ) appears to be a reliable and valid measure for assessing barriers to starting insulin. This short instrument is easy to administer and may be used by healthcare providers and researchers as an assessment tool for Chinese diabetic primary care patients, including the elderly, who are unwilling to start insulin.
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Staphylococcus aureus exhibits tropisms to many distinct animal hosts. While spillover events can occur wherever there is an interface between host species, changes in host tropism only occur with the establishment of sustained transmission in the new host species, leading to clonal expansion. Although the genomic variation underpinning adaptation in S. aureus genotypes infecting bovids and poultry has been well characterized the frequency of switches from one host to another remains obscure. We sought to identify sustained switches in host tropism in the S. aureus population, both anthroponotic and zoonotic, and their distribution over the species phylogeny. METHODOLOGIES/RESULTS: We have used a sample of 3042 isolates, representing 696 distinct MLST genotypes, from a well-established database (www.mlst.net). Using an empirical parsimony approach (AdaptML) we have investigated the distribution of switches in host association between both human and non-human (henceforth referred to as animal) hosts. We reconstructed a credible description of past events in the form of a phylogenetic tree; the nodes and leaves of which are statistically associated with either human or animal habitats, estimated from extant host-association and the degree of sequence divergence between genotypes. We identified 15 likely historical switching events; 13 anthroponoses and two zoonoses. Importantly, we identified two human-associated clade candidates (CC25 and CC59) that have arisen from animal-associated ancestors; this demonstrates that a human-specific lineage can emerge from an animal host. We also highlight novel rabbit-associated genotypes arising from a human ancestor. ⋯ S. aureus is an organism with the capacity to switch into and adapt to novel hosts, even after long periods of isolation in a single host species. Based on this evidence, animal-adapted S. aureus lineages exhibiting resistance to antibiotics must be considered a major threat to public health, as they can adapt to the human population.
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Lipoxins and resolvins have anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving actions and accumulating evidence indicates that these lipid mediators also attenuate pain-like behavior in a number of experimental models of inflammation and tissue injury-induced pain. The present study was undertaken to assess if spinal administration of lipoxin A4 (LXA4) or 17 (R)-resolvin D1 (17(R)-RvD1) attenuates mechanical hypersensitivity in the carrageenan model of peripheral inflammation in the rat. Given the emerging role of spinal cytokines in the generation and maintenance of inflammatory pain we measured cytokine levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) after LXA4 or 17(R)-RvD1 administration, and the ability of these lipid metabolites to prevent stimuli-induced release of cytokines from cultured primary spinal astrocytes. ⋯ Furthermore, both LXA4 and 17(R)-RvD1 reduced carrageenan-induced tumor necrosis factor (TNF) release in the CSF, while only 17(R)-RvD1attenuated LPS and IFN-γ-induced TNF release in astrocyte cell culture. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that lipoxins and resolvins potently suppress inflammation-induced mechanical hypersensitivity, possibly by attenuating cytokine release from spinal astrocytes. The inhibitory effect of lipoxins and resolvins on spinal nociceptive processing puts them in an intriguing position in the search for novel pain therapeutics.