scholarly journals Adenosine and Immune Imbalance in Visceral Leishmaniasis: The Possible Role of Ectonucleotidases

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Paletta-Silva ◽  
José Roberto Meyer-Fernandes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Immune Response ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Immune Evasion ◽  
Extracellular Enzymes ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Immune Impairment ◽  
Immune Imbalance

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and is responsible for mostLeishmania-associated deaths. VL represents a serious public health problem that affects many countries. The immune response in leishmaniasis is very complex and is poorly understood. The Th1 versus Th2 paradigm does not appear to be so clear in visceral leishmaniasis, suggesting that other immunosuppressive or immune-evasion mechanisms contribute to the pathogenesis of VL. It has been demonstrated that generation of adenosine, a potent endogenous immunosuppressant, by extracellular enzymes capable to hydrolyze adenosine tri-nucleotide (ATP) at the site of infection, can lead to immune impairment and contribute to leishmaniasis progression. In this regard, this paper discusses the unique features in VL immunopathogenesis, including a possible role for ectonucleotidases in leishmaniasis.

scholarly journals Systematic Review of Visceral Leishmaniasis in Central Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 8-20
Author(s):  
Demba Kodindo Israël ◽  
Cheick Amadou Coulibaly ◽  
John C. Beier ◽  
Gunter C. Muller ◽  
Seydou Doumbia
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Canine Leishmaniasis ◽  
Neglected Diseases ◽  
Kala Azar ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Significant Public Health

In underdeveloped countries, infectious diseases remain one of the most important public health challenges. Visceral leishmaniasis, also known as Kala-azar, is a lethal vector-borne parasitic disease with an increasing number of cases. However, it remains one of the most neglected diseases in the world. It is the most severe form of leishmaniasis and is endemic in 75 countries. Around 95% of the patients live in seven countries: Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, and causes about 20,000-40,000 deaths per year of which 50-70% are children. In Central Africa, this pathology is little known and less documented, making it difficult to access information. We have performed this study to characterize the knowledge on the epidemiology of visceral leishmaniasis in Central Africa. We reviewed the literature on visceral leishmaniasis in Central Africa on the number of reported cases, identified parasites, reservoirs and vectors. The documents consulted came from WHO reports, publications of scientific journals, reports of research institutions and abstracts of scientific conferences consulted online on Pubmed and Google Scholar. The information covers the period from the first reporting of cases in each country until December 2020. The review of the situation of visceral leishmaniasis revealed that it is not a significant public health problem in Central Africa. However, a lot of work remains to be done especially surveillance and research in order to present the exact situation of the disease in this part of the continent. This work would include the underreporting of cases inherent to the weaknesses of the surveillance system in these countries, the clarification of the transmission dynamics of human visceral leishmaniasis, canine leishmaniasis, the identity of parasites and vectors.

Crucial role of physiotherapy in treating COVID-19 patients

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 967-971
Author(s):  
Poonam Thakre ◽  
Waqar M. Naqvi ◽  
Trupti Deshmukh ◽  
Nikhil Ingole ◽  
Sourabh Deshmukh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Distress Syndrome ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
High Rate ◽  
Major Public Health Problem ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sixth International

The emergence in China of 2019 of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-CoV-2) previously provisionally names 2019-nCoV disease (COVID19) caused major global outbreak and is a major public health problem. On 30 January 2020, the WHO declared COVID19 to be the sixth international public health emergency. This present pandemic has engrossed the globe with a high rate of mortality. As a front line practitioner, physiotherapists are expected to be getting in direct contact with patients infected with the virus. That’s why it is necessary for understanding the many aspects of their role in the identification, contains, reduces and treats the symptoms of this disease. The main presentation is the involvement of respiratory system with symptoms like fever, cough, sore throat, sneezing and characteristics of pneumonia leads to ARDS(Acute respiratory distress syndrome) also land up in multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. This text describes and suggests physiotherapy management of acute COVID-19 patients. It also includes recommendations and guidelines for physiotherapy planning and management. It also covers the guidelines regarding personal care and equipment used for treatment which can be used in the treatment of acute adult patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Immunotherapy: New insights in breast cancer treatment

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Bader Alshehri
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Immune Response ◽  
Immune System ◽  
Cancer Treatment ◽  
Immune Evasion ◽  
Breast Tumor ◽  
Parp Inhibitor ◽  
Breast Cancer Treatment ◽  
New Treatment

Breast cancer being the most malignant and lethal disease persistent among women globally. Immunotherapy as a new treatment modality has emerged in understanding the loopholes in the treatment of breast cancer which is mainly attributed to the potential of tumor cells to evade and survive the immune response by developing various strategies. Therefore, improved understanding of the immune evasion by cancer cells and the monoclonal antibodies against PD- and PD-L1 can help us in the diagnosis of this malignancy. Here in this article, I have highlighted that in addition to focusing on other strategies for breast cancer treatment, the involvement of immune system in breast cancer is vital for the understanding of this malignancy. Further, the complete involvement of immune system in the relapse or recurrence of the breast tumor and have also highlighted the role of vaccines, PD-1 and CTLA-4 with the recent advances in the field. Moreover, in addition to the application of immunotherapy as a sole therapy, combinations of immunotherapy with various strategies like targeting it with MEK inhibitors, Vaccines, chemotherapy and PARP inhibitor has shown to have significant benefits is also discussed in this article.

scholarly journals Refractive disorders in children

2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
Larisa-Bianca Holhos ◽  
◽  
Mihaela Coroi ◽  
Teodora Holhos ◽  
Ioana Damian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Motor Development ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Perceptual System ◽  
Refractive Errors ◽  
Visual Dysfunction ◽  
Sensory Motor ◽  
Complex Activities

According to current estimations, globally, there are around 150 million people with an uncorrected refractive disorder, which means 27% of the world’s population. Approximately 1.4 million of these are children and have a milder or more severe form of visual dysfunction secondary to refractive errors. Since 1990, refractive errors are considered to be a public health problem among children and cause visual dysfunction, with a prevalence of up to 43%. Vision maturation occurs in early childhood, when all the senses and motor skills work together to acquire language, first ideas about the environment and all the elements that define the person himself. Sight is a contributory perceptual system for the cognitive, social, sensory-motor development and for the assemblage of information about the environment. In the first years of life, the child increasingly discovers complex activities, requiring the ability to change the eyes fixation in space from one point to another and a normal binocular motility.

scholarly journals Vitamin D and COVID-19 infection; recent findings

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. e19-e19
Author(s):  
Alireza Pouramini ◽  
Fatemeh Kafi ◽  
Shakiba Hassanzadeh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Vitamin D ◽  
Vitamin D Deficiency ◽  
Chronic Conditions ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Exact Role ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Global Public Health Problem

COVID-19 infection increases the risk of death in patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes or obesity. The exact role of vitamin D in COVID-19 infection is unknown and controversial. Furthermore, the exact prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is still unknown but it affects individuals worldwide regardless of ethnicity and age. Herein, we give an overview of vitamin D deficiency as a global public health problem, the role of vitamin D in COVID-19 infection, and the proper approach to treating vitamin D deficiency.

CD209 (DC-SIGN) – role in the work of the innate immunity and pathogen penetration

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (9) ◽  
pp. 64-71
Author(s):  
E. A. Klimov ◽  
◽  
E. K. Novitskaya ◽  
S. N. Koval’chuk ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Innate Immunity ◽  
Dendritic Cells ◽  
Inflammatory Response ◽  
Signaling Pathway ◽  
Adhesion Molecule ◽  
Immune Evasion ◽  
Intercellular Adhesion Molecule ◽  
Lectin Receptor

Intercellular adhesion molecule CD209 (DC-SIGN) is a membrane C-type lectin receptor expressed on the surface of dendritic cells and macrophages. CD209 plays an important role in innate immunity. Many studies have shown the possibility of interaction of the CD209 molecule with a number of dangerous pathogens of humans and animals. This review summarizes information on the structure of the CD209 gene and its product, describes the role of the CD209 protein in the immune response, in the migration of dendritic cells from the blood to the tissue, and their interaction with neutrophils. The currently known signaling pathway of activation through the CD209 inflammatory response is presented. The role of CD209 as an endocytic antigen receptor and the participation of the protein in immune evasion of pathogens are discussed. The mechanisms known to date for the development of infections caused by pathogens of various nature in animals are described.

scholarly journals Immunoserology of malaria

1986 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo L. F. Franco
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Immune Response ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Relative Efficacy ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Antigen Preparation ◽  
Humoral Immune ◽  
Preparation Techniques ◽  
Global Public Health Problem

This literature review discusses the most frequently used serodiagnostic methods for the determination of the humoral immune response to malarial parasites. The importance of malaria as a global public health problem is stressed in the light of the new discoveries leading to the future development of an anti-malarial vaccine suitable for use in humans. Serological techniques are expected to play an important role in the assessment of the relative efficacy of these candidate vaccines. A discussion of the different antigen preparation techniques is also presented.

scholarly journals Immunogenetics of leishmanial and mycobacterial infections: the Belem Family Study

1997 ◽  
Vol 352 (1359) ◽  
pp. 1331-1345 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Blackwell ◽  
G. F. Black ◽  
C. S. Peacock ◽  
E. N. Miller ◽  
D. Sibthorpe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Candidate Gene ◽  
Mouse Chromosome ◽  
Human Disease ◽  
Disease Susceptibility ◽  
Allelic Association ◽  
Chromosome 11 ◽  
Mycobacterial Infections

In the 1970s and 1980s, analysis of recombinant inbred, congenic and recombinant haplotype mouse strains permitted us to effectively ‘scan’ the murine genome for genes controlling resistance and susceptibility to leishmanial infections. Five major regions of the genome were implicated in the control of infections caused by different Leishmania species which, because they show conserved synteny with regions of the human genome, immediately provides candidate gene regions for human disease susceptibility genes. A common intramacrophage niche for leishmanial and mycobacterial pathogens, and a similar spectrum of immune response and disease phenotypes, also led to the prediction that the same genes/candidate gene regions might be responsible for genetic susceptibility to mycobacterial infections such as leprosy and tuberculosis. Indeed, one of the murine genes ( Nramp1 ) was identified for its role in controlling a range of intramacrophage pathogens including leishmania, salmonella and mycobacterium infections. In recent studies, multicase family data on visceral leishmaniasis and the mycobacterial diseases, tuberculosis and leprosy, have been collected from north–eastern Brazil and analysed to determine the role of these candidate genes/regions in determining disease susceptibility. Complex segregation analysis provides evidence for one or two major genes controlling susceptibility to tuberculosis in this population. Family–based linkage analyses (combined segregation and linkage analysis; sib–pair analysis), which have the power to detect linkage between marker loci in candidate gene regions and the putative disease susceptibility genes over 10–;20 centimorgans, and transmission disequilibrium testing, which detects allelic associations over 1 centimorgan ( ca. 1 megabase), have been used to examine the role of four regions in determining disease susceptibility and/or immune response phenotype. Our results demonstrate: (i) the major histocompatibility complex (MHC: H–2 in mouse, HLA in man: mouse chromosome 17/human 6p; candidates class II and class III including TNFalpha/beta genes) shows both linkage to, and allelic association with, leprosy per se , but is only weakly associated with visceral leishmaniasis and shows neither linkage to nor allelic association with tuberculosis; (ii) no evidence for linkage between NRAMP1 , the positionally cloned candidate for the murine macrophage resistance gene Ity/Lsh/Bcg (mouse chromosome 1/human 2q35), and susceptibility to tuberculosis or visceral leishmaniasis could be demonstrated in this Brazilian population; (iii) the region of human chromosome 17q (candidates NOS2A , SCYA2–5 ) homologous with distal mouse chromosome 11, originally identified as carrying the Scl1 gene controlling healing versus nonhealing responses to Leishmania major , is linked to tuberculosis susceptibility; and (iv) the ‘T helper 2’ cytokine gene cluster (proximal murine chromosome 11/human 5q; candidates IL4, IL5, IL9, IRF1, CD14) controlling later phases of murine L. major infection, is not linked to human disease susceptibility for any of the three infections, but shows linkage to and highly significant allelic association with ability to mount an immune response to mycobacterial antigens. These studies demonstrate that the ‘mouse–to–man’ strategy, refined by our knowledge of the human immune response to infection, can lead to the identification of important candidate gene regions in man.

scholarly journals Development of Vaccines against Visceral Leishmaniasis

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krystal J. Evans ◽  
Lukasz Kedzierski
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Visceral Leishmaniasis ◽  
Leishmania Donovani ◽  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Past Infection ◽  
Health Goal ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Public Health Goal

Leishmaniasis is a neglected disease resulting in a global morbidity of 2,090 thousand Disability-Adjusted Life Years and a mortality rate of approximately 60,000 per year. Among the three clinical forms of leishmaniasis (cutaneous, mucosal, and visceral), visceral leishmaniasis (VL) accounts for the majority of mortality, as if left untreated VL is almost always fatal. Caused by infection withLeishmania donovaniorL. infantum, VL represents a serious public health problem in endemic regions and is rapidly emerging as an opportunistic infection in HIV patients. To date, no vaccine exists for VL or any other form of leishmaniasis. In endemic areas, the majority of those infected do not develop clinical symptoms and past infection leads to robust immunity against reinfection. Thus the development of vaccine forLeishmaniais a realistic public health goal, and this paper summarizes advances in vaccination strategies against VL.

scholarly journals Autism – an evolving concept

2000 ◽  
Vol 176 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Berney
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Viral Infection ◽  
Health Problem ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Research Endeavour

BackgroundThe rapid increase in research endeavour has not kept pace with the advent of well-publicised theories and treatments for autism.AimsTo explore some of the newer developments in biological research into autism.MethodA review of recent publications and presentations.ResultsThe concept is shifting from the narrow perception of aloof autism, described by Kanner, to a wider one that includes a spectrum extending to a broader, subclinical phenotype. The genetic basis has been established; now we need to discover the location and interaction of the relevant sites. There is considerable interest in the bowel as a pathogenetic agent, particularly in the effects of exogenous opioids and multiple viral infection (the latter posing a public health problem). Also of concern is the role of (potentially treatable) epilepsy, analogous to the Laudau-Kleffner syndrome.ConclusionsIn the absence of a cure, the implementation of ideas will continue to outstrip factual evidence. Clinicians are challenged by the availability of information (and misinformation), particularly on the internet.

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