scholarly journals Cutaneous Leishmaniasis: The Complexity of Host’s Effective Immune Response against a Polymorphic Parasitic Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Áurea Gabriel ◽  
Ana Valério-Bolas ◽  
Joana Palma-Marques ◽  
Patrícia Mourata-Gonçalves ◽  
Pedro Ruas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Cutaneous Leishmaniasis ◽  
Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization

This review is aimed at providing a comprehensive outline of the immune response displayed against cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), the more common zoonotic infection caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. Although of polymorphic clinical presentation, classically CL is characterized by leishmaniotic lesions on the face and extremities of the patients, which can be ulcerative, and even after healing can lead to permanent injuries and disfigurement, affecting significantly their psychological, social, and economic well-being. According a report released by the World Health Organization, the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost due to leishmaniasis are close to 2.4 million, annually there are 1.0–1.5 million new cases of CL, and a numerous population is at risk in the endemic areas. Despite its increasing worldwide incidence, it is one of the so-called neglected tropical diseases. Furthermore, this review provides an overview of the existing knowledge of the host innate and acquired immune response to cutaneous species of Leishmania. The use of animal models and of in vitro studies has improved the understanding of parasite-host interplay and the complexity of immune mechanisms involved. The importance of diagnosis accuracy associated with effective patient management in CL reduction is highlighted. However, the multiple factors involved in CL epizoology associated with the unavailability of vaccines or drugs to prevent infection make difficult to formulate an effective strategy for CL control.

Creating Healthy Workplaces in Challenging Times

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (04) ◽  
pp. 171-173
Author(s):  
W. Kirsten ◽  
A. Ogata
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Chronic Diseases ◽  
Well Being ◽  
World Health ◽  
Behavioral Risk ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Related Risk ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Healthy Workplace ◽  
Health Organization

SummaryRising exposure to chronic diseases and related risk factors have led to a notable increase in attributable disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) in the last 25 years. This concerning trend has highlighted the need for additional efforts to address behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases. The workplace has proven to be an effective setting to mitigate and improve these risk factors and a growing number of employers worldwide are recognizing their role in advancing employee health and well-being. The question remains what constitutes a healthy workplace and successful programming, which produce positive outcomes for business and employees. The World Health Organization (WHO) Healthy Workplace Model for Action provides globally relevant guidance on how to create a healthy workplace via a continual improvement process.

Detoxifying Action of Aqueous Extracts of Mucuna pruriens Seed and Mimosa pudica Root Against Venoms of Naja nigricollis and Bitis arietans

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P. Ameh ◽  
Mamman Mohammed ◽  
Yusuf P. Ofemile ◽  
Magaji G. Mohammed ◽  
Ada Gabriel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phospholipase A2 ◽  
Plant Extracts ◽  
Fibrinolytic Activity ◽  
Neglected Tropical Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
Mucuna Pruriens ◽  
Phytochemical Analysis ◽  
Mimosa Pudica ◽  
Health Organization

Background: The World Health Organization included snakebite envenomation among Neglected Tropical Diseases in 2017. The importance of natural products from plants is enormous, given that most prescribed drugs originate from plants. Among this is Mucuna pruriens and Mimosa pudica, with many registered patents asserting their health benefits. Objective: This study investigated the in vitro neutralizing effects of Mucuna pruriens seed and Mimosa pudica root extracts on venoms of Naja nigricollis and Bitis arietans. Methods: In mice, the LD50 and phytochemical analysis of M. pruriens and M. pudica plant extracts were carried out prior to the evaluation of their haemolytic and fibrinolytic effect. Their effects on the activities of phospholipase A2 (PLA2) were also assessed. Results: At a concentration of 50 mg/ml, both plant extracts were found to neutralize the fibrinolytic activity of N. nigricollis, but 400 mg/ml was required to neutralize the fibrinolytic activity of B. arietans. In haemolytic studies, 50 mg/ml concentration of M. pruriens extract suppressed haemolysis caused by N. nigricollis venom by 70% but at the same concentration, M. pudica extract reduced haemolysis by 49.4%. M. pruriens, at 50 mg/ml concentration, only inhibited phospholipase A2 activity by 7.7% but higher concentrations up to 400mg/ml had no effect against the venom of N. nigricollis; at 200 mg/ml. M. pudica extract inhibited PLA2 activity by 23%. Conclusion: The results suggest that M. pruriens and M. pudica may be considered as promising antivenom agents for people living in a snake-bite prone environment.

scholarly journals Perspectives in Peptide-Based Vaccination Strategies for Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concetta Di Natale ◽  
Sara La Manna ◽  
Ilaria De Benedictis ◽  
Paola Brandi ◽  
Daniela Marasco
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Severe Pneumonia ◽  
World Health ◽  
Primary Host ◽  
Viral Pathogen ◽  
Drug Candidates ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Spread Of Infection

At the end of December 2019, an epidemic form of respiratory tract infection now named COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China. It is caused by a newly identified viral pathogen, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which can cause severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. On January 30, 2020, due to the rapid spread of infection, COVID-19 was declared as a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. Coronaviruses are enveloped RNA viruses belonging to the family of Coronaviridae, which are able to infect birds, humans and other mammals. The majority of human coronavirus infections are mild although already in 2003 and in 2012, the epidemics of SARS-CoV and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), respectively, were characterized by a high mortality rate. In this regard, many efforts have been made to develop therapeutic strategies against human CoV infections but, unfortunately, drug candidates have shown efficacy only into in vitro studies, limiting their use against COVID-19 infection. Actually, no treatment has been approved in humans against SARS-CoV-2, and therefore there is an urgent need of a suitable vaccine to tackle this health issue. However, the puzzled scenario of biological features of the virus and its interaction with human immune response, represent a challenge for vaccine development. As expected, in hundreds of research laboratories there is a running out of breath to explore different strategies to obtain a safe and quickly spreadable vaccine; and among others, the peptide-based approach represents a turning point as peptides have demonstrated unique features of selectivity and specificity toward specific targets. Peptide-based vaccines imply the identification of different epitopes both on human cells and virus capsid and the design of peptide/peptidomimetics able to counteract the primary host-pathogen interaction, in order to induce a specific host immune response. SARS-CoV-2 immunogenic regions are mainly distributed, as well as for other coronaviruses, across structural areas such as spike, envelope, membrane or nucleocapsid proteins. Herein, we aim to highlight the molecular basis of the infection and recent peptide-based vaccines strategies to fight the COVID-19 pandemic including their delivery systems.

scholarly journals Development and Implementation of Wireless Multigas Concentration Cloud System

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Chung Tien ◽  
Robert Lin ◽  
Tsung-Yu Lee ◽  
Ren-Guey Lee ◽  
Shu-Ying Huang
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
Indoor Pollutants ◽  
Cloud Data ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Cloud Server ◽  
Volatile Organic ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Total Volatile Organic Compounds ◽  
Installation Cost

According to the report “Global Health Risks of 2004” issued by WHO (World Health Organization) in Geneva 2009 (WHO, 2012), the mortality rate of the diseases and cause of death which results from the smoke produced by burning solid fuel is ranked tenth, occupying 3.3% of the global amounts, and the DALYs (Disability Adjusted Life Years) is ranked the ninth, occupying 2.7% of the world. Once the pollution occurred in an insufficient ventilation location, the womankind and children will be the most directly affected; therefore, we hoped to focus the measurement environment on indoor surroundings in this paper. This paper proposes a pointing at several kinds of indoor pollutants and integrating multigas sensors, which includes carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide total volatile organic compounds, and so forth. Our paper combines gas sensors with WSN (Wireless Sensor Networks) nodes; we provide users with optional monitoring subjects for constructing and also adapt ZigBee and Wi-Fi modules to get united with uploading real-time sensor messages. Moreover, for the reason of decreasing installation cost of sensors and setting up easily, this paper builds a cloud data-viewing platform additionally, enabling users to observe air quality through the cloud server everywhere.

scholarly journals The International Criminal Court during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirad Abtahi
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
International Criminal Court ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
World Health ◽  
Business Continuity ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has taken a series of measures to ensure the continuation of its activities. To this effect, the Court has adjusted its proper administration both in Headquarters and Country Offices by moving to (partial) virtual offices mode. In so doing, the ICC has striven to ensure that staff well-being and business continuity go hand in hand. On this basis, the Court has worked towards the execution of its mandate, i.e. the prosecution and trial of individuals alleged to have committed one or more of the ICC Statute crimes. Against this background, the Court has had recourse to a combination of technological and sanitary measures in order to conduct pre-trial, trial and appeals proceedings in a fair and expeditious manner. These proceedings have ranged from the execution of arrest warrants and transfer of suspects to the Court’s custody through to the holding of hearings in the courtroom. By adapting itself to the evolving nature of COVID-19 — and reactions to the virus — the ICC will ensure that it remains resilient in the face of this unprecedented global sanitary crisis.

scholarly journals Virus-Like Particles: Applications in Reverse Vaccinology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustin De Ganzó ◽  
Mercedes Pastorini ◽  
Cristina Borio ◽  
Mario Lozano ◽  
Sandra Goñi
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Natural Infection ◽  
Reverse Vaccinology ◽  
World Health ◽  
In Vitro Production ◽  
Health Organization

Vaccination has been one of the most successful and the most significant scientific advances in human health and life expectancy all around the globe. The World Health Organization considers that immunization should be recognized as the main component of human health right, due to the fact that vaccination prevents 2.5 million deaths annually (World Health Organization, 2011). The most successful vaccines have been developed using conventional methods that follow the paradigm established by Pasteur: "to isolate, inactivate and inject" the pathogen microorganism and mimic a natural infection. Recently, metagenomics have played an important role in the discovery of new immunogens for vaccine design and the selection of antigens based on genomic information. The main approach that has used this strategy has been called "reverse vaccinology". This promising and arising field allows the screening of the entire potential antigenic repertoire of an organism using predictive bioinformatic tools. Once the antigenic protein or proteins have been selected, they are expressed and purified using molecular cloning and in vitro expression techniques. Following the in vitro production step, they are probed in animal models to evaluate the in vivo protective strength of the immune response. The main aim of this in vivo approach is to evaluate the ability of the immune response to eliminate or neutralize the pathogen at the time of infection. Those antigens capable of generate a specific immune response with neutralizing activity for natural infections are the best candidate vaccines. In this review we summarize the evolution of vaccinology since its inception, with special emphasis on the development of VLPs as vaccine platforms and their future in preventive medicine and we introduce a new recombinant platform for antigen presentation based on Junin virus VLPs (JUNV-VLPs).

scholarly journals The impact of immigration on tuberculosis and HIV burden between Colombia and Venezuela and across frontier regions

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson Enrique Arenas-Suarez ◽  
Laura I. Cuervo ◽  
Edier F. Avila ◽  
Alejandro Duitama-Leal ◽  
Andrea Clemencia Pineda-Peña
Keyword(s):  
Health Indicators ◽  
Multidrug Resistant ◽  
World Health ◽  
Migration Flow ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Nations Programme ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hiv Aids

Abstract: Historically, human migrations have determined the spread of many infectious diseases by promoting the emergence of temporal outbreaks between populations. We aimed to analyze health indicators, expenditure, and disability caused by tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS burden under the Colombian-Venezuelan migration flow focusing on the Northeastern border. A retrospective study was conducted using TB and HIV/AIDS data since 2009. We consolidated a database using official reports from the Colombian Surveillance System, World Health Organization, Indexmundi, the Global Health Observatory, IHME HIV atlas, and Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Disability metrics regarding DALYs (disability adjusted life years) and YLDs (years lived with disability), were compared between countries. Mapping was performed on ArcGIS using official migration data of Venezuelan citizens. Our results indicate that TB profiles from Colombia and Venezuela are identical in terms of disease burden, except for an increase in TB incidence in the Colombian-Venezuelan border departments in recent years, concomitantly with the massive Venezuelan immigration since 2005. We identified a four-fold underfunding for the TB program in Venezuela, which might explain the low-testing rates for cases of multidrug-resistant TB (67%) and HIV/AIDS (60%), as well as extended hospital stays (150 days). We found a significant increase in DALYs of HIV/AIDS patients in Venezuela, specifically, 362.35 compared to 265.37 observed in Colombia during 2017. This study suggests that the Venezuelan massive migration and program underfunding might exacerbate the dual burden of TB and HIV in Colombia, especially towards the Colombian‐Venezuelan border.

Global evidence generation

2020 ◽  
pp. 453-464
Author(s):  
Adesola Ogunniyi
Keyword(s):  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
World Health ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Special Mention ◽  
Global Burden Of Diseases ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Evidence Generation

Disparities in the distribution of neurological and mental health disorders (NMHD) in different regions of the world can provide clues on the putative risk factors while providing basis for intervention strategies. This chapter utilizes the Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) data and the disability adjusted life years (DALY) calculations in the different World Health Organization (WHO) regions to adduce reasons for the peculiarities observed. The focus is on the most common NMHD, particularly those for which preventive strategies are likely to result in improved health outcomes for the majority of those affected. In this regard, stroke, epilepsy, and depressive disorders have been given special attention because of their high societal impact and the extensive studies from different regions. Dementia deserves special mention in view of its looming epidemic in low and middle income countries (LMICs), while its burden is lessening in high income countries (HICs) due to appropriate interventions and higher education.

Viral alcoholic and fatty liver diseases

2021 ◽  
pp. 249-268
Author(s):  
Ehud Zigmond ◽  
Daniel Shouval
Keyword(s):  
Liver Disease ◽  
Fatty Liver ◽  
World Health ◽  
Major Health Problem ◽  
Alcoholic Fatty Liver ◽  
The Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Disability Adjusted Life ◽  
Life Years ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections, alcohol, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are major risk factors in the development of chronic liver disease (CLD), cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Various estimates have been proposed regarding the global prevalence of HBV and HCV carriers. According to a recent Polaris Observatory HCV Collaborators and the World Health Organization (WHO) burden estimates that 257 and 71 million people are living in the world with HBV and HCV infection, respectively, leading to an annual death from cirrhosis/liver failure and HCC of ~900,000 and ~400,000, respectively. Alcohol consumption, which is a major risk factor for CLD and HCC, is responsible for about 3.3 million deaths annually worldwide and for 5.1% of the global burden of disease as measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). In recent years NAFLD and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) associated with the metabolic syndrome, have captured the attention of hepatologists, public health experts, and the pharma industry alike. Indeed, the incidence of NAFLD and NASH and its complications including cirrhosis and HCC, is rising to epidemic proportions in the Western population, and constitute a major health problem worldwide.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document