scholarly journals Vector-borne zoonotic blood parasites in wildlife from Ecuador: A report and systematic review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1935-1945
Author(s):  
Eduardo Diaz ◽  
Anahi Hidalgo ◽  
Carla Villamarin ◽  
Gustavo Donoso ◽  
Veronica Barragan

Background and Aim: Ecuador is a hugely diverse country, but information on infectious diseases in local wild animals is scarce. The aim of this study was to screen the presence of blood parasites in free-ranging wild animals admitted to the Wildlife Hospital at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, from April 2012 to January 2019. Materials and Methods: We identified blood parasites by microscopic observation of blood smears from free-ranging wildlife species that attended the Wildlife Hospital of Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador) from April 2012 to January 2019. Results: The microscopic evaluations of animals as potential reservoirs for vector-borne zoonotic blood parasites revealed the presence of Anaplasma spp., Babesia spp., Ehrlichia spp., Hepatozoon spp., microfilaria, Mycoplasma spp., and Trypanosoma spp. in previously unreported wildlife species. In addition, we performed a systematic review to understand the current knowledge gaps in the context of these findings. Conclusion: Our data contribute to the knowledge of blood parasites in wildlife from Ecuador. Furthermore, the potential transmission of these parasites to humans and domestic animals, current anthropogenic environmental changes in the region, and the lack of information on this suggest the importance of our results and warrant further investigations on infectious diseases in animals and humans and their relationship with environmental health as key domains of the One Health concept.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 99 ◽  
Author(s):  
MarliC Cupertino ◽  
MichelyB Resende ◽  
NicholasAJ Mayer ◽  
LorendaneM Carvalho ◽  
Rodrigo Siqueira-Batista

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-192
Author(s):  
Samantha Bedell ◽  
Janine Hutson ◽  
Barbra de Vrijer ◽  
Genevieve Eastabrook

: Obesity and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) are becoming more common among pregnant women worldwide and are individually associated with a number of placenta-mediated obstetric complications, including preeclampsia, macrosomia, intrauterine growth restriction and stillbirth. The placenta serves several functions throughout pregnancy and is the main exchange site for the transfer of nutrients and gas from mother to fetus. In pregnancies complicated by maternal obesity or GDM, the placenta is exposed to environmental changes, such as increased inflammation and oxidative stress, dyslipidemia, and altered hormone levels. These changes can affect placental development and function and lead to abnormal fetal growth and development as well as metabolic and cardiovascular abnormalities in the offspring. This review aims to summarize current knowledge on the effects of obesity and GDM on placental development and function. Understanding these processes is key in developing therapeutic interventions with the goal of mitigating these effects and preventing future cardiovascular and metabolic pathology in subsequent generations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles James ◽  
Catherine Walshe ◽  
Katherine Froggatt

Abstract Background The knowledge about the experience of informal caregivers who provide care to people with moderate to advanced dementia in a domestic home setting is limited. A consequence of long hours of caregiving in addition to dealing with normal challenges of daily living is their experience of a poor quality of life. Some of their experiences may be described in terms of a feeling of powerlessness to make changes during care provision. This feeling may also suggest an experience of moral distress. The aim of this systematic review is to synthesise qualitative evidence relating to these experiences. Methods This review adopts a narrative synthesis approach. A search will be conducted for studies written in the English language in the bibliographic databases MEDLINE Complete, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Academic Search Complete covering periods from 1984 to present. Included studies will be qualitative or mixed-methods designs. The search terms will be related to dementia and caregivers, and the process will be focused on dementia at the moderate to the advanced stages within the domestic home setting. Reference lists of included papers will also be searched for additional relevant citations. Search terms and strategies will be checked by two independent reviewers. The identification of abstracts and full texts of studies will be done by the author, while the quality and the risk of bias will also be checked by the two independent reviewers. Discussion Psychological distress is cited as an experience reported within informal caregiving. For the caregiver, it is associated with a negative impact on general health. To date, no synthesis exists on the specific experience of informal caregiving for people with moderate to advanced dementia within the domestic home setting. This review considers that variation of accounts contributes to how the informal caregivers’ general experience is explored in future research. This may enable gaps in current knowledge to be highlighted within the wider context of caregiving in the domestic home setting. Systematic review registration This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42020183649).


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
Patience O. Obi ◽  
Jennifer E. Kent ◽  
Maya M. Jeyaraman ◽  
Nicole Askin ◽  
Taiana M. Pierdoná ◽  
...  

Asthma is the most common pediatric disease, characterized by chronic airway inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. There are several management options for asthma, but no specific treatment. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are powerful cellular mediators of endocrine, autocrine and paracrine signalling, and can modulate biophysiological function in vitro and in vivo. A thorough investigation of therapeutic effects of EVs in asthma has not been conducted. Therefore, this systematic review is designed to synthesize recent literature on the therapeutic effects of EVs on physiological and biological outcomes of asthma in pre-clinical studies. An electronic search of Web of Science, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Scopus will be conducted on manuscripts published in the last five years that adhere to standardized guidelines for EV research. Grey literature will also be included. Two reviewers will independently screen the selected studies for title and abstract, and full text based on the eligibility criteria. Data will be extracted, narratively synthesized and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. This systematic review will summarize the current knowledge from preclinical studies investigating the therapeutic effects of EVs on asthma. The results will delineate whether EVs can mitigate biological hallmarks of asthma, and if so, describe the underlying mechanisms involved in the process. This insight is crucial for identifying key pathways that can be targeted to alleviate the burden of asthma. The data will also reveal the origin, dosage and biophysical characteristics of beneficial EVs. Overall, our results will provide a scaffold for future intervention and translational studies on asthma treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongge Guo ◽  
Jianan Ding ◽  
Heng Liu ◽  
Lin Zhou ◽  
Jiang Feng ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Why a variety of social animals emit foraging-associated calls during group foraging remains an open question. These vocalizations may be used to recruit conspecifics to food patches (i.e. food advertisement hypothesis) or defend food resources against competitors (food defence hypothesis), presumably depending on food availability. Insectivorous bats rely heavily on vocalizations for navigation, foraging, and social interactions. In this study, we used free-ranging big-footed myotis (Myotis macrodactylus Temminck, 1840) to test whether social calls produced in a foraging context serve to advertise food patches or to ward off food competitors. Using a combination of acoustic recordings, playback experiments with adult females and dietary monitoring (light trapping and DNA metabarcoding techniques), we investigated the relationship between insect availability and social vocalizations in foraging bats. Results The big-footed myotis uttered low-frequency social calls composed of 7 syllable types during foraging interactions. Although the dietary composition of bats varied across different sampling periods, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Trichoptera were the most common prey consumed. The number of social vocalizations was primarily predicted by insect abundance, insect species composition, and echolocation vocalizations from conspecifics. The number of conspecific echolocation pulses tended to decrease following the emission of most social calls. Feeding bats consistently decreased foraging attempts and food consumption during playbacks of social calls with distinctive structures compared to control trials. The duration of flight decreased 1.29–1.96 fold in the presence of social calls versus controls. Conclusions These results support the food defence hypothesis, suggesting that foraging bats employ social calls to engage in intraspecific food competition. This study provides correlative evidence for the role of insect abundance and diversity in influencing the emission of social calls in insectivorous bats. Our findings add to the current knowledge of the function of social calls in echolocating bats.


Cytokine ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 155506
Author(s):  
Tamara Diesch ◽  
Cornelia Filippi ◽  
Nora Fritschi ◽  
Andreas Filippi ◽  
Nicole Ritz

Author(s):  
Sharanagouda S. Patil ◽  
Rajamani Shinduja ◽  
Kuralayanapalya Puttahonnappa Suresh ◽  
Sulekha Phukan ◽  
Sachin Kumar ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Navin Kumar ◽  
Kamila Janmohamed ◽  
Kate Nyhan ◽  
Laura Forastiere ◽  
Wei-Hong Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Global responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed and exacerbated existing socioeconomic and health inequities that disproportionately affect the sexual health and well-being of many populations, including people of color, ethnic minority groups, women, and sexual and gender minority populations. Although there have been several reviews published on COVID-19 and health disparities across various populations, none has focused on sexual health. We plan to conduct a scoping review that seeks to fill several of the gaps in the current knowledge of sexual health in the COVID-19 era. Methods A scoping review focusing on sexual health and COVID-19 will be conducted. We will search (from January 2020 onwards) CINAHL, Africa-Wide Information, Web of Science Core Collection, Embase, Gender Studies Database, Gender Watch, Global Health, WHO Global Literature on Coronavirus Disease Database, WHO Global Index Medicus, PsycINFO, MEDLINE, and Sociological Abstracts. Grey literature will be identified using Disaster Lit, Google Scholar, governmental websites, and clinical trials registries (e.g., ClinicalTrial.gov, World Health Organization, International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Registry). Study selection will conform to the Joanna Briggs Institute Reviewers’ Manual 2015 Methodology for JBI Scoping Reviews. Only English language, original studies will be considered for inclusion. Two reviewers will independently screen all citations, full-text articles, and abstract data. A narrative summary of findings will be conducted. Data analysis will involve quantitative (e.g., frequencies) and qualitative (e.g., content and thematic analysis) methods. Discussion Original research is urgently needed to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 on sexual health. The planned scoping review will help to address this gap. Systematic review registrations Systematic Review Registration: Open Science Framework osf/io/PRX8E


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yemataw Gelaw ◽  
Zegeye Getaneh ◽  
Mulugeta Melku

Abstract Background Tuberculosis is a major public health problem caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, occurring predominantly in population with low socioeconomic status. It is the second most common cause of death from infectious diseases. Tuberculosis becomes a double burden among anemic patients. Anemia increases an individual’s susceptibility to infectious diseases including tuberculosis by reducing the immunity level. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether anemia is a risk factor for tuberculosis. Method Relevant published articles were searched in electronic databases like PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library using the following MeSH terms: risk factor, predictors, tuberculosis, TB, Anaemia, Anemia, hemoglobin, Hgb, and Hb. Articles written in the English, observational studies conducted on the incidence/prevalence of tuberculosis among anemic patients, or papers examined anemia as risk factors for tuberculosis were included. From those studies meeting eligibility criteria, the first author’s name, publication year, study area, sample size and age of participants, study design, and effect measure of anemia for tuberculosis were extracted. The data were entered using Microsoft Excel and exported to Stata version 11 for analysis. The random-effects model was applied to estimate the pooled OR and HR, and 95% CI. The sources of heterogeneity were tested by Cochrane I-squared statistics. The publication bias was assessed using Egger’s test statistics. Results A total of 17 articles with a 215,294 study participants were included in the analysis. The odd of tuberculosis among anemic patients was 3.56 (95% CI 2.53–5.01) times higher than non-anemic patients. The cohort studies showed that the HR of tuberculosis was 2.01 (95% CI 1.70–2.37) times higher among anemic patients than non-anemic patients. The hazard of tuberculosis also increased with anemia severity (HR 1.37 (95% CI 0.92–2.05), 2.08 (95% CI 1.14–3.79), and 2.66 (95% CI 1.71–4.13) for mild, moderate, and severe anemia, respectively). Conclusion According to the current systematic review and meta-analysis, we can conclude that anemia was a risk factor for tuberculosis. Therefore, anemia screening, early diagnose, and treatment should be provoked in the community to reduce the burden of tuberculosis.


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