What Is New in Glaucoma: From Treatment to Biological Perspectives

Glaucoma is a chronic silent disease and an irreversible cause of blindness worldwide. Research has made many efforts to improve disease control and especially to anticipate both early diagnosis and treatment of advanced stages of glaucoma. In terms of prevention, networking between professionals and nonprofessionals is an important goal to disseminate information and help diagnose the disease early. On the other hand, the most recent approaches to treat glaucoma outcomes in its advanced stages include electrical stimulation, stem cells, exosomes, extracellular vesicles, and growth factors. Finally, neuronal plasticity-based rehabilitation methods are being studied to reeducate patients in order to stimulate their residual visual capacity. This review provides an overview of new approaches to future possible glaucoma treatment modalities and gives insight into the perspectives available nowadays in this field.

Using PRRSV-Resilient Sows Improve Performance in Endemic Infected Farms with Recurrent Outbreaks

The selection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) resilient sows has been proposed as a strategy to control this disease. A discrete event-based simulation model was developed to mimic the outcome of farms with resilient or susceptible sows suffering recurrent PRRSV outbreaks. Records of both phenotypes were registered in a PRRSV-positive farm of 1500 sows during three years. The information was split in the whole period of observation to include a PRRSV outbreak that lasted 24 weeks (endemic/epidemic or En/Ep) or only the endemic phase (En). Twenty simulations were modeled for each farm: Resilient/En, Resilient/En_Ep, Susceptible/En, and Susceptible/En_Ep during twelve years and analyzed for the productive performance and economic outcome, using reference values. The reproductive parameters were generally better for resilient than for susceptible sows in the PRRSV En/Ep scenario, and the contrary was observed in the endemic case. The piglet production cost was always lower for resilient than for susceptible sows but showed only significant differences in the PRRSV En/Ep scenario. Finally, the annual gross margin by sow is significantly better for resilient than for susceptible sows for the PRRSV endemic (12%) and endemic/epidemic scenarios (17%). Thus, the selection of PRRSV resilient sows is a profitable approach for producers to improve disease control.

Toxicity of two groups of pesticides against the mosquito Aedes aegypti

The mosquito Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) (Diptera: Culicidae) is a vector for several pathogens that affect human health worldwide. Therefore, mosquito control is the best approach to prevent disease outbreaks. In this milieu, it is preferable to evaluate the effectiveness of chemical pesticides at regular intervals to identify the most effective ones and use them during the outbreaks of diseases and spread of pests. Here, we aimed to study the toxicity of six pesticides, which are classified under two groups, namely pyrethroids and organophosphates, against A. aegypti mosquitoes to improve disease control in Saudi Arabia. Hortak was the most effective in larval mosquito control (LC50 = 0.0031 ppm), followed by Aquapal Super 20 EW (LC50 = 0.0389 ppm), whereas Solfac was the least effective (LC50 = 0.1119 ppm). In addition, the sensitivity of the tested larvae to Safrotin and Keen 600 EC was 8.1 and 58.9 times higher than that to Resfin-5, which was the least effective, respectively. Hortak and Safrotin exhibited the highest toxicity against the larvae of A. aegypti. Our findings confirm that the tested pesticides can be used in mosquito-control programs during epidemic outbreaks and emergency.

Administration of Defective Virus Inhibits Dengue Transmission into Mosquitoes

The host-vector shuttle and the bottleneck in dengue transmission is a significant aspect with regard to the study of dengue outbreaks. As mosquitoes require 100–1000 times more virus to become infected than human, the transmission of dengue virus from human to mosquito is a vulnerability that can be targeted to improve disease control. In order to capture the heterogeneity in the infectiousness of an infected patient population towards the mosquito population, we calibrate a population of host-to-vector virus transmission models based on an experimentally quantified infected fraction of a mosquito population. Once the population of models is well-calibrated, we deploy a population of controls that helps to inhibit the human-to-mosquito transmission of the dengue virus indirectly by reducing the viral load in the patient body fluid. We use an optimal bang-bang control on the administration of the defective virus (transmissible interfering particles (TIPs)) to symptomatic patients in the course of their febrile period and observe the dynamics in successful reduction of dengue spread into mosquitoes.

Tactics of primary care physician in the management of patients with asthma in accordance with the latest changes in international and national guidelines

The article addresses to changes in the management of patients with bronchial asthma in accordance with international and national recommendations of 2019. The new management strategy for patients with mild asthma, the rejection of short-acting 2-agonist (SABA) reliever medication monotherapy in favor of an anti-inflammatory bronchodilator drug will improve disease control, patient compliance, reduce the risk of severe exacerbations and death. The use of the algorithm for diagnosing and management asthma by primary care physicians, developed by experts of the Russian Respiratory Society and the Russian Association of Allergologists and Clinical Immunologists, will reduce the time for diagnosing asthma, timely and correctly prescribe anti-inflammatory therapy and control the course of the disease.

Administration of defective virus inhibits dengue transmission into mosquitoes

The host-vector shuttle and the bottleneck in dengue transmission is a significant aspect with regard to the study of dengue outbreaks. As mosquitoes require 100-1000 times more virus to become infected than human, the transmission of dengue virus from human to mosquito is a vulnerability that can be targeted to improve disease control. In order to capture the heterogeneity in the infectiousness of an infected patient population towards the mosquito pool, we calibrate a population of host-to-vector virus transmission models based on an experimentally quantified infected fraction of a mosquito population. Once the population of models is well-calibrated, we deploy a population of controls that helps to inhibit the human-to-mosquito transmission of the dengue virus indirectly by reducing the viral load in the patient body fluid. We use an optimal bang-bang control on the administration of the defective virus (transmissible interfering particles, known as TIPs) to symptomatic patients in the course of their febrile period and observe the dynamics in successful reduction of dengue spread into mosquitoes.