Tuberculosis

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) prevalence substantially increased over the past two decades with relatively high impact on large dairy herds, raising the concern of regulatory authorities and industry stakeholders, and threatening animal and public health. Lack of resources, together with the economic and social consequences of whole-herd stamping-out, makes depopulation an impractical disease control alternative in these herds. The increase in bTB-prevalence was associated with demographic and management changes in the dairy industry in Uruguay, reducing the efficacy of the current control program (i...

Numerous infectious diseases impacting livestock impose an important economic burden, and in some cases also represent a threat to humans and are classified as zoonoses. Some zoonotic diseases are transmitted by vectors and, due to complex environmental and socio-ecconomic factors, the distribution of many of these pathogens is changing, with increasing numbers being found in previously unaffected countries. Here, we developed a multiplex assay, based on a suspension microarray, able to detect specific antibodies to five important pathogens of livestock (three of them zoonotic) that are currently emerging in new geographical locations: Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), Schmallenberg virus (SBV), Bluetongue virus (BTV) and the bacteria complex Mycobacterium tuberculosis...

BACKGROUND: Toxoplasmosis causes serious and sometimes life-threatening disease in immunocompromised patients like organ transplant recipients, immunodeficiency disorders or HIV-infected individuals. The co-occurrence of toxoplasmosis in a respiratory sample harboring tuberculosis (TB) may be missed especially in an area endemic for the latter infection. CASE REPORT: A 10-year-old child presented with complaints of fever with loss of appetite and weight. Based on radiological and clinical features, a presumptive diagnosis of pulmonary TB was made and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) performed for cytological and microbiological confirmation...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of patients with newly diagnosed advanced lung cancer who initially presented with respiratory failure. METHODS: This was a retrospective study which analyzed patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) with newly diagnosed advanced lung cancer who were placed on mechanical ventilation (MV). We defined newly diagnosed lung cancer as pathological or molecular results for treatment decisions not yet determined when the patient was admitted to ICU...

BACKGROUND: Plasma chemokines are biomarkers of greater disease severity, higher bacterial burden and delayed sputum culture conversion in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Whether plasma chemokines could also serve as biomarkers of unfavorable treatment outcomes in PTB is not known. METHODS: A cohort of newly diagnosed, sputum smear and culture positive adult individuals with drug-sensitive PTB were recruited under the Effect of diabetes on Tuberculosis Severity study in Chennai, India...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) natural history remains poorly characterised and new investigations are impossible as it would be unethical to follow up TB patients without treatment. METHODS: We considered the reports identified in a previous systematic review of studies from the pre-chemotherapy era, and extracted detailed data on mortality over time. We used a Bayesian framework to estimate the rates of TB-induced mortality and self-cure. A hierarchical model was employed to allow estimates to vary by cohort...

Rigorous assessment of the cellular and molecular changes during infection typically requires isolation of specific immune cell subsets for downstream application. While there are numerous options for enrichment/isolation of cells from tissues, fluorescent activated cell sorting (FACS) is accepted as a method that results in superior purification of a wide variety of cell types. Flow cytometry requires extensive fluidics and aerosol droplets can be generated during collection of target cells. Pathogens such as Francisella tularensis , Mycobacterium tuberculosis , Yersinia pestis , and SARS-CoV-2 require manipulation at biosafety level-3 (BSL-3)...

Background: The 3-month difference in turnaround time between Xpert and conventional phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (pDST) causes patient treatment challenges when pDST rifampin (RIF) susceptibility results and earlier Xpert results disagree, resulting in unnecessary tuberculosis (TB) patient exposure to toxic second-line drugs. Here, the prevalence of discordant RIF susceptibility test results, specifically Xpert (resistant) vs pDST (susceptible) results, was determined. Methods: Tuberculosis patients enrolled between January 2015 and June 2018 at Beijing Chest Hospital who consecutively tested positive for RIF resistance using Xpert then negative using pDST were studied...

Posterior fixation is superior to anterior fixation in the correction of kyphosis and maintenance of spinal stability for the treatment of thoracic spinal tuberculosis. However, the process of selecting the appropriate spinal fixation method remains controversial, and preoperative biomechanical evaluation has not yet been investigated. In this study, we aimed to analyze the application of the assisted finite element analysis (FEA) and the three-dimensional (3D) printed model for the patient-specific preoperative planning of thoracic spinal tuberculosis...

Introduction Pneumonia severity index (PSI) is a prognostic index used for estimating the possibility of death due to community-acquired pneumonia. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, essential for calcium and phosphate homeostasis. Vitamin D also has antimicrobial properties and according to recent studies, its deficiency may be correlated to an increased frequency of respiratory infections. The serum concentration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) is the best vitamin D status index reflecting vitamin D produced in the skin and offered from food and dietary supplements...

Tuberculosis is highly infectious and has a high incidence worldwide. Therefore, effective treatment is essential for the disease. The immune function and inflammatory factors can reflect the therapeutic effect of pulmonary tuberculosis to some extent. Thus, the aim of the present study was to investigate the clinical effect of vitamin D supplementation on pulmonary tuberculosis patients and its influence on the expression of immune cells and inflammatory factors in patients. A total of 256 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis who were admitted to our hospital were collected as research participants; 120 patients who were treated with conventional antituberculosis drugs were taken as a control group (CG) and 136 patients who were treated with vitamin D-assisted antituberculosis drugs were taken as the research group (RG)...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.00910.].

Components of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) envelope such as lipoproteins, lypoglycans, lipids, and glycolipids act as Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns and/or antigens, hence contributing in different ways to the bacillus recognition, phagocytosis, and to immune responses modulation. However, Mtb envelope components are not only encountered at the bacillus-host direct contact but can act remotely from the bacillus envelope. Indeed, they are also released from the bacillus envelope and are detected in different compartments such as the infected cells endosomal compartments or in extracellular vesicles produced by the bacillus itself or by infected cells...

Galectin-9 (Gal-9) and osteopontin (OPN) play immunomodulatory roles in tuberculosis and HIV infections. Evaluation of their levels as well as their interplay with different pro-inflammatory cytokines is critical to understand their role in immunopathogenesis of HIV/tuberculosis co-infection considering the complexity of the disease. Plasma levels of these proteins were measured by ELISAs in HIV-negative individuals with pulmonary ( n = 21), extrapulmonary ( n = 33), and latent tuberculosis ( n = 22) and in HIV infected patients with pulmonary ( n = 14), latent tuberculosis ( n = 17), and without tuberculosis ( n = 41)...

Autophagy is a lysosomal self-digestion pathway that maintains internal homeostasis inside cells and critical process by which the innate immune system eliminates intracellular bacteria. In this study, we showed that stimulation of toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) with imiquimod (IMQ) triggered autophagic cell death in macrophages by enhancing the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via the p38- or MEK/ERK1/2-mediated signaling pathway in the early phase. IMQ significantly increased mitochondrial ROS and targeted autophagosomes to the mitochondria...

Smoking is relevant to infectious diseases resulting in increased prevalence and mortality. In this article, we aim to provide an overview of the effects of smoking in various infections and to explain the potential mechanisms. We searched PubMed and other relevant databases for scientific studies that explored the relationship between smoking and infection. The mechanisms of susceptibility to infection in smokers may include alteration of the structural, functional and immunologic host defences. Smoking is one of the main risk factors for infections in the respiratory tract, digestive tract, reproductive tract, and other systems in humans, increasing the prevalence of HIV, tuberculosis, SARS-CoV, and the current SARS-CoV-2...

Background: Malnutrition continues to be a public health challenge in sub-Saharan African countries. In Ethiopia, there is a paucity of data regarding factors affecting treatment outcomes in children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted among children aged 6 to 59 months with SAM, receiving care at Jimma University Medical center, Ethiopia. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were computed to determine factors associated with treatment outcomes...

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of preoperative ultra-short-course chemotherapy, combined with surgical treatment for chest wall tuberculosis and summarize our experience in this regard, to provide a reference for national and international clinicians. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of the clinical data, preoperative anti-tuberculosis duration, and postoperative recurrence rate in 263 patients with chest wall tuberculosis spanning 5 years...

Background: The health-seeking preference of people with a cough >2 weeks had not been extensively researched in southeast China. The study aimed to explore factors associated with health-seeking preference, which could provide more evidence to improve individuals' appropriate health-seeking behavior. Materials and Methods: From October 2018 to December 2018, this cross-sectional study was conducted in Zhejiang, China. A questionnaire was used to collect information on sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge of tuberculosis (TB), and health-seeking preference...

Purpose: Medication nonadherence is one of the most significant obstacles to tuberculosis (TB) control worldwide. Identification of the factors associated with medication nonadherence is important. However, few related studies have been carried out in Tibet. This study aimed to explore factors influencing medication nonadherence to pulmonary TB (PTB) treatment in Tibet, China, from the patient perspective. Patients and Methods: In this qualitative study, seventeen PTB patients in Tibet were recruited by purposive and maximum variation sampling methods...