Background & Aims: The homeostasis of the cellular transcriptome depends on transcription and splicing mechanisms. Moreover, the fidelity of gene expression, essential to preserve cellular identity and function is secured by different quality control mechanisms including nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD). In this context, alternative splicing is coupled to NMD, and several alterations in these mechanisms leading to the accumulation of aberrant gene isoforms are known to be involved in human disease including cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The current study aims to demonstrate independent associations between social, educational and health practice interventions as determinants of exclusive breastfeeding in an urban Ecuadorian population.
Design: Prospective survival analyses.
Setting: Ecuadorian mother-child dyads in urban settings.
In 2008, dengue virus serotype 4 (DENV-4) emerged in northeastern Peru, causing a large outbreak and displacing DENV-3, which had predominated for the previous 6 years. Phylogenetic analysis of 2008 and 2009 isolates support their inclusion into DENV-4 genotype II, forming a lineage distinct from strains that had previously circulated in the region.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrevious attempts to define dengue virus (DENV) tropism in human autopsy tissues have detected DENV antigens that are abundant in circulation during severe dengue, and thus may be present in uninfected cells. To better define DENV tropism, we performed immunostaining for the DENV2 nonstructural protein 3 (NS3) in humans and in a mouse model of DENV infection. In mice, NS3 was detected in phagocytes of the spleen and lymph node, hepatocytes in liver, and myeloid cells in bone marrow.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA phylogenetic approach was used to identify genetic variants of DENV-3 subtype III that may have emerged during or after its expansion throughout South America. We sequenced the capsid, premembrane/membrane and envelope genes from 22 DENV-3 strains isolated from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru between 2000 and 2005. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolates sequenced in this study formed three clades within subtype III: one with the isolates from Venezuela, one with the Bolivian isolates and one with the isolates from Ecuador and Peru.
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