Cytokine profile of anti-spike CD4T cells predicts humoral and CD8T cell responses after anti-SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination.

Coordinating immune responses - humoral and cellular - is vital for protection against severe Covid-19. Our study evaluates a multicytokine CD4T cell signature's predictive for post-vaccinal serological and CD8T cell responses. A cytokine signature composed of four cytokines (IL-2, TNF-α, IP10, IL-9) excluding IFN-γ, and generated through machine learning, effectively predicted the CD8T cell response following mRNA-1273 or BNT162b2 vaccine administration.

Assessing the construct validity of a theory of mind battery adapted to Tunisian school-aged children.

Background: Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the ability to understand others' states of mind, desires, emotions, beliefs, and intentions to predict the content of their mental representations. Two major dimensions within ToM have been studied. The first is the type of inferred mental state, which can be cognitive or affective.

The Impacts of Ramadan Intermittent Fasting on Saliva Flow-Rate and Metabolic Data: A Systematic Review.

The aim of this systematic review was to report the impacts of Ramadan intermittent fasting (RIF) on salivary flow-rate (SFR) and metabolic parameters. A thorough literature search was carried out using the databases and from their inception up to 15 July 2021. The Boolean connectors used in were (Saliva [Mesh] AND Fasting [Mesh]).

Extraoral exanthem revealing Gianotti-Crosti syndrome in a young child: A case report.

We reported a case of a 14-month-old girl with erythematous and papulovesicular pink to red lesions on the face, the upper and the lower limbs. The history and the morphological features confirmed the diagnosis of Gianotti-Crosti syndrome.

Survey on Tunisian Dentists' Anti-Inflammatory Drugs' Prescription in Dental Practice.

Dentists prescribe several types of drugs such as anti-inflammatory medicines in their practice in order to manage pain. An adequate knowledge of anti-inflammatory drugs' characteristics is mandatory for a reasonable prescription to ensure patients safety. The study aimed to describe dentists' anti-inflammatory drugs prescription in dental practice.

NLRP3 is involved in long bone edification and the maturation of osteogenic cells.

Overexpression of the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in chronic auto-immune diseases leads to skeletal anomalies, with severe osteopenia due to the activation of osteoclasts. Reproducing this phenotype in Nlrp3 knock-in mice has provided insights into the role of NLRP3 in bone metabolism. We studied the role of NLRP3 in physiological bone development using a complete Nlrp3 knock-out mouse model.

Recurrent Oral Mucocele Management with Diode Laser.

Background: Mucocele is the most common minor salivary glands disease. Its management may present a challenge for dental professionals. The aim of the present clinical case was to describe mucocele treatment with diode laser and its benefits.

Interleukin-22 regulates interferon lambda expression in a mice model of pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia.

Background: Interleukin (IL)-22 is a cytokine involved in tissue protection and repair following lung pathologies. Interferon (IFN)-λ cytokines displayed similar properties during viral infection and a synergy of action between these two players has been documented in the intestine. We hypothesize that during Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge, IL-22 up-regulates IFN-λ and that IFN-λ exhibits protective functions during Pseudomonas aeruginosa acute pneumonia model in mice.

Interleukin-22 level is negatively correlated with neutrophil recruitment in the lungs in a Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia model.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a major threat for immune-compromised patients. Bacterial pneumonia can induce uncontrolled and massive neutrophil recruitment ultimately leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome and epithelium damage. Interleukin-22 plays a central role in the protection of the epithelium.

Hyperinvasive Meningococci Induce Intra-nuclear Cleavage of the NF-κB Protein p65/RelA by Meningococcal IgA Protease.

Differential modulation of NF-κB during meningococcal infection is critical in innate immune response to meningococcal disease. Non-invasive isolates of Neisseria meningitidis provoke a sustained NF-κB activation in epithelial cells. However, the hyperinvasive isolates of the ST-11 clonal complex (ST-11) only induce an early NF-κB activation followed by a sustained activation of JNK and apoptosis.

Biomedical image analysis using Markov random fields & efficient linear programing.

Computer-aided diagnosis through biomedical image analysis is increasingly considered in health sciences. This is due to the progress made on the acquisition side, as well as on the processing one. In vivo visualization of human tissues where one can determine both anatomical and functional information is now possible.

Clustering of the human skeletal muscle fibers using linear programming and angular Hilbertian metrics.

In this paper, we present a manifold clustering method fo the classification of fibers obtained from diffusion tensor images (DTI) of the human skeletal muscle. Using a linear programming formulation of prototype-based clustering, we propose a novel fiber classification algorithm over manifolds that circumvents the necessity to embed the data in low dimensional spaces and determines automatically the number of clusters. Furthermore, we propose the use of angular Hilbertian metrics between multivariate normal distributions to define a family of distances between tensors that we generalize to fibers.

Survival of Vibrio alginolyticus in seawater and retention of virulence of its starved cells.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the survival responses of four strains of Vibrio alginolyticus in seawater under starvation conditions. We used microcosms containing sterilised seawater and incubated at ambient temperature (22-25 degrees C). V.

Virulence and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR of Vibrio alginolyticus strains isolated from Tunisian cultured gilthead sea bream and sea bass outbreaks.

Vibrio alginolyticus was isolated from the internal organs of diseased gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) and sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) cultured in two fish farms located on the Tunisian Mediterranean coast, from 2003 to 2005. After phenotypic characterisation, a selection of 34 isolates from gilthead sea bream and sea bass were molecularly typed by repetitive intergenic consensus PCR (ERIC-PCR) showing a high polymorphism among the isolated strains (19 genotypes). Most of the isolates were resistant to atleast two antimicrobial agents.

[Infantile visceral leishmaniasis: difficult diagnosis in cases complicated by hemophagocytosis].

Background: Hemophagocytosis has already been reported in cases of visceral leishmaniasis and thus may complicate search for diagnosis.

Case Report: A previously healthy 2 year-old boy was referred for fever and splenomegaly with pancytopenia. An initial diagnosis of kala-azar was refuted because of absence of biological inflammatory syndrome, negativity of bone-marrow aspiration and splenic ponction and of specific serology.

[Imerslund-Najman-Grasbeck anemia. Apropos of a case].

Imerslund-Najman-Grasbeck disease is a rare inherited megaloblastic anaemia secondary to a selective malabsorption of vitamin B12 by ileal enterocytes. The authors report on a 4 year-old tunisian girl who presented as visceral infantile leishmaniasis because of huge splenomegaly and major anaemia. The diagnosis of Imerslund disease was performed on the basis of the association of typical megaloblastic cells in the marrow, permanent proteinuria and favourable outcome under parenteral B12 administration.

[Infantile cystinosis. A new Tunisian case].

A case of cystinosis in a three and a half-year-old is reported. Suggestive manifestations included severe rickets, small stature, and complex renal tubule dysfunction meeting the criteria for secondary Fanconi syndrome. Diagnosis was established by the discovery of retinal lesions upon ophtalmologic evaluation and, above all, by the finding that intracellular leukocyte cystine levels were increased to 16 mumol of 1/2 cystine per gram protein.