Publications by authors named "Deirdre Ducken"
Melioidosis is an emerging tropical infection caused by inhalation, inoculation, or ingestion of the flagellated, facultatively intracellular pathogen . The melioidosis case fatality rate is often high, and pneumonia, the most common presentation, doubles the risk of death. The alveolar macrophage is a sentinel pulmonary host defense cell, but the human alveolar macrophage in infection has never been studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelioidosis is an often-severe tropical infection caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei (Bp) with high associated morbidity and mortality. Burkholderia thailandensis (Bt) is a closely related surrogate that does not require BSL-3 conditions for study. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding glycoprotein that can modulate the innate inflammatory response.
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- Melioidosis, caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, is a severe infection common in Southeast Asia, leading to high mortality rates, making it crucial to identify patients at risk of worsened health.
- Researchers developed a model using specific cytokines (interleukin-6 and interleukin-8) alongside clinical variables to predict 28-day mortality in hospitalized patients with melioidosis.
- The biomarker-based model significantly outperformed clinical-only models in predicting mortality risk, suggesting that integrating biomarkers can enhance patient management and resource allocation.
Background: Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are sentinel receptors of the innate immune system. TLR4 detects bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and TLR5 detects bacterial flagellin. A common human nonsense polymorphism, TLR5:c.
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- Melioidosis is a serious infectious disease caused by Burkholderia pseudomallei, often leading to sepsis, particularly in Southeast Asia.
- Researchers studied the relationship between TLR1 gene variants and outcomes in Thai patients with different severities of melioidosis, finding that specific variants, particularly rs76600635, are linked to severe illness and increased risk of mortality.
- The study highlights the potential importance of the TLR1 variant in understanding severe melioidosis outcomes, suggesting further investigation is necessary since this variant hasn't been extensively studied in the broader context of sepsis.
Anaplasma marginale is a tick-borne rickettsial pathogen of cattle with a worldwide distribution. Currently a safe and efficacious vaccine is unavailable. Outer membrane protein (OMP) extracts or a defined surface protein complex reproducibly induce protective immunity.
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