Empowering Veterinarians to Be Planetary Health Stewards Through Policy and Practice.

Veterinarians are established public health professionals, committing to promote public health when they take their veterinary oath. The issue of climate change and its impact on planetary health is vital to public health, and therefore, it is critical that climate change is regarded as within the veterinary scope of practice. However, climate change is a multi-faceted issue which requires interdisciplinary collaboration and integrated stakeholder involvement in order to establish effective solutions and impactful policies.

Lactate Metabolism and Signaling in Tuberculosis and Cancer: A Comparative Review.

Infection with (Mtb) leading to tuberculosis (TB) disease continues to be a major global health challenge. Critical barriers, including but not limited to the development of multi-drug resistance, lack of diagnostic assays that detect patients with latent TB, an effective vaccine that prevents Mtb infection, and infectious and non-infectious comorbidities that complicate active TB, continue to hinder progress toward a TB cure. To complement the ongoing development of new antimicrobial drugs, investigators in the field are exploring the value of host-directed therapies (HDTs).

Metformin enhances protection in guinea pigs chronically infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic inflammatory disease that is often associated with alterations in systemic and cellular metabolism that resolves following successful antimicrobial drug treatment. We hypothesized that altered systemic glucose metabolism as a consequence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, contributes to TB pathogenesis, and when normalized with anti-glycemic drugs would improve clinical outcomes. To test this hypothesis, guinea pigs were treated daily with the anti-diabetic drug metformin starting 4 weeks prior or concurrent with aerosol exposure to the H37Rv strain of Mtb.

Host-directed therapy targeting the Mycobacterium tuberculosis granuloma: a review.

Infection by the intracellular bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Slow progress has been made in lessening the impact of tuberculosis (TB) on human health, especially in parts of the world where Mtb is endemic. Due to the complexity of TB disease, there is still an urgent need to improve diagnosis, prevention, and treatment strategies to control global spread of disease.