Kidney failure amongst Irish Travellers.

Background: The occurrence of Kidney Failure with Replacement Therapy (KFRT) amongst Irish Travellers has not been well described. This study aims to determine the burden of KFRT amongst the Irish Traveller population and identify determinants of health amongst this cohort which may differ from the general population in Ireland.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included self-identifying Irish Travellers with KFRT registered in the National Kidney Disease Clinical Patient Management System between 1995 and 2022.

Procedural pain management in patients with cancer.

Pain has been identified as one of the most significant factors in patients' experience of cancer and its treatment. Pain experienced during cancer treatment procedures such as radiotherapy can be unpleasant and distressing for the patient, as well as for their family and carers. Nurses have an important role in assessing and managing any pain associated with such procedures.

Efficient generation of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV)-pseudotypes bearing morbilliviral glycoproteins and their use in quantifying virus neutralising antibodies.

Morbillivirus neutralising antibodies are traditionally measured using either plaque reduction neutralisation tests (PRNTs) or live virus microneutralisation tests (micro-NTs). While both test formats provide a reliable assessment of the strength and specificity of the humoral response, they are restricted by the limited number of viral strains that can be studied and often present significant biological safety concerns to the operator. In this study, we describe the adaptation of a replication-defective vesicular stomatitis virus (VSVΔG) based pseudotyping system for the measurement of morbillivirus neutralising antibodies.

Emergence of CD134 cysteine-rich domain 2 (CRD2)-independent strains of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is associated with disease progression in naturally infected cats.

Background: Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) infection is mediated by sequential interactions with CD134 and CXCR4. Field strains of virus vary in their dependence on cysteine-rich domain 2 (CRD2) of CD134 for infection.

Findings: Here, we analyse the receptor usage of viral variants in the blood of 39 naturally infected cats, revealing that CRD2-dependent viral variants dominate in early infection, evolving towards CRD2-independence with disease progression.

An investigation of the breadth of neutralizing antibody response in cats naturally infected with feline immunodeficiency virus.

Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) are believed to comprise an essential component of the protective immune response induced by vaccines against feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. However, relatively little is known about the role of NAbs in controlling FIV infection and subsequent disease progression. Here, we present studies where we examined the neutralization of HIV-luciferase pseudotypes bearing homologous and heterologous FIV envelope proteins (n = 278) by sequential plasma samples collected at 6 month intervals from naturally infected cats (n = 38) over a period of 18 months.