Population-based estimates of acute gastrointestinal and foodborne illness in Barbados: a retrospective cross-sectional study.

The aim of this study was to determine the burden and impact of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and foodborne diseases (FBDs) in Barbados through a retrospective, cross-sectional population survey and laboratory study in August 2010-August 2011. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with one person from each of 1,710 randomly-selected households. Of these, 1,433 (84%) interviews were completed.

Response to the challenges of pandemic H1N1 in a small island state: the Barbadian experience.

Background: Having been overwhelmed by the complexity of the response needed for the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, public health professionals in the small island state of Barbados put various measures in place to improve its response in the event of a pandemic

Methods: Data for this study was collected using Barbados' National Influenza Surveillance System, which was revitalized in 2007. It is comprised of ten sentinel sites which send weekly notifications of acute respiratory illness (ARI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) to the Office of the National Epidemiologist. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, meetings of the National Pandemic Planning Committee and the Technical Command Committee were convened.

Protein aggregation during overexpression limited by peptide extensions with large net negative charge.

Folding of the human coxsackie and adenovirus receptor immunoglobulin (Ig) variable-type domain (CAR D1) during overexpression in the Escherichia coli cytoplasm was shown previously to be partially rescued by fusion to a 22-residue C-terminal peptide. Here, peptide sequence features required for solubilization and folding of CAR D1 and similar Ig variable-type domains from two other human membrane proteins were investigated. Peptide extensions with net negative charge > -6 fully solubilized CAR D1, and approximately half of the peptide-solubilized protein was correctly folded.

Biodistribution of radioiodinated adenovirus fiber protein knob domain after intravenous injection in mice.

The knob domains from the fiber proteins of adenovirus serotypes 2 and 12 were labeled with radioiodine and then injected into the bloodstreams of mice. Knob proteins with functional binding sites for the coxsackie and adenovirus receptor (CAR) were cleared rapidly from the circulation, with radioactivity appearing predominantly in the stomach, while knob mutants unable to bind to CAR remained in the blood circulation for a prolonged period. The clearance of radiolabeled wild-type knob from the blood was slowed by coinjecting an excess of unlabeled wild-type knob protein.

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome-associated hantaviruses contain conserved and functional ITAM signaling elements.

Hantaviruses infect human endothelial and immune cells, causing two human diseases, hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS). We have identified key signaling elements termed immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motifs (ITAMs) within the G1 cytoplasmic tail of all HPS-causing hantaviruses. ITAMs direct receptor signaling within immune and endothelial cells and the presence of ITAMs in all HPS-causing hantaviruses provides a means for altering normal cellular responses which maintain vascular integrity.