Ferrets as a model for tuberculosis transmission.

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis remains a leading cause of human death due to a single infectious agent. Until successfully treated, infected individuals may continue to transmit bacilli to contacts. As with other respiratory pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, modeling the process of person-to-person transmission will inform efforts to develop vaccines and therapies that specifically impede disease transmission.

CtpB Facilitates Growth in Copper-Limited Niches.

Copper is required for aerobic respiration by and its human host, but this essential element is toxic in abundance. Copper nutritional immunity refers to host processes that modulate levels of free copper to alternately starve and intoxicate invading microbes. Bacteria engulfed by macrophages are initially contained within copper-limited phagosomes, which fuse with ATP7A vesicles that pump in toxic levels of copper.

Genomic Degeneration and Reduction in the Fish Pathogen .

Mycobacterium shottsii is a dysgonic, nonpigmented mycobacterium originally isolated from diseased striped bass (Morone saxatilis) in the Chesapeake Bay, USA. Genomic analysis reveals that M. shottsii is a Mycobacterium ulcerans/Mycobacterium marinum clade (MuMC) member, but unlike the superficially similar M.

A Role for Sigma Factor C in Copper Nutritional Immunity.

Sigma factor C (SigC) contributes to virulence in various animal models, but the stress response coordinated by this transcription factor was undefined. The results presented here indicate that SigC prevents copper starvation. Whole genome expression studies demonstrate short-term (4-h) induction of , controlled from a tetracycline-inducible promoter, upregulates and genes in the nonribosomal peptide synthase () operon.

Which medical disciplines diagnose and treat melanoma in Europe in 2019? A survey of experts from melanoma centres in 27 European countries.

Background And Objectives: The incidence of melanoma is increasing. This places significant burden on societies to provide efficient cancer care. The European Cancer Organisation recently published the essential requirements for quality melanoma care.

Inequalities in the patterns of dermoscopy use and training across Europe: conclusions of the Eurodermoscopy pan-European survey.

Background: Dermoscopy is a widely used technique, recommended in clinical practice guidelines worldwide for the early diagnosis of skin cancers. Intra-European disparities are reported for early detection and prognosis of skin cancers, however, no information exists about regional variation in patterns of dermoscopy use across Europe.

Objective: To evaluate the regional differences in patterns of dermoscopy use and training among European dermatologists.

Prevalence and determinants of sunbed use in thirty European countries: data from the Euromelanoma skin cancer prevention campaign.

Background: Although considered as a first-group carcinogen, indoor tanning is a common practice in Europe. Euromelanoma is a pan-European skin cancer prevention campaign.

Objectives: To compare several European countries in terms of the prevalence and determinants of sunbed use.

Sunbed use legislation in Europe: assessment of current status.

Background: The use of UV-emitting tanning devices for cosmetic purposes is associated with an increased risk of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer. Young women are the most frequent users, therefore, there is an increasing concern about the regulation of sunbed use.

Objective: The primary objective is to assess the current legislation on sunbed use among European countries.

Association of sunbed use with skin cancer risk factors in Europe: an investigation within the Euromelanoma skin cancer prevention campaign.

Introduction: Sunbed use has been significantly associated with increased risk of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), but its relationship with melanoma's risk factors such as high nevus count, atypical nevi and lentigines is poorly studied. Euromelanoma is a skin cancer prevention campaign conducted all over Europe. It offers a once-a-year screening during which participants' data, including sunbed use and phenotype, are collected via questionnaires.

Evaluation of a temperature-restricted, mucosal tuberculosis vaccine in guinea pigs.

Tuberculosis (TB) is currently the leading cause of death in humans by a single infectious agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine prevents pulmonary TB with variable efficacy, but can cause life-threatening systemic infection in HIV-infected infants. In this study, TBvac85, a derivative of Mycobacterium shottsii expressing M.

Man against machine: diagnostic performance of a deep learning convolutional neural network for dermoscopic melanoma recognition in comparison to 58 dermatologists.

Background: Deep learning convolutional neural networks (CNN) may facilitate melanoma detection, but data comparing a CNN's diagnostic performance to larger groups of dermatologists are lacking.

Methods: Google's Inception v4 CNN architecture was trained and validated using dermoscopic images and corresponding diagnoses. In a comparative cross-sectional reader study a 100-image test-set was used (level-I: dermoscopy only; level-II: dermoscopy plus clinical information and images).

Detection of anti-HspX antibodies and HspX protein in patient sera for the identification of recent latent infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a pathogen causing tuberculosis (TB) a spectrum of disease including acute and asymptomatic latent stages. Identifying and treating latently-infected patients constitutes one of the most important impediments to TB control efforts. Those individuals can remain undiagnosed for decades serving as potential reservoirs for disease reactivation.

An acidic sphingomyelinase Type C activity from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Sphingomyelinases (SMases) catalyze the hydrolysis of sphingomyelin to ceramide and phosphorylcholine. Sphingolipids are recognized as diverse and dynamic regulators of a multitude of cellular processes mediating cell cycle control, differentiation, stress response, cell migration, adhesion, and apoptosis. Bacterial SMases are virulence factors for several species of pathogens.

Efficacy of parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5)-based tuberculosis vaccines in mice.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the etiological agent of tuberculosis (TB), is an important human pathogen. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a live, attenuated variant of Mycobacterium bovis, is currently the only available TB vaccine despite its low efficacy against the infectious pulmonary form of the disease in adults. Thus, a more-effective TB vaccine is needed.

Rv3351c, a Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene that affects bacterial growth and alveolar epithelial cell viability.

Despite the interactions known to occur between various lower respiratory tract pathogens and alveolar epithelial cells (AECs), few reports examine factors influencing the interplay between Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli and AECs during infection. Importantly, in vitro studies have demonstrated that the M. tuberculosis hbha and esxA gene products HBHA and ESAT6 directly or indirectly influence AEC survival.

HspX vaccination and role in virulence in the guinea pig model of tuberculosis.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) currently infects billions of people; many of whom are latently infection and at risk for reactivation. Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) while approved as a vaccine, is unable to prevent reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI). Subunit vaccines boosting BCG or given alone are being tested for efficacy in LTBI models.

Identification of mycobacteria based on spectroscopic analyses of mycolic acid profiles.

This report examines lipophilic extracts containing mycolic acids isolated from tuberculosis (MTB) and non-tuberculosis (NTM) mycobacterial strains using chromatography, mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Raman spectroscopy. Gas chromatography-MS was used to identify major fatty acid mycolate components, while proton NMR confirmed the presence of characteristic cis- and trans-cyclopropane rings within different mycolic acid sub-types. Surface-enhanced Raman (SERS) spectra were obtained from the mycolic acids extracted from the bacterial cell envelopes of the MTB or NTM mycobacterial species.

Internalization of Mycobacterium shottsii and Mycobacterium pseudoshottsii by Acanthamoeba polyphaga.

Amoebae serve as environmental hosts to a variety of mycobacteria, including Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium marinum. Mycobacterium shottsii and Mycobacterium pseudoshottsii are waterborne species isolated from the spleens and dermal lesions of striped bass (Morone saxatilis) from the Chesapeake Bay. The optimal growth temperature for these fish isolates is 25 °C.

The role of lipid raft aggregation in the infection of type II pneumocytes by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Dynamic, cholesterol-dense regions of the plasma membrane, known as lipid rafts (LR), have been observed to develop during and may be directly involved in infection of host cells by various pathogens. This study focuses on LR aggregation induced in alveolar epithelial cells during infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) bacilli. We report dose- and time-dependent increases in LR aggregation after infection with three different strains at multiplicities of infection of 1, 10 and 100 from 2-24 hr post infection (hpi).

HspX-mediated protection against tuberculosis depends on its chaperoning of a mycobacterial molecule.

New approaches consisting of 'multistage' vaccines against (TB) are emerging that combine early antigenic proteins with latency-associated antigens. In this study, HspX was tested for its potential to elicit both short- and long-term protective immune responses. HspX is a logical component in vaccine strategies targeting protective immune responses against primary infection, as well as against reactivation of latent infection, because as previously shown, it is produced during latency, and as our studies show, it elicits protection within 30 days of infection.

Dual mechanism for Mycobacterium tuberculosis cytotoxicity on lung epithelial cells.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains CDC1551 and Erdman were used to assess cytotoxicity in infected A549 human alveolar epithelial cell monolayers. Strain CDC1551 was found to induce qualitatively greater disruption of A549 monolayers than was strain Erdman, although total intracellular and cell-associated bacterial growth rates over the course of the infections were not significantly different. Cell-free culture supernatants from human monocytic cells infected with either of the 2 M.

Involvement of the autophagy pathway in trafficking of Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli through cultured human type II epithelial cells.

Interactions between Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli and alveolar macrophages have been extensively characterized, while similar analyses in epithelial cells have not been performed. In this study, we microscopically examined endosomal trafficking of M. tuberculosis strain Erdman in A549 cells, a human type II pneumocyte cell line.

CXCL10+ T cells and NK cells assist in the recruitment and activation of CXCR3+ and CXCL11+ leukocytes during Mycobacteria-enhanced colitis.

Background: The role of Mycobacteria in the etiology of Crohn's disease (CD) has been a contentious subject for many years. Recently, our laboratory showed that spontaneous colitis in IL-10-/- mice is driven in part by antigens (Ags) conserved in Mycobacteria. The present study dissects some of the common cellular and molecular mechanism that drive Mycobacteria-mediated and spontaneous colitis in IL-10-/- mice.

Influence of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis on colitis development and specific immune responses during disease.

The granulomatous and intramural inflammation observed in cases of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and veterinary Johne's disease suggests that Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is a causative agent. However, an incomplete understanding of the immunological steps responsible for the pathologies of IBD makes this conclusion uncertain.

Entry and intracellular replication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in cultured human microvascular endothelial cells.

Establishment of pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection requires evasion of host innate defenses. In the lung alveoli, epithelial cells naturally resist uptake by the inhaled bacilli while macrophages patrol the epithelial surface and phagocytose foreign microbes. Alveolar microvascular endothelial cells, however, have not been examined as a potential point of direct interaction with the bacilli.