Publications by authors named "L S Segal"
There is increasing interest in chemicals which are persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT), primarily to protect drinking water. We present a tiered assessment of drinking water exposure and associated human health risks for 22 PMT substances. Worst-case exposure via drinking water is assumed to occur when wastewater is discharged to rivers which are then abstracted for water supply.
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- - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a severe lung disease with no cure besides lung transplantation, and its mechanisms are not fully understood.
- - Research indicates that a deficiency in the innate immune receptor TLR5 increases the risk of IPF in humans and raises vulnerability to lung damage and fibrosis in mice; activating TLR5 protects against these issues.
- - The protective effects of TLR5 are linked to its role in promoting healthy microbial balance in the lungs, with disrupted microbiomes seen in both IPF patients and TLR5-deficient mice.
Article Synopsis
- The blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae grows in rice cells through invasive hyphae (IH) and forms a biotrophic interfacial complex, essential for host-pathogen interactions.
- Disruption of the ACB1 gene, which is vital for fatty acid transport, affects the fungus’s ability to grow and cause disease at lower temperatures (22°C and 26°C) but not at elevated temperatures (29°C).
- Impaired membrane fluidity due to ACB1 loss at optimal and suboptimal temperatures is responsible for reduced pathogenicity, suggesting that understanding these thermal adaptations is crucial in the context of climate change impacts on plant diseases.
Lung allograft dysbiosis associates with immune response and primary graft dysfunction.
J Heart Lung Transplant
November 2024
Article Synopsis
- Lower airway dysbiosis, characterized by an increase in specific bacteria, is linked to various severity grades of primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after lung transplantation, particularly in moderate and severe cases.
- A study involving lower airway samples from 96 lung transplant recipients showed correlations between PGD severity and elevated levels of inflammatory markers, particularly neutrophils and specific cytokines, indicating a distinct inflammatory response.
- Results suggest that microbial differences may influence host immune signaling, potentially exacerbating inflammation and contributing to PGD pathogenesis, highlighting the importance of microbial balance in lung health post-transplant.
Background: The site-of-disease microbiome and predicted metagenome were evaluated in a cross-sectional study involving people with presumptive tuberculous pericarditis. We also explored the interaction between C-reactive protein (CRP) and the microbiome.
Methods: People with effusions requiring diagnostic pericardiocentesis (n=139) provided pericardial fluid for sequencing and blood for CRP measurement.