Non-Invasive Malaria Detection in Sub-Saharan Africa Using a DNA-Based Sensor System.

Malaria poses a serious global health problem, with half the world population being at risk. Regular screening is crucial for breaking the transmission cycle and combatting the disease spreading. However, current diagnostic tools relying on blood samples face challenges in many malaria-epidemic areas.

Comparing the direct assessment of steatosis in liver explants with mid- and near-infrared vibrational spectroscopy, prior to organ transplantation.

A fast and accurate assessment of liver steatosis is crucial during liver transplantation surgery as it can negatively impact its success. Recent research has shown that near-infrared (NIR) and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform mid-infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy could be used as real-time quantitative tools to assess steatosis during abdominal surgery. Here, in the frame of a clinical study, we explore the performance of NIR and ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for the direct assessment of steatosis in liver tissues.

Gut Microbiota and Plasma Bile Acids Associated with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Resolution in Bariatric Surgery Patients.

Bariatric surgery (BS) has several benefits, including resolution of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in many patients. However, a significant percentage of patients do not experience improvement in fatty liver after BS, and more than 10% develop new or worsening NAFLD features. Therefore, a question that remains unanswered is why some patients experience resolved NAFLD after BS and others do not.

A robust reprogramming strategy for generating hepatocyte-like cells usable in pharmaco-toxicological studies.

Background: High-throughput pharmaco-toxicological testing frequently relies on the use of established liver-derived cell lines, such as HepG2 cells. However, these cells often display limited hepatic phenotype and features of neoplastic transformation that may bias the interpretation of the results. Alternate models based on primary cultures or differentiated pluripotent stem cells are costly to handle and difficult to implement in high-throughput screening platforms.

Quantitative Prediction of Steatosis in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver by Means of Hepatic MicroRNAs Present in Serum and Correlating with Hepatic Fat.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent form of chronic liver disease worldwide, but a reliable non-invasive method to quantify liver steatosis in primary healthcare is not available. Circulating microRNAs have been proposed as biomarkers of severe/advanced NAFLD (steatohepatitis and fibrosis). However, the use of circulating miRNAs to quantitatively assess the % of liver fat in suspected NAFLD patients has not been investigated.

Toward Rapid Screening of Liver Grafts at the Operating Room Using Mid-infrared Spectroscopy.

The estimation of steatosis in a liver graft is mandatory prior to liver transplantation, as the risk of graft failure increases with the level of infiltrated fat. However, the assessment of liver steatosis before transplantation is typically based on a qualitative or semiquantitative characterization by visual inspection and palpation and histological analysis. Thus, there is an unmet need for transplantation surgeons to have access to a diagnostic tool enabling an in situ fast classification of grafts prior to extraction.

Induced pluripotent stem cells for the treatment of liver diseases: challenges and perspectives from a clinical viewpoint.

The only curative treatment for severe end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is liver transplantation (LT) but it is limited by the shortage of organ donors. The increase of the incidence of liver disease has led to develop new therapeutic approaches such as liver cell transplantation. Current challenges that limit a wider application of this therapy include a limited cell source and the poor engraftment in the host liver of cryopreserved hepatocytes after thawing.

Early OXA-48-Producing Isolates Recovered in a Spanish Hospital Reveal a Complex Introduction Dominated by Sequence Type 11 (ST11) and ST405 Klebsiella pneumoniae Clones.

Carbapenemase-producing (CPE) have become an important public health concern. In our hospital, VIM enzymes were first detected in 2005, carbapenemase (KPC) enzymes in 2009, and OXA-48 enzymes in 2012. We assess the population biology of the first OXA-48-producing isolates recovered in our hospital (2012 to 2013) where infections by other carbapenemases had been endemic for several years.

Improved in vivo efficacy of clinical-grade cryopreserved human hepatocytes in mice with acute liver failure.

Clinical hepatocyte transplantation short-term efficacy has been demonstrated; however, some major limitations, mainly due to the shortage of organs, the lack of quality of isolated cells and the low cell engraftment after transplantation, should be solved for increasing its efficacy in clinical applications. Cellular stress during isolation causes an unpredictable loss of attachment ability of the cells, which can be aggravated by cryopreservation and thawing. In this work, we focused on the use of a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) solution compared with the standard cryopreservation medium, the University of Wisconsin medium, for the purpose of improving the functional quality of cells and their ability to engraft in vivo, with the idea of establishing a biobank of cryopreserved human hepatocytes available for their clinical use.

Complete Genome Sequences of Isolates of Sequence Type 117, a Globally Disseminated Multidrug-Resistant Clone.

The emergence of nosocomial infections by multidrug-resistant sequence type 117 (ST117) has been reported in several European countries. ST117 has been detected in Spanish hospitals as one of the main causes of bloodstream infections. We analyzed genome variations of ST117 strains isolated in Madrid and describe the first ST117 closed genome sequences.

Alternative Cell Sources to Adult Hepatocytes for Hepatic Cell Therapy.

Adult hepatocyte transplantation is limited by scarce availability of suitable donor liver tissue for hepatocyte isolation. New cell-based therapies are being developed to supplement whole-organ liver transplantation, to reduce the waiting-list mortality rate, and to obtain more sustained and significant metabolic correction. Fetal livers and unsuitable neonatal livers for organ transplantation have been proposed as potential useful sources of hepatic cells for cell therapy.

Clinical Application of Pluripotent Stem Cells: An Alternative Cell-Based Therapy for Treating Liver Diseases?

The worldwide shortage of donor livers for organ and hepatocyte transplantation has prompted the search for alternative therapies for intractable liver diseases. Cell-based therapy is envisaged as a useful therapeutic option to recover and stabilize the lost metabolic function for acute liver failure, end-stage and congenital liver diseases, or for those patients who are not considered eligible for organ transplantation. In recent years, research to identify alternative and reliable cell sources for transplantation that can be derived by reproducible methods has been encouraged.

Expression of Early Growth Response Gene-2 and Regulated Cytokines Correlates with Recovery from Guillain-Barré Syndrome.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an immune-mediated peripheral neuropathy. The goal of this research was the identification of biomarkers associated with recovery from GBS. In this study, we compared the transcriptome of PBMCs from a GBS patient and her healthy twin to discover possible correlates of disease progression and recovery.

Identification and characterisation of T-cell epitopes for incorporation into dendritic cell-delivered Listeria vaccines.

Dendritic cells loaded with antigenic peptides, because of their safety and robust immune stimulation, would be ideal for induction of immunity to protect against listeriosis. However, there is no currently accepted method to predict which peptides derived from the Listeria proteome might confer protection. While elution of peptides from MHC molecules after Listeria infection yields high-affinity immune-dominant epitopes, these individual epitopes did not reliably confer Listeria protection.

Human neonatal hepatocyte transplantation induces long-term rescue of unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia in the Gunn rat.

Crigler-Najjar type 1 disease is a rare inherited metabolic disease characterized by high levels of unconjugated bilirubin due to the complete absence of hepatic uridine diphosphoglucuronate-glucuronosyltransferase activity. Hepatocyte transplantation (HT) has been proposed as an alternative treatment for Crigler-Najjar syndrome, but it is still limited by the quality and the low engraftment and repopulation ability of the cells used. Because of their attachment capability and expression of adhesion molecules as well as the higher proportion of hepatic progenitor cells, neonatal hepatocytes may have an advantage over adult cells.

Gene calling and bacterial genome annotation with BG7.

New massive sequencing technologies are providing many bacterial genome sequences from diverse taxa but a refined annotation of these genomes is crucial for obtaining scientific findings and new knowledge. Thus, bacterial genome annotation has emerged as a key point to investigate in bacteria. Any efficient tool designed specifically to annotate bacterial genomes sequenced with massively parallel technologies has to consider the specific features of bacterial genomes (absence of introns and scarcity of nonprotein-coding sequence) and of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies (presence of errors and not perfectly assembled genomes).

A score model for the continuous grading of early allograft dysfunction severity.

Early allograft dysfunction (EAD) dramatically influences graft and patient outcomes. A lack of consensus on an EAD definition hinders comparisons of liver transplant outcomes and management of recipients among and within centers. We sought to develop a model for the quantitative assessment of early allograft function [Model for Early Allograft Function Scoring (MEAF)] after transplantation.

Metabolomics discloses donor liver biomarkers associated with early allograft dysfunction.

Background & Aims: Early allograft dysfunction (EAD) dramatically influences graft and patient outcome after orthotopic liver transplantation and its incidence is strongly determined by donor liver quality. Nevertheless, objective biomarkers, which can assess graft quality and anticipate organ function, are still lacking. This study aims to investigate whether there is a preoperative donor liver metabolomic biosignature associated with EAD.