Background: Standard-of-care biomarkers for renal allograft rejection are lagging indicators, signaling existing organ injury. This precludes early intervention, when immunological cascades leading to rejection are most susceptible. Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) shows promise as an early indicator of rejection, allowing earlier and possibly more effective treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Immunosuppression therapy (IST) is required for allograft survival but can cause significant adverse effects. Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) is a validated noninvasive biomarker for active rejection in kidney transplant (KTx). Evidence supporting dd-cfDNA testing use in IST management is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Among all biopsies in the Trifecta-Kidney Study ( ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04239703), elevated plasma donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) correlated most strongly with molecular antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) but was also elevated in other states: T cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), acute kidney injury (AKI), and some apparently normal biopsies. The present study aimed to define the molecular correlates of plasma dd-cfDNA within specific states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUrbanization processes are taking place at a very high rate, especially in Africa. At the same time, a number of small mammal species, be they native or invasive, take advantage of human-induced habitat modifications. They represent commensal communities of organisms that cause a number of inconveniences to humans, including potential reservoirs of zoonotic diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Trifecta (ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT04239703) is a prospective trial defining relationships between donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA), donor-specific antibody (DSA), and molecular findings in kidney transplant biopsies. Previous analyses of double results showed dd-cfDNA was strongly associated with rejection-associated molecules in the biopsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Kidney transplant (KT) recipients are at high risk for developing severe COVID-19. Lowering immunosuppression levels in KT recipients with COVID-19 encourages native immune responses but can raise the risk of rejection. Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA), reported as a fraction of total cfDNA, is a proven biomarker for KT rejection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeptospirosis is a zoonotic disease that is caused by spirochete bacteria of the genus Leptospira. Around the world, one million people each year are infected, leading to 60,000 deaths. Infection occurs through contact with environmental pathogens excreted by mammals (notably rodents).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pancreas graft status in simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant (SPKTx) is currently assessed by nonspecific biochemical markers, typically amylase or lipase. Identifying a noninvasive biomarker with good sensitivity in detecting early pancreas graft rejection could improve SPKTx management.
Methods: Here, we developed a pilot study to explore donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) performance in predicting biopsy-proven acute rejection (P-BPAR) of the pancreas graft in a cohort of 36 SPKTx recipients with biopsy-matched plasma samples.
Management of avulsed teeth after replantation often leads to an unfavorable outcome. Damage to the thin and vulnerable periodontal ligament is the key reason for failure. Cell- or stem cell-based regenerative medicine has emerged in the past two decades as a promising clinical treatment modality to improve treatment outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBirdsong learning has been consolidated as the model system of choice for exploring the biological substrates of vocal learning. In the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), only males sing and they develop their song during a sensitive period in early life. Different experimental procedures have been used in the laboratory to train a young finch to learn a song.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRationale & Objective: The identification of pathogenic variants in genes associated with chronic kidney disease can provide patients and nephrologists with actionable information to guide diagnoses and therapeutic plans. However, many nephrologists do not use genetic testing despite costs decreasing over time and more widespread availability.
Study Design: We conducted a survey to uncover the perceptions of general adult nephrologists about the utility of and barriers to genetic testing in clinical practice.
Background: Donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA) in plasma is an established noninvasive biomarker for allograft injury and rejection. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based massively multiplexed polymerase chain reaction methodology can be used to quantify dd-cfDNA in kidney transplant recipients. In this study we describe our clinical experience in using a SNP-based dd-cfDNA assay for the management of active rejection in renal transplant recipients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSeoul virus is a zoonotic pathogen carried by the brown rat Rattus norvegicus. Information on its circulation in Africa is limited. In this study, the virus was detected in 37.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Recent literature highlights the clinical utility of genetic testing for patients with kidney disease. Genetic testing provides significant benefits for reproductive risk counseling, including the option of in vitro fertilization with preimplantation genetic testing for monogenic disease (PGT-M). PGT-M allows for a significant reduction in risk for a pregnancy affected with the familial disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDescribing patterns and testing hypotheses on processes driving biological invasions represent major issues in ecology. Addressing these questions requires building adequate data sets, i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBeyond its widely recognized morbidity and mortality, coronavirus disease 2019 poses an additional health risk to renal allograft recipients. Detection and measurement of donor-derived cell-free DNA (dd-cfDNA), expressed as a fraction of the total cell-free DNA (cfDNA), has emerged as a noninvasive biomarker for allograft rejection. Here, we present a case report of a patient who was infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, 11 mo post-kidney transplant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParasitol Res
May 2021
Cercarial emission of schistosomes is a determinant in the transmission to the definitive host and constitutes a good marker to identify which definitive host is responsible for transmission, mainly in introgressive hybridization situations. Our goal was to test the hypothesis that micro-mammals play a role in Schistosoma haematobium, S. bovis, and/or S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeptospirosis is a waterborne zoonosis (60,000 infections and 1 million deaths annually). Knowledge about the disease in the urban context is surprisingly rare, especially in Africa. Here, we provide the first study of leptospires in waters within an African city.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnterococcus faecalis is one of the bacterial species most frequently isolated from persistent endodontic and apical periodontal infections. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the synergistic antibacterial effects of nisin and selected licorice polyphenols (glabridin, licoricidin, licochalcone A) against planktonic and biofilm-embedded E. faecalis cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate three licorice-derived polyphenols (glabridin, licochalcone A, licoricidin) as well as cinnamon oil for their antimicrobial activities against major endodontic pathogens: Enterococcus faecalis, Streptococcus mutans, Actinomyces israelii, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Prevotella intermedia, Porphyromonas endodontalis, and Candida albicans. The synergistic interactions between the four compounds and chlorhexidine were assessed on E. faecalis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To ascertain the increase in detection rate of sentinel lymph node (SLN) associated with the use of indocyanine green (ICG) in comparison with methylene blue dye in women with endometrial cancer.
Methods: For this randomized controlled trial, all patients underwent SLN mapping after injection of blue dye on one side of the cervix and ICG on the other side. Randomization was for the side (right vs.
Bioinvasion is a major public health issue because it can lead to the introduction of pathogens in new areas and favours the emergence of zoonotic diseases. Rodents are prominent invasive species, and act as reservoirs in many zoonotic infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the link between the distribution and spread of two parasite taxa (Leishmania spp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChanges in host-parasite ecological interactions during biological invasion events may affect both the outcome of invasions and the dynamics of exotic and/or endemic infections. We tested these hypotheses, by investigating ongoing house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) and black rat (Rattus rattus) invasions in Senegal (West Africa). We used a 16S gene rRNA amplicon sequencing approach to study potentially zoonotic bacterial communities in invasive and native rodents sampled along two well-defined independent invasion routes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConsidering that public engagement is pivotal to the mission of Responsible Research and Innovation, this article's aim is to examine how members of the public conceive of the relationship between responsibility and prospective health technologies. We organized four face-to-face deliberative workshops and an online forum wherein participants were invited to comment on scenarios involving three fictional technologies in 2030 and 2040. Our analyses describe how participants anticipated these technologies' impacts and formulated two conditions for their use: they should (1) be embedded within professional care and services and (2) include social protection of individual freedom and privacy.
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