Publications by authors named "Safietou Sankhe"

Usutu virus (USUV), an arbovirus from the Flaviviridae family, genus Flavivirus, has recently gained increasing attention because of its potential for emergence. After his discovery in South Africa, USUV spread to other African countries, then emerged in Europe where it was responsible for epizootics. The virus has recently been found in Asia.

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  • Chikungunya virus has led to millions of infections globally in the last two decades, with a recent outbreak in the Kedougou region of Senegal, West Africa.
  • Genomic studies indicate that the 2023 epidemic in Kedougou is not a result of a new introduction of the virus but rather a resurgence of a previously established strain.
  • This endemic strain is evolving over time within a natural environment, suggesting a complex interaction with local ecosystems.
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  • * The outbreak suggests that the current strains of the virus may not need significant changes to spread in populated areas.
  • * To prevent future dengue infections in Senegal, it's crucial to implement extensive genomic surveillance and improve molecular diagnostic methods.
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Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF), the most widespread tick-borne viral human infection, poses a threat to global health. In this study, clinical samples collected through national surveillance systems were screened for acute CCHF virus (CCHFV) infection using RT-PCR and for exposure using ELISA. For any CCHF-positive sample, livestock and tick samples were also collected in the neighborhood of the confirmed case and tested using ELISA and RT-PCR, respectively.

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Bataï virus (BATV), belonging to the Orthobunyavirus genus, is an emerging mosquito-borne virus with documented cases in Asia, Europe, and Africa. It causes various symptoms in humans and ruminants. Another related virus is Ilesha virus (ILEV), which causes a range of diseases in humans and is mainly found in African countries.

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  • The Chikungunya virus is causing a significant outbreak in Western Africa, particularly in Senegal and Burkina Faso.
  • Analyses indicate that the current strain is from the West African genotype and has new mutations that might affect how the virus replicates and spreads.
  • A new Whole Genome Sequencing technique has been developed to help monitor the virus's evolution and track its spread, aiding in identifying potential threats.
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In Senegal, since its first detection in early March 2020, genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 isolates has led to the identification of the emergence of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages from early June 2022.

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Dengue fever is the most important mosquito-borne viral disease of humans, with a significant disease burden in tropical and subtropical countries. The disease is caused by four distinct dengue virus (DENV) serotypes, DENV-1 to -4, all of which belong to the family Flaviviridae, genus . Approximately 3.

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Objectives: Rift Valley Fever and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever are two infections classified among the emerging diseases to be monitored with highest priority. Studies undertaken in human and animals have shown endemicity of these two arboviruses in several African countries. However, most of the investigations were carried out on domestic cattle and the studies conducted on human populations are either outdated or limited to a small number of well-known endemic areas.

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Globally, 390 million people are at risk of dengue infection and over the past 50 years, the virus incidence increased thirty-fold. In Senegal, an unprecedented occurrence of outbreaks and sporadic cases have been noticed since 2017. In October 2018, an outbreak of Dengue virus 2 (DENV-2) was reported in the north of Senegal affecting multiple areas including Saint-Louis, Richard Toll, and Rosso which are located at the border with Mauritania.

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  • A lot of money has been spent on studying the COVID-19 virus in Africa, leading to over 100,000 virus samples being analyzed to understand the spread of the disease.
  • *More countries in Africa are now able to do these studies themselves, which helps them get results faster and keep a close watch on the virus.
  • *To keep fighting COVID and other diseases, more funding and support for testing and research in Africa is really important for the future.
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To assess the genetic diversity of circulating dengue virus 2 (DENV-2) in Senegal, we analyzed nine newly generated complete genomes of strains isolated during the 2018 outbreaks and 06 sequences obtained in 2018 and 2019 from Thiès and Rosso, respectively. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that Senegalese strains belonged to the cosmopolitan genotype of DENV-2, but we observed intragenotype variability leading to a divergence in two clades associated with specific geographic distribution. We report two DENV-2 variants belonging to two distinct clades.

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SARS-CoV-2 is constantly evolving with lineages emerging and others eclipsing. Some lineages have an important epidemiological impact and are known as variants of interest (VOIs), variants under monitoring (VUMs) or variants of concern (VOCs). Lineage A.

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  • The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Africa has varied significantly across countries, and its overall impact remains unclear.
  • An analysis of 8,746 genomes from 33 African countries indicated that most outbreaks originated from Europe before international travel restrictions took effect.
  • As the pandemic continued, increased movement and local transmission led to the emergence of several variants within Africa, emphasizing the need for a strong pandemic response on the continent to prevent becoming a source of new variants.
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Advancements in research and care have contributed to increase life expectancy of individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF). With increasing age comes a greater likelihood of developing CF bone disease, a comorbidity characterized by a low bone mass and impaired bone quality, which displays gender differences in severity. However, pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this gender difference have never been thoroughly investigated.

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Idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (iPAH) is characterized by obstructive hyperproliferation and apoptosis resistance of distal pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). T-type Ca channel blockers have been shown to reduce experimental pulmonary hypertension, although the impact of T-type channel inhibition remains unexplored in PASMCs from iPAH patients. Here we show that T-type channels Cav3.

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Background: Advancements in research and clinical care have considerably extended the life expectancy of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. However, with this extended survival come comorbidities. One of the leading co-morbidities is CF-related bone disease (CFBD), which progresses with disease severity and places patients at high risk for fractures, particularly of the ribs and vertebrae.

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Cardiac dysfunction is often associated with an increase in the activity of the renin-angiotensin II-aldosterone system (RAAS). Here, we highlight the cross-talk between the Ca(2+) signalling generated by cardiac T-type current (I(CaT)) and RAAS signalling. Neonatal rat cardiomyocytes exposed to aldosterone, angiotensin II or aldosterone plus angiotensin II co-treatment (AA) show an increase in I(CaT) density, with no cumulative effect of the AA co-treatment.

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