Publications by authors named "Schlesinger L"

Article Synopsis
  • Type 2 diabetes (T2D) increases the risk of tuberculosis (TB), but the reasons for this connection are not fully understood.
  • Research found that alveolar macrophages from T2D patients showed heightened Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) growth and altered immune responses compared to those without T2D.
  • The study reveals important changes in immune cell functions and gene expression in T2D patients that may explain their increased vulnerability to more severe TB infections.
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Article Synopsis
  • Tuberculosis is a major cause of death from infectious diseases, with the infection first occurring in the alveoli, where it interacts with alveolar lining fluid (ALF).
  • Research indicates that as people age, ALF becomes more oxidized and inflammatory, which helps the bacteria (likely Mycobacterium tuberculosis) reproduce more effectively in human macrophages and type II alveolar epithelial cells (ATs).
  • The study reveals that exposure to ALF from elderly humans (E-ALF) enhances the bacteria's ability to adapt and replicate by upregulating specific genes, suggesting that changes in lung mucosa with age significantly impact how tuberculosis develops and survives within human cells.
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Coinfection of (Mtb) and human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV) is a significant public health concern. Treatment is challenging due to prolonged duration of therapy and drug interactions between antiretroviral therapy (ART) and anti-TB drugs. Noniron gallium -tetraphenyl porphyrin (GaTP), a heme mimetic, has shown broad antimicrobial activity.

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Severe defects in human IFNγ immunity predispose individuals to both Bacillus Calmette-Guérin disease and tuberculosis, whereas milder defects predispose only to tuberculosis. Here we report two adults with recurrent pulmonary tuberculosis who are homozygous for a private loss-of-function TNF variant. Neither has any other clinical phenotype and both mount normal clinical and biological inflammatory responses.

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With devastating health and socioeconomic impact worldwide, much work is left to understand the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), with emphasis in the severely affected elderly population. Here, we present a proteomics study of lung tissue obtained from aged vs. young rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and olive baboons (Papio Anubis) infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

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Neutrophils are increasingly implicated in chronic inflammation and metabolic disorders. Here, we show that visceral adipose tissue (VAT) from individuals with obesity contains more neutrophils than in those without obesity and is associated with a distinct bacterial community. Exploring the mechanism, we gavaged microbiome-depleted mice with stool from patients with and without obesity during high-fat or normal diet administration.

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Human alveolar macrophages are a unique myeloid subset critical for understanding pulmonary diseases and are difficult to access. Here, we present a protocol to generate human alveolar macrophage-like (AML) cells from fresh peripheral blood mononuclear cells or purified monocytes. We describe steps for cell isolation, incubation in a defined cocktail of pulmonary surfactant and lung-associated cytokines, phenotype analysis, and validation with human alveolar macrophages.

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The frequent absence of a documented history of sexual assault/rape in the prior research on serial sexual murderers is curious. In order to address several methodological problems in prior research, a closed-case archival review of a nonrandom national sample of 53 serial sexual homicide cases was conducted which identified 14 offenders with a history of sexual assault/rape for an overall prevalence rate of 26.4%.

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AIM2 (absent in melanoma 2), an inflammasome component, mediates IL-1β release in murine macrophages and cell lines. AIM2 and IL-1β contribute to murine control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection, but AIM2's impact in human macrophages, the primary niche for M.

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The elderly population is highly susceptible to developing respiratory diseases, including tuberculosis, a devastating disease caused by the airborne pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) that kills one person every 18 seconds. Once M.

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Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death for people living with HIV (PLWH). We hypothesized that altered functions of innate immune components in the human alveolar lining fluid of PLWH (HIV-ALF) drive susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) infection.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study discusses a rare lung disease in nine children linked to a genetic deficiency of the CCR2 receptor, leading to conditions like pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) and increased vulnerability to infections.
  • This deficiency is characterized by loss-of-function variants, affecting the migration and signaling of immune cells, particularly monocytes, due to a lack of response to CCL-2, a chemokine essential for these processes.
  • Elevated levels of CCL-2 in the blood serve as a diagnostic marker for identifying children with unexplained respiratory issues or recurrent infections, indicating the importance of CCR2 in lung health and immune response.
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Tuberculosis (TB) accounts for 1.6 million deaths annually and over 25% of deaths due to antimicrobial resistance. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.

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Ebola virus (EBOV) disease is marked by rapid virus replication and spread. EBOV enters the cell by macropinocytosis and replicates in the cytoplasm, and nascent virions egress from the cell surface to infect neighboring cells. Here, we show that EBOV uses an alternate route to disseminate: tunneling nanotubes (TNTs).

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Background: (, the causative bacterium of tuberculosis (TB), establishes residence and grows in human alveolar macrophages (AMs). Inter-individual variation in -human AM interactions can indicate TB risk and the efficacy of therapies and vaccines; however, we currently lack an understanding of the gene and protein expression programs that dictate this variation in the lungs.

Results: Herein, we systematically analyze interactions of a virulent strain HR with freshly isolated human AMs from 28 healthy adult donors, measuring host RNA expression and secreted candidate proteins associated with TB pathogenesis over 72h.

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Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are unique lung resident cells that contact airborne pathogens and environmental particulates. The contribution of human AMs (HAMs) to pulmonary diseases remains poorly understood due to the difficulty in accessing them from human donors and their rapid phenotypic change during culture. Thus, there remains an unmet need for cost-effective methods for generating and/or differentiating primary cells into a HAM phenotype, particularly important for translational and clinical studies.

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Inflammation plays a significant role in lung infection including that caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in which both adaptive and innate lymphocytes can affect infection control. How inflammation affects infection is understood in a broad sense, including inflammaging (chronic inflammation) seen in the elderly, but the explicit role that inflammation can play in regulation of lymphocyte function is not known. To fill this knowledge gap, we used an acute lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment in young mice and studied lymphocyte responses, focusing on CD8 T cell subsets.

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Unlabelled: Alveolar macrophages (AMs) are unique lung resident cells that contact airborne pathogens and environmental particulates. The contribution of human AMs (HAM) to pulmonary diseases remains poorly understood due to difficulty in accessing them from human donors and their rapid phenotypic change during culture. Thus, there remains an unmet need for cost-effective methods for generating and/or differentiating primary cells into a HAM phenotype, particularly important for translational and clinical studies.

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Macrophages are a first line of defense against pathogens. However, certain invading microbes modify macrophage responses to promote their own survival and growth. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.

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The elderly are understudied despite their high risk of tuberculosis (TB). We sought to identify factors underlying the lack of an association between TB and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in the elderly, but not adults. We conducted a case-control study in elderly (≥65 years old; ELD) vs.

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Article Synopsis
  • People with HIV are much more likely to get serious tuberculosis (TB) because the two infections can make each other worse.
  • Researching the way TB and HIV interact in tiny clusters called granulomas can help scientists find better treatments.
  • The study also talks about how new computer models can help answer important questions about how TB and HIV work together to affect people's health.
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Tuberculosis (TB), caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), is responsible for >1.5 million deaths worldwide annually.

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