Species distribution modeling for disease ecology: A multi-scale case study for schistosomiasis host snails in Brazil.

Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly popular tools for profiling disease risk in ecology, particularly for infectious diseases of public health importance that include an obligate non-human host in their transmission cycle. SDMs can create high-resolution maps of host distribution across geographical scales, reflecting baseline risk of disease. However, as SDM computational methods have rapidly expanded, there are many outstanding methodological questions.

Climate and urbanization drive changes in the habitat suitability of Schistosoma mansoni competent snails in Brazil.

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by Schistosoma parasites. Schistosoma are obligate parasites of freshwater Biomphalaria and Bulinus snails, thus controlling snail populations is critical to reducing transmission risk. As snails are sensitive to environmental conditions, we expect their distribution is significantly impacted by global change.

The Na/Ca exchanger NCX3 mediates Ca entry into matrix vesicles to facilitate initial steps of mineralization in osteoblasts.

Matrix vesicles (MVs) provide the initial site for amorphous hydroxyapatite (HA) formation within mineralizing osteoblasts. Although Na/Ca exchanger isoform-3 (NCX3, SLC8A3) was presumed to function as major Ca transporter responsible for Ca extrusion out of osteoblast into the calcifying bone matrix, its presence and functional role in MVs have not been investigated. In this study, we investigated the involvement of NCX3 in MV-mediated mineralization process and its impact on bone formation.

Re-assessing thermal response of schistosomiasis transmission risk: evidence for a higher thermal optimum than previously predicted.

The geographical range of schistosomiasis is affected by the ecology of schistosome parasites and their obligate host snails, including their response to temperature. Previous models predicted schistosomiasis' thermal optimum at 21.7 °C, which is not compatible with the temperature in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions where schistosomiasis is hyperendemic.

Climate and urbanization drive changes in the habitat suitability of competent snails in Brazil.

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by parasites. are obligate parasites of freshwater snails, so controlling snail populations is critical to reducing transmission risk. As snails are sensitive to environmental conditions, we expect their distribution is significantly impacted by global change.

Temperature affects predation of schistosome-competent snails by a novel invader, the marbled crayfish Procambarus virginalis.

The human burden of environmentally transmitted infectious diseases can depend strongly on ecological factors, including the presence or absence of natural enemies. The marbled crayfish (Procambarus virginalis) is a novel invasive species that can tolerate a wide range of ecological conditions and colonize diverse habitats. Marbled crayfish first appeared in Madagascar in 2005 and quickly spread across the country, overlapping with the distribution of freshwater snails that serve as the intermediate host of schistosomiasis-a parasitic disease of poverty with human prevalence ranging up to 94% in Madagascar.

Climatic, land-use and socio-economic factors can predict malaria dynamics at fine spatial scales relevant to local health actors: Evidence from rural Madagascar.

While much progress has been achieved over the last decades, malaria surveillance and control remain a challenge in countries with limited health care access and resources. High-resolution predictions of malaria incidence using routine surveillance data could represent a powerful tool to health practitioners by targeting malaria control activities where and when they are most needed. Here, we investigate the predictors of spatio-temporal malaria dynamics in rural Madagascar, estimated from facility-based passive surveillance data.

Reframing Optimal Control Problems for Infectious Disease Management in Low-Income Countries.

Optimal control theory can be a useful tool to identify the best strategies for the management of infectious diseases. In most of the applications to disease control with ordinary differential equations, the objective functional to be optimized is formulated in monetary terms as the sum of intervention costs and the cost associated with the burden of disease. We present alternate formulations that express epidemiological outcomes via health metrics and reframe the problem to include features such as budget constraints and epidemiological targets.

Pyrethroid insecticides pose greater risk than organophosphate insecticides to biocontrol agents for human schistosomiasis.

Use of agrochemicals, including insecticides, is vital to food production and predicted to increase 2-5 fold by 2050. Previous studies have shown a positive association between agriculture and the human infectious disease schistosomiasis, which is problematic as this parasitic disease infects approximately 250 million people worldwide. Certain insecticides might runoff fields and be highly toxic to invertebrates, such as prawns in the genus Macrobrachium, that are biocontrol agents for snails that transmit the parasites causing schistosomiasis.

Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with the human burden of environmentally mediated pathogens: a global analysis.

Background: Billions of people living in poverty are at risk of environmentally mediated infectious diseases-that is, pathogens with environmental reservoirs that affect disease persistence and control and where environmental control of pathogens can reduce human risk. The complex ecology of these diseases creates a global health problem not easily solved with medical treatment alone.

Methods: We quantified the current global disease burden caused by environmentally mediated infectious diseases and used a structural equation model to explore environmental and socioeconomic factors associated with the human burden of environmentally mediated pathogens across all countries.

Environmental Persistence of the World's Most Burdensome Infectious and Parasitic Diseases.

Humans live in complex socio-ecological systems where we interact with parasites and pathogens that spend time in abiotic and biotic environmental reservoirs (e.g., water, air, soil, other vertebrate hosts, vectors, intermediate hosts).

Sodium-calcium exchanger-3 regulates pain "wind-up": From human psychophysics to spinal mechanisms.

Repeated application of noxious stimuli leads to a progressively increased pain perception; this temporal summation is enhanced in and predictive of clinical pain disorders. Its electrophysiological correlate is "wind-up," in which dorsal horn spinal neurons increase their response to repeated nociceptor stimulation. To understand the genetic basis of temporal summation, we undertook a GWAS of wind-up in healthy human volunteers and found significant association with SLC8A3 encoding sodium-calcium exchanger type 3 (NCX3).

Averting wildlife-borne infectious disease epidemics requires a focus on socio-ecological drivers and a redesign of the global food system.

A debate has emerged over the potential socio-ecological drivers of wildlife-origin zoonotic disease outbreaks and emerging infectious disease (EID) events. This Review explores the extent to which the incidence of wildlife-origin infectious disease outbreaks, which are likely to include devastating pandemics like HIV/AIDS and COVID-19, may be linked to excessive and increasing rates of tropical deforestation for agricultural food production and wild meat hunting and trade, which are further related to contemporary ecological crises such as global warming and mass species extinction. Here we explore a set of precautionary responses to wildlife-origin zoonosis threat, including: (a) limiting human encroachment into tropical wildlands by promoting a global transition to diets low in livestock source foods; (b) containing tropical wild meat hunting and trade by curbing urban wild meat demand, while securing access for indigenous people and local communities in remote subsistence areas; and (c) improving biosecurity and other strategies to break zoonosis transmission pathways at the wildlife-human interface and along animal source food supply chains.

Three reasons why expanded use of natural enemy solutions may offer sustainable control of human infections.

1. Many infectious pathogens spend a significant portion of their life cycles in the environment or in animal hosts, where ecological interactions with natural enemies may influence pathogen transmission to people. Yet, our understanding of natural enemy opportunities for human disease control is lacking, despite widespread uptake and success of natural enemy solutions for pest and parasite management in agriculture.

Influence of Socioeconomic and Environmental Determinants of Health on Human Infection and Colonization with Antibiotic-Resistant and Antibiotic-Associated Pathogens: A Scoping Review.

Antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-associated pathogens are commonly encountered by surgeons. Pathogens such as methicillin-resistant (MRSA), infection (CDI), and carbapenem-resistant (CRE) result in considerable human morbidity, mortality, and excess healthcare expenditure. Human colonization or infection can result from exposure to these pathogens across a range of domains both inside and outside of the built healthcare environment, exposure that may be influenced by socioeconomic and environmental determinants of health, the importance of which has not been investigated fully.

Climate change and global health: A call to more research and more action.

There is increasing understanding, globally, that climate change and increased pollution will have a profound and mostly harmful effect on human health. This review brings together international experts to describe both the direct (such as heat waves) and indirect (such as vector-borne disease incidence) health impacts of climate change. These impacts vary depending on vulnerability (i.

Prescribing cholinesterase inhibitors in mild cognitive impairment-Observations from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

Introduction: Analyses of off-label use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) has produced mixed results. Post hoc analyses of observational cohorts, such as the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), have reported deleterious effects in AChEI-treated subjects (AChEI+). Here, we used neuroimaging biomarkers to determine whether AChEI+ subjects had a greater rate of neurodegeneration than untreated (AChEI-) subjects while accounting for baseline differences.

Human-mediated impacts on biodiversity and the consequences for zoonotic disease spillover.

Human-mediated changes to natural ecosystems have consequences for both ecosystem and human health. Historically, efforts to preserve or restore 'biodiversity' can seem to be in opposition to human interests. However, the integration of biodiversity conservation and public health has gained significant traction in recent years, and new efforts to identify solutions that benefit both environmental and human health are ongoing.

Exposure, hazard, and vulnerability all contribute to Schistosoma haematobium re-infection in northern Senegal.

Background: Infectious disease risk is driven by three interrelated components: exposure, hazard, and vulnerability. For schistosomiasis, exposure occurs through contact with water, which is often tied to daily activities. Water contact, however, does not imply risk unless the environmental hazard of snails and parasites is also present in the water.