A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the risk factors of Toxoplasma gondii in 100 volunteer blood donors at blood bank. Blood donors were interviewed about sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors toxoplasmosis. A required data were taken through a designed questionnaire. Five ml. venous blood samples were withdrawn by disposable sterile syringes to separate sera. Anti-Toxoplasma antibodies were evaluated by using ELISA. The results showed that 40 volunteers (40%) were positive for anti-T. gondii IgG antibodies. The T. gondii positivity and the risk factors analysis in a descending order were manual activities (95%) compared to (15.0%), Contact with farm animals and/or birds (87.5%) compared to (30.0%) , eating processed meat "shawerma" (87.5%) compared to (41.7%) raw milk or milk product (70%) compared to (50.0%), rural residence (62.5%) compared to (33.3%), non-educated (62.5%) compared to (16.7%), and least one was the contact with cats (55.0%) compared to (16.7%). These findings highlight the prevalent T. gondii among blood donors and focused on the risk factors. It was recom-mended that blood donors should be free from Toxoplasma antibodies
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Clin Transplant
February 2025
MEDIC, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Optimizing the long-term care and follow-up of living kidney donors (LKDs) has been challenging, and prior LKDs have reported suboptimal healthcare experiences. Long-term care of LKDs is largely undertaken by primary care practitioners such as family physicians (FPs). We conducted a cross-sectional survey of Canadian FPs (n = 151).
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Key Laboratory of Artificial Organs and Computational Medicine in Zhejiang Province, Shulan International Medical College, Zhejiang Shuren University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, P. R. China.
Immunity against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can be induced through either infection with the virus or vaccination, providing protection against reinfection or reducing the risk of severe clinical outcomes. In this study, we recruited 172 volunteers who received different vaccination regimens, including 124 individuals who had recovered from breakthrough infections caused by the Omicron variant (27 with 2 doses, 49 with 3 doses, and 48 with 4 doses) and 48 healthy donors who did not experience breakthrough infections (all of whom received a fourth dose during the infection wave). We measured neutralizing antibody levels against Omicron BA.
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January 2025
Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, Graz University of Technology, 8010 Graz, Austria.
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Division of Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, United States.
While durable antibody responses from long-lived plasma cell (LLPC) populations are important for protection against pathogens, LLPC may be harmful if they produce antibodies against self-proteins or self-nuclear antigens as occurs in autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Thus, the elimination of autoreactive LLPC may improve the treatment of antibody-driven autoimmune diseases. However, LLPC remain a challenging therapeutic target.
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January 2025
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Highly sensitized (HS) patients in need of kidney transplantation (KTx) typically spend a longer time waiting for compatible kidneys, are unlikely to receive an organ offer, and are at increased risk of antibody-mediated rejection (AMR). Desensitization using imlifidase, which is more rapid and removes total body immunoglobulin G (IgG) to a greater extent than other methods, enables transplantation to occur between HLA-incompatible (HLAi) donor-recipient pairs and allows patients to have greater access to KTx. However, when the project was launched there was limited data and clinical experience with desensitization in general and with imlifidase specifically.
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