Fungal mechanisms of intracellular survival: what can we learn from bacterial pathogens?

Fungal infections represent a major, albeit neglected, public health threat with serious medical and economic burdens globally. With unacceptably high mortality rates, invasive fungal pathogens are responsible for millions of deaths each year, with a steadily increasing incidence primarily in immunocompromised individuals. The poor therapeutic options and rise of antifungal drug resistance pose further challenges in controlling these infections.

Bangladesh in the era of malaria elimination.

Bangladesh has dramatically reduced malaria by 93% from 2008 to 2020. The strategy has been district-wise, phased elimination; however, the last districts targeted for elimination include remote, forested regions which present several challenges for prevention, detection, and treatment of malaria. These districts border Myanmar which harbors Plasmodium falciparum malaria parasites resistant to artemisinins, key drugs used in artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) that have been vital for control programs.

Estimated energetic demands of thermoregulation during ancient canoe passages from Tahiti to Hawaii and New Zealand, a simulation analysis.

Prehistoric colonization of East Polynesia represents the last and most extensive of human migrations into regions previously uninhabited. Although much of East Polynesia is tropical, the southern third, dominated by New Zealand-by far the largest Polynesian landmass-ranges from a warm- to cool-temperate climate with some islands extending into the Subantarctic. The substantial latitudinal variation implies questions about biocultural adaptations of tropical people to conditions in which most of their familiar resources were absent and their agriculture marginal.

To the extreme! How biological anthropology can inform exercise physiology in extreme environments.

The fields of biological anthropology and exercise physiology are closely related and can provide mutually beneficial insights into human performance. These fields often use similar methods and are both interested in how humans function, perform, and respond in extreme environments. However, these two fields have different perspectives, ask different questions, and work within different theoretical frameworks and timescales.

Postpartum care needs assessment: women's understanding of postpartum care, practices, barriers, and educational needs.

Background: Complications in the postpartum period pose substantial risks to women and can result in significant maternal morbidity and mortality. However, there is much less attention on postpartum care compared to pregnancy and childbirth. The goal of this study was to gather information on women's knowledge of postpartum care and complications, recovery practices after childbirth, perceived barriers to receiving care during the postpartum period, and educational needs in four health centers.

Baseline characterization of entomological drivers of malaria transmission in Namibia: a targeted operational entomological surveillance strategy.

Background: Namibia's focus on the elimination of malaria requires an evidence-based strategy directed at understanding and targeting the entomological drivers of malaria transmission. In 2018 and 2019, the Namibia National Vector-borne Diseases Control Program (NVDCP) implemented baseline entomological surveillance based on a question-based approach outlined in the Entomological Surveillance Planning Tool (ESPT). In the present study, we report on the findings of the ESPT-based NVDCP on baseline vector species composition and bionomic traits in malaria endemic regions in northern Namibia, which has the aim of generating an evidence base for programmatic decision-making.

An active and targeted survey reveals asymptomatic malaria infections among high-risk populations in Mondulkiri, Cambodia.

Background: Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that is one of the most serious public health issues globally and a leading cause of mortality in many developing countries worldwide. Knowing the prevalence of both symptomatic and asymptomatic malaria on a subnational scale allows for the estimation of the burden of parasitaemia present in the transmission system, enabling targeting and tailoring of resources towards greater impact and better use of available capacity. This study aimed to determine the PCR-based point prevalence of malaria infection, by parasite species, among three high-risk populations in Mondulkiri province, Cambodia: forest rangers, forest dwellers, and forest goers.

Multiplexed ddPCR-amplicon sequencing reveals isolated Plasmodium falciparum populations amenable to local elimination in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Zanzibar has made significant progress toward malaria elimination, but recent stagnation requires novel approaches. We developed a highly multiplexed droplet digital PCR (ddPCR)-based amplicon sequencing method targeting 35 microhaplotypes and drug-resistance loci, and successfully sequenced 290 samples from five districts covering both main islands. Here, we elucidate fine-scale Plasmodium falciparum population structure and infer relatedness and connectivity of infections using an identity-by-descent (IBD) approach.

Mean species responses predict effects of environmental change on coexistence.

Environmental change research is plagued by the curse of dimensionality: the number of communities at risk and the number of environmental drivers are both large. This raises the pressing question if a general understanding of ecological effects is achievable. Here, we show evidence that this is indeed possible.

Impact of nanopore-based metagenome sequencing on tick-borne virus detection.

Introduction: We evaluated metagenomic nanopore sequencing (NS) in field-collected ticks and compared findings from amplification-based assays.

Methods: Forty tick pools collected in Anatolia, Turkey and screened by broad-range or nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV) and Jingmen tick virus (JMTV) were subjected to NS using a standard, cDNA-based metagenome approach.

Results: Eleven viruses from seven genera/species were identified.

Composition of Anopheles species and bionomic characteristics over the peak malaria transmission season in Bandarban, Bangladesh.

Background: Joint efforts by government and non-government organizations have helped to reduce malaria in Bangladesh and set the country on a clear path to eventual malaria elimination. However, achieving that goal would be challenging without a comprehensive understanding of vector bionomics.

Methods: Targeted capturing of Anopheles mosquitoes over a rainy season, utilizing specific sampling methods, including human landing catches (HLCs), CDC-light traps (CDC-LTs), and pyrethrum spray catches (PSCs) were aimed to characterize entomological drivers of transmission in four sites of Bandarban, Bangladesh.

Community incidence patterns drive the risk of SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks and alter intervention impacts in a high-risk institutional setting.

Optimization of control measures for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in high-risk institutional settings (e.g., prisons, nursing homes, or military bases) depends on how transmission dynamics in the broader community influence outbreak risk locally.

Esrrγa regulates nephron and ciliary development by controlling prostaglandin synthesis.

Cilia are essential for the ontogeny and function of many tissues, including the kidney. Here, we report that transcription factor ERRγ ortholog estrogen related receptor gamma a (Esrrγa) is essential for renal cell fate choice and ciliogenesis in zebrafish. esrrγa deficiency altered proximodistal nephron patterning, decreased the multiciliated cell populace and disrupted ciliogenesis in the nephron, Kupffer's vesicle and otic vesicle.

Chloroquine resistance evolution in Plasmodium falciparum is mediated by the putative amino acid transporter AAT1.

Malaria parasites break down host haemoglobin into peptides and amino acids in the digestive vacuole for export to the parasite cytoplasm for growth: interrupting this process is central to the mode of action of several antimalarial drugs. Mutations in the chloroquine (CQ) resistance transporter, pfcrt, located in the digestive vacuole membrane, confer CQ resistance in Plasmodium falciparum, and typically also affect parasite fitness. However, the role of other parasite loci in the evolution of CQ resistance is unclear.

A dual-action antibiotic that kills vegetative cells and inhibits spore germination.

infection (CDI) is the most lethal of the five CDC urgent public health treats, resulting in 12,800 annual deaths in the United States alone [ (2019), www.cdc.gov/DrugResistance/Biggest-Threats.

Density declines, richness increases, and composition shifts in stream macroinvertebrates.

Documenting trends of stream macroinvertebrate biodiversity is challenging because biomonitoring often has limited spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scopes. We analyzed biodiversity and composition of assemblages of >500 genera, spanning 27 years, and 6131 stream sites across forested, grassland, urban, and agricultural land uses throughout the United States. In this dataset, macroinvertebrate density declined by 11% and richness increased by 12.

Simultaneous adjunctive treatment of malaria and its coevolved genetic disorder sickle cell anemia.

Effective treatments for genetic disorders that coevolved with pathogens require simultaneous betterment of both conditions. Hydroxyurea (HU) offers safe and efficacious treatment for sickle cell anemia (SCA) by reducing clinical complications, transfusions, and death rates. Despite concerns that the HU treatment for SCA would increase infection risk by the human malaria Plasmodium falciparum, (the genetic driver of the sickle mutation), HU instead reduced clinical malaria.

Altitude, not potential larval habitat availability, explains pronounced variation in Plasmodium falciparum infection prevalence in the western Kenya highlands.

Progress in malaria control has stalled over the recent years. Knowledge on main drivers of transmission explaining small-scale variation in prevalence can inform targeted control measures. We collected finger-prick blood samples from 3061 individuals irrespective of clinical symptoms in 20 clusters in Busia in western Kenya and screened for Plasmodium falciparum parasites using qPCR and microscopy.

Chemogenomic Profiling of a Plasmodium falciparum Transposon Mutant Library Reveals Shared Effects of Dihydroartemisinin and Bortezomib on Lipid Metabolism and Exported Proteins.

The antimalarial activity of the frontline drug artemisinin involves generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to oxidative damage of parasite proteins. To achieve homeostasis and maintain protein quality control in the overwhelmed parasite, the ubiquitin-proteasome system kicks in. Even though molecular markers for artemisinin resistance like have been identified, the intricate network of mechanisms driving resistance remains to be elucidated.

Asymptomatic and submicroscopic malaria infections in sugar cane and rice development areas of Ethiopia.

Background: Water resource development projects such as dams and irrigation schemes have a positive impact on food security and poverty reduction but might result in increased prevalence of malaria.

Methods: Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in the dry and wet seasons in irrigated and non-irrigated clusters of Arjo sugarcane and Gambella rice development areas of Ethiopia in 2019. A total of 4464 and 2176 blood samples were collected from Arjo and Gambella.

qPCR in a suitcase for rapid Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax surveillance in Ethiopia.

Many Plasmodium spp. infections, both in clinical and asymptomatic patients, are below the limit of detection of light microscopy or rapid diagnostic test (RDT). Molecular diagnosis by qPCR can be valuable for surveillance, but is often hampered by absence of laboratory capacity in endemic countries.

Performance of highly sensitive and conventional rapid diagnostic tests for clinical and subclinical Plasmodium falciparum infections, and hrp2/3 deletion status in Burundi.

Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are a key tool for the diagnosis of malaria infections among clinical and subclinical individuals. Low-density infections, and deletions of the P. falciparum hrp2/3 genes (encoding the HRP2 and HRP3 proteins detected by many RDTs) present challenges for RDT-based diagnosis.