New insights on the development of fungal vaccines: from immunity to recent challenges

Fungal infections are emerging as a major problem in part due to high mortality associated with systemic infections, especially in the case of immunocompromised patients. With the development of new treatments for diseases such as cancer and the acquired immune deficiency syndrome pandemic, the number of immunosuppressed patients has increased and, as a consequence, also the number of invasive fungal infections has increased. Several studies have proposed new strategies for the development of effective fungal vaccines. In addition, better understanding of how the immune system works against fungal pathogens has improved the further development of these new vaccination strategies. As a result, some fungal vaccines have advanced through clinical trials. However, there are still many challenges that prevent the clinical development of fungal vaccines that can efficiently immunise subjects at risk of developing invasive fungal infections. In this review, we will discuss these new vaccination strategies and the challenges that they present. In the future with proper investments, fungal vaccines may soon become a reality.

Avian flu: the creation of expectations in the interplay between science and the media

This paper examines the emerging cultural patterns and interpretative repertoires in reports of an impending pandemic of avian flu in the UK mass media and scientific journals at the beginning of 2005, paying particular attention to metaphors, pragmatic markers ('risk signals'), symbolic dates and scare statistics used by scientists and the media to create expectations and elicit actions. This study complements other work on the metaphorical framing of infectious disease, such as foot and mouth disease and SARS, tries to link it to developments in the sociology of expectations and applies insights from pragmatics both to the sociology of metaphor and the sociology of expectations.

Health, hygiene and biosecurity: tribal knowledge claims in the UK poultry industry

Since 1997 the world has been facing the threat of a human influenza pandemic that may be caused by an avian virus and the poultry industry around the globe has been grappling with the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1, or in more informal terms bird flu. The UK poultry industry has lived with and through this threat and its consequences since 2005. This study investigates knowledge claims about health, hygiene and biosecurity as tools to ward off the threat from this virus. It takes a semi-ethnographic and discourse analytic approach to analyse a small corpus of semi-structured interviews carried out in the wake of one of the most publicised outbreaks of H5N1 in Suffolk in 2007. It reveals that claims about what best to do to protect flocks against the risk of disease are divided along lines imposed on the one hand by the structure of the industry and on the other by more 'tribal' lines drawn by knowledge and belief systems about purity and dirt, health and hygiene.

Fear of the unknown: Inlfuenza vaccination

Influenza is a major cause of morbidity and mortality; current estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) are 3 to 5 million cases and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide every year. Most deaths associated with it occur among people age 65 or older, as well as among persons suffering a chronic debilitating disease regardless of age. The recent 2009 pandemic served to foster interest in this disease. An inactivated virus vaccine has been available since the late 1940´s but it only began to be used extensively when the influenza virus antigenic variability was taken into account. Aside from such variability, influenza viruses are capable of infecting a wide variety of vertebrates, including many avian species, both wild and domestic, thus it is essential to monitor the antigenic characteristics of influenza virus strains currently circulating, and so the vaccine formula has to be evaluated and modiied accordingly every year

Characterization of bone pathologies in the ins2+/akita mouse, a new model for diabetes insulindependent: contribution for a better understanding of the disease in humans

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências Biomédicas, Departamento de Ciências Biomédicas e Medicina, Universidade do Algarve, 2016

The contribution of Angola to the early spread of the HIV-1 epidemic

Poster presented at the 22nd International HIV Dynamics and Evolution. Budapest, Hungary, 13-16 May 2015

Rare HIV-1 subtype J genomes and a new H/U/CRF02_AG recombinant genome suggests an ancient origin of HIV-1 in Angola

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses .

A Livestock-Associated, Multidrug-Resistant, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clonal Complex 97 Lineage Spreading in Dairy Cattle and Pigs in Italy

Pandemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clonal complex 97 (CC97) lineages originated from livestock-to-human host jumps. In recent years, CC97 has become one of the major MRSA lineages detected in Italian farmed animals. The aim of this study was to characterize and analyze differences in MRSA and methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) mainly of swine and bovine origins. Forty-seven CC97 isolates, 35 MRSA isolates, and 6 MSSA isolates from different Italian pig and cattle holdings; 5 pig MRSA isolates from Germany; and 1 human MSSA isolate from Spain were characterized by macrorestriction pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), spa typing, staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, and antimicrobial resistance pattern analysis. Virulence and resistance genes were investigated by PCR and microarray analysis. Most of the isolates were of SCCmec type V (SCCmec V), except for two German MRSA isolates (SCCmec III). Five main clusters were identified by PFGE, with the German isolates (clusters I and II) showing 60.5% similarity with the Italian isolates, most of which (68.1%) grouped into cluster V. All CC97 isolates were Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) negative, and a few (n = 7) tested positive for sak or scn. All MRSA isolates were multidrug resistant (MDR), and the main features were erm(B)- or erm(C)-mediated (n = 18) macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B resistance, vga(A)-mediated (n = 37) pleuromutilin resistance, fluoroquinolone resistance (n = 33), tet(K) in 32/37 tet(M)-positive isolates, and blaZ in almost all MRSA isolates. Few host-associated differences were detected among CC97 MRSA isolates: their extensive MDR nature in both pigs and dairy cattle may be a consequence of a spillback from pigs of a MRSA lineage that originated in cattle as MSSA and needs further investigation. Measures should be implemented at the farm level to prevent spillover to humans in intensive farming areas.

Oral vaccination with heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis activates the complement system to protect against tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a pandemic affecting billions of people worldwide, thus stressing the need for new vaccines. Defining the correlates of vaccine protection is essential to achieve this goal. In this study, we used the wild boar model for mycobacterial infection and TB to characterize the protective mechanisms elicited by a new heat inactivated Mycobacterium bovis vaccine (IV). Oral vaccination with the IV resulted in significantly lower culture and lesion scores, particularly in the thorax, suggesting that the IV might provide a novel vaccine for TB control with special impact on the prevention of pulmonary disease, which is one of the limitations of current vaccines. Oral vaccination with the IV induced an adaptive antibody response and activation of the innate immune response including the complement component C3 and inflammasome. Mycobacterial DNA/RNA was not involved in inflammasome activation but increased C3 production by a still unknown mechanism. The results also suggested a protective mechanism mediated by the activation of IFN-γ producing CD8+ T cells by MHC I antigen presenting dendritic cells (DCs) in response to vaccination with the IV, without a clear role for Th1 CD4+ T cells. These results support a role for DCs in triggering the immune response to the IV through a mechanism similar to the phagocyte response to PAMPs with a central role for C3 in protection against mycobacterial infection. Higher C3 levels may allow increased opsonophagocytosis and effective bacterial clearance, while interfering with CR3-mediated opsonic and nonopsonic phagocytosis of mycobacteria, a process that could be enhanced by specific antibodies against mycobacterial proteins induced by vaccination with the IV. These results suggest that the IV acts through novel mechanisms to protect against TB in wild boar.

Imaginarios sociales de adolescentes y docentes en torno al cuerpo, la corporalidad y la actividad física. Estudio cualitativo en un colegio de Bogotá, 2014-2015.

Problema. Esta investigación se aproxima al entorno escolar con el propósito de avanzar en la comprensión de los imaginarios de los adolescentes y docentes en torno al cuerpo, la corporalidad y la AF, como un elemento relevante en el diseño de programas y planes efectivos para fomento de la práctica de AF. Objetivo. Analizar los imaginarios sociales de docentes y adolescentes en torno a los conceptos de cuerpo, corporalidad y AF. Métodos. Investigación de corte cualitativo, descriptivo e interpretativo. Se realizaron entrevistas semi-estructuradas a docentes y a estudiantes entre los 12 y 18 años de un colegio público de Bogotá. Se realizó análisis de contenido. Se compararon los resultados de estudiantes por grupos de edades y género. Resultados. Docentes y estudiantes definen el cuerpo a partir de las características biológicas, las diferencias sexuales y las funciones vitales. La definición de corporalidad en los estudiantes se encuentra ligada con la imagen y la apariencia física; los docentes la entienden como la posibilidad de interactuar con el entorno y como la materialización de la existencia. La AF en los estudiantes se asocia con la práctica de ejercicio y deporte, en los docentes se comprende como una práctica de autocuidado que permite el mantenimiento de la salud. Conclusiones. Para promover la AF tempranamente como una experiencia vital es necesario intervenir los espacios escolares. Hay que vincular al cuerpo a los procesos formativos con el propósito de desarrollar la autonomía corporal, este aspecto implica cambios en los currículos.