TBC

BACKGROUND: The human population in Guyana, located on the South American continent, is vulnerable to zoonotic diseases due to an appreciable reliance on Neotropical wildlife as a food source and for trade. An existing suboptimal health surveillance system may affect the effective monitoring of important zoonotic diseases. To effectively address this deficit, a One Health zoonotic disease prioritization workshop was conducted to identify nationally significant zoonoses. METHODS: Prioritization of zoonotic diseases was conducted for the first time in Guyana & Caribbean region using literature review, prioritization criteria and a risk prioritization tool in combination with a consultative One Health workshop...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is still one of the biggest causes of infection-related death around the world. Disseminated tuberculosis is a potentially fatal disease caused by the haematogenous spread of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. First-line anti-tuberculosis drugs in-clude isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. The first three drugs are known to cause hepatotoxicity. CASE PRESENTATION: We have, herein, reported a case of Drug-induced Liver Injury (DILI) due to anti-tuberculosis therapy in a one-year-old male child with disseminated tuberculosis...

INTRODUCTION: Dimorphic fungi cause infection following the inhalation of spores into the pulmonary system. In the lower respiratory tract, the conidia transform into yeasts, which are engulfed by alveolar macrophages and may be destroyed without disease manifestation. However, in some immunocompromised individuals, they may persist and cause active fungal disease characterized by formation of granulomas in the infected tissues, which may mimic Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of pulmonary dimorphic fungal infections among HIV/AIDS patients with non-TB chronic cough at Mulago National Referral and Teaching Hospital in Kampala, Uganda...

Tuberculosis remains a large health threat, despite the availability of the tuberculosis vaccine, BCG. As BCG efficacy gradually decreases from adolescence, BCG-Prime and antigen-booster may be an efficient strategy to confer vaccine efficacy. Mycobacterial DNA-binding protein 1 (MDP1, namely Rv2986c, hupB or HU) is a major Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein that induces vaccine-efficacy by co-administration with CpG DNA. To produce MDP1 for booster-vaccine use, we have created recombinant MDP1 produced in both Escherichia coli (eMDP1) and Mycolicibacterium smegmatis (mMDP1), an avirulent rapid-growing mycobacteria...

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Diagnostic delay leads to poor outcomes in infections, and it occurs more often when the causative agent is unusual. Delays are attributable to failing to consider such diagnoses in a timely fashion. Using routinely collected electronic health record (EHR) data, we built a preliminary multivariable diagnostic model for early identification of unusual fungal infections and tuberculosis in hospitalized patients. We conducted a two-gate case-control study. Cases encompassed adult patients admitted to 19 Mayo Clinic enterprise hospitals between January 2010 and March 2023 diagnosed with blastomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, mucormycosis, pneumocystosis, or tuberculosis...

A 49-year-old man was admitted with peritonitis nine months after starting continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) for kidney failure. Ceftazidime and cefazolin were started. Peritoneal dialysate culture was negative for bacteria, but antibiotic treatment was continued because peritonitis improved. Twenty days later, the patient was discharged with no signs of peritonitis. However, 40-day culture of the original peritoneal dialysate detected Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and peritonitis recurred, leading to readmission...

BACKGROUND: The objective of this research was to create and validate an interpretable prediction model for drug-induced liver injury (DILI) during tuberculosis (TB) treatment. METHODS: A dataset of TB patients from Ningbo City was used to develop models employing the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), random forest (RF), and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) logistic algorithms. The model's performance was evaluated through various metrics, including the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and the area under the precision recall curve (AUPR) alongside the decision curve...

BACKGROUND: Drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is a major threat to global public health. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) is a useful tool for species identification and drug resistance prediction, and many clinical laboratories are transitioning to WGS as a routine diagnostic tool. However, user-friendly and high-confidence automated bioinformatics tools are needed to rapidly identify M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), detect drug resistance, and further guide treatment options...

Tuberculosis-affected lungs with chronic inflammation harbor abundant immunosuppressive immune cells but the nature of such inflammation is unclear. Dysfunction in T cell exhaustion, while implicated in chronic inflammatory diseases, remains unexplored in tuberculosis. Given that immunotherapy targeting exhaustion checkpoints exacerbates tuberculosis, we speculate that T cell exhaustion is dysfunctional in tuberculosis. Using integrated single-cell RNA sequencing and T cell receptor profiling we reported defects in exhaustion responses within inflamed tuberculosis-affected lungs...

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with a risk of reactivation in Multiple Sclerosis patients on immunosuppressant therapy. Diagnosis and treatment of Latent Tuberculosis Infection (LTBI) prevents the infection. OBJECTIVE: To diagnose and treat LTBI in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). METHODS: Cross-sectional study of the prevalence and treatment of LTBI in MS, between February 2021 and June 2023. LTBI was defined as an absence of symptoms, positive PPD or IGRA and normal chest X-ray...

Halfmask air-purifying respirators are used by millions of workers to reduce inhaling air contaminants, both chemical (e.g., asbestos, styrene) and biological (e.g., SARS-CoV-2, Mycobacterium tuberculosis). In 2006, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promulgated a standard that gave halfmask respirators an assigned protection factor (APF) of 10. This signified that OSHA assumes a fit-tested and trained wearer will experience a 10% maximum total inward leakage of contaminated air into the facepiece...

OBJECTIVE: To diagnose invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA), galactomannan (GM) detection in serum or bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) is widely used. However, the utility of proximal airway GM test (from induced sputum or tracheal aspirate) has not been well elucidated. METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we evaluated the diagnostic performance of proximal airway GM in diagnosis of IPA including COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis (CAPA). Between January 2022 and January 2023, patients who had been tested for GM with clinical suspicion or for surveillance from any specimen (serum, induced sputum, tracheal aspirate, and BALF) were screened...

BACKGROUND: Flu-like reactions can occur after exposure to rifampin, rifapentine, or isoniazid. Prior studies have reported the presence of antibodies to rifampin, but associations with underlying pathogenesis are unclear. METHODS: We evaluated PREVENT TB study participants who received weekly isoniazid + rifapentine for 3 months (3HP) or daily isoniazid for 9 months (9H) as treatment for M. tuberculosis infection. Flu-like reaction was defined as a grade ≥2 of any of flu-like symptoms...

BACKGROUND: Despite a global epidemiological transition towards increased burden of non-communicable diseases, communicable diseases continue to cause substantial morbidity and mortality worldwide. Understanding the burden of a wide range of infectious diseases, and its variation by geography and age, is pivotal to research priority setting and resource mobilisation globally. METHODS: We estimated disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) associated with 85 pathogens in 2019, globally, regionally, and for 204 countries and territories...

In this issue of Cell Chemical Biology, Gries et al.1 employ an innovative screening approach to identify anti-tuberculosis compounds with dual modes of action: anti-virulence against the type VII secretion system ESX-1 and enhanced ethionamide efficacy. These compounds hold promise for developing multi-target tuberculosis drugs with potential clinical applications.

Chronic constrictive pericarditis is a rare condition characterized by clinical signs of right heart failure, due to the symphysis of the two pericardial leaflets. Our study focused on a retrospective analysis of 43 CCP surgery observations collected over an 11-year period (2003-2013). The mean age of the patients was 32 years; 65% were male; exercise dyspnea (95%) was the most frequent sign. Two main etiologies were observed: tuberculosis 58% and idiopathic causes 42%. All of our patients received a subtotal pericardectomy per median sternotomy, of which 95% had no cardiopulmonary bypass...

OBJECTIVES: To preliminarily assess the immunogenicity of Mtb-HAg in mice and the synergistic effect provided by HAg when co-immunised with BCG. METHODS: Mice were randomly grouped for different immunisations and then spleens were aseptically removed and lymphocytes were extracted for immediate detection of cytokines transcript levels and stimulation index(SI), cytokine secretion and multifunctional antigen-specific T cells were detected after incubation for different times...

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the major killer diseases affecting lung parenchymal tissues. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is the bacterium that causes it. It most commonly affects the lungs, although it can affect any part of the body, including the stomach, glands, bones, and nervous system. Although anti-mycobacterial drugs are available, it remains a major threat to public health due to the rise of drug-resistant strains, and early and accurate diagnosis is very important. Currently, research science and medical communities are focusing on the use of cost-effective biosensors to manage human biological processes and assess accurate health diagnostics...

Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) has become an available method for pathogen detection. The clinical application of mNGS requires further evaluation. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 104 patients with suspected infection between May 2019 and May 2021. The risk factors associated with infection were analyzed using univariate logistic analysis. The diagnostic performance of pathogens was compared between mNGS and conventional microbiological tests. About 104 patients were assigned into 3 groups: infected group (n = 69), noninfected group (n = 20), and unknown group (n = 15)...