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Topic Review
Development of Nanovaccine against Toxoplasma gondii
Nanoparticles include particles ranging in size from nanometers to micrometers, whose physicochemical characteristics are optimized to make them appropriate delivery vehicles for drugs or immunogens important in the fight and/or prevention of infectious diseases. There has been a rise in the use of nanoparticles in preventive vaccine formulations as immunostimulatory adjuvants, and as vehicles for immunogen delivery to target immune cells. Toxoplasma is important worldwide, and may cause human toxoplasmosis. In immunocompetent hosts, infection is usually asymptomatic, but in immunocompromised patients it can cause serious neurological and ocular consequences, such as encephalitis and retinochoroiditis. Primary infection during pregnancy may cause abortion or congenital toxoplasmosis. There is no effective human vaccine against this disease. Evidence has emerged from several experimental studies testing nanovaccines showing them to be promising tools in the prevention of experimental toxoplasmosis.
  • 925
  • 16 May 2023
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 and its New Variants
Since the beginning of 2020, the new pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 and named coronavirus disease 19 (COVID 19) has changed our socio-economic life. In just a few months, SARS-CoV-2 was able to spread worldwide at an unprecedented speed, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths, especially among the weakest part of the population. Indeed, especially at the beginning of this pandemic, many reports highlighted how people, suffering from other pathologies, such as hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, are more at risk of severe outcomes if infected. Although this pandemic has put the entire academic world to the test, it has also been a year of intense research and many important contributions have advanced our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 origin, its molecular structure and its mechanism of infection. Unfortunately, despite this great effort, we are still a long way from fully understanding how SARS-CoV-2 dysregulates organismal physiology and whether the current vaccines will be able to protect us from possible future pandemics.
  • 924
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants
The widespread increase in multiple severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants is causing a significant health concern in the United States and worldwide. These variants exhibit increased transmissibility, cause more severe disease, exhibit evasive immune properties, impair neutralization by antibodies from vaccinated individuals or convalescence sera, and reinfection. 
  • 924
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Vaccination
SARS-CoV-2 and influenza are the main respiratory viruses for which effective vaccines are currently available. Strategies in which COVID-19 and influenza vaccines are administered simultaneously or combined into a single preparation are advantageous and may increase vaccination uptake.
  • 924
  • 23 Mar 2022
Topic Review
SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19
The gastrointestinal (GI) tract may be a significant entrance or interaction site for SARS-CoV-2; therefore, the gut mucosal immune system participates in virus interaction as a first-line physical and immunological defense, leading to GI involvement and symptoms. The pattern of symptoms changed during the virus evolution, since the data provided a current and thorough picture of the symptoms experienced by SARS-CoV-2 infected people, and variations in symptom patterns occurred as the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants have spread. Since the beginning of the pandemic, GI symptoms have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 infections, even though most infected people do not report them. 
  • 924
  • 06 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Biomolecules and Skin Infectious Diseases
Skin infections are amongst the most common infectious diseases, ranked as the fourth leading cause of human illnesses. Both bacteria and viruses are responsible for many serious, difficult to treat skin conditions. Fungi are also highly prevalent in skin diseases. Skin infections present considerable threats to a person’s health, psychological wellbeing, capacity to operate, and social involvement.
  • 923
  • 04 Aug 2021
Topic Review
Nutritional Therapy
With the growing spread of COVID-19 worldwide, the appeal to nutritional therapies in conjunction with medical therapies has been heightened. Promising findings have been reported when medical treatments were complemented with nutritional interventions.
  • 923
  • 30 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Monkeypox Infection 2022 in Adults and Children
Contributors : Francesca Gaeta  Francesco De Caro  Gianluigi Franci  Pasquale Pagliano  Pietro Vajro  Claudia Mandato Monkeypox disease has been endemic in sub-Saharan Africa for a long time, attracting remarkable attention only in 2022 through the occurrence of a multi-country outbreak. The latter has raised serious public health concerns and is considered a public health emergency by the World Health Organization. Although the disease is usually self-limiting, it can cause severe illness in individuals with compromised immune systems, in children, and/or the pregnant woman–fetus dyad. Patients generally present with fever, lymphadenopathy, and a vesicular rash suggestive of mild smallpox. Serious eye, lung and brain complications, and sepsis can occur. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9121832
  • 920
  • 13 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Microbial Natural Products with Anti-Hepatitis Virus
The hepatitis virus is one of the major burdens on the global health system. There are numerous types of hepatitis virus, with both known and unknown etiologies. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) are the most prevalent infectious agents linked to chronic liver disease, including hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis. In healthcare facilities, the use of contaminated blood poses a risk; the infection can be transmitted through unsafe injection practices, the injection of drugs, the transfusion of unscreened blood, and sexual practices involving blood inflammation.
  • 919
  • 14 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Immune Escape Variants from Antibody-Based Therapeutics against COVID-19
The accelerated SARS-CoV-2 evolution under selective pressure by massive deployment of neutralizing antibody-based therapeutics is a concern with potentially severe implications for public health. Escape variants associated with mAb and COVID-19-convalescent plasma (CCP) therapy manifest different type of mutations. For monoclonal antibodies (mAb), most mutations are single amino acid replacements in the receptor binding domain (RBD) domain, while most variants eliciited in patients treated with CCP exhibited amino acid deletions. In fact, it is noteworthy that RBD mutations were relatively rare in CCP escape variants. 
  • 918
  • 29 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Antiretroviral Therapy in HTLV-1 Infection
The human T cell leukemic/lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1), discovered several years ago, is the causative agent for a rapid progressive haematological malignancy, adult T cell leukemia (ATL), for debilitating neurological diseases and for a number of inflammatory based diseases. Although the heterogeneous features of the diseases caused by HTLV-1, a common topic concerning related therapeutic treatments relies on the use of antiretrovirals.
  • 918
  • 07 May 2022
Topic Review
Occult Infection with Hepatitis C Virus
Occult infection with hepatitis C virus (OCI) is defined as the presence of HCV-RNA in hepatocytes, and/or PBMCs in individuals, who are HCV-RNA negative in serum by conventional diagnostic tests (with LoD 15 IU/mL). Depending on the presence or absence of anti-HCV in serum, two types of OCI are distinguished—seronegative and seropositive. Occult viral persistence by definition escapes clinical diagnostic schemes and can last for many years after spontaneous or treatment-induced sustained virological response (SVR).
  • 918
  • 29 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Marine Antiviral Peptides
The marine environment presents a favorable avenue for potential therapeutic agents as a reservoir of new bioactive natural products. Due to their numerous potential pharmacological effects, marine-derived natural products—particularly marine peptides—have gained considerable attention. These peptides have shown a broad spectrum of biological functions, such as antimicrobial, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulatory, and analgesic effects. The emergence of new virus strains and viral resistance leads to continuing efforts to develop more effective antiviral drugs.
  • 917
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Lassa Fever Symptoms and Pathogenesis
Lassa virus (LASV) is the causative agent of Lassa fever (LF). LF symptoms typically appear 1–3 weeks post-infection. Eighty percent of cases are asymptomatic or present with mild, non-specific febrile symptoms such as fever, sore throat, headache, and general malaise, that may be misdiagnosed as typhoid, malaria, or appendicitis.
  • 910
  • 15 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Ubiquitin and Ubiquitin-like Proteins in T-Lymphocytes
Ubiquitination is a posttranslational modification that is involved in almost every cellular process. The most prominent function is the targeting of protein substrates for their degradation by the proteasome to maintain cellular protein homeostasis. Moreover, ubiquitination can serve many nonproteolytic functions like the regulation of protein kinase signaling, DNA damage response, intracellular trafficking, and transcription and translation. Ubiquitination is mediated by the transfer of the highly conserved 76 amino -acid protein ubiquitin to a target protein. Since T cells play a central role in the immune system and are indispensable for maintaining the adaptive cell mediated immunity, T cell signaling, and activation have to be tightly controlled. Like phosphorylation, ubiquitination is a reversible and highly dynamic process and critical for normal T cell function. In this regard, modification of T cell signaling proteins by ubiquitin or ubiquitin-related proteins is responsible not only for the initiation of T cell signaling but also for the termination of T cell activity.
  • 910
  • 15 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Zika Virus Epidemiology
Zika virus (ZIKV) is a Flavivirus and was first isolated in a sentinel monkey kept for studying mosquito-borne diseases, and was also later isolated from Aedes africanus mosquitoes, confirming its vector-borne transmission, in the Ziika forest of Uganda.
  • 910
  • 09 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Epidemiology of Clinical Sporotrichosis in the Americas
Sporotrichosis is a fungal infection caused by species of the Sporothrix genus. In the found 124 publications with reports related to sporotrichosis in the Americas, 12,636 patients got infection caused by species of the genus Sporothrix. It was observed that 87.45% (11,050) were reported in South America, 11.55% (1460) in North America, and 1.00% (126) in Central America and the Caribbean.
  • 908
  • 17 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Klebsiella pneumoniae vs. Non-Klebsiella pneumoniae Pyogenic Liver Abscess
Pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) is a common global public health problem as it contributes to 13% of intra-abdominal abscesses. With advancements in diagnostic microbiology, imaging technology, improved understanding of sepsis and critical care, and minimally invasive image-guided interventions such as percutaneous drainage (PD), clinical outcomes continue to improve; however, PLA-related mortality remains high, in the range of 10–30%. Klebsiella pneumoniae (KP) is the leading causative organism for PLA, followed by Escherichia coli (EC). Klebsiella pneumoniae pyogenic liver abscess (KPPLA) is associated with DM and gas formation, possibly impacting clinical outcomes.
  • 907
  • 07 Sep 2022
Topic Review
COVID-19 during Gestation
COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 has reached pandemic proportions worldwide, with considerable consequences for both health and the economy. In pregnant women, COVID-19 can alter the metabolic environment, iron metabolism, and oxygen supply of trophoblastic cells, and therefore have a negative influence on pregnant women and mechanisms of fetal development, with implications in the postnatal life. The purpose of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the effects of COVID-19 infection during pregnancy with regard to the oxidative/antioxidant status in mothers’ serum and placenta, together with placental iron metabolism. Results showed no differences in superoxide dismutase activity and placental antioxidant capacity. However, antioxidant capacity decreased in the serum of infected mothers. Catalase activity decreased in the COVID-19 group, while an increase in 8-hydroxy-2’-deoxyguanosine, hydroperoxides, 15-FT-isoprostanes, and carbonyl groups were recorded in this group. Placental vitamin D, E, and Coenzyme-Q10 also showed to be increased in the COVID-19 group. As for iron-related proteins, an up-regulation of placental DMT1, ferroportin-1, and ferritin expression was recorded in infected women. Due to the potential role of iron metabolism and oxidative stress in placental function and complications, further research is needed to explain the pathogenic mechanism of COVID-19 that may affect pregnancy, so as to assess the short-term and long-term outcomes in mothers’ and infants’ health.
  • 905
  • 28 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Th22 Cells in Infectious Diseases
T helper 22 (Th22) cells, a newly defined CD4+ T-cell lineage, are characterized by their distinct cytokine profile, which primarily consists of IL-13, IL-22 and TNF-α. Th22 cells express a wide spectrum of chemokine receptors, such as CCR4, CCR6 and CCR10. The main effector molecule secreted by Th22 cells is IL-22, a member of the IL-10 family, which acts by binding to IL-22R and triggering a complex downstream signaling system. Th22 cells and IL-22 have been found to play variable roles in human immunity. In preventing the progression of infections such as HIV and influenza, Th22/IL-22 exhibited protective anti-inflammatory characteristics, and their deleterious proinflammatory activities have been demonstrated to exacerbate other illnesses, including hepatitis B and Helicobacter pylori infection.
  • 905
  • 17 Feb 2023
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