Non-microbial Diseases Research Articles

Gasdermins and pyroptosis in the kidney.

Pyroptosis is a form of regulated cell death that is mediated by the membrane-targeting, pore-forming gasdermin family of proteins. Pyroptosis was initially described as a caspase 1- and inflammasome-dependent cell death pathway typified by the loss of membrane integrity and the secretion of cytokines such as IL-1β. However, gasdermins are now recognized as the principal effectors of this form of regulated cell death; activated gasdermins insert into cell membranes, where they form pores that result in the secretion of cytokines, alarmins and damage-associated molecular patterns and cause cell membrane rupture. It is now evident that gasdermins can be activated by inflammasome- and caspase-independent mechanisms in multiple cell types and that crosstalk occurs between pyroptosis and other cell death pathways. Although they areimportant for host antimicrobial defence, a growing body of evidence supports the notion that pyroptosis and gasdermins have pathological roles in cancer and several non-microbial diseases involving the gut, liver and skin. The well-documented roles of inflammasome activity and apoptosis pathways in kidney diseases suggests that gasdermins and pyroptosis may also be involved to some extent. However, despite some evidence for involvement of pyroptosis in the context of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease, our understanding of gasdermin biology and pyroptosis in the kidney remains limited.

Natural products acting against S. aureus through membrane and cell wall disruption.

Covering: 2015 to 2022Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is responsible for several community and hospital-acquired infections with life-threatening complications such as bacteraemia, endocarditis, meningitis, liver abscess, and spinal cord epidural abscess. In recent decades, the abuse and misuse of antibiotics in humans, animals, plants, and fungi and the treatment of nonmicrobial diseases have led to the rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The bacterial wall is a complex structure consisting of the cell membrane, peptidoglycan cell wall, and various associated polymers. The enzymes involved in bacterial cell wall synthesis are established antibiotic targets and continue to be a central focus for antibiotic development. Natural products play a vital role in drug discovery and development. Importantly, natural products provide a starting point for active/lead compounds that sometimes need modification based on structural and biological properties to meet the drug criteria. Notably, microorganisms and plant metabolites have contributed as antibiotics for noninfectious diseases. In this study, we have summarized the recent advances in understanding the activity of the drugs or agents of natural origin that directly inhibit the bacterial membrane, membrane components, and membrane biosynthetic enzymes by targeting membrane-embedded proteins. We also discussed the unique aspects of the active mechanisms of established antibiotics or new agents.

Twenty-first Century Dental Practice and the Treatment of Nonmicrobial Genetic-based Dental Diseases

After W.D. Miller proved a causal relationship between microbes and dental caries and periodontitis, the repair and replacement of damaged or lost teeth resulting from microbial activity dominated 20th century dental practice. In this study, I predict that in the 21st century dental practice will shift to the treatment of those dental diseases not caused by microbes. As dentists already treat some nonmicrobial diseases, I will focus on craniofacial malformations, the group of nonmicrobial diseases usually called birth defects. Some examples include dental dysplasias, cleft lip and palate, and malocclusion. In this study, I introduce the word “dysmorphogenesis” (to replace the term birth defect) as it more appropriately ascribes this subset of nonmicrobial diseases results to mistakes during the formation of craniofacial structures. As dysmorphogenic diseases occur during gestation, their diagnosis and especially their treatment require intervention during embryogenesis. Fortunately, decades of research have shown that mutations are involved in malformations during amelogenesis, palatogenesis, and odontogenesis. Knowledge of which genes are involved, together with recent breakthroughs in Crispr gene editing, make interventions during gestation possible. Those dentists performing gene editing procedures I have previously called Biodontists, because creating the Biodontics specialty will take time. The dental profession including dental educators, dental practitioners, and dental manufacturers should begin discussions now on how best to proceed.

Aplicación de la secuenciación masiva y la bioinformática al diagnóstico microbiológico clínico

Massive parallel sequencing (High-Throughput Sequencing [HTS]) allows to read millions or billions of DNA sequences or fragments (reads) in parallel and is revolutionizing microbiology research, moving from laboratory methods to computed-assisted analyses, with the compelling use of Bioinformatics. The time and cost reduction in studies on the microbiota, microbiome and metagenome, allows to rapidly progress in diagnosis, taxonomy, epidemiology, comparative genomics, virulence, discovery of genes or variants of interest and the association of microorganisms with traditionally considered non-microbial diseases. In this review, the terminology, the sequencing technologies and their applications are described for microbial analysis using open-source bioinformatics software, analysis pipelines, databases and web platforms that allow a user-friendly bioinformatics approach affordable by the clinical microbiologist and infectious disease practitioners.

Inflammasome and Autophagy Activation In Symptomatic Multiple Myeloma Could Predict Response To Thalidomide-Based Chemotherapy

The inflammasome is a protein complex activated by signals of cellular danger to trigger the innate immune defenses through the maturation of proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)1β and IL18. Inflammasomes consist of pattern-recognition sensors (NLR family), adaptors (ASC), and effectors (caspase 1). IL1β initiates feedback loops through the IL1R-MyD88-NFκB pathway. Inflammasome activation promotes adaptive responses and limits reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. Autophagy is a cytoprotective pathway by which the cell sequesters damaged proteins and organelles for lysosomal degradation. The inflammasome is negatively regulated by autophagy and inflammasome activates autophagy. Inflammasome activity may play an important role in several nonmicrobial diseases with chronic inflammation, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer.We collected a cohort of diagnostic samples of total bone marrow (BM) from 31 MM patients, 3 plasma cell leukemia (PCL) patients and 9 healthy bone marrow donors (HD), together with clinical data. Four smoldering MM, 27 symptomatic MM and 3 PCL (2 primary and 1 secondary) were included. According to ISS, six patients were ISS I, 9 patients were ISS II and 16 were ISS III. We also stratified 18 of our symptomatic MM into groups according to response (CR/VGPR, PR, SD/PD). The offered treatment was thalidomide-based triplets.Essential genes from inflammasome (NLRP3, PYCARD, CASP1), pro-inflammatory interleukins (IL1B, IL18) and autophagy (BECN1, SQSTM1, MAP1LC3B) were verified by q-PCR. Gene expression was compared among subgroups and correlated with clinical data.CASP1 and PYCARD were increased in MM compared with HD, without differences among ISS subgroups. In PCL cases, CASP1 and PYCARD had lower expression when compared with MM, but did not differ from HD, confirming that PCL did not have inflammasome activation as MM did. NLRP3 was not different among all diagnostic subgroups. IL18 had decreased expression in PCL patients, compared with HD and MM. IL1B was not different among subgroups.PCL and MM had higher BECN1 expression compared with HD and these differences were also highlighted among ISS subgroups. SQSTM1 had increased expression in PCL, compared with HD and MM, but MM did not differ from HD. MAP1LC3B gene expression was similar among groups. A positive correlation was observed between CASP1 and PYCARD, IL1B and IL18, and between the three autophagic genes (BECN1, SQSTM1 and MAP1LC3B) as expected. BECN1 also correlated with IL1B and with CASP1; CASP1 and PYCARD correlated with BECN1 and SQSTM1, reinforcing the relation between autophagy and inflammasome.When the clinical data were analyzed, monocyte counts correlated with CASP1 and PYCARD; beta-2-microglobulin levels correlated with CASP1 and with NLRP3 and, finally, leukocyte and neutrophil counts correlated with IL1B, BECN1 and SQSTM1 BM expression levels. Analyzing response to thalidomide-based first line chemotherapy, VGPR/CR responders showed higher diagnostic NLRP3 expression (unpaired t test, P=0.03).The intricate interplay between autophagy and inflammasome has only recently been elucidated. Multiple myeloma is a B-cell neoplasm with great dependence of BM microenvironment. Inflammatory cells, especially monocytes and macrophages, are the main inflammasome activators, reducing ROS in the BM microenvironment. Autophagy is essential for plasmocytes, due to their high levels of intracellular proteins. Basal levels of autophagy in myeloma are high and are upregulated in response to ER stress and proteasome inhibition, protecting myeloma cells against apoptosis.Our results confirm the essential role of autophagy activation in myeloma. Interestingly, inflammasome activation in our cohort predicted a better response to thalidomide-based regimens and could be a novel response biomarker. Reinforcing our theory, recently thalidomide was described as an inhibitor of caspase 1 activation. Chronic inflammation is an established cancer hallmark and its role in myeloma pathogenesis seems to be important through inflammasome and autophagy dysfunction during disease progression, possibly creating dependency loops between inflammatory monocytes and neoplastic plasmocyte within the BM microenvironment. Disclosures:No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Physicochemical and biological aspects of macrophage‐mediated drug targeting in anti‐microbial therapy

Macrophages are important drug targets as they mediate a wide variety of infectious diseases. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), schistosomiasis, brucellosis, and salmonellosis are some of the well-known infectious diseases in which macrophages play a prominent pathophysiological role. For instance, VL parasites exclusively house in the macrophages of liver and spleen. They are resistant to lysosomal degradation by unknown mechanisms, they survive and thrive safely within macrophages, they multiply, and they ultimately affect visceral organs, leading to severe pathological and sometimes even fatal conditions. The majority of routinely used drugs administered in free form distribute all over the body via systemic circulation, leading to relatively low therapeutic activity and a certain degree of toxicity. Unlike for nonmicrobial diseases, targeting parasites procuring resistance and ineffective therapeutic outcome can be obviously speculated in case of infectious disease. The preferential uptake by macrophages, intended to improve the balance between efficacy and toxicity, can be achieved by the use of nanomedicines, i.e. submicron-sized macromolecular or particulate drug delivery systems. This insight has stimulated researchers to use nanomedicines--which tend to be recognized by macrophages as 'foreign' and consequently are taken up by the intended target cells much more effectively than their free drug counterparts--to improve the treatment of infectious diseases. The literature reports extensively on such approaches; however, there are several constraints that limit the application of nanomedicine in macrophage-mediated drug targeting. Here, we briefly describe the strategies that are used to achieve effective drug targeting to macrophages, using VL as a model disease, and we also put forth an understanding of the most important limiting factors. Various physicochemical and biological factors used by researchers as reported in the literature are addressed, and the most important mechanisms and modes by which macrophage-specific drug targeting can be achieved are summarized. Based on the evidence obtained to date, it can be concluded that targeting macrophages is a valuable and validated strategy for improving the treatment of infectious diseases.

Hyalohyphomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis: two global disease entities of public health importance.

Two relatively new opportunistic diseases--hyalohyphomycosis and phaeohyphomycosis--are the byproduct, in most cases, of the progress being made in combating microbial and non-microbial diseases. Immunologically impaired hosts have become vulnerable to infection by fungi that were long considered to be innocuous. The currently known etiologic agents of these two diseases are listed and pertinent literature references are cited. The basic histologic differences between phaeohyphomycosis and chromoblastomycosis was emphasized and illustrated.

Absence of indicators of the influence of its physicians on a society's health: Impact of physician care on society

There are no established indicators for measuring the influence of its private physicians on a society's health. For a brief period the age-adjusted death rate, an important indicator of the public health effort, also served to reflect a portion of the influence of the personal physician system. Particular medical interventions could be linked to specific sites in the pathogenesis of microbial disease in a way not yet permitted by the available knowledge of the common nonmicrobial diseases. Our national allocations for health cannot be made rationally until we develop indicators for measuring incremental investments in either system, but especially for the personal physician system. For death rates per se fail to accurately reflect the workings of this system which is concerned primarily with prolonging effective life by preserving or restoring function in an individual person.