Extended Sedentary Time Increases the Risk of All-Cause Death and New Cardiovascular Events in Patients With Diabetic Kidney Disease

BACKGROUND

Sedentary behavior may be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events. This study aimed to clarify the effects of extended sedentary time in patients with diabetic kidney disease (DKD) on the risk of all-cause death and new events.Methods and Results:A prospective cohort study was performed over 39 months. The study included 173 patients with DKD who completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) (101 men; mean age, 71±11 years); 37 patients (21.4%) were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD). New events were defined as all-cause death, cerebral stroke, or CVD requiring hospitalization or commencing hemodialysis (HD). Data were analyzed using a multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model with variables, including sedentary time. There were 34 cases of new events during the observation period, including 4 cases of stroke, 20 cases of CVD, 4 cases of HD implementation, and 6 cases of death. Hazard ratio (HR) calculations for the new event onset group identified sedentary time as a significant independent variable. The independent variable that was identified as a significant predictor of new events was the sedentary time (60 min/day; HR: 1.23, 95% CI: 1.05-1.45, P=0.012).

CONCLUSIONS

Extended sedentary time increased the risk of new cardiovascular or renal events and/or all-cause death in patients with DKD.

Molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus from different population groups in Argentina

OBJECTIVES

In Latin America, methicillin-resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a leading cause of nosocomial infections. Limited studies have addressed the molecular epidemiology of MRSA clones in Argentina, characterised by continuous human migratory movements. The aim of this study was to describe the MRSA epidemiology, including distinct patient populations from different regions of the country.

METHODS

MRSA strains were collected in epidemiological studies conducted from 2009 to 2015 in three cities (Formosa, Córdoba and Tucumán) and involving four population groups: community adult patients; hospitalised adults; hospitalised children; and healthy children (nasal colonisation). Antimicrobial susceptibility testing, SCCmec and Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were performed.

RESULTS

A total of 120 MRSA isolates were recovered with an important population diversity in the groups studied; in community adult patients, MRSA isolates corresponded to ST5, ST267 and ST1619; from hospitalised adults they were ST97, ST5, ST72, ST125, ST200, ST647, ST747, ST935 and ST2941; from hospitalised children they were ST5, ST30, ST34, ST1163 and ST1619; and from colonised children they were ST5, ST125, ST34, ST100, ST1619, ST207 and ST1163. Results of SCCmec typing showed SCCmec I, SCCmec IIIA, SCCmec IV and SCCmec ND associated or not with PVL genes.

CONCLUSIONS

MRSA genetic lineages have differing distribution in the three regions. The most prevalent was ST5 in colonisation, community and invasive settings. Here we describe ST34-SCCmec IV clone for the first time in the hospitalised paediatric population. These findings contribute to the understanding of epidemiological changes in recent years.

TT virus infection: role of interferons, interleukin-28 and 29, cytokines and antiviral proteins

In 1997 a novel virus in the serum of a patient with acute post-transfusion hepatitis of non A-G etiology was identified. This agent was designed TT virus (TTV). It produces persistent viremia and no disease, but the mechanism of its persistence is poorly understood. In the present study mRNA expression of antiviral proteins as MxA, 2' 5' OAS, anti-apopotic protein, cytokines IL- 28, IL- 29 and IFN are examined in a subject affected by B lymphoma and positive for TTV DNA and RNA in this cellular subset, and in BJAB and Dohh2 cell lines.

Immunological characterization of Toscana virus proteins

The genome of Toscana virus (Bunyaviridae family, Phlebovirus genus) consists of three single stranded RNA segments (L, M, S), with negative polarity. The L and M segments contain a single ORF in viral complementary sense and the S segment contains two ORFs in "ambisense" orientation. The M segment codes for three proteins in 3'-5' genomic orientation: a 30 kDa non structural protein and two 65 kDa glycoproteins, GN, and GC. In this paper we report the expression in E. coli of the S segment ORFs and of three regions of the L ORF. The expressed proteins were used to produce monospecific polyclonal antibodies in mice. By using these antibodies the N and the NSs proteins were unequivocally assigned to the S viral-complementary and viral-sense ORFs, respectively, and the L protein to the L ORF. We have found that like N and L proteins, NSs protein is associated with the viral nucleocapsids in mature virions, suggesting its possible involvement in early events of viral replication. NSs protein was also found associated with cellular polysomes. In virus-infected cells the anti-L antibodies recognized proteins shorter than the full-length L protein, possibly products of L subgenomic segments. Interestingly these defective products were not found in mature virions, suggesting specific mechanisms in virion assembly.

Detection of Toscana virus-specific immunoglobulins G and M by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on recombinant viral nucleoprotein

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the recombinant Toscana virus nucleoprotein (rN) has been developed. Its sensitivity and specificity for the detection of virus-specific immunoglobulins G and M in human sera were similar to those of the ELISA that is based on an antigen extracted from infected mouse brain and that is routinely used for serodiagnosis.

Completion of molecular characterization of Toscana phlebovirus genome: nucleotide sequence, coding strategy of M genomic segment and its amino acid sequence comparison to other phleboviruses

The M RNA segment of Toscana (TOS) phlebovirus was cloned and the complete nucleotide sequence determined. The M RNA segment is 4215 nucleotides in length, and it contains a single major open reading frame (ORF) in the viral-complementary sequence, between nucleotides 18 and 4034, which can encode for a polyprotein of 1339 amino acids (Mr 149 kDa). The viral segment is expressed via a unique mRNA containing 10-14 non-templated nucleotides at the 5' end and it is truncated at the 3' end by about 140 nucleotides in a purine-rich region. In M predicted amino acid sequences, several hydrophobic regions have been identified. They could function as a signal sequence or a transmembrane region for the different proteins. Comparison of the deduced amino acid sequence of M precursor product revealed 38, 36, and 25% identity and 58, 56, and 47% similarity with those of Rift Valley fever (RVF), Punta Toro (PT) and Unkuniemi (UUK) viruses, respectively. Residues conserved among the proteins are mainly located at the COOH-portion of the precursor, while the major divergence is in the NSm coding regions. Based on sequence comparison and similarity of hydropathic pattern of TOS M segment with other phleboviruses the N-termini of TOS GN and GC glycoproteins were placed at residues 297 and 936 of the precursor.

Organization of the M genomic segment of Toscana phlebovirus

The nucleotide sequence of the Toscana (TOS) virus M RNA segment contains a single major open reading frame in the viral-complementary sequence, which can encode a polyprotein of 1339 amino acids. To map the TOS M segment product(s), different regions of the putative M polypeptide were expressed as glutathione S-transferase fusion proteins, which were purified and inoculated into mice to produce hyperimmune sera. By Western blot analysis, a protein of approximately 30 kDa and two glycoproteins, G1 and G2, with the same molecular mass (approximately 65 kDa) were identified in TOS virus-infected cells. The 30 kDa protein, which reacted with antibodies raised to the NH2-terminal, was found to be a non-structural protein (designated NSm). By immunoprecipitation analysis of TOS virus-infected cell lysates, both treated or untreated with tunicamycin, the relative positions of glycoproteins G1 and G2 were determined. The gene order, with respect to the genomic M RNA, was found to be 3' NSm-G1 -G2 5'