Horizontal transmission can cause severe and persistent eye inflammation
2021-04-27
(Press-News.org) Tokyo, Japan - Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and has mostly been thought to be transmitted vertically (mother-to-child), or horizontally (sexually or parenterally (e.g. via blood transfusion)). The spread of this infection in metropolitan areas such as Tokyo is presumed to be due to horizontal transmission, especially sexual transmission.HTLV-1-associated diseases are thought to be caused mainly through vertical transmission. In a new study, clinicians from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) describe that horizontal transmission route is responsible for HTLV-1 associated disease, i.e. HTLV-1 uveitis.
The clinicians saw a 57-year-old woman who presented with sudden blurred vision. An eye examination revealed profound pathologies in different anatomical locations of her eyes. Most prominent were cellular infiltrates and opacity in the vitreous body, a large gel-like substance between the lens and the back of the eye. Because the pathologies were consistent with uveitis and an inflammation of the eyes, and given the patient's age, the clinicians tested her for the presence of several autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and sarcoidosis, because uveitis can be a result of those. The tests didn't reveal anything, so the clinicians tested the patient for a number of infectious diseases, such as HTLV-1 and HIV, that can also cause uveitis. When the HTLV-1 test came back positive, the clinicians made their diagnosis of HTLV-1 uveitis.
"HTLV-1 can cause adult T-cell lymphoma, myelopathy and uveitis, among other disorders," says senior author of the study Kyoko Ohno-Matsui. "Although we started the patient on the proper treatment, an unanswered question was how did the patient get infected with the virus in the first place."
Because there's no targeted therapy for HTLV-1 infections, the clinicians had to weaken the patient's immune system with corticosteroids, because an over-reacting immune system is thought to cause harm to the patient. The clinicians started the patient on corticosteroid therapy systemically as well as with topical eye drops over 6 weeks. Over the course of the next several months, the patient suffered from several recurrences, so the clinicians started her on a maintenance corticosteroid therapy, i.e. treatment over the course of 8 months. While no recurrences happened in this time period, 18 months after the start of the maintenance therapy, the patient presented with another recurrence, including a retinal detachment, which could lead to permanent blindness. This detachment was managed by ophthalmic surgery and the patient was again started on corticosteroids, this time for 4 years. No recurrences have happened since then and the patients has remained symptom-free.
Interestingly, during follow-up the patient's mother underwent cataract surgery at the same clinic site. Testing for HTLV-1 revealed no infection of the mother, ruling out vertical transmission to the patient. Of note, HTLV-1 can become symptomatic even decades after initial infection.
"In the current environment of increasing HTLV-1 incidence, the existence of horizontal transmission causing HTLV-1 uveitis should be acknowledged as it can result in more severe inflammation than vertical transmission. Thus, physicians should take the route of infection into consideration when providing medical care to patients with HTLV-1-associated diseases." says first / corresponding author of the study Koju Kamoi.
INFORMATION:
The article, "Horizontal transmission of HTLV-1 causing uveitis" was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases at DOI:10.1016/S1473-3099(21)00063-3
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2021-04-27
Most conventional molecular diagnostics usually detect only a single disease-related biomarker. Great examples are the PCR tests currently used to diagnose COVID-19 by detecting a specific sequence from SARS-CoV-2. Such so-called singleplex methods provide reliable results because they are "calibrated" to a single biomarker. However, determining whether a patient is infected with a new SARS-CoV-2 variant or a completely different pathogen requires probing for many different biomarkers at one time.
Scientists from the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based ...
2021-04-27
PHILADELPHIA (April 27, 2021) - Nurses and other clinicians rely heavily upon the electronic health record (EHR) to provide patient care. This includes clinical decision-making, care planning, patient surveillance, medication ordering and administration, and communication with other health care team members. While data show that EHR technology usability can put added burden on clinicians, the relationships between EHR usability and the job outcomes of hospital staff nurses and surgical patient outcomes have not been explored.
A new study from the University of ...
2021-04-27
A combination of remdesivir, a drug currently approved in the United States for treating COVID-19 patients, and repurposed drugs for hepatitis C virus (HCV) was 10 times more effective at inhibiting SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The combination therapy points a way toward a treatment for unvaccinated people who become infected, as well as for vaccinated people whose immunity has waned, for example due to the emergence of virus variants that escape this immune protection.
Four HCV drugs--simeprevir, vaniprevir, paritaprevir, and grazoprevir--in combination with remdesivir boosted the efficacy of remdesivir by as much as 10-fold, the researchers reported today in Cell Reports. The research team included scientists from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the ...
2021-04-27
Nearly 80 percent of higher education faculty report dealing with student mental health issues—issues that more than 90 percent of faculty believe have worsened or significantly worsened during the pandemic, according to a new nationwide survey led by a Boston University mental health researcher.
"The vast majority of faculty members, myself included, are not trained mental health professionals, but we have a role to play in supporting student well-being," says survey principal investigator Sarah Ketchen Lipson, a BU School of Public Health assistant professor of health law, policy, and management. "These data underscore a real opportunity to better equip faculty with knowledge ...
2021-04-27
UCLA materials scientists have developed a class of optical material that controls how heat radiation is directed from an object. Similar to the way overlapping blinds direct the angle of visible light coming through a window, the breakthrough involves utilizing a special class of materials that manipulates how thermal radiation travels through such materials.
Recently published in Science, the advance could be used to improve the efficiency of energy-conversion systems and enable more effective sensing and detection technologies.
"Our goal was to show that we could effectively beam thermal radiation -- the heat all objects emanate as electromagnetic waves -- ...
2021-04-27
By translating the pattern of interconnections between nature's food chains to industrial networks, researchers at Texas A&M University have delineated guidelines for setting up successful industrial communities. The researchers said this guidance can facilitate economic growth, lower emissions and reduce waste while simultaneously ensure that partnering industries can recover from unexpected disturbances.
"Industries can often partner up to exchange byproducts and over time these industries might form bigger communities. While these networks sound quite beneficial to all industry partners within the community, they are not always successful," said Dr. Astrid Layton, assistant professor in the J. Mike Walker' ...
2021-04-27
"This finding suggests that higher education does not influence brain aging" says Lars Nyberg from Umeå University in Sweden, first author of the study and also a part of the Lifebrain consortium.
Brains shrink at the same rate
All brains shrink with age, and the dominant view has been that more education slows the rate of shrinking. However, the evidence has been inconclusive because studies have not been able to track the rate of change over time. Until now.
Measured brain shrinkage over time
The researchers measured brain aging by measuring the ...
2021-04-27
EUGENE, Ore. -- April 27, 2021 -- The addition of meat alternatives such as poultry and fish is not reducing the global production and consumption of energy-gobbling land-based meats, according to new research.
That conclusion comes from an analysis of 53 years of international data by University of Oregon sociologist Richard York, who focuses on energy consumption in relationship to economic issues such as power and inequalities, and politics. His findings published April 26 in the journal Nature Sustainability.
"If you have increases in the production of poultry and fish, it doesn't tend to compete with or suppress other meat source consumption," York said. "It would be great if more ...
2021-04-27
Shopping habits and escalating consumption of many consumers are inflicting a heavy environmental toll, and while the majority of customers seem hesitant to act "green" on their own, companies are increasingly expected to implement effective eco-friendly tactics. But efforts to increase towel reuse at hotels, paperless adoption in the banking industry or "ugly" food consumption at grocery stores have been challenging.
As a result, millions of tons of cosmetically imperfect produce are wasted every year in the United States while about one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away. Electricity consumption ...
2021-04-27
An international, multidisciplinary team that includes faculty members from The University of Texas at Arlington has published a paper in the journal Philosophical Psychology that wades into the debate about whether fish feel pain.
Their conclusion: while fish lack certain regions of the brain typically associated in humans with processing the unpleasantness of pain, this does not offer definitive proof that fish don't experience painful events.
There is a divide among contemporary scientists and philosophers on the issue of animal suffering, particularly in fish. Following the discovery of pain receptors in fish in the early 21st century, scientists developed behavioral experiments that seemed to show that fish ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Horizontal transmission can cause severe and persistent eye inflammation
