Background The largest West African monkeypox outbreak began September 2017, in Nigeria. Four individuals traveling from Nigeria to the UK (2), Israel, and Singapore became the first human monkeypox cases exported from Africa, and a related nosocomial transmission event in the UK became the first confirmed human-to-human monkeypox transmission event outside of Africa. Methods Epidemiological and molecular data for exported and Nigerian cases were analyzed jointly to better understand the exportations in the temporal and geographic context of the outbreak. Results Isolates from all travelers and a Bayelsa case shared a most recent common ancestor and traveled to Bayelsa, Delta, or Rivers states. Genetic variation for this cluster was lower than would be expected from a random sampling of genomes from this outbreak, but data did not support direct links between travelers. Conclusions Monophyly of exportation cases and the Bayelsa sample, along with the intermediate levels of genetic variation suggest a small pool of related isolates is the likely source for the exported infections. This may be the result of the level of genetic variation present in monkeypox isolates circulating within the contiguous region of Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers states, or another more restricted, yet unidentified source pool.
SUMMARY Forty four children with acute bronchiolitis were given twice daily chest physiotherapy in addition to standard supportive measures and were compared with 46 controls who were not given physiotherapy. There was no clinically discernable benefit on the course of their illness.Acute bronchiolitis, predominantly caused by respiratory syncytial virus, is the most common reason for hospital admission with lower respiratory tract infection in infancy.1 It has been suggested that, apart from general supportive measures, oxygen is the only specific form of treatment that benefits infants.2 We found that chest physiotherapy had gradually become the rule rather than the exception in our ward, the rationale being to assist the clearing of secretions in any lower respiratory tract infection. Of 10 standard paediatric textbooks reviewed, only one3 mentions physiotherapy, and even then as possibly only helpful in the convalescent stages of the illness; most authors do, however, advocate minimal handling. We have attempted therefore to determine objectively whether chest physiotherapy is a helpful adjunct to treatment. Patients and methodsRandom allocation of children with a clinical diagnosis of acute viral bronchiolitis4 to treatment with or without chest physiotherapy was made on hospital admission. Each child had an initial chest radiograph and nasopharyngeal aspirate for virological study. Other management decisions (for example supplementary oxygen, nasogastric feeding) were made irrespective of treatment group. Chest physiotherapy comprised standard techniques applied by a trained paediatric physiotherapist (JAM or NAW)-chest percussion with a cupped hand for three minutes in each of five postural drainage positions followed by assisted coughing or gentle oropharyngeal suction performed twice each day while in hospital. Clinical assessment of illness severity was made at a fixed time each day by either MSCW, PHTC, or YKN (a prior pilot study showed no difference between them). Strictly speaking, this could not be 'blind' with respect to treatment status though in practice that status was not obvious at each assessment. A score of 0 to 3 was allocated for each of heart rate, respiratory rate, hyperinflation, use of accessory muscles, recession, rhinitis, wheeze, cough, crepitations, and rhonchi (maximum total=30). At hospital discharge parents were asked to maintain a diary record of symptoms, and children were reviewed in outpatients after two weeks.Informed consent was obtained from parents before entry into the study. Statistical analysis was by Mann-Whitney U test. ResultsNinety children (54 boys, 36 girls) with a mean age 4-6 months (range 0-5 to 15) were studied. There were 44 in the physiotherapy group compared with 46 in the control group, and the two groups were similar with regard to age, sex, score on admission, proportion who were respiratory syncytial virus positive (69% overall), proportion with a first degree family history of atopy (36% overall), and those with smokers in the household (66% overal...
An LC-MS-based metabolomics approach was used to characterise the variation in secondary metabolite production due to changes in the salt content of the growth media as well as across different growth periods (incubation times). We used metabolomics as a tool to investigate the production of rifamycins (antibiotics) and other secondary metabolites in the obligate marine actinobacterial species Salinispora arenicola, isolated from Great Barrier Reef (GBR) sponges, at two defined salt concentrations and over three different incubation periods. The results indicated that a 14 day incubation period is optimal for the maximum production of rifamycin B, whereas rifamycin S and W achieve their maximum concentration at 29 days. A “chemical profile” link between the days of incubation and the salt concentration of the growth medium was shown to exist and reliably represents a critical point for selection of growth medium and harvest time.
Patterns of inter-species secondary metabolite production by bacteria can provide valuable information relating to species ecology and evolution. The complex nature of this chemical diversity has previously been probed via directed analyses of a small number of compounds, identified through targeted assays rather than more comprehensive biochemical profiling approaches such as metabolomics. Insights into ecological and evolutionary relationships within bacterial genera can be derived through comparative analysis of broader secondary metabolite patterns, and this can also eventually assist biodiscovery search strategies for new natural products. Here, we investigated the species-level chemical diversity of the two marine actinobacterial species Salinispora arenicola and Salinispora pacifica, isolated from sponges distributed across the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), via their secondary metabolite profiles using LC-MS-based metabolomics. The chemical profiles of these two species were obtained by UHPLC-QToF-MS based metabolic profiling. The resultant data were interrogated using multivariate data analysis methods to compare their (bio)chemical profiles. We found a high level of inter-species diversity in strains from these two bacterial species. We also found rifamycins and saliniketals were produced exclusively by S. arenicola species, as the main secondary metabolites differentiating the two species. Furthermore, the discovery of 57 candidate compounds greatly increases the small number of secondary metabolites previously known to be produced by these species. In addition, we report the production of rifamycin O and W, a key group of ansamycin compounds, in S. arenicola for the first time. Species of the marine actinobacteria harbour a much wider spectrum of secondary metabolites than suspected, and this knowledge may prove a rich field for biodiscovery as well as a database for understanding relationships between speciation, evolution and chemical ecology.
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