A Sodium Oxalate-Rich Diet Induces Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiac Dysfunction in Rats.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health issue affecting 14% of the general population. However, research focusing on CKD mechanisms/treatment is limited because of a lack of animal models recapitulating the disease physiopathology, including its complications. We analyzed the effects of a three-week diet rich in sodium oxalate (OXA diet) on rats and showed that, compared to controls, rats developed a stable CKD with a 60% reduction in glomerular filtration rate, elevated blood urea levels and proteinuria. Histological analyses revealed massive cortical disorganization, tubular atrophy and fibrosis. Males and females were sensitive to the OXA diet, but decreasing the diet period to one week led to GFR significance but not stable diminution. Rats treated with the OXA diet also displayed classical CKD complications such as elevated blood pressure and reduced hematocrit. Functional cardiac analyses revealed that the OXA diet triggered significant cardiac dysfunction. Altogether, our results showed the feasibility of using a convenient and non-invasive strategy to induce CKD and its classical systemic complications in rats. This model, which avoids kidney mass loss or acute toxicity, has strong potential for research into CKD mechanisms and novel therapies, which could protect and postpone the use of dialysis or transplantation.

First outbreak of norovirus in Albania.

AIMS: Noroviruses (NoVs) represent the most important enteric viruses responsible for acute gastroenteritis world-wide. This study objective is to characterize the first outbreak of NoV that occurred in Ballsh, a small city in Albania. METHODS AND RESULTS: Stool specimens were collected from people attending to the hospital. Samples were also collected from the aqueduct for bacteriological and virological tests. Overall 33 stools and five drinking water samples were collected, respectively, from the hospital in Ballsh and from the municipal aqueduct. No water samples were scored positive whereas ten stool samples (30.3%) were scored GGII NoV positive. All the GGII isolates were identified as GGII·4 genotype, and no GGI was identified. The alignment and protein analysis were performed using, respectively, ClustalV and the mega 4 software. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first report of NoV GGII·4 in Albania causing an outbreak. The genetic analysis showed several point mutations and amino acid substitutions with respect to the international strains. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF STUDY: Over the last decades, Albania has suffered from different outbreaks as cholera, poliomyelitis, hepatitis A and now, for the first time, it has been documented an outbreak of NoV.

Waterborne gastroenteritis outbreak in Albania.

Three different studies are reported concerning the environmental pollution caused by viruses in Albania. The first study describes an outbreak of gastroenteritis in the capital city, involving 2,722 children attending the Paediatric Unit of Tirana Hospital. The age group with the highest morbidity was 0-5 years, with 89.5%; no fatalities were recorded during the outbreak. Rotavirus was detected in 26/28 faecal samples by RT-PCR, although astrovirus, adenovirus and calicivirus were also present. The second study describes an outbreak of hepatitis A virus involving the city of Lac. Two hundred cases were recorded, with the highest incidence in the age-group 5-9 years. Phylogenetic analysis of the VP1/2A region showed the presence of a unique sequence: genotype IA. Rotavirus was identified in drinking-water samples collected during the outbreak. The third study describes the prevalence of HAV and HEV in 202 sera randomly collected from 12 different cities in Albania. HAV showed a high incidence (66.2%), whereas none was positive for HEV. The genomic analysis of the VP1/2A junction revealed the presence of only one genotype (IA) with few point mutations and just two amino acid substitutions at codons 22 and 34. Additionally, two potential antigenic variants were detected, the first at position 46 of VP3 and the second at position 23 of VP1.

Sanitary survey of the drinking water supply of Kombinati suburb-Tirana, Albania.

Microbiological pollution of drinking water is a major health problem in the suburbs of the Albanian capital. Intermittent supply and contamination, resulting in several gastrointestinal manifestations, are the main concerns for the population and health workers. The risk of outbreaks of water-borne diseases is high. Pollution originates from contamination of drinking water with domestic sewage. This research investigated the drinking water cycle from its natural source to the consumer, analysing samples and verifying pollution levels in the microbiological and chemical setting. The most important pollution sources were found in the distribution network, due to cross-contamination with sewers and illegal connections. The second pollution source was found around the extraction wells. This is related to abusive constructions within the sanitary zone around the wells and maybe the highly sewage-contaminated river water which feeds the aquifer.

Genomic characterization of human and environmental polioviruses isolated in Albania.

Between April and December 1996, a serious outbreak of poliomyelitis occurred in Albania; almost 140 subjects were involved, and the episode presented an unusually high mortality rate (12%). During the outbreak, water samples from the Lana River in Tirana, Albania, and stool samples from two cases of paralytic poliomyelitis were collected and analyzed for the presence of polioviruses. Six polioviruses were isolated from the environmental and human samples, according to standard methods. All the samples were characterized by partial genomic sequencing of 330 bases across the 5' untranslated region (5'-UTR) (nucleotide positions 200 to 530) and of 300 bases across the VP1 region (nucleotide positions 2474 to 2774). Comparison of these sequences with those present in data banks permitted the identification of environmental isolates Lana A and Lana B as, respectively, a Sabin-like type 2 poliovirus and an intertypic recombinant poliovirus (Sabin-like type 2/wild type 1), both bearing a G instead of an A at nucleotide position 481. The two other environmental polioviruses were similar to the isolates from the paralytic cases. They were characterized by a peculiar 5'-UTR and by a VP1 region showing 98% homology with the Albanian epidemic type 1 isolates reported by other authors. This study confirms the environmental circulation in Albania of recombinant poliovirus strains, likely sustained by a massive vaccination effort and by the presence in the environment of a type 1 poliovirus, as isolated from the Lana River in Tirana about 2 months before the first case of symptomatic acute flaccid paralysis was reported in this town.