Immunomodulatory Activity of Diterpenes over Innate Immunity and Cytokine Production in a Human Alveolar Epithelial Cell Line Infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND: Mexico has the largest number of the genus salvia plant species, whose main chemical compounds of this genus are diterpenes, these chemical compounds have shown important biological activities such as: antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the immunomodulatory activity of three diterpenes: 1) icetexone, 2) anastomosine and 3) 7,20-dihydroanastomosine, isolated from Salvia ballotiflora, over innate immunity and cytokine production in a human alveolar epithelial cell line infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. METHODS: The immunomodulatory activity of diterpenes over innate immunity included reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) induction in response to infection; cytokine production included TNF-α and TGF-ß induction in response to infection. RESULTS: The diterpenes anastomosine and 7,20-dihydroanastomosine showed a statically significant (p < 0.01) increase of RNS after 36 h of infection and treatment of 2.0 µg/mL. Then, the ROS induction in response to infection showed a consistent statically significant (p < 0.01) increase after 12 h of diterpenes treatments. The cell cultures showed an anti-inflammatory effect, in the case of TGF-ß induction, in response to infection when treated with the diterpenes. On the other hand, there was not any significant effect on TNF-α release. CONCLUSION: The diterpenes anastomosine and 7,20-dihydroanastomosine increased the production of RNS after 36 h of infection and treatment. Besides, the three diterpenes increased the production of ROS after 12 h. This RNS and ROS modulation can be considered as an in vitro correlation of innate immunity in response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection; and an indicator of the damage of epithelial lung tissue. This study also showed an anti-inflammatory immune response by means of TGF-ß modulation when compared with control group.

[Tuberculosis and coccidiodomycosis in two patients without immune acquired deficiency]. / Coexistencia de tuberculosis y coccidioidomicosis en dos pacientes sin síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida.

Coccidioidomycosis results from inhaling the spores (arthroconidia) of Coccidioides species (Coccidioides immitis or Coccidioides posadasii). Tuberculosis is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, classified as acid-fast bacilli. It is most commonly transmitted from a patient with infectious pulmonary tuberculosis to other persons by droplet nuclei, which are aerosolized by coughing, sneezing, or speaking. Northern Mexico is an endemic zone for coccidioidomycosis and tuberculosis, both diseases usually appear in an isolated way. However, in cases of immunosuppressant in endemic zones, both pathologies tend to coexist. In all of the cases, determining the correct diagnosis is very difficult because they share epidemiological, clinical, radiographic, and even histopathological characteristics. In this paper we present two cases of tuberculosis and coccidioidomycosis coexistence. One case presented pulmonary disease from both entities, while the other was a relapsing of disseminated coccidioidomycosis associated with systemic tuberculosis. The presence of similar cases should alert the clinician to consider an early diagnosis of both entities in every patient with compatible clinical features. The most important concept is to remember that the diagnosis of one of them doesn't exclude the possible existence of the other.

Genetic diversity of HLA system in three populations from Zacatecas, Mexico: Zacatecas city, Fresnillo and rural Zacatecas.

We studied HLA class I (HLA-A, -B) and class II (HLA-DRB1, -DQB1) alleles by PCR-SSP based typing in 453 Mexicans from the state of Zacatecas living in Zacatecas city (N = 84), Fresnillo (N = 103) and rural communities (N = 266) to obtain information regarding allelic and haplotypic frequencies and their linkage disequilibrium. We find that the most frequent haplotypes for the state of Zacatecas include seven Native American most probable ancestry (A*02 ∼ B*39 ∼ DRB1*04 ∼ DQB1*03:02; A*02 ∼ B*35 ∼ DRB1*08 ∼ DQB1*04; A*24 ∼ B*39 ∼ DRB1*14 ∼ DQB1*03:01; A*02 ∼ B*35 ∼ DRB1*04 ∼ DQB1*03:02; A*24 ∼ B*35 ∼ DRB1*04 ∼ DQB1*03:02; A*68 ∼ B*35 ∼ DRB1*04 ∼ DQB1*03:02 and A*24 ∼ B*35 ∼ DRB1*08 ∼ DQB1*04) and two European MPA haplotypes (HLA ∼ A*01 ∼ B*08 ∼ DRB1*03:01 ∼ DQB1*02 and A*29 ∼ B*44 ∼ DRB1*07 ∼ DQB1*02). Admixture estimates revealed that the main genetic components in the state of Zacatecas are European (47.61 ±â€¯1.85%) and Native American (44.74 ±â€¯1.12%), while the African genetic component was less apparent (7.65 ±â€¯1.12%). Our findings provide a starting point for the study of population immunogenetics of urban and rural populations from the state of Zacatecas and add to the growing knowledge on the population genetics of Northern Mexico.

Widespread of ESBL- and carbapenemase GES-type genes on carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates: a multicenter study in Mexican hospitals.

The present work describes a prevalence of 36.2% of carbapenemases IMP-, VIM-, and GES-type on 124 imipenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates. The ESBL GES-19 and carbapenemase GES-20 genes were the most prevalent (84.4%) ß-lactamases among imipenem-resistant P. aeruginosa clinical isolates in Mexico. These genes are chromosomal encoded on embedded class 1 integron arrays.

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) report, data summary of 36 countries, for 2004-2009.

The results of a surveillance study conducted by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) from January 2004 through December 2009 in 422 intensive care units (ICUs) of 36 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe are reported. During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN; formerly the National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance system [NNIS]) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infections, we gathered prospective data from 313,008 patients hospitalized in the consortium's ICUs for an aggregate of 2,194,897 ICU bed-days. Despite the fact that the use of devices in the developing countries' ICUs was remarkably similar to that reported in US ICUs in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were significantly higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals; the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection in the INICC ICUs of 6.8 per 1,000 central line-days was more than 3-fold higher than the 2.0 per 1,000 central line-days reported in comparable US ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia also was far higher (15.8 vs 3.3 per 1,000 ventilator-days), as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (6.3 vs. 3.3 per 1,000 catheter-days). Notably, the frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates to imipenem (47.2% vs 23.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (76.3% vs 27.1%), Escherichia coli isolates to ceftazidime (66.7% vs 8.1%), Staphylococcus aureus isolates to methicillin (84.4% vs 56.8%), were also higher in the consortium's ICUs, and the crude unadjusted excess mortalities of device-related infections ranged from 7.3% (for catheter-associated urinary tract infection) to 15.2% (for ventilator-associated pneumonia).