RESUMEN
Botulism outbreaks due to commercial products are extremely rare in the European Union. Here we report on the first international outbreak of foodborne botulism caused by commercial salt-cured, dried roach (Rutilus rutilus). Between November and December 2016, an outbreak of six foodborne botulism type E cases from five unrelated households was documented in Germany and Spain. The outbreak involved persons of Russian and Kazakh backgrounds, all consumed unheated salt-cured, dried roach-a snack particularly favored in Easter-European countries. The implicated food batches had been distributed by an international wholesaler and were recalled from Europe-wide outlets of a supermarket chain and other independent retailers. Of interest, and very unlike to other foodborne disease outbreaks which usually involves a single strain or virus variant, different Clostridium botulinum strains and toxin variants could be identified even from a single patient's sample. Foodborne botulism is a rare but potentially life-threatening disease and almost exclusively involves home-made or artisan products and thus, outbreaks are limited to individual or few cases. As a consequence, international outbreaks are the absolute exception and this is the first one within the European Union. Additional cases were likely prevented by a broad product recall, underscoring the importance of timely public health action. Challenges and difficulties on the diagnostic and epidemiological level encountered in the outbreak are highlighted.
Asunto(s)
Botulismo , Clostridium botulinum , Cyprinidae , Animales , Humanos , Botulismo/epidemiología , Botulismo/diagnóstico , Unión Europea , Brotes de Enfermedades , Cloruro de Sodio DietéticoRESUMEN
The Fischer 344 (F344) rat strain differs from the Lewis strain in the response to neuropathic pain. Recently, we found that F344 rats totally recover from mechanical allodynia induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve 28 days after surgery whereas Lewis rats are initiating their recovery at this time point. Thus, the use of this neuropathic pain model in these different rat strains constitutes a good strategy to identify possible target genes involved in the development of neuropathic pain. Since differences between Lewis and F344 rats in their response to pain stimuli in acute pain models have been related to differences in the endogenous opioid and noradrenergic systems, we aimed to determine the levels of expression of key genes of both systems in the spinal cord and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of both strains 28 days after CCI surgery. Real time RT-PCR revealed minimal changes in gene expression in the spinal cord after CCI despite the strain considered, but marked changes in DRG were observed. A significant upregulation of prodynorphin gene expression occurred only in injured DRG of F344 rats, the most resistant strain to neuropathic pain. In addition, we found a significant downregulation of tyrosine hydroxylase and proenkephalin gene expression levels in both strains whereas delta-opioid receptor was found to be significantly downregulated only in injured DRG of Lewis rats although the same trend was observed in F344 rats. The data strongly suggest that dynorphins could be involved in strain differences concerning CCI resistance.
Asunto(s)
Dinorfinas/biosíntesis , Ganglios Espinales/metabolismo , Regulación de la Expresión Génica/genética , Neuronas Aferentes/metabolismo , Norepinefrina/biosíntesis , Enfermedades del Sistema Nervioso Periférico/metabolismo , Animales , Enfermedad Crónica , Desnervación , Modelos Animales de Enfermedad , Regulación hacia Abajo/genética , Encefalinas/genética , Ganglios Espinales/citología , Hiperalgesia/genética , Hiperalgesia/metabolismo , Hiperalgesia/fisiopatología , Ligadura , Masculino , Neuronas Aferentes/citología , Traumatismos de los Nervios Periféricos , Nervios Periféricos/metabolismo , Nervios Periféricos/fisiopatología , Enfermedades del Sistema Nervioso Periférico/genética , Enfermedades del Sistema Nervioso Periférico/fisiopatología , Precursores de Proteínas/genética , ARN Mensajero/metabolismo , Ratas , Ratas Endogámicas F344 , Ratas Endogámicas Lew , Receptores Opioides delta/genética , Reacción en Cadena de la Polimerasa de Transcriptasa Inversa , Especificidad de la Especie , Médula Espinal/citología , Médula Espinal/metabolismo , Tirosina 3-Monooxigenasa/genéticaRESUMEN
The Fischer 344 (F344) rat inbred strain differs from the inbred Lewis and the outbred Sprague-Dawley (SD) in the response to different pain stimuli, which has been partially attributed to differences in the endogenous opioid and noradrenergic systems. Since brain-derived neutrophic factor (BDNF) modulates both the endogenous opioid and noradrenergic systems, we have now studied specific changes in BDNF gene expression related to the maintenance of neuropathic pain in the three rat strains. F344 rats were found to be the only strain that completely recovered from neuropathic pain (mechanical allodynia) 28 days after chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. Real time RT-PCR studies revealed minimal changes in the expression of BDNF in the spinal cord after CCI despite the strain considered, but marked changes in dorsal root ganglia (DRG) were observed. A significant upregulation of BDNF gene expression was found only in injured DRG of F344 rats, thus correlating with higher resistance to neuropathic pain. The data suggest that BDNF could be involved in strain differences concerning CCI resistance.