Seroexposure to Zoonotic Anaplasma and Borrelia in Dogs and Horses That Are in Contact with Vulnerable People in Italy.

Equine and canine anaplasmosis and borreliosis are major tick-borne zoonotic diseases caused by Anaplasma phagocytophilum and various species of Borrelia (the most important being Borrelia burgdorferi s.l.), respectively. This study evaluated the seroexposure to Anaplasma and Borrelia in dogs and horses used in Animal-Assisted Interventions or living in contact with children, elderly people or immunocompromised persons. A total of 150 horses and 150 dogs living in Italy were equally divided into clinically healthy animals and animals with at least one clinical sign compatible with borreliosis and/or anaplasmosis (present at clinical examination or reported in the medical history). Serum samples were tested with ELISA and immunoblot for the presence of antibodies against A. phagocytophilum and B. burgdorferi s.l., and the association between seropositivity and possible risk factors was analyzed using multivariate and univariate tests. Overall, 13 dogs (8.7%) and 19 horses (12.7%) were positive for at least one of the two pathogens. In addition, 1 dog (0.7%) and 12 horses (8%) were positive for antibodies against A. phagocytophilum, while 12 dogs (8.0%) and 10 horses (6.7%) had antibodies against B. burgdorferi s.l. Tick infestation in the medical history of the dogs was significantly associated with seropositivity to at least one pathogen (p = 0.027; OR 7.398). These results indicate that, in Italy, ticks infected with A. phagocytophilum and/or B. burgdorferi circulate in places where horses and dogs are in contact with people at risk of developing severe diseases. Awareness should be increased, and adequate control plans need to be developed to protect human and animal health, especially where vulnerable, at-risk individuals are concerned.

A proposed metabolic strategy for monitoring disease progression in Alzheimer's disease.

A specific, sensitive and essentially non-invasive assay to diagnose and monitor Alzheimer's disease (AD) would be valuable to both clinicians and medical researchers. The aim of this study was to perform a metabonomic statistical analysis on plasma fingerprints. Objectives were to investigate novel biomarkers indicative of AD, to consider the role of bile acids as AD biomarkers and to consider whether mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a separate disease from AD. Samples were analysed by ultraperformance liquid chromatography-MS and resulting data sets were interpreted using soft-independent modelling of class analogy statistical analysis methods. PCA models did not show any grouping of subjects by disease state. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DS) models yielded class separation for AD. However, as with earlier studies, model validation revealed a predictive power of Q(2)<0.5 and indicating their unsuitability for predicting disease state. Three bile acids were extracted from the data and quantified, up-regulation was observed for MCI and AD patients. PLS-DA did not support MCI being considered as a separate disease from AD with MCI patient metabolic profiles being significantly closer to AD patients than controls. This study suggested that further investigation into the lipid fraction of the metabolome may yield useful biomarkers for AD and metabolomic profiles could be used to predict disease state in a clinical setting.