COVID-19 and zoonoses in Brazil: Environmental scan of one health preparedness and response.

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the central role of the One Health (OH) approach, as a multisectoral and multidisciplinary perspective, to tackle health threats at the human-animal-environment interface. This study assessed Brazilian preparedness and response to COVID-19 and zoonoses with a focus on the OH approach and equity dimensions. We conducted an environmental scan using a protocol developed as part of a multi-country study. The article selection process resulted in 45 documents: 79 files and 112 references on OH; 41 files and 81 references on equity. The OH and equity aspects are poorly represented in the official documents regarding the COVID-19 response, either at the federal and state levels. Brazil has a governance infrastructure that allows for the response to infectious diseases, including zoonoses, as well as the fight against antimicrobial resistance through the OH approach. However, the response to the pandemic did not fully utilize the resources of the Brazilian state, due to the lack of central coordination and articulation among the sectors involved. Brazil is considered an area of high risk for emergence of zoonoses mainly due to climate change, large-scale deforestation and urbanization, high wildlife biodiversity, wide dry frontier, and poor control of wild animals' traffic. Therefore, encouraging existing mechanisms for collaboration across sectors and disciplines, with the inclusion of vulnerable populations, is required for making a multisectoral OH approach successful in the country.

Interleukin-13/interleukin-4 receptor pathway is crucial for production of Sda-sialomucin in mouse small intestinal mucosa by Nippostrongylus brasiliensis infection.

Mucin is a major component of mucus in gastrointestinal mucosa. Increase of specific sialomucins having Sda blood group antigen, NeuAcα2-3(GalNAcß1-4)Galß1-4GlcNAcß-, is considered to be associated with expulsion of the parasitic intestinal nematode Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. In this study, we examined the relationship between interleukin (IL)-13 pathway and expression of Sda-sialomucins in small intestinal mucosa with N. brasiliensis infection. Nematode infection induced marked increases in small intestinal mucins that reacted with anti-Sda antibody in wild type (wt) mice. However, this increase due to infection was supressed in IL-4 receptor α deficient (IL-4Rα-/-) mice, which lack both IL-4 and IL-13 signaling via IL-4R, and severe combined immunodeficient (SCID) mice, which have defects in B- and T-lymphocytes. Analysis using tandem mass spectroscopy showed that Sda-glycans were not expressed in small intestinal mucins in IL-4Rα-/- and SCID mice after infection despite the appearance of Sda-glycans in the infected wt mice. Inoculation of recombinant IL-13 into the infected SCID mice restored expression of Sda-glycan. Our results suggest that the IL-13/IL-4R axis is important for the production of Sda-sialomucins in the host intestinal mucosa with parasitic nematode infection.

The development of animal infection models and antifungal efficacy assays against clinical isolates of Trichosporon asahii, T. asteroides and T. inkin.

The present study developed Galleria mellonella and murine infection models for the study of Trichosporon infections. The utility of the developed animal models was demonstrated through the assessment of virulence and antifungal efficacy for 7 clinical isolates of Trichosporon asahii, T. asteroides and T. inkin. The susceptibility of the Trichosporon isolates to several common antifungal drugs was tested in vitro using the broth microdilution and the E-test methods. The E-test method depicted a lower minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) for amphotericin and a slightly higher MIC for caspofungin, while MICs observed for the azoles were different but comparable between both methods. All three Trichosporon species established infection in both the G. mellonella and immunosuppressed murine models. Species and strain dependent differences were observed in both the G. mellonella and murine models. T. asahii was demonstrated to be more virulent than the other 2 species in both animal hosts. Significant differences in virulence were observed between strains for T. asteroides in the murine model. In both animal models, fluconazole and voriconazole were able to improve the survival of the animals compared to the untreated control groups infected with any of the 3 Trichosporon species. In G. mellonella, amphotericin was not able to reduce mortality in any of the 3 species. In contrast, amphotericin was able to reduce murine mortality in the T. asahii or T. inkin models, respectively. Hence, the developed animal infection models can be directly applicable to the future deeper investigation of the molecular determinants of Trichosporon virulence and antifungal resistance.