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Antibodies for avian flu discovered in dairy farm workers in Michigan and Colorado

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Farm workers exposed to infected dairy cows found to have avian influenza antibodies

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There may be more human cases of avian influenza in the United States than previously thought. Health officials in the two states conducted blood tests on workers at dairy farms known to have received infected cattle and found that about 7% of them had antibodies to the disease. This included people who had never experienced any flu symptoms.

Since March, an avian influenza virus known as H5N1 has been circulating among dairy cows across the United States. so far, 446 cows People have tested positive for the virus in 15 states in the United States. From April, 44 people In the United States, people have tested positive for H5, the influenza subtype that includes H5N1. All but one of these cases occurred in poultry or dairy farm workers infected with H5N1.

To better understand how many farmworkers may have been infected with the virus. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborates with state health departments Blood samples were taken from 115 people working on dairy farms raising H5N1-infected cows in Colorado and Michigan. All samples were taken between 15 and 19 days after a cow on the farm tested positive for the virus.

Nirav Shah The CDC and his colleagues then removed seasonal influenza antibodies from the samples before testing them for the presence of H5N1 antibodies. H5N1 antibodies were detected in eight of the samples, or about 7%, suggesting that eight of the workers may have been unknowingly infected with the virus. Furthermore, four of the employees did not remember having symptoms.

“This is very important because by this point, [H5N1] “Testing is primarily focused on symptomatic workers.” Megan Davis at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “If workers are unaware that they are infected, they may inadvertently expose others in the community to infection.”

H5N1 is poorly adapted to infecting humans and is not known to be transmitted between humans. Still, more than that, 900 people worldwide People have been reported to have been infected with the virus since 2003, and about half of them have died from the virus. Each of these infections gives the virus a chance to mutate, potentially making it more dangerous to people.

“Those of us in public health need to cast a wider net in who we provide testing to,” Shah said at a press conference today. “Going forward, CDC plans to expand testing recommendations to include infected workers.” [to H5N1] And there are no symptoms. ”

The agency also recommends providing antiviral drugs to asymptomatic workers who are at high risk of infection, such as dairy farm workers who may get raw milk on their faces. That way, even if you do get infected with the virus, the amount of virus circulating in your body will be reduced and the risk of spreading the virus to others will be lower. “The less room we give this virus to spread, the less chance it has of changing,” Shah said.

The data also highlights that many H5N1 infections remain undetected, a concern public health officials have long suspected to be true. But until more data is available, “we can't estimate how many unconfirmed cases there are,” Shah said.

The CDC is currently analyzing an additional 150 blood samples taken from veterinarians who work with cattle. Once these results are available, Shah said it should give a clearer picture of how many cases are slipping through the cracks.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Injection of antibodies can help slow down the advancement of Parkinson’s disease

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Aggregates of protein α-synuclein (brown) and antibody (green)

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Drugs that target protein accumulations associated with Parkinson's disease may slow the progression of motor symptoms in patients with advanced Parkinson's disease. This shows potential as a disease-modifying treatment for Parkinson's disease, but it is unclear whether the drug actually removes the protein from the brain.

Accumulation of a misfolded protein called alpha-synuclein in the brain has long been thought to be the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease. This results in the loss of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is involved in motor control.

Some existing treatments aim to alleviate these symptoms by improving dopamine levels in the brain, but their long-term effects are limited. To date, there are no approved disease-modifying treatments to stop or slow the progression of Parkinson's disease.

In an effort to counter this, Gennaro Pagano Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and colleagues recruited 316 people who appeared to have early stages of Parkinson's disease. Of these people, 105 received an intravenous infusion of a placebo, and 211 received a low or high dose of Roche's drug plasinezumab every four weeks for a year.

Placinezumab is an antibody designed to bind to aggregates of misfolded alpha-synuclein within dopaminergic neurons. “It is hypothesized that placinezumab may reduce neurotoxicity, prevent cell-to-cell movement of pathological alpha-synuclein aggregates, and slow disease progression,” Pagano says.

Trial results initially suggested the antibody had no significant effect, but the team later realized it may have an effect in trial participants with more severe forms of Parkinson's disease. I did.

These people suffered from rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, which causes intense, often violent dreams that are common in Parkinson's disease. He was taking a drug called an MAO-B inhibitor to manage his symptoms. Or, he has been rated by an expert at 2 out of 5 on a symptom scale, with higher numbers indicating greater severity.

Additional analyzes showed that both low and high doses of the drug had greater effects than seen in the first study, especially among critically ill participants. The rate at which participants' motor symptoms worsened over a one-year period was significantly reduced compared to those taking a placebo.

For example, based on the Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale for Motor Symptoms, patients who took an MAO-B inhibitor and then received a placebo infusion had a score of 6.82 at the end of the year, compared to Patients who took the drug had a score of 4.15.

“These results suggest that potential treatment benefits may be more likely to be achieved in populations that experience greater deterioration over time and more rapid progression,” Pagano says. This is because patients with Parkinson's disease, which progresses more rapidly, have higher amounts of misfolded alpha-synuclein in their brains, so they may benefit more from drugs that can remove this protein. There is a possibility.

However, Professor Pagano said researchers lacked a biomarker that could monitor how participants' levels of misfolded alpha-synuclein changed, so it was unclear what was happening in the participants' brains. He said it was not possible to make an accurate assessment.

Vinata Vedam Mai Researchers at the University of Florida Health say a limitation of the study is that it did not assess whether alpha-synuclein was cleared from the brain. Without this, she says, the results cannot conclusively show that plasinezumab is disease-modifying. Vedam-Mai said he would also like to see long-term data to better assess the drug's safety and effectiveness. No serious adverse events occurred in the latest trial.

Researchers could also investigate whether plasinezumab, when taken over a long period of time, is effective for patients with mild Parkinson's disease, Pagano said.

Source: www.newscientist.com