Funded by the German Federal Foreign Office
UNAM Germany and the Institute of Ecology, UNAM, have created a short dissemination video for the Fair of Science and Humanities 2023 (Fiesta de las Ciencias y las Humanidades 2023) organized by UNAM’s Department of Science Dissemination (@DGDCUNAM).
The video (in Spanish) will be broadcasted live on 15 october 2023 at 18:15 (GMT-6).
The International Alliance against Health Risks in Wildlife Trade serves as an inclusive and interdisciplinary platform to discuss challenges and formulate solutions vis-á-vis human-wildlife interfaces and associated health risks and the emergence and spread of zoonotic pathogens from wildlife.
The Alliance is aiming to enhance international and national awareness, knowledge, policies and action, not least by narrowing the gap between science and implementation.
Jan Felix Drexler is Head of the Virus Epidemiology laboratory and an Associate Professor at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. Following medical education in Germany and Brazil, he worked as a staff scientist and professor in Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands. His group focuses on the evolution and epidemiology of emerging viruses at the animal-human interface.
(1) Background: In children, SARS-CoV-2 infection is mostly accompanied by mild COVID19 symptoms. However, multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) and long-term sequelae are often severe complications. Therefore, the protection of the pediatric population against SARSCoV-2 with effective vaccines is particularly important. Here, we compare the humoral and cellular immune responses elicited in children (n = 15, aged 5–11 years) vaccinated with the RBDbased vaccines SOBERANA® 02 and SOBERANA® Plus combined in a heterologous scheme with those from children (n = 10, aged 4–11 years) who recovered from mild symptomatic COVID-19. (2) Methods: Blood samples were taken 14 days after the last dose for vaccinated children and 45–60 days after the infection diagnosis for COVID-19 recovered children. Anti-RBD IgG and ACE2-RBD inhibition were assessed by ELISA; IgA, cytokines, and cytotoxic-related proteins were determined by multiplex assays. Total B and T cell subpopulations and IFN-γ release were measured by multiparametric flow cytometry using a large panel of antibodies after in vitro stimulation with
S1 peptides. (3) Results: Significant higher levels of specific anti-RBD IgG and IgA and ACE2-RBD inhibition capacity were found in vaccinated children in comparison to COVID-19 recovered children. Th1-like and Th2-like CD4+ T cells were also significantly higher in vaccinated subjects. IFN-γ secretion was higher in central memory CD4+ T cells of COVID-19 recovered children, but no differences between both groups were found in the CD4+ and CD8+ T cell effector, terminal effector, and naïve T cell subpopulations. In contrast to low levels of IL-4, high levels of IL-2, IL-6, IFN-γ, and IL-10 suggest a predominant Th1 cell polarization. Cytotoxic-related proteins granzyme A and B, perforin, and granulin were also found in the supernatant after S1 stimulation in both vaccinated and recovered children. (4) Conclusions: Vaccination with the heterologous scheme of SOBERANA® 02/SOBERANA® Plus induces a stronger antibody and cellular immune response compared to natural infections in young children.
© GLACIER
On 28 July 2023 the new facilities where the GLACIER Mexico Real Lab will be housed were officially inaugurated in Mérida, Yucatán (Mexico). This research unit will welcome national and international mobility researchers and postgraduate students.
The new facilities have been conceived to promote collaborative work around major challenges in sustainability, including emergent infectious diseases with a one health approach. Facilities include computational and laboratory equipment. Funding for the building was from UNAM and equipment was acquired through different national and international sources, including CONACyT and DAAD (through GLACIER). National and international researchers, students (of different levels), postdoctoral researchers and scholars will benefit from the use of such facilities and the interactions and collaborations that they will prompt.
Bats are important natural reservoir hosts of a diverse range of viruses that can be transmitted to humans and have been suggested to play an important role in the Zika virus (ZIKV) transmission cycle. However, the exact role of these animals as reservoirs for flaviviruses is still controversial. To further expand our understanding of the role of bats in the ZIKV transmission cycle in Latin America, we carried out an experimental infection in wild-caught Artibeus lituratus bats and sampled several free-living neotropical bats across three countries of the region. Experimental ZIKV infection was performed in wild-caught adult bats (4 females and 5 males). The most relevant findings were hemorrhages in the bladder, stomach and patagium. Significant histological findings included inflammatory infiltrate consisting of a predominance of neutrophils and lymphocytes, in addition to degeneration in the reproductive tract of males and females. This suggests that bat reproduction might be at some level affected by ZIKV. Leukopenia was also observed in some inoculated animals. Hemorrhages, genital alterations, and leukopenia are suggested to be caused by ZIKV; however, since these were wild-caught bats, we cannot exclude other agents. Detection of ZIKV by qPCR was observed at low concentrations in only two urine samples in two inoculated animals. All other animals and tissues tested were negative. Finally, no virus-neutralizing antibodies were found in any animal. To determine ZIKV infection in nature, the blood of a total of 2056 bats was sampled for ZIKV detection by qPCR. Most of the sampled individuals belonged to the genus Pteronotus sp. (23%), followed by the species Carollia sp. (17%),
Anoura sp. (14%), and Molossus sp. (13.7%). No sample of any tested species was positive for ZIKV by qPCR. These results together suggest that bats are not efficient amplifiers or reservoirs of ZIKV and may not have an important role in ZIKV transmission dynamics.