The aim of this study is to investigate the role of cytotoxic cells on the outcome of the Zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis (ZCL) due to infection by Leishmania major. We demonstrated the presence of cytotoxic T lymphocytes expressing high levels of granzyme B and granulysine within ZCL lesions comparing to healthy skin. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that GrB is produced essentially by CD8+T cells.

This study introduces Flow Plex, a Java-based computational tool for comprehensive unbiased flow cytometry data analysis we have developed for immunologists without bioinformatics background. Flow Plex allows for the extraction of the entire information content from a given flow cytometry panel and enables the generation of large meta-data sets that can be processed further using standard or customized statistical support. Applications are in sample classification, biomarker discovery, and bias-minimizing experimental settings.

Key Messages

• Computation of all possible combinations of markers used in a given flow cytometry panel allows extraction of the entire information content of the panel in an unbiased fashion.

• The resulting metadata describing the frequency of all retrievable cell populations within predefined starting populations facilitate sample classification according to disease states and the discovery of cell populations with the potential to serve as biomarkers or research targets.

• With the program provided, extraction of the entire information content is possible for users of standard flow cytometry analysis software without special computational skills.

Propensity to produce interleukin 2 (IL-2) influences asthma severity and type 2 inflammation.

Trichosporon asahii is an emerging cause of systemic fungal infection in an immunocompromised host. There are several reports of life threatening disseminated T. asahii infection in a single solid organ (liver or kidney) transplant recipient, in neutropenic and hematological malignancy patients. This is the first case report of disseminated T. asahii infection in a combined liver-kidney transplant recipient successfully treated with voriconazole.

Equine asthma represents a naturally occurring animal model for human allergic neutrophilic asthma. Inhalative nanoparticle-bound cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG-GNP) immunotherapy, independent of specific allergens, has already shown promising clinical and immunological results in previous studies and offers the possibility of a causal treatment of the underlying mechanism of the disease. This study analyses the relationship between dose and response, and evaluates a possible long-term effect. On the immunological level, an anti-inflammatory, as well as an immunomodulatory effect, apart from a Th2- dominated immune response, could be observed. This immunomodulatory inhalation treatment could indicate a new possibility for human allergic asthma therapy.

This is the first clinical study investigating the significance of serum microfibrillar-associated Protein 4 (MFAP4) in adolescents and young adults with asthma. The study reveals an association between the extracellular matrix protein MFAP4 and current asthma in a comprehensively characterized population of adolescents and young adults previously diagnosed with asthma during childhood. The study supports previous findings from experimental in vitro and in vivo studies hypothesizing that MFAP4 plays a role in the pathogenesis of asthma.

Wheezing prevalence decreased despite the decreased burden of Ascaris infections, which were more prevalent among wheezing children. No association between regulatory T (Treg) cells and wheezing was found. Although Ascaris infection was not a risk factor for wheezing, the national deworming program did not increase wheezing prevalence.

Allergic eczema/asthma in early life, being born during the autumn/winter, having multiple allergic symptoms and two allergic parents were all strong predictors for having allergic diseases at 5 and 10 years of age. However, the allergic march seems to be independent of heredity, as IgE-mediated allergies follow the same trajectories in children with and without allergic heredity.

Sensitization at 13 months of age is primarily toward food allergens. Children with atopic dermatitis are more prone to be sensitized.

Decrease in number of mast cells in resected nasal polyps as an indicator for postoperative recurrence of chronic rhinosinusitis. Our findings indicated that the enumeration of mast cells in resected polyps may be another approach to predict postoperative polyp recurrence in CRSwNP patients.

In this study, we show that lung DMF administration attenuates house dust mite (HDM)-induced allergic sensitization and eosinophilic airway inflammation. Therefore, these findings support a novel therapeutic effect of local DMF application modulating airway inflammation during the pathogenesis of allergic asthma.

Clinicians draw on instructional approaches when training patients with anaphylaxis to use adrenaline autoinjectors, but patient use is poor, and psychological barriers to these behaviours exist but are not considered routinely when training patients to use autoinjectors. The study evaluated the impact of a 90-minute workshop training clinicians in strategies and techniques for exploring and responding to psychological barriers to autoinjector use with patients. The workshop produced sustained improvements in clinicians confidence and knowledge around patient autoinjector education, and their likelihood of using strategies in clinical practice.

Recent studies have shown that oral bacteria might induce systemic inflammation through alteration of gut microbiota. We investigated the relationship between oral and gut microbiota and evaluated the transition of oral bacteria to the gastrointestinal tract. Unweighted UniFrac distance revealed that the elderly group had a higher similarity between fecal and subgingival plaque microbiota than the adult group. Moreover, a significantly higher prevalence of some bacterial taxa found in oral samples was observed in the feces of the elderly group than of the adult group. Our results suggest that the prevalence of oral bacterial transition to gut is higher in the elderly than in adults; thus, we expect that in the elderly, oral health care will affect gut microbiota composition and consequently promote human health.