Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
Introduction: Most studies on nematode-malaria interactions were conducted outside of the Americas. The objective of the present study was thus to study the relation between malaria and nematodes in a cohort of children in an Amazonian village. Methods: Odds ratios for intestinal nematode infections as an explanatory variable to malaria resistant vs. malaria sensitive were computed. Results: Ascaris lumbricoides was significantly more frequent in the ‘resistant’ malaria group than in the ‘sensitive’ one. Conclusions: Despite its low statistical power, the present results find that Ascaris was associated with less malaria, as observed by a number of studies.
ISSN: 0142-6338

inserm-01410100
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-01410100
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-01410100/document
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-01410100/file/worms%20malaria%20camopi%20j%20trop%20pediatrics.pdf
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-01410100/file/GI%20nematodes%20tab%20aurelia%29.pdf

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD BioMed Central
Résumé : International audience
BACKGROUND: Malaria is a major public health problem in French Guiana, where Plasmodium vivax has become the dominant malaria species since 2000. As in others endemic areas, it is important to specify the pattern of vivax malaria relapses and to try to discriminate efficiently re-infections from relapses. METHODS: This study was conducted in children born between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2008 in Camopi, an Amerindian village located in the Amazon forest (n = 325), using an open cohort design. Primary and secondary attack rates of P. vivax were calculated using survival analysis. With the difference between the primary and secondary rates, this study aimed to estimate indirectly P. vivax relapse rate and evaluate its time evolution. RESULTS: Of the 1042 malaria attacks recorded, 689 (66%) were due to P. vivax (without mixed infection). One hundred and fifty one children had their primary attack with P. vivax and 106 had their two first attacks with P. vivax. In the absence of primaquine treatment, it was shown that P. vivax relapses mainly occurred during the first three months after the first attack. Thirty percent of children never had a relapse, 42% had a relapse before the first month after primary attack, 59% before the second month and 63% before the third month. CONCLUSION: This study confirmed that the relapse pattern in Camopi was compatible with the pattern described for the P. vivax Chesson (tropical) strain. In addition, due to the relapse rate time evolution, a simple arbitrary classification rule could be constructed: before 90 days after the primary attack, the secondary attack is a relapse; after 90 days, it is a re-infection. Adapted management of malaria cases based on these results could be devised.
ISSN: 1475-2875

inserm-00663913
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00663913
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00663913/document
http://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00663913/file/1475-2875-8-278.pdf
DOI : 10.1186/1475-2875-8-278

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Landes Bioscience
Résumé : International audience
In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. A key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process vs. those that measure flux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process); thus, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation needs to be differentiated from stimuli that result in increased autophagic activity, defined as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (in most higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the field understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field.
Autophagy

hal-00735751
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00735751
PUBMED : 22966490