New and re-emerging infectious diseases.The seventh annual Conference on New and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases, April 15-16, 2004, was hosted by the Center for Zoonoses Zoonoses Infections of humans caused by the transmission of disease agents that naturally live in animals. People become infected when they unwittingly intrude into the life cycle of the disease agent and become unnatural hosts. Research and the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Early years: 1867-1880 The Morrill Act of 1862 granted each state in the United States a portion of land on which to establish a major public state university, one which could teach agriculture, mechanic arts, and military training, "without excluding other scientific . The conference featured eight speakers and 31 poster presentations. The conference was opened with a presentation on Yersinia enterocolitica, a gram-negative enteric human pathogen that causes enterocolitis enterocolitis /en·tero·co·li·tis/ (-ko-li´tis) inflammation of the small intestine and colon. antibiotic-associated enterocolitis . Invasin is the primary requirement for efficient translocation of the bacteria across the intestinal epithelium; the identification of both positive and negative regulators of its expression have been identified. The emergence of Mycoplasma mycoplasma Any of the bacteria that make up the genus Mycoplasma. They are among the smallest of bacterial organisms. The cell varies from a spherical or pear shape to that of a slender branched filament. gallisepticum, which causes severe conjunctivitis conjunctivitis (kənjəngtəvī`təs), inflammation or infection of the mucosal membrane that covers the eyeball and lines the eyelid, usually acute, caused by a virus or, less often, by a bacillus, an allergic reaction, or an in house finches, was described. The strain of M. gallisepticum that affects house finches, a new host recently introduced to North America, is a novel strain that emerged recently. Current therapies for microsporidiosis, a serious opportunistic infection in persons with AIDS, organ transplant recipients, children, travelers, contact lens wearers, and the elderly, were reviewed. Studies on the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans, which causes life-threatening infections of the central nervous system, most commonly in immunocompromised hosts, were discussed. The studies focused on signaling cascades that govern virulence and an unusual mating type locus linked to differentiation and virulence. Release of the variant surface antigens of African trypanosomes, agents of a reemerging infectious disease in sub-Saharan Africa, occurs not only by proteolysis proteolysis Process in which a protein is broken down partially, into peptides, or completely, into amino acids, by proteolytic enzymes, present in bacteria and in plants but most abundant in animals. but also by glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchor hydrolysis through a phospholipase phospholipase /phos·pho·lip·ase/ (-lip´as) any of four enzymes (phospholipase A to D) that catalyze the hydrolysis of specific ester bonds in phospholipids. phos·pho·lip·ase n. present in the parasite surface. To characterize the human colonic response to Shigella shigella Any of the rod-shaped bacteria that make up the genus Shigella, which are normal inhabitants of the human intestinal tract and can cause dysentery, or shigellosis. Shigellae are gram-negative (see gram stain), non-spore-forming, stationary bacteria. S. and Entamoeba histolytica at the molecular level, differential transcription of nearly 40,000 human genes in sections of human colonic xenografts that had been infected with Shigella flexneri or E. histolytica was measured. The results indicated increased expression of genes encoding proteins involved in stress, hypoxic responses, immune and inflammatory responses, responses to tissue injury and tissue repair, cytokines, and chemokines. Studies on sortases, membrane-anchored transpeptidases that cleave surface proteins, were described. Because sortases of Staphylococcus aureus are required for animal infections, inhibitors that disrupt the activity of sortases may be therapeutically useful. The conference was concluded with a description of the severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Definition Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is the first emergent and highly transmissible viral disease to appear during the twenty-first century. (SARS) epidemic in China. China's handling of the epidemic has been critiqued by the international community, but a balanced view of events has shown that many measures undertaken by officials, such as large-scale quarantines, mandatory fever-screening checkpoints, arrival and departure monitoring at airports, populationwide surveillance, community infection control, and designating SARS-only hospitals, worked effectively to contain this infectious disease. The proceedings are available in PDF format at http://www.cvm.unic. edu/czr/ Address for correspondence: Roberto Docampo, Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology, Dept. of Pathobiology pathobiology /patho·bi·ol·o·gy/ (-bi-ol´ah-je) pathology. path·o·bi·ol·o·gy n. The study or practice of pathology with greater emphasis on the biological than on the medical aspects. , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001 South Lincoln Avenue, Urbana, IL 61802, USA; fax: 217-244-7421; email: rodoc@uiuc.edu Roberto Docampo * * University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA |
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