استكشف المجموعة الواسعة من العناوين المتاحة.

Management of tick-borne disease necessitates an understanding of tick phenology, tick-host associations, and pathogen dynamics. In a recreational hotspot outside of one of the largest cities in the United States, we conducted a year of monthly standardized tick drag sampling and wildlife trapping in Sam Houston National Forest, a high use recreation site near Houston in east Texas, US. By sampling 150 wildlife hosts of 18 species, including rodents, meso-mammals, deer, reptiles, and amphibians, we collected 87 blood samples, 90 ear biopsies, and 861 ticks representing four species (Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis, Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes texanus). Drag sampling yielded 1,651 questing ticks of three species: A. americanum (921), D. variabilis (10), and I. scapularis (720). Off-host larval A. americanum abundance peaked in July, followed by peak infestations of wildlife, predominantly raccoons, in August. Off-host I. scapularis larvae abundance peaked in spring (March-May), while very few were removed from hosts and only a single I. scapularis nymph was found throughout the study via dragging in June. In contrast, both off-host and on-host adult I. scapularis occurred most frequently in the winter. Overall, tick infections included 25.3% (183/725) with Rickettsia buchneri, 15.5% (112/725) Rickettsia amblyommatis, 8.0% (58/725) Rickettsia tillamookensis, 0.8% (6/725) Rickettsia spp., and a single tick with a hard tick relapsing fever Borrelia spp.; no tick tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi. Characterizing tick phenology, tick-host associations, and tick-borne bacteria fills important knowledge gaps for the risk of tick-borne diseases in pine-dominated forests of this region.

Management of tick-borne disease necessitates an understanding of tick phenology, tick-host associations, and pathogen dynamics. In a recreational hotspot outside of one of the largest cities in the United States, we conducted a year of monthly standardized tick drag sampling and wildlife trapping in Sam Houston National Forest, a high use recreation site near Houston in east Texas, US. By sampling 150 wildlife hosts of 18 species, including rodents, meso-mammals, deer, reptiles, and amphibians, we collected 87 blood samples, 90 ear biopsies, and 861 ticks representing four species ( Amblyomma americanum, Dermacentor variabilis , Ixodes scapularis and Ixodes texanus ). Drag sampling yielded 1,651 questing ticks of three species: A. americanum (921) , D. variabilis (10), and I. scapularis (720). Off-host larval A. americanum abundance peaked in July, followed by peak infestations of wildlife, predominantly raccoons, in August. Off-host I. scapularis larvae abundance peaked in spring (March-May), while very few were removed from hosts and only a single I. scapularis nymph was found throughout the study via dragging in June. In contrast, both off-host and on-host adult I. scapularis occurred most frequently in the winter. Overall, tick infections included 25.3% (183/725) with Rickettsia buchneri , 15.5% (112/725) Rickettsia amblyommatis , 8.0% (58/725) Rickettsia tillamookensis, 0.8% (6/725) Rickettsia spp., and a single tick with a hard tick relapsing fever Borrelia spp.; no tick tested positive for Borrelia burgdorferi . Characterizing tick phenology, tick-host associations, and tick-borne bacteria fills important knowledge gaps for the risk of tick-borne diseases in pine-dominated forests of this region.

Background Chagas disease remains a persistent vector-borne neglected tropical disease throughout the Americas and threatens both human and animal health. Diverse control methods have been used to target triatomine vector populations, with household insecticides being the most common. As an alternative to environmental sprays, host-targeted systemic insecticides (or endectocides) allow for application of chemicals to vertebrate hosts, resulting in toxic blood meals for arthropods (xenointoxication). In this study, we evaluated three systemic insecticide products for their ability to kill triatomines. Methods Chickens were fed the insecticides orally, following which triatomines were allowed to feed on the treated chickens. The insecticide products tested included: Safe-Guard® Aquasol (fenbendazole), Ivomec® Pour-On (ivermectin) and Bravecto® (fluralaner). Triatoma gerstaeckeri nymphs were allowed to feed on insecticide-live birds at 0, 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days post-treatment. The survival and feeding status of the T. gerstaeckeri insects were recorded and analyzed using Kaplan–Meier curves and logistic regression. Results Feeding on fluralaner-treated chickens resulted 50–100% mortality in T. gerstaeckeri over the first 14 days post-treatment but not later; in contrast, all insects that fed on fenbendazole- and ivermectin-treated chickens survived. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-QQQ) analysis, used to detect the concentration of fluralaner and fenbendazole in chicken plasma, revealed the presence of fluralaner in plasma at 3, 7, and 14 days post-treatment but not later, with the highest concentrations found at 3 and 7 days post-treatment. However, fenbendazole concentration was below the limit of detection at all time points. Conclusions Xenointoxication using fluralaner in poultry is a potential new tool for integrated vector control to reduce risk of Chagas disease. Graphical Abstract

Congregate animal settings can serve as foci for the increased transmission of pathogens, including zoonoses. Domestic cats have been shown to be reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 but the public health importance of infected cats has not yet been determined. A population of indoor-only residential cats at a cat café in central Texas with a high level of human interaction was evaluated for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in a longitudinal study in 2021–2022. Among 25 cats, none were qRT-PCR-positive, while 50% harbored SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, including 1 that remained seropositive for >8 months. The high level of human exposure in this unique congregate cat setting—in which dozens of new visitors interact with the cats every day—likely facilitated the human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 that led to a 50% infection prevalence in cats. This work was conducted when the Delta and Omicron variants predominated. Given that feline susceptibility to infection and shedding of a virus may vary across different viral variants, veterinary surveillance may be an important component of veterinary and human health risk assessments.

Chagas disease is an infectious disease of human and animal health concern, with 6–8 million chronic human infections and over 50,000 deaths throughout the Americas annually. Hematophagous insects of the subfamily Triatominae, also called kissing bugs, vector the protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi Chagas (Trypanosomatida: Trypanosomatidae), that causes Chagas disease. Despite the large human health burden, Chagas disease is a neglected tropical disease with inadequate funding for research and preventive practices. Given the resource-poor environment of most agencies trying to protect public health, it is critical to consider all control options for reducing vector populations and the risk of human exposure to T. cruzi to identify the most appropriate tools for each context. While numerous triatomine control methods exist, the literature lacks a compilation of the strategies used, a critical examination of their efficiency, and a particular focus on triatomine control in the United States compared to elsewhere in the Americas. Here, we present a review of the literature to assess historical intervention strategies of existing and developing triatomine control methods. For each method, we discuss progress in the field, future research to further advance the method, and limitations. While we found that pyrethroid insecticide is still the most commonly used method of triatomine and Chagas disease control, we suggest that complementing these techniques with alternative control methods in development will help to achieve Chagas disease reduction goals.

The control of zoonotic and vector-borne pathogens is challenging due to the limited availability of intervention tools. West Nile virus (WNV) is an example of globally distributed zoonotic arbovirus that circulates between Culex species mosquitoes and avian hosts, with spillover transmission to humans, resulting in disease cases. Interventions delivering systemic insecticides to vertebrate hosts used by vector species, known as xenointoxication, are potential tools for managing vector populations by creating toxic bloodmeals. In this study, we evaluated the impact of three systemic insecticides on the mortality of Cx. quinquefasciatus: fenbendazole (Safe-Guard® Aquasol), ivermectin (Ivomec® Pour-On), and fluralaner (Bravecto®). We found no significant difference in the feeding rates of mosquitoes that fed on treated chickens compared to those fed on untreated chickens, suggesting that the treatment did not repel mosquitoes. The mortality of Cx. quinquefasciatus mosquitoes feeding on fluralaner-treated chickens was significantly higher (p < 0.01) than those fed on control chickens at 3 and 7 days post-treatment, but this effect was not observed in mosquitoes fed on chickens treated with fenbendazole or ivermectin. No differences in mortality were observed among the groups at 14, 26, or 56 days post-treatment. These data support fluralaner as a xenointoxication tool to control Cx. quinquefasciatus populations and decrease the risk of human exposure to their associated pathogens.

MYC is a major cancer driver but is documented to be a difficult therapeutic target itself. Here, we report on the biological activity, the structural basis, and therapeutic effects of the family of multitargeted compounds that simultaneously disrupt functions of two critical MYC-mediating factors through inhibiting the acetyllysine binding of BRD4 and the kinase activity of PI3K. We show that the dual-action inhibitor impairs PI3K/BRD4 signaling in vitro and in vivo and affords maximal MYC down-regulation. The concomitant inhibition of PI3K and BRD4 blocks MYC expression and activation, promotes MYC degradation, and markedly inhibits cancer cell growth and metastasis. Collectively, our findings suggest that the dual-activity inhibitor represents a highly promising lead compound for the development of novel anticancer therapeutics.