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The defects of the neural tube represent the greater group of malformations of central nervous system (SNC) caused by anomalies in the closing, whose etiologic is been from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. One of the main ones that we can find is the bifid thorn that includes understands meningocele, myelomeningocele, and anencephaly. She is one of the most common anomalies; all is characterized by alterations that affect the neural weave, meninges and soft bone or weaves that are on them. We presented displayed a case of a bony description of a product of between 37 and 38 weeks of gestational age (SDG) by somatometry (chimney, radius, femur, tibia). which presents displays the own alterations of this suffering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is believed that long-term cultures of CML marrow cells favor the outgrowth of BCR/ABL negative hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) and that this phenomenon may be enhanced with negative hematopoietic regulators which can maintain primitive HPC in a quiescent state. Proliferation of CML marrow CD34+ cells in primary short-term cultures, maintained in the presence or absence of macrophage inhibitory protein-1 alpha (MIP-1α was tracked with the membrane dye PKH2. After 7 to 10 days it was possible to distinguish between cytokine responsive (CR) CD34+ cells (cells which had divided thus becoming PKH2dim) and cytokine nonresponsive (CNR) CD34+ cells (cells which had not divided and had therefore remained PKH2bright). CR and CNR CD34+ cells were isolated by flow cytometric cell sorting, seeded in secondary long-term cultures, and their progeny cells assayed weekly for their clonogenic progenitor cell content and expression of BCR/ABL by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Whereas CNR cells isolated from control primary cultures (control/CNR) sustained in vitro hematopoiesis, similar cells from cultures treated with MIP-1α (MIP-1α/CNR) supported a higher and, in some patients, a more extended production of clonogenic HPC, indicating that MIP-1α was able to maintain primitive HPC in a quiescent state. Predominance of BCR/ABL negative progenitors in vitro was more evident in secondary cultures initiated with CNR cells than in those initiated with CR cells, especially those established with MIP-1α/CNR cells. Of interest is the observed decline in the percentage of BCR/ABL+ progenitors in these cultures with time. Whereas up to 100% of progenitors were BCR/ABL+ on day 0, by day 14, only 46% of progenitors in MIP-1α/CNR secondary cultures were BCR/ABL+ and by day 28 and beyond, the percentage of BCR/ABL+ progenitors dropped to below 20%. These results... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2023, an active surveillance initiative was undertaken in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, with the specific objective of ascertaining evidence for the presence of avian influenza, and specifically the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 (HPAIV H5N1). The investigation encompassed diverse locations, including Hanna Point (Livingston Island), Lions Rump (King George Island), and Base Escudero (King George Island), with targeted observations on marine mammals (southern elephant seals), flying birds (the kelp gull, snowy sheathbill and brown skua), and penguins (the chinstrap penguin and gentoo penguin). The study encompassed the examination of these sites for signs of mass mortality events possibly attributable to HPAIV H5N1, as well as sampling for influenza detection by means of real-time RT-PCR. Two hundred and seven (207) samples were collected, including 73 fecal samples obtained from the environment from marine mammals (predominantly feces of southern elephant seals), and 77 cloacal samples from penguins of the genus Pygoscelis (predominantly from the gentoo penguin). No evidence of mass mortality attributable to HPAIV H5N1 was observed, and all the collected samples tested negative for the presence of the virus, strongly suggesting the absence of the virus in the Antarctic territory during the specified period. This empirical evidence holds significant implications for both the ecological integrity of the region and the potential zoonotic threats, underscoring the importance of continued surveillance and monitoring in the Antarctic ecosystem.

In Chile, since January 2023, a sudden and pronounced increase in strandings and mortality has been observed among South American (SA) sea lions (Otaria flavescens), prompting significant concern. Simultaneously, an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (HPAIV H5N1) in avian species has emerged since December 2022. To investigate the cause of this unexpected mortality, we conducted a comprehensive epidemiological and pathologic study. One hundred sixty-nine SA sea lions were sampled to ascertain their HPAIV H5N1 status, and long-term stranding trends from 2009 to 2023 were analyzed. In addition, two animals were necropsied. Remarkably, a significant surge in SA sea lion strandings was observed initiating in January 2023 and peaking in June 2023, with a count of 4,545 stranded and deceased animals. Notably, this surge in mortality correlates geographically with HPAIV outbreaks affecting wild birds. Among 168 sampled SA sea lions, 34 (20%) tested positive for Influenza A virus, and 21 confirmed for HPAIV H5N1 2.3.4.4b clade in tracheal/rectal swab pools. Clinical and pathological evaluations of the two necropsied stranded sea lions revealed prevalent neurological and respiratory signs, including disorientation, tremors, ataxia, and paralysis, as well as acute dyspnea, tachypnea, profuse nasal secretion, and abdominal breathing. The lesions identified in necropsied animals aligned with observed clinical signs. Detection of the virus via immunohistochemistry (IHC) and real-time PCR in the brain and lungs affirmed the findings. The findings provide evidence between the mass mortality occurrences in SA sea lions and HPAIV, strongly indicating a causal relationship. Further studies are needed to better understand the pathogenesis and transmission.

Non-wood lignocellulosic fibers have emerged and are becoming increasingly important as an alternative source of cellulose for derivatives, functional materials, and biofuels. This work aimed, to obtain cellulose from Meghatyrsus maximus grass with adequate properties through an alkaline delignification and alkaline hydrogen peroxide bleaching. Meghatyrsus maximus was chemically characterized as lignocellulosic biomass, which consisted of 45.0 %, cellulose, 35.0 % hemicellulose, and 20.0 % lignin. The obtained cellulose was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. The alpha-cellulose content was 98.50 % with a crystallinity of 61.0 %. The morphological study by scanning electron microscopy images indicates a clean surface and removal of non-cellulosic components present in the initial raw fibers. These results showed that high-quality cellulose was obtained and is comparable to a commercial alpha-cellulose, highlighting Meghatyrsus maximus as an alternative source of lignocellulosic fibers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Seneca Valley virus (SVV) is a non-enveloped RNA virus and the only member of the Senecavirus A (SVA) species, in the Senecavirus genus, Picornaviridae family. SVV infection causes vesicular lesions in the oral cavity, snout and hooves of pigs. This infection is clinically indistinguishable from trade-restrictions-related diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease. Other clinical manifestations include diarrhoea, anorexia, lethargy, neurological signs and mortality in piglets during their first week of age. Before this study, Chile was considered free of vesicular diseases of swine, including SVV. In April 2022, a suspected case of vesicular disease in a swine farm was reported in Chile. The SVV was confirmed and other vesicular diseases were ruled out. An epidemiological investigation and phylogenetic analyses were performed to identify the origin and extent of the outbreak. Three hundred ninety-five samples from 44 swine farms were collected, including faeces (208), oral fluid (28), processing fluid (14), fresh semen (61), environmental samples (80) and tissue from lesions (4) for real-time RT-PCR detection. Until June 2022, the SVV has been detected in 16 out of 44 farms, all epidemiologically related to the index farm. The closest phylogenetic relationship of the Chilean SVV strain is with viruses collected from swine in California in 2017. The direct cause of the SVV introduction has not yet been identified; however, the phylogenetic analyses suggest the USA as the most likely source. Since the virus remains active in the environment, transmission by fomites such as contaminated feed cannot be discarded. Further studies are needed to determine the risk of the introduction of novel SVV and other transboundary swine pathogens to Chile., (© 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Porcine Circovirus 2 (PCV2) can cause multiple clinical conditions known as porcine circovirus-associated diseases (PCVAD). Before the wide availability of PCV2 vaccines, PCVAD resulted in significant losses to the global swine industry. PCV2's rapid evolutionary dynamics are comparable to single-stranded RNA viruses. Thus, shifts in the dominance and distribution of different genotypes may frequently occur, resulting in the emergence and spread of varying PCV2 genotypes and recombinant strains in swine. This study aims at identifying the PCV2 genotypes currently circulating in Chile. Seven hundred thirty-eight samples were obtained from 21 swine farms between 2020 and 2021. The samples were tested using PCR for species detection and genotyping. Sequencing and phylogenetic analyses were conducted in selected samples. PCV2 was detected in 26.9% of the PCR reactions and 67% of the sampled farms. The genotypes were determined in nine farms, PCV2a in one farm, PCV2b in four, and PCV2d in five, with PCV2b and PCV2d co-circulating in one farm. The phylogenetic analysis of twelve ORF2 sequences obtained (PCV2a = 5; PCV2b = 4; PCV2d = 3) showed a PCV2a Chilean strains monophyletic cluster; closely related to Chilean viruses collected in 2012 and 2013. Of the three different PCV2b sequenced viruses, two viruses were close to the root of the PCV2b group, whereas the remaining one grouped with a South Korean virus. PCV2d sequences were closely related to Asian viruses. A previously reported PCV2a/PCV2d recombinant strain was not detected in this study. Our results suggest the emergence and potential shift to PCV2d genotype in Chilean farms., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Ariyama, Agüero, Valdés, Berrios, Bucarey, Mor, Brito and Neira.)

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been detected in domestic and wild cats. However, little is known about natural viral infections of domestic cats, although their importance for modelling disease spread, informing strategies for managing positive human-animal relationships and disease prevention. Here, we describe the SARS-CoV-2 infection in a household of two human adults and sibling cats (one male and two females) using real-time RT-PCR, an ELISA test, viral sequencing, and virus isolation. On May 5th, 2020, the cat-owners tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Two days later, the male cat showed mild respiratory symptoms and tested positive. Four days after the male cat, the two female cats became positive, asymptomatically. Also, one human and one cat showed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. All cats excreted detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA for a shorter duration than humans and viral sequences analysis confirmed human-to-cat transmission. We could not determine if cat-to-cat transmission also occurred.

Avian orthoavulavirus 1 (AOaV-1) causes Newcastle disease, one of the most important and contagious infections in poultry, where migratory birds can play a key role as a reservoir. Seven hundred and seven serum samples were collected from five penguin species (King, Magellanic, Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adelie penguins) in the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic zones. Using a competitive ELISA to detect antibodies against AOaV-1, we identified positive individuals in all penguin species. The Magellanic penguin showed the highest seropositivity rate (30.3%), suggesting it could be a natural reservoir of this virus. At the Antarctic zones, Chinstrap penguin showed the highest occurrence (7.5%). Interesting, positive sera was only obtained in Sub-Antarctic and Northern zones at the Antarctic peninsula, no seroreactivity was observed in Southern locations. Further studies are needed to establish the role of these penguin species in the epidemiology of the AOaV-1 and determine the effects of this virus in these populations., (© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.)

Background: Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) has a mortality up to 35-40% and its treatment is mainly supportive. A variable to predict progression from mild to severe disease is unavailable. This study was performed in patients with documented infection by Andes orthohantavirus, and the aim was to find a simple variable to predict progression to moderate/severe HCPS in patients with mild disease at admission., Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of 175 patients between 2001 and 2018. Patients were categorized into mild, moderate, and severe disease according to organ failure and advanced support need at hospital admission (e.g., mechanical ventilation, vasopressors). Progression to moderate/severe disease was defined accordingly. Clinical and laboratory variables associated with progression were explored., Results: Forty patients with mild disease were identified; 14 of them progressed to moderate/severe disease. Only platelet count was different between those who progressed versus those that did not (37 (34-58) vs. 83 (64-177) K/mm 3 , p < 0.001). A ROC curve analysis showed an AUC = 0.889 (0.78-1.0) p < 0.001, with a platelet count greater than 115K /mm 3 ruling out progression to moderate/severe disease., Conclusions: In patients with mild disease at presentation, platelet count could help to define priority of evacuation to tertiary care centers.

Introduction: It has been demonstrated that scintigraphy with somatostatin analogues is useful for the diagnosis, staging and follow up of patients with neuroendocrine tumors from the gastrointestinal tract (NET-GIT). Some studies suggest that the use of 99mTc-Hydrazinonicotinyl-Tyr3-octreotide (99mTc-HYNIC-TOC) yields similar diagnostic results than the use of 111In-DTPA-octreotide., Objective: To determine the clinical value of scintigraphy using 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC for the detection of primary and secondary lesions in patients with NET-GIT., Methods: From September 2004 to May 2009, 32 patients (17 women, age range 18 to 82 years old) with histologically proven or clinically suspected NET-GIT underwent scintigraphy using 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC Patients underwent a whole body scan, with additional static images of abdomen and pelvis, followed by SPECT at 4-hrs post injection of 925 MBq of the tracer. Patients underwent clinical, imaging and histopathology follow-up during 3 to 18 months., Results: Histopathology demonstrated carcinoid tumor in 20 patients, insulinoma in 2, gastrinoma in 2 and non-specific NET-GIT in 6. Total sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and accuracy were 87%, 100%, 100%, 89% and 94%, respectively. To detect the primary lesion, the values were 94%, 100% 100%, 94% and 97%, respectively and to detect secondary lesions, 79%, 100%, 100%, 86% and 91%, respectively., Conclusions: 99mTc-HYNIC-TOC is a specific somatostatin analog, with high affinity to receptor subtype SST-2, widely available and affordable by Latin American countries. It has a good performance to be used for diagnosis, staging and follow-up of patients with NET-GIT.

In addition to possessing multilineage differentiation and self-renewal capabilities, pluripotent hematopoietic stem cells are believed to be mitotically quiescent and metabolically inactive. Fractions of human bone marrow (BM) CD34+ cells can be further enriched for primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) by using a number of cell-surface markers. All of these fractions, however, contain cells that are still heterogeneous as far as their metabolic and mitotic activities are concerned. We therefore used Hoechst 33342 (Hst) to identify quiescent cells and Rhodamine 123 (Rh123) to identify metabolically inactive cells. CD34+HstdimRh123dim (CD34+d/d) and CD34+HstbrightRh123bright (CD34+b/b) cells were isolated by flow cytometry to examine the hematopoietic functions of mitotically and metabolically homogeneous progenitors. Cell-cycle status, progenitor cell content, maintenance of in vitro hematopoiesis, and long-term hematopoietic culture-initiating cell (LTHC-IC) content of CD34+d/d and CD34+b/b cells were compared with CD34+HLA-DR- cells, a well-defined phenotype of primitive HPC. Whereas 99.2 +/- 0.5% of freshly isolated CD34+d/d cells were in G0/G1 phase of the cell cycle, only 74.4 +/- 11.5% of CD34+b/b and 75.6 +/- 1.1% of CD34+HLA-DR- cells were in G0/G1. The number of multipotential progenitors (colony-forming units-granulocyte/erythroid/ macrophage/megakaryocyte [CFU-GEMM]) detected in CD34+d/d cells was twice that observed in CD34+HLA-DR- cells and eight times that in CD34+b/b cells. In stromal cell-free long-term cultures maintained for 10 weeks, production of assayable progenitors in cultures initiated with CD34+d/d cells exceeded that detected in CD34+HLA-DR- cultures by more than three-fold. Only in CD34+d/d cultures were high proliferative potential colony-forming cell (HPP-CFC)-derived colonies detected over a period of 6 weeks. Limiting dilution analysis revealed that the frequency of LTHC-IC was highest among CD34+d/d cells (7.2 +/- 3.3%), followed by a frequency of 4.5 +/- 4.8% for CD34+HLA-DR- cells and 2.2 +/- 3.5% for CD34+b/b cells. The primitive nature of HPC identified by CD34, Hst, and Rh123 was confirmed by the ability of as few as 200 murine marrow cells isolated by this technique to radioprotect and fully reconstitute lethally irradiated recipients. These results indicate that Hst and Rh123 staining can be used in combination with CD34 immunofluorescence to isolate a quiescent subpopulation of human primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells. Cells isolated by this technique appear to have functional properties associated with stem cells, suggesting that they may be ideal candidates for studies requiring primitive HPC, such as ex vivo expansion and somatic gene therapy.

Mobilized peripheral blood hematopoietic progenitor cells obtained from cancer patients treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide (7g/m2) followed by G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-3, PIXY321, or combinations of these cytokines have been successfully used for autologous stem cell transplantation. We investigated the ability of hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) derived from mobilized peripheral blood (PB) to undergo ex vivo expansion in short term cultures by enumerating numbers of de novo generated CD34+ cells, assayable progenitor cells, and the frequency of long-term hematopoietic culture-initiating cells (LTHC-IC). These parameters were examined in CD34+ cells generated in culture through the use of cell tracking with the membrane dye PKH2. Fresh isolated mobilized CD34+ cells contained 0.49 +/- 0.36% LTHC-IC. However, due to the high number of total CD34+ cells in mobilized PB, the absolute number of LTHC-IC was higher than that contained in a bone marrow (BM) harvest. Mobilized CD34+ cells were stained with PKH2 and incubated with SCF, IL-3, and IL-6. After 5 to 6 days, numbers of total CD34+ cells and clonogenic progenitors increased 1.4- and 2.2-fold, respectively. Numbers of total progenitors continued to increase such that 10 to 12 days after the initiation of cultures a 6.4-fold increase was demonstrable. However, between days 5 and 7 of culture, the frequency of LTHC-IC in CD34+PKH2bright cells (cells which did not divide) was less than 50% of that determined for fresh cells, while the frequency among CD34+PKH2dim cells (cells that had divided) was very low or undetectable. However, moderately higher frequencies of LTHC-IC were detected following expansion for 48 hours only. In similar assays, both BM and cord blood cells were capable of generating LTHC-IC in CD34+PKH2dim cells but not to expand the overall number of these progenitors. These observations suggest that although mobilized PB CD34+ cells contain large numbers of LTHC-IC, these cells might not be capable of further ex vivo expansion and generation of additional LTHC-IC in vitro. Furthermore, these data indicate that mobilized PB CD34+ cells may have undergone maximal "in vivo expansion" such that additional ex vivo expansion of primitive progenitor cells may not be possible.