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Between January and August 2024, mpox cases have been reported in nearly all provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Monkeypox virus genome sequences were obtained from 11 mpox cases' samples, collected in July-August 2024 in several health zones of Kinshasa. Characterisation of the sequences showed subclades Ia and Ib co-circulating in the Limete health zone, while phylogenetic analyses suggested multiple introductions of the two subclades in Kinshasa. This illustrates the growing complexity of Clade I mpox outbreaks in DRC.

Introduction: COVID-19 can trigger different clinical presentations in distinct population groups, some of which are considered at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Little is known about the susceptibility of certain populations to the infection., Objectives: We aimed to determine the prevalence of COVID-19 among People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWH) attending a tertiary public hospital in Salvador, Brazil, patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis and Hospital's Healthcare Workers (HCW), and to compare their SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels., Methods: In this observational study we included 2294 participants from June 9, 2020 to August 10, 2021. IgG SARS-CoV-2 antibodies from all participants (275 PLWH, 42 with active tuberculosis and 1977 healthcare workers) were measured. Prevalence of COVID-19 and antibodies indexes were compared across groups., Results: We detected a higher prevalence of COVID-19 in patients with active tuberculosis (42.9%) than in PLWH (22.5%) or HCW (11.7%). Previously vaccinated participants with a COVID-19 history had median higher IgG antibody indexes (8.2; IQR: 5.5‒10) than those vaccinated who did not have COVID-19 until the time of this study (4.1; IQR: 1.6‒6.2, p < 0.001)., Conclusion: Prevalence of previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was higher among tuberculosis patients than that found in HCW and PLWH, but antibodies levels were similar across groups., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Sociedade Brasileira de Infectologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)

Rotavirus (RV) and Norovirus (NV) are the main viral etiologic agents of acute gastroenteritis (AG), a serious pediatric condition associated with significant death rates and long-term complications. Anti-RV vaccination has been proved efficient in the reduction of severe AG worldwide, however, the available vaccines are all attenuated and have suboptimal efficiencies in developing countries, where AG leads to substantial disease burden. On the other hand, no NV vaccine has been licensed so far. Therefore, we used immunoinformatics tools to develop a multi-epitope vaccine (ChRNV22) to prevent severe AG by RV and NV. Epitopes were predicted against 17 prevalent genotypes of four structural proteins (NV's VP1, RV's VP4, VP6 and VP7), and then assembled in a chimeric protein, with two small adjuvant sequences (tetanus toxin P2 epitope and a conserved sequence of RV's enterotoxin, NSP4). Simulations of the immune response and interactions with immune receptors indicated the immunogenic properties of ChRNV22, including a Th1-biased response. In silico search for putative host-homologous, allergenic and toxic regions also indicated the vaccine safety. In summary, we developed a multi-epitope vaccine against different NV and RV genotypes that seems promising for the prevention of severe AG, which will be further assessed by in vivo tests., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:Helioswilton Sales-Campos reports financial support was provided by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa (FUNAPE). Amanda de Oliveira Matos reports financial support was provided by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Pedro Henrique dos Santos Dantas reports financial support was provided by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (TREM-1) is a pattern recognition receptor heavily investigated in infectious and non-infectious diseases. Because of its role in amplifying inflammation, TREM-1 has been explored as a diagnostic/prognostic biomarker. Further, as the receptor has been implicated in the pathophysiology of several diseases, therapies aiming at modulating its activity represent a promising strategy to constrain uncontrolled inflammatory or infectious diseases. Despite this, several aspects concerning its interaction with ligands and activation process, remain unclear. Although many molecules have been suggested as TREM-1 ligands, only five have been confirmed to interact with the receptor: actin, eCIRP, HMGB1, Hsp70 and PGLYRP1. However, the domains involved in the interaction between the receptor and these proteins are not clarified yet. Therefore, here we used in silico approaches to investigate the putative binding domains in the receptor, using hot spots analysis, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations between TREM-1 and its five known ligands. Our results indicated the complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) of the receptor as the main mediators of antigen recognition, especially the CDR3 loop. We believe that our study could be used as structural basis for the elucidation of TREM-1's recognition process, and may be useful for prospective in silico and biological investigations exploring the receptor in different contexts., Competing Interests: The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Helioswilton Sales-Campos reports financial support was provided by Fundação de Apoio a Pesquisa (FUNAPE). Carolina Horta Andrade reports a relationship with Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG) that includes: funding grants. Bruno Junior Neves reports a relationship with Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Goiás (FAPEG) that includes: funding grants. Carolina Horta Andrade reports a relationship with Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico (CNPq) that includes: funding grants. Bruno Junior Neves reports a relationship with Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico (CNPq) that includes: funding grants. Helioswilton Sales-Campos reports a relationship with Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa (FUNAPE) that includes: funding grants. Bruno Junior Neves reports a relationship with Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa (FUNAPE) that includes: funding grants., (© 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Research Network of Computational and Structural Biotechnology.)

The triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 1 (TREM-1) is a receptor of the innate immune system, expressed mostly by myeloid cells and primarily associated with pro- inflammatory responses. Although the exact nature of its ligands has not yet been fully elucidated, many microorganisms or danger signals have been proposed as inducers of its activation or the secretion of sTREM-1, the soluble form with putative anti-inflammatory effects. In the course of the 20   years since its first description, several studies have investigated the involvement of TREM-1 in bacterial infections. However, the number of studies describing the role of TREM-1 in fungal, viral and parasite-associated infections has only increased in the last few years, showing a diverse contribution of the receptor in these scenarios, with beneficial or detrimental activities depending on the context. Therefore, this review aims to discuss how TREM-1 may influence viral, fungal and parasitic infection outcomes, highlighting its potential as a therapeutic target and biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of non-bacterial infectious diseases.