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PurposeArsenic exposure and micronutrient deficiencies may alter immune reactivity to influenza vaccination in pregnant women, transplacental transfer of maternal antibodies to the fetus, and maternal and infant acute morbidity. The Pregnancy, Arsenic, and Immune Response (PAIR) Study is a longitudinal pregnancy and birth cohort designed to assess whether arsenic exposure and micronutrient deficiencies alter maternal or newborn immunity and acute morbidity following maternal seasonal influenza vaccination during pregnancy.ParticipantsWe enrolled 784 pregnant women in rural Gaibandha District in northern Bangladesh between October 2018 and March 2019. Women received a quadrivalent seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine at enrollment in the late first or early second trimester between 11 and 17 weeks of gestational age. Follow-up included up to 13 visits between enrollment and three months postpartum as well as weekly telephone surveillance to ascertain influenza-like illness and other acute morbidity symptoms in women and infants. Tube well drinking water and urine specimens were collected to assess arsenic exposure. Of 784 women who enrolled, 736 (93.9%) delivered live births and 551 (70.3%) completed follow-up visit to three months postpartum.Findings to DateArsenic was ≥0.02 µg/L in 97.9% of water specimens collected from participants at enrollment. The medians (interquartile ranges) of water and urinary arsenic were 5.1 (0.5-25.1) µg/L and 33.1 (19.6-56.5) µg/L, respectively. Water and urinary arsenic were strongly correlated (Spearman’s ρ=0.72) among women with water arsenic ≥ median but weakly correlated (ρ=0.18) among women with water arsenic < median.Future PlansThe PAIR Study is well positioned to examine the effects of low-moderate arsenic exposure and micronutrient deficiencies on immune outcomes in women and infants.RegistrationNCT03930017

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Arsenic methylation—the conversion of inorganic arsenic (iAs) to less toxic monomethyl (MMA) and dimethyl (DMA) species—could modify the developmental and reproductive toxicity ...

Beach sand and water have both shown relevance for human health and their microbiology have been the subjects of study for decades. Recently, the World Health Organization recommended that recreational beach sands be added to the matrices monitored for enterococci and Fungi. Global climate change is affecting beach microbial contamination, via changes to conditions like water temperature, sea level, precipitation, and waves. In addition, the world is changing, and humans travel and relocate, often carrying endemic allochthonous microbiota. Coastal areas are amongst the most frequent relocation choices, especially in regions where desertification is taking place. A warmer future will likely require looking beyond the use of traditional water quality indicators to protect human health, in order to guarantee that waterways are safe to use for bathing and recreation. Finally, since sand is a complex matrix, an alternative set of microbial standards is necessary to guarantee that the health of beach users is protected from both sand and water contaminants. We need to plan for the future safer use of beaches by adapting regulations to a climate-changing world. Financial support from CESAM (UID/AMB/50017-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007638) and CITAB (UID/AGR/04033/2019), via FCT/MCTES, from national funds (PIDDAC), cofounded by FEDER, (PT2020 Partnership Agreement and Compete 2020). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Saliva contains pathogen-specific antibodies that can provide quantitative information on the type and temporality of infection. As such, saliva as a biospecimen can be used to noninvasively assess seroconversion to infectious pathogens in the clinical setting as well as for epidemiological surveillance, improving understanding of the epidemiology and natural history of infectious diseases. While saliva is not ideal for analysis of all infectious diseases, it remains a valuable means for data collection across populations varying in age, geographic location, and health status. Developments in the field could allow for rapid testing of exposure to infectious agents through point-of-care assays in areas where blood-based assays or laboratory analysis would be impractical. Here we review the advantages and disadvantages of using salivary assays to assess infectious disease exposure and infection in different settings and explore future directions.

Humans may be exposed to microbial pathogens at recreational beaches via environmental sources, such as water, sand, and aerosols. Although infectious disease risk from exposure to waterborne pathogens has been an active area of research for decades, sand is a relatively unexplored reservoir of pathogens and fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Beach sand and water habitats provide unique advantages and challenges to pathogen introduction, growth, and persistence, as well as continuous exchange between habitats. Models of FIB and pathogen fate and transport in sandy beach habitats can help predict the risk of infectious disease from recreational water use, but filling knowledge gaps such as decay rates and potential for microbial growth in beach habitats is necessary for accurate modeling. Climatic variability, whether natural or anthropogenically-induced, adds complexity to predictive modeling, but may increase human exposure to waterborne pathogens via extreme weather events, warming of water bodies and sea level rise in many regions. The popularity of human recreational beach activities, combined with predicted climate change scenarios, could amplify the risk of human exposure to pathogens and related illnesses. Other global change trends such as increased population growth and urbanization are expected to exacerbate contamination events and the predicted impacts of increasing levels of waterborne pathogens on human health. Such changes will alter microbial population dynamics in beach habitats, and will consequently affect the assumptions and relationships used in population models and quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). Here, we discuss the literature on microbial population and transport dynamics in sand-water continuum habitats at beaches, how these dynamics can be modeled, and how climate change and other anthropogenic influences (e.g., land use, urbanization) should be considered when using and developing more holistic, beachshed-based models.

Stem-cell niche constitutes a dynamic and complex extracellular environment around stem cells, providing signals for self-renewal and differentiation. Existence of separate niches for different types of stem cells, varying in their composition and properties, implies the requirement for unique combination of niche-specific signals. With the growing interest on artificial stem-cell niche for application in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, a major challenge is to incorporate these signals in a synthetic and defined material environment. Self-assembling biomaterials are built on the principles of noncovalent interactions with their modular design offering unprecedented control over presentation of structural and biochemical cues. This review will cover the general strategies for incorporating niche extracellular matrix (ECM) signals in biomaterial scaffold and the unique advantages gained from exploiting the principles of molecular self-assembly. Our focus will be restricted to self-assembling peptide and proteins, two major categories of materials in this class. Use of these materials on various stem-cell applications and some of the future challenges and opportunities will be discussed.