Vitamin D and Streptococci: The Interface of Nutrition, Host Immune Response, and Antimicrobial Activity in Response to Infection

Skeletal and Adipose Manifestations of Stress in a Contemporary Pediatric Sample

INTRODUCTION

Adverse experiences leading to physiological disruptions (stress) in early life produce cascade effects on various biological systems, including the endocrine and metabolic systems, which, in turn, shape the developing skeletal system. To evaluate the effects of stress on adipose and skeletal tissues, we examine the relationship between skeletal indicators of stress (porotic hyperostosis [PH] and cribra orbitalia [CO]), bone mineral density (BMD), vertebral neural canal (VNC) diameters, and adipose tissue distribution in a contemporary pediatric autopsy sample.

METHODS

Data is from 702 (409 males, 293 females) individuals from a pediatric (0.5-20.9 years) autopsy sample from New Mexico who died between 2011 and 2022. Data includes visceral adipose tissue (VAT) in the abdomen, heart, and liver, CO/PH, VNC size of the fifth lumbar vertebra, and BMD.

RESULTS

We find that adipose tissue distribution and location are differentially associated with CO/PH, BMD, and VNC size; VNC size is smaller, and liver adiposity is higher in those with CO/PH. Further, increased VAT and small VNC size are associated with PH presence and low BMD. Body mass index categories do not correspond with porous cranial lesion presence.

CONCLUSIONS

This paper provides evidence for the complex relationship between skeletal markers of early-life stress (CO/PH, reduced VNC size, low BMD) and endocrine system function. VAT distribution and VNC size are partly shaped by stressors during gestation, likely through alterations of the HPA axis. It is possible that alterations of the HPA axis due to gestational stress also shape the expression of porous cranial lesions during exposure to childhood stressors.

The role of cathelicidins in neutrophil biology

Despite their relatively short lifespan, neutrophils are tasked with counteracting pathogens through various functions, including phagocytosis, production of reactive oxygen species, neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), and host defense peptides. Regarding the latter, small cationic cathelicidins present a conundrum in neutrophil function. Although primarily recognized as microbicides with an ability to provoke pores in microbial cell walls, the ability of cathelicidin to modulate key neutrophil functions is also of great importance, including the release of chemoattractants, cytokines, and reactive oxygen species, plus prolonging neutrophil lifespan. Cumulative evidence indicates a less recognized role of cathelicidin as an "immunomodulator"; however, this term is not always explicit, and its relevance in neutrophil responses during infection and inflammation is seldom discussed. This review compiles and discusses studies of how neutrophils use cathelicidin to respond to infections, while also acknowledging immunomodulatory aspects of cathelicidin through potential crosstalk between sources of the peptide.

LLL 44-4 : Micronutrients in acute disease and critical illness

Micronutrients (MN), i.e. trace elements and vitamins, are essential components of the diet in relatively small amounts in any form of nutrition, with special needs in critically ill patients. Critical illness is characterised by the presence of inflammation and oxidative stress. MNs are tightly involved in antioxidant and immune defences. In addition, some conditions, and treatments result in large losses of biological fluids containing MNs: therefore, acute renal injury requiring renal replacement therapy, acute intestinal failure, and major burns and trauma are at high risk of acute depletion of body stores, and of deficiency. MN requirements are increased above standard DRI. Blood level interpretation is complicated by inflammation: some biomarkers assist the status determination. Due to the acute challenges of critical illness, it of utmost importance to cover the needs to maintain the organism's endogenous immune and antioxidant defences, and capacity to repair tissues. Practical strategies are proposed.

1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3-mediated effects on bovine innate immunity and on biofilm-forming Staphylococcus spp. isolated from cattle with mastitis

Mastitis is one the most widespread and serious diseases in dairy cattle. Recurrent and chronic infections are often attributable to certain pathogenicity mechanisms in mastitis-causing pathogens such as Staphylococcus spp. These include growing in biofilm and invading cells, both of which make it possible to resist or evade antimicrobial therapies and the host's immune system. This study tested the effects of active vitamin D3 (i.e., calcitriol or 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) on the internalization and phagocytosis of biofilm-forming Staphylococcus spp. isolated from animals with mastitis. Two established bovine cell lines were used: MAC-T (mammary epithelial cells) and BoMac (macrophages). Calcitriol (0-200 nM) did not affect the viability of MAC-T cells nor that of BoMac cells after 24 and 72 h. Concentrations of 0-100 mM for 24 h upregulated the expression of 24-hydroxylase in MAC-T cells, but did not alter that of VDR. Pre-treatment of the cells with calcitriol for 24 h decreased the internalization of S. aureus V329 into MAC-T cells (0-100 nM), and stimulated the phagocytosis of the same strain and of S. xylosus 4913 (0-10 nM). Calcitriol and two conditioned media, obtained by treating the cells with 25-200 nM of the metabolite for 24 h, were also assessed in terms of their antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity. Neither calcitriol by itself nor the conditioned media affected staphylococcal growth or biofilm formation (0-200 nM for 12 and 24 h, respectively). In contrast, the conditioned media (0-100 nM for 24 h) decreased the biomass of preformed non-aureus staphylococcal biofilms and killed the bacteria within them, without affecting metabolic activity. These effects may be mediated by reactive oxygen species and proteins with antimicrobial and/or antibiofilm activity. In short, calcitriol could make pathogens more accessible to antimicrobial therapies and enhance bacterial clearance by professional phagocytes. Moreover, it may modulate the host's endogenous defenses in the bovine udder and help combat preformed non-aureus staphylococcal biofilms (S. chromogenes 40, S. xylosus 4913, and/or S. haemolyticus 6). The findings confirm calcitriol's potential as an adjuvant to prevent and/or treat intramammary infections caused by Staphylococcus spp., which would in turn contribute to reducing antibiotic use on dairy farms.

Influence of COVID-19 infection/vaccination on menstrual regularity and hormonal function in Saudi females of reproductive age

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on women's health, particularly on their menstrual cycles. The menstrual cycle serves as a crucial indicator of fertility and reproduction.

Objectives

This study aimed to examine the impact of COVID-19 infection and vaccination on menstrual regularity in Saudi women of childbearing age. Additionally, it sought to explore the potential effects of COVID-19 vaccination on serum hormonal levels during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, along with their relationship with Vit.D.

Methods

This case‒control study investigated the impact of COVID-19 infection and vaccination on menstrual regularity and hormonal function in Saudi women of reproductive age. Data were collected from 79 women who attended the Outpatient Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at King Faisal Medical Complex in Taif, Saudi Arabia. All participants had received COVID-19 vaccines. The data collection process was comprehensive, encompassing various participant characteristics, such as demographic information, history of COVID-19 infection, and details about menstrual patterns before and after infection and vaccination. Furthermore, hormonal measurements, including follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), oestradiol, prolactin, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and vitamin D (Vit.D) levels, were extracted from the participants' medical records.

Results

Among the participants, 39.24 % had a history of COVID-19 infection, and following the infection, there was a significant increase in the proportion of women experiencing irregular menstruation. After receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, 72.15 % of the participants continued to have irregular menstrual cycles. The study found that a considerable number of participants had menstrual cycles outside the normal range, with 43.80 % having cycles shorter than 21 days and 35.10 % having cycles longer than 35 days. Comparing participants with regular and irregular cycles after COVID-19 vaccination, no significant changes were observed in most hormonal levels. However, the prolactin hormone showed a significant increase in participants with irregular cycles, while Vit.D levels were significantly decreased in this group.

Conclusion

The study findings indicate a higher prevalence of irregular menstruation among participants, particularly after vaccination. Notably, irregular menstrual cycles were found to be associated with elevated levels of prolactin hormone and decreased levels of Vit.D.

Skeletal manifestations of disease experience: Length of illness and porous cranial lesion formation in a contemporary juvenile mortality sample

OBJECTIVES

Porous lesions of the orbit (cribra orbitalia [CO]) and cranial vault (porotic hyperostosis [PH]) are used as skeletal indicators of childhood stress. Because they are understudied in contemporary populations, their relationship to disease experience is poorly understood. This paper examines the relationship between length of childhood illness and CO/PH formation in a clinically documented sample. "Turning points," which identify the window for lesion formation for CO/PH, are defined, implications for hidden heterogeneity in frailty are considered.

METHODS

Data are from 333 (199 males; 134 females) pediatric postmortem computed tomography scans. Individuals died in New Mexico (2011-2019) and are 0.5 to 15.99 years (mean = 7.1). Length of illness was estimated using information from autopsy and field reports. Logistic regression was used to estimate predicted probabilities, odds ratios, and the temporal window for lesion formation.

RESULTS

Illness, single bouts, or cumulative episodes lasting over 1 month is associated with higher odds of CO; individuals who were never sick have lower odds of having PH. This relationship was consistent for fatal and incidental illnesses that did not cause death. The developmental window for CO formation appears to close at 8 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Those ill for over 1 month are more likely to have CO/PH than those with acute illnesses. Some individuals lived sufficiently long to form CO/PH but died of illness. Others with lesions died of circumstances unrelated to disease. This indicates hidden variation in robusticity even among ill individuals with CO/PH, which is vital in interpreting lesion frequencies in the archeological record.

Semi-Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of 25(R)-26-Acetoxy-3β,5α-Dihydroxycholest-6-One

Previously, we identified a series of steroids (1–6) that showed potent anti-virus activities against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), with IC50 values ranging from 3.23 to 0.19 µM. In this work, we first semi-synthesized and characterized the single isomer of 5, 25(R)-26-acetoxy-3β,5α-dihydroxycholest-6-one, named as (25R)-5, in seven steps from a commercially available compound diosgenin (7), with a total yield of 2.8%. Unfortunately, compound (25R)-5 and the intermediates only showed slight inhibitions against RSV replication at the concentration of 10 µM, but they possessed potent cytotoxicity activities against human bladder cancer 5637 (HTB-9) and hepatic cancer HepG2, with IC50 values ranging from 3.0 to 15.5 µM without any impression of normal liver cell proliferation at 20 µM. Among them, the target compound (25R)-5 possessed cytotoxicity activities against 5637 (HTB-9) and HepG2 with IC50 values of 4.8 µM and 15.5 µM, respectively. Further studies indicated that compound (25R)-5 inhibited cancer cell proliferation through inducing early and late-stage apoptosis. Collectively, we have semi-synthesized, characterized and biologically evaluated the 25R-isomer of compound 5; the biological results suggested that compound (25R)-5 could be a good lead for further anti-cancer studies, especially for anti-human liver cancer.

mltG gene deletion mitigated virulence potential of Streptococcus mutans: An in-vitro, ex-situ and in-vivo study

Bacterial cells are surrounded by a peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall, which is essential for cell integrity and intrinsic biogenesis pathways; hence, the cell wall is a potential target for several antibiotics. Among several lytic transglycosylases (LTs), the mltG gene plays a crucial role in the synthesis of peripheral PG. It localises the re-modelled PGs for septum formation and cleavage across the bacterial cell wall during daughter cells separation. However, the role of mltG gene in bacterial virulence, particularly in Gram-positive bacteria during dentine biofilm and caries development, has remained unexplored. Hence, we exploited Gram-positive Streptococcus mutans cells for the very first time to construct a mltG knock-out bacterial strain, e.g., ΔmltG S. mutans. Systematic comparative investigations revealed that doubling time (Td), survival, enzymatic efficiencies, pH tolerance, bio-synthesise of lipid, proteins and DNA, biofilm formation and dentine lesions were significantly (p < 0.001) compromised in case of ΔmltG S. mutans than wild type strain. The qRT-PCR based gene expression profiling revealed that transcriptional expression of critically important genes involved in biofilm, metabolism, and stress response were dysregulated in the mutant. Besides, an incredible reduction in dentine caries development was found in the molar teeth of Wistar rats and also in human extracted teeth. Concisely, these trends obtained evidently advocated the fact that the deletion of mltG gene can be a potential target to impair the S. mutans virulence through severe growth retardation, thereby reducing the virulence potential of S. mutans.

A Predictive Model Based on the Gut Microbiota Improves the Diagnostic Effect in Patients With Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) is a malignant hepatic tumor with a poor prognosis, which needs early diagnosis urgently. The gut microbiota has been shown to play a crucial role in the progression of liver cancer. Here, we explored a gut microbiota model covering genera Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia, Faecalibacterium, and Ruminococcus_1 (B-F-R) for CCA early diagnosis. A case-control study was conducted to enroll 53 CCA patients, 47 cholelithiasis patients, and 40 healthy controls. The feces samples and clinical information of participants were collected in the same period. The gut microbiota and its diversity of individuals were accessed with 16S rDNA sequencing, and the gut microbiota profile was evaluated according to microbiota diversity. Finally, four enriched genera in the CCA group (genera Bacteroides, Muribaculaceae_unclassified, Muribaculum, and Alistipes) and eight enriched genera in the cholelithiasis group (genera Bifidobacterium, Streptococcus, Agathobacter, Ruminococcus_gnavus_group, Faecalibacterium, Subdoligranulum, Collinsella, Escherichia-Shigella) constitute an overall different microbial community composition (P = 0.001). The B-F-R genera model with better diagnostic value than carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) was identified by random forest and Statistical Analysis of Metagenomic Profiles (STAMP) to distinguish CCA patients from healthy controls [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.973, 95% CI = 0.932–1.0]. Moreover, the correlative analysis found that genera Burkholderia-Caballeronia-Paraburkholderia were positively correlated with body mass index (BMI). The significantly different microbiomes between cholelithiasis and CCA were found via principal coordinates analysis (PCoA) and linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe), and Venn diagram and LEfSe were utilized to identify four genera by comparing microbial compositions among patients with malignant obstructive jaundice (MOJ-Y) or not (MOJ-N). In brief, our findings suggest that gut microbiota vary from benign and malignant hepatobiliary diseases to healthy people and provide evidence supporting gut microbiota to be a non-invasive biomarker for the early diagnosis of CCA.

Developments in pediatrics in 2020: choices in allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, ortopedics, respiratory tract illnesses and rheumatology

In this article, we describe the advances in the field of pediatrics that have been published in the Italian Journal of Pediatrics in 2020. We report progresses in understanding allergy, autoinflammatory disorders, critical care, endocrinology, genetics, infectious diseases, microbiota, neonatology, neurology, nutrition, orthopedics, respiratory tract illnesses, rheumatology in childhood.

Preventing Staphylococcus aureus stainless steel-associated infections in orthopedics. A systematic review and meta-analysis of animal literature

Surgical site infection in the presence of orthopedic implants poses significant healthcare and socioeconomic burden. To assess the potential of various prevention strategies against Staphylococcus-induced stainless steel-associated infections, a review of animal evidence was designed. The databases of PubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched until March 10, 2020, for articles including animal models with stainless steel instrumentation and techniques to prevent Staphylococcus infection. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of standardized mean differences (SMD) with subgroup analysis linked to various protection strategies and we recorded complications. Quality was assessed with the SYRCLE's risk of bias tool. Twenty-five studies were included. Combined active coating (featuring organic antibacterial compound release) and degradable passive finishing (lipid- or polymer-based structure modification reducing bacterial adhesion) was favored over untreated controls (SMDs for methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus [MSSA] and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus [MRSA] were -3.46, 95% CI [-4.53 to -2.4], p < .001 [n = 4 head-to-head comparisons]; and -6.67, 95% CI [-10.53 to -3], p < .001 [n = 5 head-to-head comparisons], respectively). Systemic vitamin D supplementation and systemic antibiotic administration with or without local antibiotics demonstrated favorable outcomes against MSSA infection. On the contrary, no benefit was seen following vaccination. Of note, no side effects were documented. On the basis of data gathered from eight studies, which comprised 294 animals, a bioresorbable polymer- or lipid-based surface modification supplemented with organic coating yielded improved infection-related outcomes against MSSA and MRSA stainless steel infections, and therefore, this strategy could be further investigated in human research.

Vitamin D Levels Are Reduced at the Time of Hospital Admission in Sicilian SARS-CoV-2-Positive Patients

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a worldwide healthcare challenge that needs an efficient response. Unfortunately, to date there is no highly effective treatment, so a deep understanding of COVID-19 risk factors could be an important step in treating the disease. Vitamin D affects the immune system in many different ways, and other authors already found that COVID-19 patients have low levels of vitamin D. In our retrospective study, we evaluated the vitamin D status at the time of hospital admission in 50 COVID-19 patients in Sicily, which is the southernmost region of Italy, and compared them with 100 control subjects matched for age and sex. Our data showed markedly low levels of vitamin D in patients with a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), but no association was found with inflammation markers or clinical severity. Vitamin D levels were reduced at the time of hospital admission in Sicilian SARS-CoV-2-positive patients, but it is not clear whether this condition has an impact on the clinical course of COVID-19.