RESUMO
Astroviruses are common pathogens of the human gastrointestinal tract, but they have been recently identified from cases of fatal meningoencephalitis. Astrovirus VA1 is the most frequently detected astrovirus genotype from cases of human encephalitis, but the prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to VA1 in human sera is unknown. We developed a focus reduction neutralization assay (FRNT) for VA1 and measured the seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies from two cohorts of adult and pediatric serum samples: (i) an age-stratified cohort from St. Louis, MO, collected from 2007 to 2008 and (ii) a cohort from the Peruvian Amazonian River Basin collected in the late 1990s. In the St. Louis cohort, the lowest seropositivity rate was in children 1 year of age (6.9%), rising to 63.3% by ages 9 to 12, and 76.3% of adults ≥20 years were positive. The Peruvian Amazon cohort showed similar seropositivity rates across all ages, with individuals under age 20 having a rate of 75%, while 78.2% of adults ≥20 years were seropositive. In addition, we also identified the presence neutralizing antibodies to VA1 from commercial lots of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). Our results demonstrate that a majority of humans are exposed to VA1 by adulthood, with the majority of infections occurring between 2 and 9 years of age. In addition, our results indicate that VA1 has been circulating in two geographically and socioeconomically divergent study cohorts over the past 20 years. Nonetheless, a significant proportion of the human population lacks neutralizing immunity and remains at risk for acute infection. IMPORTANCE Astroviruses are human pathogens with emerging disease associations, including the recent recognition of their capacity to cause meningoencephalitis. Astrovirus VA1 is the most commonly identified astrovirus genotype from cases of human encephalitis, but it is unknown what percentage of the human population has neutralizing antibodies to VA1. We found that 76.3 to 78.2% of adult humans ≥20 years of age in two geographically and socioeconomically distinct cohorts are seropositive for VA1, with the majority of infections occurring between 2 and 9 years of age. These results demonstrate that VA1 has been circulating in human populations over the past 2 decades and that most humans develop neutralizing antibodies against this virus by adulthood. However, a subset of humans lack evidence of neutralizing antibodies and are at risk for diseases caused by VA1, including encephalitis.
Assuntos
Anticorpos Neutralizantes/sangue , Anticorpos Antivirais/sangue , Infecções por Astroviridae/epidemiologia , Mamastrovirus/imunologia , Adolescente , Adulto , Idoso , Idoso de 80 Anos ou mais , Criança , Pré-Escolar , Estudos de Coortes , Feminino , Humanos , Lactente , Recém-Nascido , Modelos Logísticos , Masculino , Mamastrovirus/genética , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Missouri/epidemiologia , Peru/epidemiologia , RNA Viral/genética , Estudos Soroepidemiológicos , Adulto JovemRESUMO
Three known alkaloids, isoboldine (2), norisoboldine (1), and magnoflorine (8), have been isolated for the first time from Croton lechleri, a source of the wound healing latex "sangre de grado". An HPLC system was developed, and a large number of latex and leaf samples of C. lechleri from 22 sites in northern Peru and Ecuador were analyzed to gain an understanding of the natural variation in alkaloid content for the species. Up to six alkaloids were found to occur in the leaves including, in addition to those listed above, thaliporphine (3), glaucine (4), and taspine (9), whereas the latex contained only 9. Taspine (9) is the component that has been previously found to be responsible for the wound healing activity of C. lechleri latex, and its mean concentration throughout the range examined was found to be 9% of the latex by dry weight. In addition, three chemotypes are defined based on the alkaloid content of the leaves, and the geographic distribution of these chemotypes is discussed along with a quantitative analysis of the alkaloid content as a function of chemotype.