BACKGROUND Galantamine is a drug used for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and some other cognitive disorders. It is an inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase; however, interaction with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors has also been reported. Owing to the significant role of cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathways in neuro-immunomodulation, we decided to examine the effect of galantamine on tula...

Tularemia, also known as "rabbit fever," is a zoonosis caused by the facultative intracellular, gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis. Infection occurs through contact with infected animals (often hares), arthropod vectors (such as ticks or deer flies), inhalation of contaminated dust or through contaminated food and water. In this review, we would like to provide an overview of the cu...

Infectious disease outbreaks can be devastating because of their sudden occurrence, as well as the complexity of monitoring and controlling them. Outbreaks in wildlife are even more challenging to observe and describe, especially when small animals or secretive species are involved. Modeling such infectious disease events is relevant to investigating their dynamics and is critical for decision ...

The role of IL-1β and IL-18 during lung infection with the gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis LVS has not been characterized in detail. Here, using a mouse model of pneumonic tularemia, we show that both cytokines are protective, but through different mechanisms. Il-18-/- mice quickly succumb to the infection and showed higher bacterial burden in organs and lower level of IFNγ in BA...

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to investigate biochemical and oxidative stress responses to experimental F. tularensis infection in European brown hares, an important source of human tularemia infections. METHODS For these purposes we compared the development of an array of biochemical parameters measured in blood plasma using standard procedures of dry chemistry as well as elect...

Tularemia is a high-risk infectious disease caused by Gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis. Due to its high fatality at very low colony-forming units (less than 10), F. tularensis is considered as a powerful potential bioterrorism agent. Vaccine could be the most efficient way to prevent the citizen from infection of F. tularensis when the bioterrorism happens, but officially approved...

Francisella tularensis can cause severe disseminated disease after respiratory infection. The identification of factors involved in mortality or recovery following induction of tularemia in the mouse will improve our understanding of the natural history of this disease and facilitate future evaluation of vaccine candidate preparations. BALB/c mice were infected intranasally with the live vaccin...

Serologic analyses reported in the past of patients with laboratory-acquired (1) and naturally acquired (2-4) tularemia have revealed, at the onset of most of the laboratory-acquired infections, moderate to low agglutinin titers as a result of prior immunization. A diagnostic fourfold rise in titer usually did not take place until the third to fourth week of disease, with maximal responses duri...

We have read with interest the recently published article entitled "Investigation of the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lymph node aspirates of the suspected tularemia lymphadenitis cases" by Albayrak et al. published in Mikrobiyol Bul 2014; 48(1): 129-34. They concluded that tuberculous lymphadenitis (TCL) should be kept in mind in suspected tularemia cases and those patients sh...

A40-year-old man presented with two months of progressive left neck swelling, night sweats, and fatigue. He worked as a hunting guide in New Mexico and reported multiple bites from insects, including deer flies, on the job. He had been treated with penicillin, cephalexin, and clindamycin, but his symptoms persisted. On presentation to our institution, his examination was notable for a temperatu...