Bordetellae colonization oligosaccharide (b-Cool), a glycan crucial for nasal colonization.

Respiratory tract infections pose considerable global health challenges. Upper airway colonization is pivotal to these infections, including those caused by species. We identified an oligosaccharide, bordetellae colonization oligosaccharide (b-Cool), crucial for early nasal colonization of .

Making friends: active selection of symbionts and rejection of pathogens by the neonatal immune system.

The neonatal immune system is generally viewed as deficient compared to adults, often attributed to its incomplete development. This view is reinforced by the extraordinary sensitivity and susceptibility of neonates to certain pathogens. Examination of the basis for this susceptibility has characterized neonatal immunity as skewed strongly toward anti-inflammatory responses, which are interpreted as the lack of full development of the strong inflammatory responses observed in adults.

The Neonatal Immune System and Respiratory Pathogens.

Neonates are more susceptible to some pathogens, particularly those that cause infection in the respiratory tract. This is often attributed to an incompletely developed immune system, but recent work demonstrates effective neonatal immune responses to some infection. The emerging view is that neonates have a distinctly different immune response that is well-adapted to deal with unique immunological challenges of the transition from a relatively sterile uterus to a microbe-rich world, tending to suppress potentially dangerous inflammatory responses.

Novel murine model reveals an early role for pertussis toxin in disrupting neonatal immunity to .

The increased susceptibility of neonates to specific pathogens has previously been attributed to an underdeveloped immune system. More recent data suggest neonates have effective protection against most pathogens but are particularly susceptible to those that target immune functions specific to neonates. (), the causative agent of "whooping cough", causes more serious disease in infants attributed to its production of pertussis toxin (PTx), although the neonate-specific immune functions it targets remain unknown.

Contribution of a Novel Pertussis Toxin-Like Factor in Mediating Persistent Otitis Media.

Chronic otitis media (COM) is the long-term infection and inflammation of the middle ears typically caused by upper respiratory tract pathogens that are able to ascend the Eustachian tube. Our understanding of contributing factors is limited because human otopathogens cannot naturally colonize or persist in the middle ears of mice. We recently described a natural COM in mice caused by and proposed this as an experimental system to study bacterial mechanisms of immune evasion that allow persistent infection of the middle ear.

Modeling the catarrhal stage of Bordetella pertussis upper respiratory tract infections in mice.

Pertussis (whooping cough) is a highly transmissible human respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis, a human-restricted pathogen. Animal models generally involve pneumonic infections induced by depositing large numbers of bacteria in the lungs of mice. These models have informed us about the molecular pathogenesis of pertussis and guided development of vaccines that successfully protect against severe disease.

Probing Immune-Mediated Clearance of Acute Middle Ear Infection in Mice.

Acute otitis media (AOM) is commonly caused by bacterial pathobionts of the nasopharynx that ascend the Eustachian tube to cause disease in the middle ears. To model and study the various complexities of AOM, common human otopathogens are injected directly into the middle ear bullae of rodents or are delivered with viral co-infections which contribute to the access to the middle ears in complex and partially understood ways. Here, we present the novel observation that , a well-characterized respiratory commensal/pathogen of mice, also efficiently ascends their Eustachian tubes to colonize their middle ears, providing a flexible mouse model to study naturally occurring AOM.

Sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical factors associated with low atrial fibrillation knowledge among older adults with atrial fibrillation: The SAGE-AF study.

Background: Management of AF requires patient engagement in disease management which requires adequate knowledge about AF.

Objective: To identify the patient characteristics associated with low AF knowledge among older adults with AF.

Methods: The SAGE-AF cohort enrolled adults aged ≥65 diagnosed with AF in 2016-2018.