Avanços no conhecimento da imunopatogênese da leptospirose e a aplicação do método do imprint como ferramenta qualitativa e quantitativa de leptospiras / Advances in understanding the immunopathogenesis of leptospirosis and application of the imprint method as a qualitative and quantitative tool leptospires

A leptospirose é uma zoonose causada por espiroquetas patogênicas pertencentes ao gênero Leptospira. O modelo da doença em camundongos tem vantagens devido à ampla gama de ferramentas genéticas e imunológicas disponíveis para pesquisas básicas. A maior limitação na conduta clínica e na pesquisa experimental da leptospirose é o fraco desempenho dos métodos disponíveis para detecção direta e para quantificação de leptospiras. Foi incluído nesta tese um conjunto de três manuscritos que visam investigar o desfecho da infecção pela cepa virulenta de Leptospira interrogans nas linhagens de camundongos selvagens (A, CBA, BALB/c e C57BL/6)...

Leptospirosis is a zoonosis caused by pathogenic spirochaetes belonging to the genus Leptospira. The mouse disease model is advantagous due to the broad array of immunological and genetic tools available for basic research. A major limitation in the clinical management and experimental research of leptospirosis is the poor performance of the available methods in the direct detection and quantification of leptospires. This thesis includes three manuscripts that investigate the outcome of infection by a virulent strain of Leptospira interrogans in wildtype mice strains: A, CBA, BALB/c and C57BL/6; in iNOS knockout (KO) mice, recombination activating gene 1 (RAG1) KO mice and CB17 severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. To investigate whether the imprint method (IM) of quantification was reliable we compared it with against real time PCR (qPCR) for the detection and quantification of leptospires in kidney samples from rats and hamsters. As expected, none of the wildtype mice were susceptible to lethal leptospirosis. The A and C57BL/6 strains exhibited high leptospiral loads in the kidney samples and the CBA and C57BL/6...

A Case of Acute Hemorrhagic Edema of Infancy

Acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy is an unusual form of leukocytoclastic vasculitis occuring in children from the age 4 months to 2 years. The etiology remains unknown. Numerous studies, however, suggest acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy as an immune-mediated vasculitis in response to a variety of antigenic stimuli. We report a case of an acute hemorrhagic edema of infancy; 11-month-old boy with a history of fever for 3 days and a history of purpuric rash on the extremities, trunk, buttock and oral mucosa for 2 days.