Echinodermata from São Sebastião Channel (São Paulo, Brazil)

Faunal inventories are extremely important, especially when focused on neglected groups, such as echinoderms, and concentrated on areas under intense anthropic activity such as the SAo Sebastilo Channel in Brazil (23 degrees 41' - 23 degrees 54' S and 45 degrees 19' - 45 degrees 30' W). Intertidal and upper sublittoral zone collections were performed at five sites of the Channel's continental margin from May to August 2001. The rocky substrate down to 19 m deep was surveyed by snorkeling and SCUBA diving from August 2002 to May 2004, on both margins of the Channel: continental (14 sites) and insular (10 sites). We report a total of 38 species of echinoderms (one Crinoidea, nine Asteroidea, 13 Ophiuroidea, nine Echinoidea and six Holothuroidea). Seven of those species have been recorded here for the first time for the Channel (four Asteroidea, two Ophiuroidea and one Echinoidea).     

Phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli strains isolated from children in São Paulo,Brazil

The biochemical and serological characteristics, virulence properties, and genetic relatedness of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains isolated in S o Paulo, from April 1989 through March 1990, were determined. This is also the first report on clinic findings of human STEC infections in Brazil. The only three STEC strains identified in that period were lysine decarboxylase negative, belonged to serotype O111ac: non-motile, were Stx1 producers, carried the eae and astA genes, and 2 of them also presented the EHEC-hly sequence. The children carrying STEC were all boys, with less than two years old, and had no previous history of hospitalization. None of them presented blood in stools. Vomiting, cough and coryza were the most common clinical manifestations observed. Although the STEC strains were isolated during summer months, and presented similar phenotypic and genotypic characteristics, carbohydrate fermentation patterns and PFGE analysis suggested that these diarrheal episodes were not caused by a single clone.     

Incidence of Tinea capitis in São Paulo, Brazil

To determine the incidence of tinea capitis in São Paulo, Brazil, an investigation was performed in Private and Public Pediatrics Service involving 4,500 children from 0 to 15 years old during 5 years (1996–2000). Samples were taken from 132 children with suspected fungal infection of the scalp, for direct microscopy and culture. Tinea of scalp was mycologically confirmed in 112 patients (85%). Males were more affected than females in all age groups. Children below 8 years old accounted for more than 75% of the occurrences. Only three cases of tinea capitis were diagnosed in children from 12 to 15 years of age. Tinea capitis was prevalent in 103 cases (91.96%); inflammatory kerion type lesions were diagnosed in 9 patients (8.04%). Microsporum canis (70.5%) and Trichophyton tonsurans (23.2%) were the most common agents followed by T. mentagrophytes (3.6%), M. gypseum (1.8%) and T. rubrum (0.9%).     

Bioluminescent Mycena species from São Paulo, Brazil

Six species of bioluminescent agarics are described and illustrated from a single site in primary Atlantic Forest habitat in the Parque Estadual Turistico do Alto Ribeira, Sao Paulo State, Brazil. These include two new taxa of Mycena, viz. M. asterina and M. lucentipes. Luminescence in Mycena fera, M. singeri and M. discobasis is reported for the first time. In addition an undeterminable luminescent Mycena species is described and additional specimens of Gerronema viridilucens are documented. An accounting of known bioluminescent species of Mycena and a discussion of why they luminesce are presented.     

Seroprevalence and isolation of Toxoplasma gondii from sheep from São Paulo state, Brazil

Sheep are important in the epidemiology of Toxoplasma gondii infection but little is known of ovine toxoplasmosis in Brazil. Antibodies to T. gondii were assayed in sera of 495 sheep from 36 counties of S?o Paulo State, Brazil, using the modified agglutination test (MAT titer > or =1:25) and found in 120 (24.2%). Samples of brain, heart, and diaphragm of 82 seropositive sheep were pooled, digested in pepsin, and bioassayed in mice. Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from tissue homogenates of 16 sheep and the isolates were designated TgShBr1-16. Six of the 16 T. gondii isolates killed 100% of infected mice. Results indicate that asymptomatic sheep can harbor mouse-virulent T. gondii, and hence they can serve as a source of infection for humans.     

Prevalence of Toxocara infection in schoolchildren from the Butantã region,São Paulo,Brazil

Visceral larva migrans syndrome by Toxocara affects mainly children between 2 and 5 years of age, it is generally asymptomatic, and the seroprevalence varies from 3 to 86% in different countries. A total of 399 schoolchildren from 14 public schools of the Butant? region, S?o Paulo city, Brazil, were evaluated by Toxocara serology (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). Epidemiological data to the Toxocara infection obtained from a protocol were submitted to multiple logistic regression analysis for a risk profile definition. Blood was collected on filter paper by finger puncture, with all samples tested in duplicate. Considering titers > or = 1/160 as positive, the seroprevalence obtained was 38.8%. Among infected children, the mean age was 9.4 years, with a similar distribution between genders. A significant association was observed with the presence of onychophagia, residence with a dirty backyard, living in a slum, previous wheezing episodes, school attended, and family income (p < 0.05). All data, except "living in a slum", were considered to be determinant of a risk profile for the acquisition of Toxocara infection. A monthly income > or = 5 minimum salaries represented a protective factor, although of low relevance. Toxocara eggs were found in at least one of the soil samples obtained from five schools, with high prevalence of Toxocara infections, indicating the frequent soil contamination by this agent.     

Genotoxicity of fractionated organic material in airborne particles from São Paulo, Brazil

Particulate matter less than 10 microns aerodynamic diameter (PM10) is associated with adverse health effects including increased respiratory problems and mortality. PM10 is also associated with increases in cancer in some urban areas. Identification of toxic compounds in PM10 is a step toward estimating exposure to these compounds and evaluating their public health risk. However, the toxic compounds on PM10 are part of a highly complex mixture of compounds that makes chemical characterization difficult. Before this study, there has been little investigation of genotoxic compounds in particulate matter from Latin American cities. Here, both bioassay (mutagenicity) and chemical analyses were conducted with organic solvent extracts of PM10 collected from S?o Paulo, a major Brazilian city. Sequential extraction in dichloromethane (DCM) followed by acetone (ACE) yielded 20.3% and 10.2% of the total mass, respectively. Non-polar and moderately polar organic material solubilized in DCM. ACE extracted more polar organic species and some inorganic ions. Both extracts were fractionated separately using cyanopropyl-bonded silica chromatography with organic solvents of increasing polarity. The mass distribution among the fractions was measured. The mutagenic activity of the fractions was assayed using the microsuspension procedure with the Salmonella typhimurium tester strain TA98, with and without addition of metabolic enzymes (S9). The DCM extract had about four times higher mutagenic activity than the ACE extract. In general, addition of S9 resulted in an increase in mutagenicity of DCM fractions, but a decrease for the ACE extract. Most of the activity was concentrated in fractions in the mid-range of polarity within both the DCM and ACE extracts. The fractions were analyzed by gas chromatography with mass selective detection (GC/MS) without derivatization. The most mutagenic fractions in the DCM extract contained ketones, aldehydes, and quinolines. The most mutagenic ACE fraction had ketones, carboxylic acids, and aldehydes.     

Yeasts isolated from blood and catheter in children from a Public Hospital of São Paulo,Brazil

The great majority of nosocomial fungal infections, especially fungemias, are caused by yeasts, mostly of the genus Candida. In addition, such infections may be associated with intravascular catheters. In this study, 80 yeast strains were isolated from hospitalized children, being 59 from blood cultures and 21 from vascular catheter cultures. The prevalent species in both blood and catheter was C. parapsilosis (32.2% and 48.9%, respectively), followed by C. albicans (16.9% and 28.6%, respectively). Concerning enzyme production, 78.8% of the 80 isolates presented strong proteolytic activity but 78.8% showed no phospholipase activity. We also detected two prevalent killer biotypes: 511 and 888. Additionally, in five patients, it was possible to observe that the yeast species, killer biotype and proteolytic and phospholipase activity of blood and catheter were similar. In view of this, we suggest a transmission of nosocomial yeast infection from catheter to blood.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Diverse and atypical genotypes identified in Toxoplasma gondii from dogs in São Paulo, Brazil

The prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in 118 unwanted dogs from S?o Paulo City, S?o Paulo State, Brazil, was determined. Antibodies to T. gondii were assayed by the modified agglutination test and found in 42 (35.8%) dogs, with titers of 1:20 in 10, 1:40 in 6, 1:80 in 5, 1:160 in 5, 1:320 in 6, 1:640 in 7, and 1:1,280 or higher in 3. Hearts and brains of 36 seropositive dogs were bioassayed in mice, or cats, or both. Tissues from 20 seropositive dogs were fed to 20 T. gondii-free cats. Feces of cats were examined for oocysts. Toxoplasma gondii was isolated from 15 dogs by a bioassay in mice, from the brain alone of 1, from the heart alone of 4, and from both brains and hearts of 10. All infected mice from 5 of 15 isolates died of toxoplasmosis during primary infection. Four additional isolates were obtained by bioassay in cats. Genotyping of these 19 T. gondii isolates using polymorphisms at 10 nuclear markers including SAG1, SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, c22-8, c29-2, L358, PK1, and a new SAG2 (an apicoplast marker Apico) revealed 12 genotypes. One isolate had Type III alleles at all 11 loci, and the remaining 18 isolates contained a combination of different alleles and were divided into 11 genotypes. The absence of Type II in Brazil was confirmed. The result supports previous findings that T. gondii population genetics is highly diverse in Brazil.     

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in sera of domestic cats from Guarulhos and São Paulo,Brazil

Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii were determined in serum samples of 502 domestic cats from Brazil by the modified agglutination test (MAT), using formalin-fixed whole tachyzoites and mercaptoethanol. Antibodies (MAT > or = 1:20) were found in 132 (26.3%) of 502 cats. With respect to origin, antibodies were found in 26.7% of 430 stray cats from S?o Paulo, 10% of 40 stray cats from Guarulhos, and 40.6% of 32 cats from a cat breeder in S?o Paulo. Antibody titers were: 1:20 in 10 cats, 1:25 in 40 cats, 1:50 in 73 cats, and > or = 1:500 in 9 cats. Exposure rates of T. gondii in cats from S?o Paulo, Brazil are similar to that in domestic cats in North America.     

BF integrase genes of HIV-1 circulating in São Paulo, Brazil, with a recurrent recombination region

Although some studies have shown diversity in HIV integrase (IN) genes, none has focused particularly on the gene evolving in epidemics in the context of recombination. The IN gene in 157 HIV-1 integrase inhibitor-na?ve patients from the S?o Paulo State, Brazil, were sequenced tallying 128 of subtype B (23 of which were found in non-B genomes), 17 of subtype F (8 of which were found in recombinant genomes), 11 integrases were BF recombinants, and 1 from subtype C. Crucially, we found that 4 BF recombinant viruses shared a recurrent recombination breakpoint region between positions 4900 and 4924 (relative to the HXB2) that includes 2 gRNA loops, where the RT may stutter. Since these recombinants had independent phylogenetic origin, we argue that these results suggest a possible recombination hotspot not observed so far in BF CRF in particular, or in any other HIV-1 CRF in general. Additionally, 40% of the drug-na?ve and 45% of the drug-treated patients had at least 1 raltegravir (RAL) or elvitegravir (EVG) resistance-associated amino acid change, but no major resistance mutations were found, in line with other studies. Importantly, V151I was the most common minor resistance mutation among B, F, and BF IN genes. Most codon sites of the IN genes had higher rates of synonymous substitutions (dS) indicative of a strong negative selection. Nevertheless, several codon sites mainly in the subtype B were found under positive selection. Consequently, we observed a higher genetic diversity in the B portions of the mosaics, possibly due to the more recent introduction of subtype F on top of an ongoing subtype B epidemics and a fast spread of subtype F alleles among the B population.     

The impact of climate on Leptospirosis in São Paulo,Brazil

In this work, we correlate the daily number of human leptospirosis cases with several climatic factors. We used a negative binomial model that considers hospital daily admissions due to leptospirosis as the dependent variable, and the climatic variables of daily precipitation pattern, and maximum and minimum temperature as independent variables. We calculated the monthly leptospirosis admission probabilities from the precipitation and maximum temperature variables. The month of February showed the highest probability, although values were also high during the spring months. The month of February also showed the highest number of hospital admissions. Another interesting result is that, for every 20 mm precipitation, there was an average increase of 31.5% in hospital admissions. Additionally, the relative risk of leptospirosis varied from 1.1 to 2.0 when the precipitation varied from 20 to 140 mm.     

Drug resistance and genotypes of strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from human immunodeficiency virus-infected and non-infected tuberculosis patients in Bauru,São Paulo,Brazil

Little is known about transmission and drug resistance of tuberculosis (TB) in Bauru, State of S o Paulo. The objective of this study was to evaluate risk factors for transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains in this area. Strains were collected from patients attended at ambulatory services in the region and susceptibility towards the main first line antibiotics was determined and fingerprinting performed. A total of 57 strains were submitted to susceptibility testing: 23 (42.6%) were resistant to at least one drug while 3 (13%) were resistant against both rifampicin and isoniazide. Resistant strains had been isolated from patients that had not (n = 13) or had (n = 9) previously been submitted to anti-TB treatment, demonstrating a preoccupying high level of primary resistance in the context of the study. All strains were submitted to IS6110 restriction fragment length polymorphism (IS6110-RFLP) and double repetitive element PCR (DRE-PCR). Using IS6110-RFLP, 26.3% of the strains were clustered and one cluster of 3 patients included 2 HIV-infected individuals that had been hospitalized together during 16 days; clustering of strains of patients from the hospital was however not higher than that of patients attended at health posts. According to DRE-PCR, 55.3% belonged to a cluster, confirming the larger discriminatory power of IS6110-RFLP when compared to DRE-PCR, that should therefore be used as a screening procedure only. No clinical, epidemiological or microbiological characteristics were associated with clustering so risk factors for transmission of TB could not be defined in the present study.     

Environmental variables and intertidal beach annelids of São Sebastião Channel (State of São Paulo,Brazil)

Benthic annelid communities were studied during a one-year period (August/95 to July/96) in two sectors of the beaches Engenho d'Agua and S?o Francisco, S?o Sebasti?o Channel (S?o Paulo, Brazil), where the substrate is composed by a mixture of sand and rock fragments. Abiotic parameters such as salinity of interstitial water and sediment properties were used to characterize the environment. The polychaetes were well represented in the two sectors and their distribution was related with sediment type. The density of individuals and the number of taxa was higher at S?o Francisco, while the diversity and the evenness were higher at Engenho d'Agua. This difference can be a consequence of organic enrichment caused by domestic input, and of the lower and more variable salinity at S?o Francisco. Due to these factors, the high density of opportunistic species, like Capitella capitata ssp., Scolelepis squamata, Laeonereis acuta and several oligochaetes, represented 75.5% of total abundance at this sector.     

Prevalence and in vitro antifungal susceptibility of Candida spp isolated from clinical specimens in São Paulo, Brazil

The specifity of gene encoding the ribotoxin protein in Aspergillus fumigatus was determined by PCR amplification of a portion of the gene. All A. fumigatus strains studied showed the presence of amplifiable ribotoxin product, while none of the other fungal species, with the exception of Aspergillus restrictus, showed this amplification product. Hence, this method may be used for rapid and specific identification of A. fumigatus.     

Aphids (Hemiptera: Aphidoidea) of ornamental plants from São Carlos,São Paulo state,Brazil

A total of 25 aphid species were collected from 49 ornamental plant species in S?o Carlos-S?o Paulo, Brazil; 12 aphids were monophagous, four oligophagous and nine polyphagous. A total of 58 aphid-plant associations are recorded, 43 unknown from Brazil. Eucarazzia elegans (Ferrari, 1872) (Aphididae: Aphidinae: Macrosiphini) is recorded for the first time from Brazil, and Nectandra megapotamica Spreng. (Lauraceae) is recorded for the first time as host plant for Lizerius tuberculatus (E.E. Blanchard, 1939) (Drepanosiphidae: Drepanosiphinae: Lizeriini). We also describe the injuries caused by aphids to the ornamental plants.