Biomedical subjects

Eduardo Guarnera

Publications and source records attributed to Eduardo Guarnera.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Identification of the first strain of swine hepatitis E virus in South America and prevalence of anti-HEV antibodies in swine in Argentina.

In Argentina, a country considered non-endemic for hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection, serologic evidence of HEV infection has been observed in different human population groups. In other countries, a high degree of genetic relatedness has been observed between human and swine HEV genotype 3 sequences, suggesting zoonosis as one probable route of infection. This is the first identification of swine HEV in South America. HEV RNA was detected and sequenced in the ORF 1 and ORF 2 regions from swine fecal samples from a herd located in Pergamino, in the province of Buenos Aires. These strains all group into genotype 3 and exhibit a close relationship to two novel HEV variants previously identified in Argentina from sporadic acute cases of non-A to -C hepatitis in humans. In addition, using a modified commercial ELISA, the presence of anti-HEV antibodies was surveyed in five provinces across the country and all five showed a prevalence of HEV antibodies, ranging from 4% to 58%. The results suggest that swine could be an important reservoir for virus transmission in Argentina as has been suggested for other non-endemic areas. The Argentine human strains and swine strain described in this article seem to be closely related to a human Austrian strain, suggesting a potential European origin of HEV infection in these cases.

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PubMed2004

Diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis on sheep farms in the south of Argentina: areas with a control program.

In 2000 Guarnera et al. proposed using ELISA in canine faeces collected from the ground to detect dogs infected with Echinococcus granulosus, thus determining sheep farms with active transmission. The objective was to evaluate the prevalence of E. granulosus infection in sheep farms of the Patagonia. Sheep farms were randomly selected in the Provinces of Río Negro, Chubut, Neuquén, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego (areas with control programs) and La Pampa (comparison area). From one to three samples of fecal matter were obtained for each sheep farm, which were processed by means of copro-ELISA test with confirmation of positive samples by copro-Western blot. A total of 1042 samples were obtained from 352 sheep farms, 26 (7.3%) proving positive. Of these 5 (6.3%) were from La Pampa, 9 (13.8%) from Neuquén, 4 (4.7%) from Río Negro, 2 (2.9%) from Chubut, 1 (5.9%) from Santa Cruz and 5 (13.9%) from Tierra del Fuego. The identification of parasitized dogs is an essential activity upon which rests the strategy of control and surveillance. Arecoline tests or coproantigen test with fecal matter obtained directly from the dog contribute information on individual prevalence, while the use of coproantigens detected in ground-collected samples transfers the dog unit of observation to units of greater epidemiological value. In the present experience, the technique employed seems promising for its application in systems of epidemiological surveillance of cystic echinococcosis and in drawing a baseline on which to measure the progress of control programs in the Argentine Patagonia in subsequent years.

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PubMed2002

Identification of Echinococcus granulosus eggs.

The eggs from Echinococcus granulosus contaminate the environment spreading out the disease among the herbivorous. The differential diagnosis of the embriophores recovered from the soil is very difficult by morphologic and immunologic methods. In this paper we evaluate the EgO/DNA-IM1 for identification of E. granulosus oncosphere DNA and differentiation of eggs from other Taeniid. The positive result of the PCR technique shows an amplification fragment of the expected size (285 bp) corresponding to the partial sequence of the mitochondrial gene of the cytochrome oxidase CO1 from E. granulosus (391 bp). The fragment is not present in the DNA from Echinococcus multilocularis, Taenia hydatigena, Taenia saginata, Diphyll-obothrium latum, and Hymenolepis nana. It could be useful to rule out Taenia taeniformis, Taenia solium, Taenia pisiformis, and Taenia crassiceps, which sequences do not belong to the primer. We concluded that the PCR amplification employing the EgO/DNA-IM1 primer set showed high sensitivity and specificity for the identification of Echinococcus granulosus eggs.

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