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J Koza

Publications and source records attributed to J Koza.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

[Efforts to eradicate poliomyelitis in the Czech Republic].

The Czech Republic is one of the first countries where the paralytic form of poliomyelitis was eradicated by vaccination with the live attenuated vaccine. The effectiveness of vaccination was monitored every year up to 1992 by assessment of the immunity against polioviruses in a large group of sera from volunteers (cca 1500 subjects). This made it possible to improve occasional drops of immunity of the population, in particular in type 3. However, the absence of the paralytic form of poliomyelitis does not imply eradication of poliomyelitis which means elimination of wild polioviruses from the circulation in the population of a country. The circulation of wild polioviruses is monitored in the Czech Republic in cases of acute mild pareses, in particular, however, in waste waters of some large towns. A wild poliovirus was not detected so far. These investigations must started and be conducted up to the time when the Czech Republic will be granted the status of "country with eradicated poliomyelitis".

Antibodies, Viral↗

A programming course in bioinformatics for computer and information science students.

We have created a course entitled "Representations and Algorithms for Computational Molecular Biology" with three specific goals in mind. First, we want to provide a technical introduction for computer science and medical information science students to the challenges of computing with molecular biology data, particularly the advantages of having easy access to real-world data sets. Second, we want to equip the students with the skills required of productive research assistants in molecular biology computing research projects. Finally, we want to provide a showcase for local investigators to describe their work in the context of a course that provide adequate background information. In order to achieve these goals, we have created a programming course, in which three major projects and six smaller assignments are assigned during the quarter. We stress fundamental representations and algorithms during the first part of the course in lectures given by the core faculty, and then have more focused lectures in which faculty research interests are highlighted. The course stressed issues of structural molecular biology, in order to better motivate the critical issues in sequence analysis. The culmination of the course was a challenge to the students to use a version of protein threading to predict which members of a set of unknown sequences were globins. The course was well received, and has been made a core requirement in the Medical Information Sciences program.

Algorithms↗

[Virologic and morphologic study in sudden and unexpected death in children].

The authors examined a group of 47 children who died at the age of 1-9 months, incl. 19 female and 28 male children. In 23 the death was described as sudden and in 24 as unexpected. From 19 dead children a virus was isolated: in 14 one or two serotypes of enterovirus were found, in two the virus of parainfluenza 3 in two adenoviruses (type 2, 7). A total of 46 viral strains were isolated. By immunofluorescence in tissues antigens of the parainfluenza virus 3 and adenovirus were detected. Immune complexes were not detected in tissues. The distribution of vaccination polioviruses in organs and tissues after a known interval following vaccination was recognized. In some of the infants a possible causal relationship between the virological and morphological findings was found and the authors discuss the possible pathogenetic role of the revealed changes in sudden death.

Female↗

Transplacental antibodies. Part III: Maternal antibodies against polioviruses, M. parotitidis and M. parainfluenzae.

In 1981 we examined 247 sera for the presence of antibodies against all three types of poliovirus and 253 sera for antibodies against M. parotitidis and three types of M. parainfluenzae viruses. The sera were obtained from the cord blood of mothers between 15 and 34 years of age. All mothers were divided into four age groups, each with primipara and multipara subgroups. The rate of seropositivity for type 1 and type 2 poliovirus-specific antibody was in all age groups higher than 90%, the overall seropositivity rate for type 3 poliovirus antibody was 83.6%, with 73.1% as the lowest rate for age group of youngest mothers. Significant seropositivity variations between the primipara and multipara subgroups were recorded only for type 3 antibody in the two age groups of oldest mothers (25-29 and 30-34 years). This is consistent with the assumed booster effect of Sabin vaccine strains on mothers of families with more than one child. Antibodies specific to mumps virus were present in the cord blood of 78.6% of all mothers and the rates of seropositivity were found to rise with the increasing age. Seropositivity for M. parainfluenzae type 1-specific antibody was demonstrated in 95.8%, for type 2-specific antibody in 98.9% and for type 3-specific antibody in 100% of mothers, which is suggestive of high herd immunity levels in the population.

Adolescent↗

Properties of poliovirus strains isolated from waste waters of nurseries in Prague in 1969-1982.

The rct marker and antigenic marker were studied in poliovirus strains of all the three types isolated from waste waters of selected communities of children in Prague in 1969-1982. Only three isolated strains (two of type 2 and one of type 3) i.e. 1.38% of strains from nursery waste waters and 0.99% of strains from the total Prague municipal sewerage system, differed in both markers from prototype vaccine strains. The rct marker was most frequently altered in strains of type 1; antigenic marker varied most often in strains of type 3, less conspicuously in strains of type 2 and minimum changes were found in type 1 strains. The dependence of changes in both studied markers of isolated strains on the interval between vaccination and isolation from waste waters was reflected in the dynamics of changes. The highest dynamics of changes in rct marker and antigenic marker was recorded in type 3 and type 2 strains, minimal dynamics being found in type 1 strains. Study of type 2 strains isolated for a long time in some years showed that the longer the interval between vaccination and isolation, the higher the similarity between the isolated strain and the prototype vaccine strain.

Animals↗

Polio antibody outfit of newborns and infants born after 20 years of mass vaccination with live poliovaccine.

Antibodies against type 1 and 2 poliovirus were tested in 250 infants and against type 3 poliovirus in 341 infants aged 0-13 months to compare the polio antibody outfit of newborns and infants born to three groups of mothers: (a) nonvaccinated, above 35 years of age; (b) vaccinated with attenuated poliovirus but having had chance of contact with wild poliovirus during childhood, age 22-35 years, and (c) vaccinated but not having had contact with wild poliovirus, below 22 years of age. Over 90% of newborns had specific neutralizing antibodies against all three poliovirus types. With increasing infant age the percentage of antibody-positive infants decreased: by age 9-11 months only 46%, 27% and 14% of infants displayed antibodies to polio-virus types 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Geometric mean titres decreased accordingly. Differences between infants born to mothers of the above three groups were nonsignificant: the results obtained suggest that future newborns will also possess satisfactory levels of antibodies acquired from mothers who have only had contact with attenuated vaccine poliovirus.

Adolescent↗

Presence of polioviruses and other enteral viruses in sewage: a survey in the Czech Socialistic Republic 1969-1976.

Monitoring polioviruses in sewage is a permanent task within the poliomyelitis vaccination control programme in Czechoslovakia. The results of sewage examination in certain localities of the CSR in the years 1969 to 1976 are reported. During the study years, nearly 3600 samples of sewage were examined. The yield was about 9 percent of samples positive for polioviruses and 22 per cent of samples positive for other viruses. The virus positivity rate was roughly the same in samples from municipal sewers and samples from children's facilities. The majority of polioviruses were detected within 3 to 4 months after mass vaccination campaigns, which in Czechoslovakia are carried out in spring. In some years types 2 and 3 polioviruses tended to occur in later months after vaccination as well. Antigenic characterization of the polioviruses isolated in Prague showed that polioviruses possessing an rct+ marker and antigenically related but not identical with the original vaccine strains were sometimes present late during the intervals between vaccination campaigns. It may be assumed that vaccine strains which have been in circulation for sufficiently long time are subject to a gradual change or that vaccine-like strains have been imported.

Child↗

Properties of poliovirus strains isolated over the period 1969-1978 from the main municipal sewerage system of the city of Prague.

Biological properties (rct marker and antigenic relatedness) were compared in vaccine prototype strains and in 62 poliovirus strains isolated during a period 1969-1978 from the main municipal sewerage system of the City of Prague. None of the strains isolated from the municipal sewerage showed biologic properties that would fully differ from those observed in vaccine-derived strains. The strains detected very late postvaccination (after about a year) showed a lesser extent of changes than strains isolated earlier after vaccination. The most frequent changes were recorded in type 2 strains, less frequent in type 3 strains and the least frequency of changes was found in type 1 strains. To facilitate comparisons of these changes in dependence on time of postvaccination virus excretion a supporting evaluation criterion has been developed to help express the dynamics of changes in the isolated poliovirus strains. The recorded degree of the dynamics of changes was highest in type 2 strains, lower in type 3 strains and lowest in type 1 strains. The dynamics of changes detected in strains of various types was not always constant in the course of years: in a given year (or in a period of several years) changes occurred always in strains of the same serologic type, whereas strains of the other two types changed only insignificantly during the respective period.

Antigens, Viral↗

High and prolonged incidence of poliovirus strains during 1979 in North Bohemia. Isolations from unusual materials.

During March 1979 - February 1980, 53 strains of polioviruses types 2 and 3 were isolated from human specimens and from sewage samples, 52.8% of them on secondary monkey kidney cultures, 47.2% on diploid fibroblasts of human embryonic lung. Type 3 grew more often on monkey cell cultures, type 2 on human ones. Both types of poliovirus circulated in children and adult population during the whole year. Polioviruses were isolated from cerebrospinal fluids of 2 patients without any symptom of paralytic poliomyelitis: an intermediate type 3 in the course of a serologically proved tick-borne encephalitis, and a type 2, different in rct-marker from the vaccinal variant, in the course of a serologically proved parotitis with meningoencephalitis and pancreatitis.

Adult↗