Dataset Information

Structure, space and size: competing drivers of variation in urban and rural measles transmission.

ABSTRACT: A key concern in public health is whether disparities exist between urban and rural areas. One dimension of potential variation is the transmission of infectious diseases. In addition to potential differences between urban and rural local dynamics, the question of whether urban and rural areas participate equally in national dynamics remains unanswered. Specifically, urban and rural areas may diverge in local transmission as well as spatial connectivity, and thus risk for receiving imported cases. Finally, the potential confounding relationship of spatial proximity with size and urban/rural district type has not been addressed by previous research. It is rare to have sufficient data to explore these questions thoroughly. We use exhaustive weekly case reports of measles in 954 urban and 468 rural districts of the UK (1944-1965) to compare both local disease dynamics as well as regional transmission. We employ the time-series susceptible-infected-recovered model to estimate disease transmission, epidemic severity, seasonality and import dependence. Congruent with past results, we observe a clear dependence on population size for the majority of these measures. We use a matched-pair strategy to compare proximate urban and rural districts and control for possible spatial confounders. This analytical strategy reveals a modest difference between urban and rural areas. Rural areas tend to be characterized by more frequent, smaller outbreaks compared to urban counterparts. The magnitude of the difference is slight and the results primarily reinforce the importance of population size, both in terms of local and regional transmission. In sum, urban and rural areas demonstrate remarkable epidemiological similarity in this recent UK context.

SUBMITTER: Korevaar H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7423418 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Structure, space and size: competing drivers of variation in urban and rural measles transmission.

Korevaar Hannah H Metcalf C Jessica CJ Grenfell Bryan T BT

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface 20200708 168

A key concern in public health is whether disparities exist between urban and rural areas. One dimension of potential variation is the transmission of infectious diseases. In addition to potential differences between urban and rural local dynamics, the question of whether urban and rural areas participate equally in national dynamics remains unanswered. Specifically, urban and rural areas may diverge in local transmission as well as spatial connectivity, and thus risk for receiving imported case ...[more]

PMID: 32634366

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Project description:Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is a recognized risk factor for the global burden of disease in human populations. We are presenting here the application of toxicogenomics in the evaluation of the toxic effects of organic content of atmospheric particle matter (PM), from urban and rural environments (city of Barcelona and village of La Pobla, NE Spain), using the developing zebrafish embryo. The main goal is to identify the metabolic pathways involved in the adverse effects observed in zebrafish embryos exposed to PM organic content from urban and rural environments, also allowing the selection of genes of interest that are differentially expressed. The relevance of particle size to the PM toxicity is also addressed. Indeed, the zebrafish embryos were exposed to PM of aerodynamic diameter larger than 7.2 Î¼m and smaller than 0.5 Î¼m (PM10 and PM0.5, respectively). PM0.5 concentrated biological and toxic activities linked to organic substances. Transcriptomic analyses showed strong induction of the AhR signalling pathway (a.k.a. dioxin-like activity) for embryos exposed to both rural and urban extracts, correlating with the concentrations of PAHs. Urban extracts, with strong contribution of traffic emissions, specifically de-regulated oxidative stress-related genes, as well as pancreatic and eye-lens specific genes, two organs known to be affected by air pollution in humans. Exposure to rural extracts, with high contribution of wood burning emissions, affected genes implicated in basic cellular functions, in agreement with their strong embryotoxicity. Extracts from rural and urban samples elicited both common and specific transcriptome responses, suggesting different potentially adverse outcomes depending on PM source and composition. The authors thank the financial support of the Spanish Ministry (project TEA-PARTICLE, grant number CGL2011-29621) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the doctoral grant of Sofia R. Mesquita (SFRH/BD/80710/2011) funded by the Program POPH-QREN through the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science and the European Social Fund, and support through project PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2013. The PM filter samples used in the present study were PM10 and PM0.5 from the urban site - total of 4 samples from 2 sampling months; and PM0.5 from the rural site - total of 2 samples from 2 sampling months (PM10 samples from the rural site were not tested due to their very low concentration in organic compounds, and insignificant biological activity, previously measured). Sampling occurred during the cold periods of the year 2012/2013. The organic fraction of PM samples was extracted by sonication using a mixture of dichloromethane:methanol. Then, the extracts were filtered, evaporated and re-dissolved in Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Zebrafish fertilized eggs were exposed to PM organic extracts (0.2% DMSO) from the urban and rural sites from 24 to 120h post-fertilization. Total RNA was isolated from whole embryos (pools of 20 individuals), using Trizol reagent protocol (Invitrogen Life Technologies, Carlsberg, CA). The microarray study was performed using the Agilent Two-colour D. rerio Oligo Microarray v3 platform, following the Agilent Microarray â?? Based Gene Expression Analysis protocol. Three biological replicates were performed for each PM sample and controls. Biological replicates, a technical replicate and a self-to-self, were simultaneously amplified and labelled using Cyanine 3 (Cy3) and Cyanine 5 (Cy5) dye. After cRNA purification (RNeasy Kit, Quiagen GmbH, Hilden, Germany), the cRNA concentration and labelling were quantified in the NanoDrop spectrophotometer, obtaining incorporation rates in the range of 15-20pmol of cyanide dye/Âµl cRNA and yield values > 0.825ug, as recommended. cRNA was fragmented and hybridized in 4x44K arrays, for 17h at 65oC. After the hybridization the array slides were washed, and immediately scanned using Microarray Scanner Agilent G2505C system. Data was extracted using Agilent Feature Extraction Software v10.5.1.1, and the quality of microarray data was evaluated using the Quality Control report provided by Agilent Software. Based on the microarray data analysis, 22 primers were selected and designed using Primer Express 2.0 software (Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Genes were quantified by real-time PCR to validate the microarray data, and a subset of 13 genes were further selected by their robust behaviour in the validation assays, allowing to differentiate the toxic potential of PM from urban and rural sources.

Dataset Information

Structure, space and size: competing drivers of variation in urban and rural measles transmission.

Publications

Structure, space and size: competing drivers of variation in urban and rural measles transmission.

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