May 17th, 2022 - Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a rare and late complication of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) that has not resolved despite adequate anticoagulation. In most patients with PE, resolution of the embolus and restoration of blood flow occur. However, for unknown reasons, in a small subset of patients, undissolved blood clots in the pulmonary arteries result in the formatio...

May 16th, 2022 - Reduced levels of the cholinergic-system enzyme butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) may provide another piece of the puzzle for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), preliminary data from Australian researchers suggested. A small case-control study led by Carmel T. Harrington, PhD, a sleep medicine expert and honorary research fellow at the Children"s Hospital at Westmead (Australia), found that measur...

May 11th, 2022 - Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is closely related to the pathogenesis Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). β-catenin, as a major component of Wnt signaling pathway, plays a vital role in the proliferation of osteoblasts. But the effect of altering β-catenin level on the early diagnosis and staging of ONFH has not been studied. Our purpose is to investigate the role of β-catenin level in t...

May 11th, 2022 - Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has been associated with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CV) and an altered lipid profile. High levels of apolipoprotein C-III (ApoC3) are associated with elevated triglyceride levels and an increased risk of CV. In the present study, we aimed to study circulating ApoC3 in patients with SLE and describe its relationship with the manifestations of the d...

Apr 29th, 2022 - The emerging threat represented by SARS-CoV-2 variants, demands the development of therapies for better clinical management of COVID-19. MAD0004J08 is a potent Fc-engineered monoclonal antibody (mAb) able to neutralize in vitro all current SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VoCs) including the omicron variant even if with significantly reduced potency. Here we evaluated data obtained from the firs...

Apr 26th, 2022 - Intermittent fasting (IF) during the month of Ramadan is part of the religious rituals of Muslims. The effect of intermittent fasting on disease activity in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is still unknown. This is the first study to assess the effect of IF during Ramadan on inflammatory markers in patients diagnosed with IBD. The effects on clinical disease activity, quality of life, and lev...

Apr 26th, 2022 - Plasmodium vivax remains the predominant species at the China-Myanmar border, imposing a major challenge to the recent gains in regional malaria elimination. To closely supervise the emerging of drug resistance in this area, we surveyed the variations in genes potentially correlated with drug resistance in P. vivax parasite and the possible drug selection with time. A total of 235 P. vivax samp...

Apr 25th, 2022 - Testing the DNA of antimicrobial-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in the blood of travelers from malaria-endemic regions may help researchers monitor how drug resistance changes over time, a study from Canada reports. "Malaria remains the deadliest vector-borne infectious disease worldwide. Plasmodium spp., most commonly P. falciparum, are responsible for [approximately] 229 million cases and 50...

Apr 17th, 2022 - We explored whether serum cytokines could be used as biomarkers for optimal use of tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNF-i) and interleukin (IL)-17 inhibitors (IL-17-i) in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA). In cohort 1 (47 patients treated with IL-17-i [n=23] or TNF-i [n=24] for ≥1 year), we identified serum cytokines that predicted the achievement of Disease Activity in Psoriatic Arthrit...

Apr 15th, 2022 - Malaria, blood-borne filarial worms and intestinal parasites are all endemic in Gabon. This geographical co-distribution leads to polyparasitism and, consequently, the possibility of immune-mediated interactions among different parasite species. Intestinal protozoa and helminths could modulate antimalarial immunity, for example, thereby potentially increasing or reducing susceptibility to malar...

Apr 13th, 2022 - Increasing cases of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections from immunization with current spike protein-based COVID-19 vaccines highlight the need to develop alternative vaccines using different platforms and/or antigens. In this study, we expressed SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins based on a novel vaccinia virus (VACV) ACAM2000 platform (rACAM2000). In this platform, the vaccinia virus h...

Apr 11th, 2022 - News of rabid foxes or other animals doesn't make quite as much of a stir here in Western Maryland as it did on Capitol Hill. Here, it seems to be more regarded as a hazard of country living. https://twitter.com/thecapitolfox/status/1511407331661262861?s=20&t=PgQSZc3O9K1HF8Ez1hDXHA Admittedly, my enthusiasm for seeing the beautiful creatures has waned over the years. And I don't dissect dead an...

Apr 11th, 2022 - Both IL-17A and IL-22 share cellular sources and signaling pathways. They have synergistic action on epithelial cells to stimulate their production of antimicrobial peptides which are protective against infections. However, both interleukins may contribute to ARDS pathology if their production is not controlled. This study aimed to investigate serum levels of IL-17A and IL-22 in relation to the...

Apr 10th, 2022 - The SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected and killed millions of people, but little is known about the risk factors that lead to the development of severe, mild or asymptomatic conditions after infection. The individual immune response and the balance of cytokines and chemokines have been shown to be important for the prognosis of patients. Additionally, it is essential to understand how the production...

Apr 9th, 2022 - Muscular dystrophies are a group of disorders that cause progressive muscle weakness. There is an increasing interest for the development of biomarkers for these disorders and specifically for Duchene Muscular Dystrophy. Limited research however, has been performed on the biomarkers' development for the most rare muscular dystrophies, like the Facioscapulohumeral Muscular Dystrophy, Limb-Girdle...

Apr 8th, 2022 - The preclinical phase of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may be exist longer than previously thought, even in adverse-prognostic cases, as suggested by a sequencing analysis of blood samples obtained up to 22 years prior to CLL diagnosis. Previous analyses showed that monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBL), a CLL precursor state, has been detected up to 6 years before CLL diagnosis, the inves...

Apr 6th, 2022 - Although the significance of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in the pathogenesis of SLE is well established, the findings showed diversity and implied that combining different biomarkers could be useful in monitoring disease activity or organ involvement. Despite the potentially high prevalence of lung involvement in SLE, only a few studies have investigated for lung biomarkers. The aim o...

Apr 5th, 2022 - With the widespread use of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, a rapid and reliable method to detect SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) is extremely important for monitoring vaccine effectiveness and immunity in the population. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the RapiRead™ reader and the TestNOW™ COVID-19 NAb rapid point-of-care (POC) test for quant...

Mar 30th, 2022 - In critically ill COVID-19 patients, the initial response to SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by major immune dysfunctions. The capacity of these severe patients to mount a robust and persistent SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell response despite the presence of severe immune alterations during the ICU stay is unknown. Critically ill COVID-19 patients were sampled five times during the ICU stay an...

Mar 28th, 2022 - Excess fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 23 causes hereditary hypophosphatemic rickets, such as X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) and tumor-induced osteomalacia (TIO). A small molecule that specifically binds to FGF23 to prevent activation of the fibroblast growth factor receptor/α-Klotho complex has potential advantages over the currently approved systemically administered FGF23 blocking antibody. ...