This article reports on a noninvasive approach in detecting and following-up individuals who are at-risk or have an existing COVID-19 infection, with a potential ability to serve as an epidemic ...control tool. The proposed method uses a developed breath device composed of a nanomaterial-based hybrid sensor array with multiplexed detection capabilities that can detect disease-specific biomarkers from exhaled breath, thus enabling rapid and accurate diagnosis. An exploratory clinical study with this approach was examined in Wuhan, China, during March 2020. The study cohort included 49 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 58 healthy controls, and 33 non-COVID lung infection controls. When applicable, positive COVID-19 patients were sampled twice: during the active disease and after recovery. Discriminant analysis of the obtained signals from the nanomaterial-based sensors achieved very good test discriminations between the different groups. The training and test set data exhibited respectively 94% and 76% accuracy in differentiating patients from controls as well as 90% and 95% accuracy in differentiating between patients with COVID-19 and patients with other lung infections. While further validation studies are needed, the results may serve as a base for technology that would lead to a reduction in the number of unneeded confirmatory tests and lower the burden on hospitals, while allowing individuals a screening solution that can be performed in PoC facilities. The proposed method can be considered as a platform that could be applied for any other disease infection with proper modifications to the artificial intelligence and would therefore be available to serve as a diagnostic tool in case of a new disease outbreak.
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IJS, KILJ, NUK, PNG, UL, UM
The present systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) aimed to investigate the effects of pulmonary rehabilitation in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary ...disease (COPD).
The RCTs of pulmonary rehabilitation programs published between 1999 and 2021 were retrieved from electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase). Two reviewers independently assessed the topical relevance and trial quality and extracted data for meta-analysis using the Stata software version 14.0.
A total of 39 trials involving 2,397 participants with COPD were evaluated. We found that patients who received pulmonary rehabilitation program had significant improvement in the 6-min walk test (6MWT), St. George Respiratory Questionnaire score, and the modified British Medical Research Council score as compared to those who received usual care. Yoga and Tai Chi showed significant improvement in the forced expiratory volume (FEV1)% in 1 s predicted value. However, no significant difference was detected in the modified Borg score, forced vital capacity (FVC), and FEV1/FVC predicted value between the pulmonary rehabilitation and usual care groups.
Yoga and Tai Chi showed a significant improvement in the FEV1% predicted value. Also, pulmonary rehabilitation program improved the exercise capacity, the quality of life, and dyspnoea in patients with COPD.
Key messages
A total of 39 trials involving 2,397 participants with COPD were evaluated.
We found that patients who received pulmonary rehabilitation program had significant improvement in the 6MWT, St. George Respiratory Questionnaire score, and the modified British Medical Research Council score as compared to those who received usual care.
Yoga and Tai Chi showed significant improvement in the FEV1% predicted value.
No significant difference was detected in the modified Borg score, FVC, and FEV1/FVC predicted value between the pulmonary rehabilitation and usual care groups.
The key to balancing economic transformation and improving quality development is financial supporting green development. The relationship between financial technology (fintech) and green development ...has gradually emerged recently. Based on the data of 35 major cities in China from 2015 to 2019, the fintech development index and green total factor productivity (GTFP) are obtained by adopting web crawler technology and Bootstrap-SBM-GML model respectively; further, the impact of urban fintech level on GTFP is also revealed by taking the financial support policy index (FSP) as the instrumental variable. The empirical research shows the following results. First, the level of fintech and financial support policy indicators show a steady upward trend in the study period; whereas the tendency of GTFP is not obvious. Second, the urban fintech level has a significant promoting effect on GTFP through FE, MM-QR and 2SLS models. Specifically, the promoting effect mainly comes from the promotion of technological change (TC) of the GTFP decomposition index; the promoting effect will be greater in the lower cities of green development level. Third, industrial structure upgrading (UIS) and technological innovation (TI) play an intermediary role in the green development effect of fintech. Four, the green development effect of fintech is heterogeneous. Specifically, the green development effect of fintech on GTFP is larger in the central and western regions and low-level cities; whereas it is smaller in the eastern part regions and high-level cities.
Time-restricted feeding (TRF) improves metabolic health. Both early TRF (eTRF, food intake restricted to the early part of the day) and mid-day TRF (mTRF, food intake restricted to the middle of the ...day) have been shown to have metabolic benefits. However, the two regimens have yet to be thoroughly compared. We conducted a five-week randomized trial to compare the effects of the two TRF regimens in healthy individuals without obesity (ChiCTR2000029797). The trial has completed. Ninety participants were randomized to eTRF (n=30), mTRF (n=30), or control groups (n=30) using a computer-based random-number generator. Eighty-two participants completed the entire five-week trial and were analyzed (28 in eTRF, 26 in mTRF, 28 in control groups). The primary outcome was the change in insulin resistance. Researchers who assessed the outcomes were blinded to group assignment, but participants and care givers were not. Here we show that eTRF was more effective than mTRF at improving insulin sensitivity. Furthermore, eTRF, but not mTRF, improved fasting glucose, reduced total body mass and adiposity, ameliorated inflammation, and increased gut microbial diversity. No serious adverse events were reported during the trial. In conclusion, eTRF showed greater benefits for insulin resistance and related metabolic parameters compared with mTRF. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=49406 .
is an intracellular parasite that is important in medicine and veterinary science and undergoes distinct developmental transitions in its intermediate and definitive hosts. The switch between stages ...of
is meticulously regulated by a variety of factors. Previous studies have explored the role of the microrchidia (MORC) protein complex as a transcriptional suppressor of sexual commitment. By utilizing immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry, constituents of this protein complex have been identified, including MORC, Histone Deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), and several ApiAP2 transcription factors. Conditional knockout of MORC or inhibition of HDAC3 results in upregulation of a set of genes associated with schizogony and sexual stages in
tachyzoites. Here, our focus extends to two primary ApiAP2s (AP2XII-1 and AP2XI-2), demonstrating their significant impact on the fitness of asexual tachyzoites and their target genes. Notably, the targeted disruption of AP2XII-1 and AP2XI-2 resulted in a profound alteration in merozoite-specific genes targeted by the MORC-HDAC3 complex. Additionally, considerable overlap was observed in downstream gene profiles between AP2XII-1 and AP2XI-2, with AP2XII-1 specifically binding to a subset of ApiAP2 transcription factors, including AP2XI-2. These findings reveal an intricate cascade of ApiAP2 regulatory networks involved in
schizogony development, orchestrated by AP2XII-1 and AP2XI-2. This study provides valuable insights into the transcriptional regulation of
growth and development, shedding light on the intricate life cycle of this parasitic pathogen.
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The safe use of nuclear energy requires the development of advanced adsorbent technology to address environment damage from nuclear waste or accidental release of radionuclides. Recently developed ...amine-directed chalcogenide frameworks have intrinsic advantages as ion-exchange materials to capture radionuclides, because their exceptionally negative framework charge can lead to high cation-uptake capacity and their 3-D multidimensional intersecting channel promotes rapid ion diffusion and offer a unique kinetic advantage. Prior to this work, however, such advantages could not be realized because organic cations in the as-synthesized materials are sluggish during ion exchange. Here we report an ingenious approach on the activation of amine-directed zeolitic chalcogenides through a stepwise ion-exchange strategy and their use in cesium adsorption. The activated porous chalcogenide exhibits highly enhanced cesium uptake compared to the pristine form and is comparable to the best metal chalcogenide sorbents so far. Further ion-exchange experiments in the presence of competing ions confirm the high selectivity for cesium ions. Excellent removal performance has also been observed in real water samples, highlighting the importance of stepwise ion exchange strategy to activate amine-directed chalcogenide framework for 137Cs+ removal.
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Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic parasite that infects one-third of the world's population and nearly all warm-blooded animals. Due to the complexity of T. gondii's life cycle, available treatment ...options have limited efficacy. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop new compounds or repurpose existing drugs with potent anti-Toxoplasma activity. This study demonstrates that bedaquiline (BDQ), an FDA-approved diarylquinoline antimycobacterial drug for the treatment of tuberculosis, potently inhibits the tachyzoites of T. gondii. At a safe concentration, BDQ displayed a dose-dependent inhibition on T. gondii growth with a half-maximal effective concentration (EC
) of 4.95 μM. Treatment with BDQ significantly suppressed the proliferation of T. gondii tachyzoites in the host cell, while the invasion ability of the parasite was not affected. BDQ incubation shrunk the mitochondrial structure and decreased the mitochondrial membrane potential and ATP level of T. gondii parasites. In addition, BDQ induced elevated ROS and led to autophagy in the parasite. By transcriptomic analysis, we found that oxidative phosphorylation pathway genes were significantly disturbed by BDQ-treated parasites. More importantly, BDQ significantly reduces brain cysts for the chronically infected mice. These results suggest that BDQ has potent anti-T. gondii activity and may impair its mitochondrial function by affecting proton transport. This study provides bedaquiline as a potential alternative drug for the treatment of toxoplasmosis, and our findings may facilitate the development of new effective drugs for the treatment of toxoplasmosis.
Intestinal coccidiosis is a common parasitic disease in livestock, caused by the infection of
and
parasites, which results in great economic losses to animal husbandry. Triazine compounds, such as ...toltrazuril and diclazuril, are widely used in the treatment and chemoprophylaxis of coccidiosis. Unfortunately, widespread drug resistance has compromised their effectiveness. Most studies have focused on prophylaxis and therapeutics with toltrazuril in flocks, while a comprehensive understanding of how toltrazuril treatment alters the transcriptome of
remains unknown. In this study, merozoites of
were treated in vitro with 0.5 μg/mL toltrazuril for 0, 1, 2 and 4 h, respectively. The gene transcription profiles were then compared by high-throughput sequencing. Our results showed that protein hydrolysis genes were significantly upregulated after drug treatment, while cell cycle-related genes were significantly downregulated, suggesting that toltrazuril may affect parasite division. The expression of redox-related genes was upregulated and elevated levels of ROS and autophagosomes were detected in the parasite after toltrazuril treatment, suggesting that toltrazuril may cause oxidative stress to parasite cells and lead to its autophagy. Our results provide basic knowledge of the response of
genes to toltrazuril and further analysis of the identified transcriptional changes can provide useful information for a better understanding of the mechanism of action of toltrazuril against
.
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Coccidiosis, which is caused by Eimeria species, results in huge economic losses to the poultry industry. Arbor Acres (AA) broilers and yellow-feathered broilers are the dominant broilers in northern ...and southern China, respectively. However, their susceptibility to coccidiosis has not been fully compared. In this study, the susceptibility of yellow-feathered broilers, AA broilers and Lohmann pink layers to E. tenella was evaluated based on mortality rate, relative body weight gain rate, intestinal lesion score, oocyst output, anticoccidial index (ACI), and cecum weight and length. The yellow-feathered broilers were shown to produce significantly fewer oocysts with higher intestinal lesion score compared to AA broilers, which had the highest growth rates and ACI scores. Subsequently, changes in the cecal microbiota of the 3 chicken lines before and after high-dose infection (1 × 104 oocysts) with E. tenella were determined by 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that composition of the microbiota changed dramatically after infection. The abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in the infected chickens decreased, and Proteobacteria increased significantly among the different chicken lines. At the genus level, Escherichia increased significantly in all 3 groups of infected chickens, but Lactobacillus decreased to 0% in the infected yellow-feathered broilers. The results of the study indicate that the susceptibility to E. tenella varies among the 3 chicken lines, and that changes in intestinal microbiota by E. tenella-infection among the different chicken lines had a similar trend, but to different degrees. This study provides basic knowledge of the susceptibility in the 3 chicken lines, which can be helpful for the control and prevention of coccidiosis.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Avian coccidiosis caused by Eimeria is a serious parasitic disease that poses a threat to the poultry industry. Currently, prevention and treatment mainly rely on the administration of anticoccidials ...and live oocyst vaccines. However, the prevalence of drug resistance and the inherent limitations of live vaccines have driven the development of novel vaccines. In this study, the surface protein (Et-SAG14), a previously annotated rhoptry protein (Eten5-B), and a gametocyte phosphoglucomutase (Et-PGM1) were characterized and the vaccine potential of the recombinant proteins were evaluated. Et-SAG14 was dispersed in the form of particles in the sporozoite and merozoite stages, whereas Et-PGM1 was distributed in the apical part of the sporozoite and merozoite stages. The previously annotated rhoptry Eten5-B was found not to be located in the rhoptry but distributed in the cytoplasm of sporozoites and merozoites. Immunization with rEten5-B significantly elevated host interferon gamma (IFN-γ) and interleukin 10 (IL-10) transcript levels and exhibited moderate anticoccidial effects with an anticoccidial index (ACI) of 161. Unexpectedly, both recombinant Et-SAG14 and Et-PGM1 immunization significantly reduced host IFN-γ and IL-10 transcription levels, and did not show protection against E. tenella challenge (ACI < 80). These results suggest that the rEten5-B protein can trigger immune protection against E. tenella and may be a potential and effective subunit vaccine for the control of coccidiosis in poultry.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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