The SARS-CoV-2 virus emerged in December 2019 and has caused a worldwide pandemic due to the lack of any pre-existing immunity. Accurate serology testing is urgently needed to help diagnose ...infection, determine past exposure of populations and assess the response to a future vaccine. The landscape of antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 is unknown. In this study, we utilized the luciferase immunoprecipitation system to assess the antibody responses to 15 different SARS-CoV-2 antigens in patients with COVID-19. We identified new targets of the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 and show that nucleocapsid, open reading frame (ORF)8 and ORF3b elicit the strongest specific antibody responses. ORF8 and ORF3b antibodies, taken together as a cluster of points, identified 96.5% of COVID-19 samples at early and late time points of disease with 99.5% specificity. Our findings could be used to develop second-generation diagnostic tests to improve serological assays for COVID-19 and are important in understanding pathogenicity.
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) is a commonly used instrument to measure depressive symptomatology. Despite this, the evidence for its psychometric properties remains ...poorly established in Chinese populations. The aim of this study was to validate the use of the CES-D in Chinese primary care patients by examining factor structure, construct validity, reliability, sensitivity and responsiveness.
The psychometric properties were assessed amongst a sample of 3686 Chinese adult primary care patients in Hong Kong. Three competing factor structure models were examined using confirmatory factor analysis. The original CES-D four-structure model had adequate fit, however the data was better fit into a bi-factor model. For the internal construct validity, corrected item-total correlations were 0.4 for most items. The convergent validity was assessed by examining the correlations between the CES-D, the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) and the Short Form-12 Health Survey (version 2) Mental Component Summary (SF-12 v2 MCS). The CES-D had a strong correlation with the PHQ-9 (coefficient: 0.78) and SF-12 v2 MCS (coefficient: -0.75). Internal consistency was assessed by McDonald's omega hierarchical (ωH). The ωH value for the general depression factor was 0.855. The ωH values for "somatic", "depressed affect", "positive affect" and "interpersonal problems" were 0.434, 0.038, 0.738 and 0.730, respectively. For the two-week test-retest reliability, the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.91. The CES-D was sensitive in detecting differences between known groups, with the AUC >0.7. Internal responsiveness of the CES-D to detect positive and negative changes was satisfactory (with p value <0.01 and all effect size statistics >0.2). The CES-D was externally responsive, with the AUC>0.7.
The CES-D appears to be a valid, reliable, sensitive and responsive instrument for screening and monitoring depressive symptoms in adult Chinese primary care patients. In its original four-factor and bi-factor structure, the CES-D is supported for cross-cultural comparisons of depression in multi-center studies.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We investigated 68 respiratory specimens from 35 coronavirus disease patients in Hong Kong, of whom 32 had mild disease. We found that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and subgenomic ...RNA were rarely detectable beyond 8 days after onset of illness. However, virus RNA was detectable for many weeks by reverse transcription PCR.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background and Objective
It is known that chronic periodontal infection can magnify the cytokine responses in patients with diabetes. Hyperglycemia increases the proinflammatory status, including the ...levels of advanced glycation end‐products (AGEs), in patients with periodontitis. However, whether AGEs have additional effects on the production of those proinflammatory cytokines in diabetic patients with periodontitis is still unknown. To examine in vitro the effect of hyperglycemia and AGEs on the amounts of interleukin (IL)‐6 and IL‐8 produced in periodontally infected gingiva, human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs) were stimulated with glucose, AGE‐modified bovine serum albumin (AGE‐BSA) and Porphyromonas gingivalis LPS in the present study.
Material and Methods
Primary culture of HGFs was incubated with various concentrations of AGE‐BSA (0, 50, 100 and 200 μg/mL) and LPS (0, 10, 100 or 1000 ng/mL) at two different glucose concentrations – normal glucose (5 mm) and high glucose (25 mm). The amounts of IL‐6 and IL‐8 produced by HGFs were evaluated using ELISA. Expression of the AGE receptor on HGFs was determined by flow cytometry.
Results
High glucose stimulated a significant increase in the production of IL‐6 and IL‐8 by HGFs compared with normal glucose. This enhanced production of IL‐6 and IL‐8 could also be observed in the presence of LPS and/or AGE‐BSA. When both LPS and AGE‐BSA were present, especially at high concentrations (≥ 500 μg/mL of LPS and ≥ 25 μg/mL of AGE‐BSA), a synergistic effect on IL‐8 production was found in the high‐glucose condition.
Conclusions
A synergistic effect of the production of IL‐8 could be induced in HGFs with the combination of high glucose, LPS and AGEs.
Purpose
To compare febrile neutropenia (FN) incidence and hospitalization among breast cancer patients on docetaxel with no granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (GCSF) primary prophylaxis (PP), ...4/5-day PP, or 7-day PP.
Methods
We identified 3916 breast cancer patients using docetaxel-cyclophosphamide (TC), doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide then docetaxel (AC-T), fluorouracil-epirubicin-cyclophosphamide then docetaxel (FEC-T), docetaxel-carboplatin-trastuzumab (TJH), or docetaxel-doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide (TAC) from a hospital pharmacy dispensing database in Hong Kong between 2014 and 2016. Patients were offered GCSF within 5 days since administering docetaxel. Outcomes included FN incidence, time to first hospitalization, hospitalization rate, and duration.
Results
In TC regimen, FN incidence (with odds ratio, OR) of patients with no PP, 4/5-day PP, and 7-day PP was 21.69%, 7.95% (OR 0.31,
p
< 0.001), and 5.33% (OR 0.20,
p
< 0.001), respectively. In TJH regimen, FN incidence of patients with no PP, 4/5-day PP, and 7-day PP was 38.26%, 8.33% (OR 0.15,
p
< 0.001), and 8.57% (OR 0.15,
p
< 0.001), respectively. FN incidence of patients on AC-T regimen with no PP and 4/5-day PP was 20.93% and 6.84%, respectively (OR 0.28,
p
= 0.005); with FEC-T regimen, the incidence was 9.91% and 4.77%, respectively (OR 0.46,
p
= 0.035). Only 3.27% FN cases were not hospitalized. Mean (±standard deviation, SD) time to first hospitalization was 8.21 ± 2.44 days. Mean (±SD) duration of hospitalization for patients with no PP, 4/5-day PP, and 7-day PP was 4.66 ± 2.60, 4.37 ± 2.85, and 5.12 ± 2.97 days, respectively.
Conclusion
GCSF prophylaxis in breast cancer patients on docetaxel could reduce FN incidence and hospitalization. 4/5-day PP demonstrated similar efficacy to 7-day PP with superior saving benefits on healthcare expenditure.
COVID-19-related fear negatively affects the public's psychological well-being and health behaviours. Although psychological distress including depression and anxiety under COVID-19 is ...well-established in literature, research scarcely evaluated the fear of COVID-19 with a large sample using validated scale. This study aimed to validate a Korean version of fear scale(K-FS-8) using an existing fear scale(Breast Cancer Fear Scale; 8 items) and to measure the fear of COVID-19 in South Korea. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 2235 Korean adults from August to September 2020. The Breast Cancer Fear Scale was translated from English into Korean using forward-backward translation, and then face validity was assessed. Patient Health Questionnaire-4 and Primary Care Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Screen for DSM-5 were used for assessing convergent validity of K-FS-8, and item response theory analysis was also conducted to further validate the K-FS-8. This study confirmed the validity and reliability of the K-FS-8. The validity of the scale was confirmed by convergent validity, known-group validity and item response theory analysis, and internal consistency was also examined(Cronbach's α coefficient = 0.92). This study also identified that 84.6% participants had high COVID-19 fear; whilst 26.3%, 23.2% and 13.4% participants had high risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive and anxiety symptoms, respectively. The K-FS-8 showed the acceptability measuring the fear of COVID-19 in the Korean population. The K-FS-8 can be applied to screen for fear of COVID-19 and related major public health crises identifying individuals with high levels of fear in primary care settings who will benefit from psychological support.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Aim
To evaluate the effect of 2,3,5,4′‐tetrahydroxystilbene‐2‐O‐β‐D‐glucoside (THSG) on cell proliferation and examine the mechanisms of THSG‐enhanced proliferative potential in human dental pulp ...stem cells (hDPSC).
Methodology
After treatment with THSG, hDPSC were collected. Cell viability was determined by MTS assay, while messenger RNA (mRNA) expressions of proliferation and stem cell markers were analyzed using real‐time PCR. Flow cytometry was also conducted to analysis protein expression of stem cell markers. A colony‐forming unit assay of hDPSC was carried out. Cellular telomerase activity was also identified using real‐time PCR. In addition, proliferation‐related proteins involved in the effects of THSG on hDPSC were analyzed by Western blotting. Data were analyzed using one‐way analysis of variance and two‐tailed Student's t‐test.
Results
Cell viability, colony‐forming rates and telomerase activities of hDPSCs were enhanced after THSG treatment. mRNA expressions of proliferation markers (including expressions of NAD+‐dependent histone deacetylase sirtuin 1 (SIRT1), proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), cyclin D1 and ribonucleotide reductase subunit M2 (RRM2)) increased significantly after THSG treatment (P < 0.05). Treatment with THSG for 3 h significantly augmented SIRT1 protein expression (P < 0.05). Furthermore, activities of proliferation‐related proteins (including AMP‐activated protein kinase (AMPK) and extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) had also significantly increased at 3 h (P < 0.05). After THSG treatment, increased gene and protein expressions of pluripotent‐like stem cell markers (including NANOG, OCT4, and SOX2) were observed.
Conclusions
2,3,5,4′‐Tetrahydroxystilbene‐2‐O‐β‐glucoside treatment enhanced the renewal ability and proliferative potential of hDPSCs via the AMPK/ERK/SIRT1 axis, which may provide a novel autogenic cell‐based therapeutic strategy in regenerative dentistry.
A new role for bicarbonate in mucus formation Chen, Eric Y T; Yang, Ning; Quinton, Paul M ...
American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology,
10/2010, Letnik:
299, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The impact of small anions on the physical properties of gel-forming mucin has been almost overlooked relative to that of cations. Recently, based on the coincident abnormalities in HCO(3)(-) ...secretion and abnormal mucus formed in the hereditary disease cystic fibrosis (CF), HCO(3)(-) was hypothesized to be critical in the formation of normal mucus by virtue of its ability to sequester Ca(2+) from condensed mucins being discharged from cells. However, direct evidence of the impact of HCO(3)(-) on mucus properties is lacking. Herein, we demonstrate for the first time that mucin diffusivity (∼1/viscosity) increases as a function of HCO(3)(-). Direct measurements of exocytosed mucin-swelling kinetics from airway cells showed that mucin diffusivity increases by ∼300% with 20 mM extracellular HCO(3)(-) concentration. Supporting data indicate that HCO(3)(-) reduces free Ca(2+) concentration and decreases the amount of Ca(2+) that remains associated with mucins. The results demonstrate that HCO(3)(-) enhances mucin swelling and hydration by reducing Ca(2+) cross-linking in mucins, thereby decreasing its viscosity and likely increasing its transportability. In addition, HCO(3)(-) can function as a Ca(2+) chelator like EGTA to disperse mucin aggregates. This study indicates that poor HCO(3)(-) availability in CF may explain why secreted mucus remains aggregated and more viscous in affected organs. These insights bear on not only the fundamental pathogenesis in CF, but also on the process of gel mucus formation and release in general.
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