The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is the cause of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); a severe respiratory distress that has emerged from the city of Wuhan, ...Hubei province, China during December 2019. COVID-19 is currently the major global health problem and the disease has now spread to most countries in the world. COVID-19 has profoundly impacted human health and activities worldwide. Genetic mutation is one of the essential characteristics of viruses. They do so to adapt to their host or to move to another one. Viral genetic mutations have a high potentiality to impact human health as these mutations grant viruses unique unpredicted characteristics. The difficulty in predicting viral genetic mutations is a significant obstacle in the field. Evidence indicates that SARS-CoV-2 has a variety of genetic mutations and genomic diversity with obvious clinical consequences and implications. In this review, we comprehensively summarized and discussed the currently available knowledge regarding SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks with a fundamental focus on the role of the viral proteins and their mutations in viral infection and COVID-19 progression. We also summarized the clinical implications of SARS-CoV-2 variants and how they affect the disease severity and hinder vaccine development. Finally, we provided a massive phylogenetic analysis of the spike gene of 214 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from different geographical regions all over the world and their associated clinical implications.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•BBIBP-CorV×2/BNT162b2 is associated with higher immunogenicity than BNT162b2×2.•BBIBP-CorV/BNT162b2 is safe and well tolerated.•Heterologous COVID-19 vaccine regimens can help overcome procurement ...obstacles.•Heterologous vaccination may potentially protect against emerging variants.
Facing new COVID-19 waves, the effectiveness of BBIBP-CorV has been noted to be low in countries whose populations were already administered two doses of the vaccine. Heterologous vaccination using ChAdOx1-S/BNT162b2 elicited higher immunogenicity compared with homologous immunization. BBIBP-CorV/BNT162b2 combination is worth testing. In this pilot prospective cohort study conducted at Makassed General Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon, from February 17, 2021, to June 30, 2021, we tested the safety and immunogenicity of a BNT162b2 booster dose in COVID-19-naïve individuals who had received two doses of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine. Heterologous booster vaccination was found to be safe and well tolerated. It was significantly associated with higher anti-spike IgG geometric mean titers compared to that after homologous BNT162b2 immunization in COVID-19-naïve individuals (8040BAU/mL, 95%confidence interval (CI), 4612–14016) vs (1384BAU/mL, 95%CI, 1063–1801), respectively, (P < 0.0001). In countries with limited access to mRNA vaccines and where populations have already received BBIBP-CorV, mixing BBIBP-CorV/BNT162b2 is seen to overcome the low immunogenicity induced by BBIBP-CorV alone, thus potentially providing protection against emerging variants.
Introduction:
There is paucity of data on the knowledge of acupuncture and its use among patients in Lebanon and the Arab countries.
Objectives:
The primary objectives of this study were to determine ...the knowledge and attitude of patients in a primary care setting in Lebanon toward Western medical acupuncture and to determine factors that may affect their attitudes toward acupuncture use. The secondary objective was to compare the attitudes and knowledge of patients who had tried acupuncture with those who had not.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study about the perspectives of patients in a primary care setting in Lebanon on medical acupuncture.
Results:
A total of 212 surveys were completed (78.5% response rate). 24% of participants had not tried and were unwilling to try acupuncture (group 1), 63.5% of participants had not tried but indicated they would be willing to try acupuncture (group 2), and 12.5% of participants had previously tried acupuncture (group 3). Most participants in group 1 (55.6%) stated they would be unwilling to try acupuncture even if referred for it by a physician. Participants who had tried acupuncture (12.5%) had done so for pain conditions.
Discussion:
Group 3 scored higher on knowledge questions and had a more positive attitude toward the acupuncture procedure. Most patients who had tried it had done so to treat pain complaints.
Conclusion:
Patients in groups 2 and 3 were more knowledgeable about acupuncture, had tried more complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) modalities, and were more likely to try acupuncture as an add-on or last resort treatment, compared to group 1.
Planar cell polarity (PCP) signaling controls a number of morphogenetic processes including convergent extension during gastrulation and neural tube formation. Defects in this pathway cause neural ...tube defects (NTD), the most common malformations of the central nervous system. The Looptail (
Lp
) mutant mouse was the first mammalian mutant implicating a PCP gene (
Vangl2
) in the pathogenesis of NTD. We report on a novel chemically induced mutant allele at
Vangl2
called
Curly Bob
that causes a missense mutation p.Ile268Asn (I268N) in the Vangl2 protein. This mutant segregates in a semi-dominant fashion with heterozygote mice displaying a looped tail appearance, bobbing head, and a circling behavior. Homozygote mutant embryos suffer from a severe form of NTD called craniorachischisis, severe PCP defects in the inner hair cells of the cochlea and posterior cristae, and display a distinct defect in retinal axon guidance. This mutant genetically interacts with the
Lp
allele (
Vangl2
S464N
) in neural tube development and inner ear hair cell polarity. The Vangl2
I268N
protein variant is expressed at very low levels in affected neural and retinal tissues of mutant homozygote embryos. Biochemical studies show that Vangl2
I268N
exhibits impaired targeting to the plasma membrane and accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum. The Vangl2
I268N
variant no longer physically interacts with its PCP partner DVL3 and has a reduced protein half-life. This mutant provides an important model for dissecting the role of Vangl2 in the development of the neural tube, establishment of polarity of sensory cells of the auditory and vestibular systems, and retinal axon guidance.
Many computer vision approaches for point clouds processing consider 3D simplification as an important preprocessing phase. On the other hand, the big amount of point cloud data that describe a 3D ...object require excessively a large storage and long processing time. In this paper, we present an efficient simplification method for 3D point clouds using weighted graphs representation that optimizes the point clouds and maintain the characteristics of the initial data. This method detects the features regions that describe the geometry of the surface. These features regions are detected using the saliency degree of vertices. Then, we define features points in each feature region and remove redundant vertices. Finally, we will show the robustness of our method via different experimental results. Moreover, we will study the stability of our method according to noise.
Background
Diarrhoea is still a major public health issue in developing countries, and it is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in children. We aimed to assess the use of a ...multiplex reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for
the detection of five viruses, including
rotavirus, norovirus (genogroups 1 and 2), astrovirus, and adenovirus, responsible for gastroenteritis in children under 5 years old in primary care centres in Upper Egypt.
Subjects and methods
A total of 500 stool samples were collected. Fifty samples were randomly selected for viral examination using multiplex RT-PCR
for the detection of rotavirus
, norovirus (genogroups 1 and 2), astrovirus, and adenovirus, causing diarrhoea.
Results
Viruses were detected in 45 (90%) of the 50 stool samples. The most frequently identified virus was norovirus G2, followed by Group A rotavirus, astrovirus and adenovirus. Mixed infection by two and three viruses was observed in 7/50 cases (14%) and 2/50 cases (4%), respectively. Norovirus G1 was not detected in the samples examined.
Conclusion
Our study reveals that multiplex PCR allows for the detection of multiple viral targets in only one reaction, rendering the assay easier to perform compared to existing testing methodologies (RT-PCR and electron microscopy). Additionally, most of the viruses were detected in summer, and the highest prevalence was in the age group less than 1 year. Norovirus G2 and rotavirus were the most frequent agents and the most common coinfections responsible for gastroenteritis in children.
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (
) gene alterations are potent oncogenic drivers in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting the ALK pathway are effective in treating
...-positive NSCLC. Around 5% of Asian and White patients with NSCLC have
-positive tumors, but
rearrangement prevalence data in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are limited.
In this noninterventional epidemiology study, histologically confirmed nonsquamous NSCLC samples retained for < 5 years in tissue banks at six centers in MENA were retrospectively analyzed for
rearrangement using the VENTANA immunohistochemistry (IHC) method. Patient characteristics obtained were analyzed for association with
rearrangement. Concordance between IHC and Vysis fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) ALK detection methods was assessed in a subset of samples.
Four hundred forty-eight tissue samples were analyzed using IHC: 137 (30.6%) in Lebanon, 104 (23.2%) in Saudi Arabia, 97 (21.7%) in Egypt, 80 (17.9%) in the United Arab Emirates, and 30 (6.7%) in Morocco. On the basis of IHC, the prevalence was 8.7% (95% CI, 6.3 to 11.7) for
-positivity and 91.3% (95% CI, 88.3 to 93.7) for
-negativity. On the basis of FISH (n = 148), the prevalence was 5.4% positivity and 81.8% negativity (12.8% nonevaluable). Concordance between IHC and FISH (n = 129) was 98.4% (95% CI, 94.2 to 99.8) for negative agreement and 98.5% (95% CI, 94.5 to 99.8) for overall agreement. Univariate analysis showed that
rearrangement was significantly associated with epidermal growth factor receptor wild-type status (
= .03) but was not significantly associated with sex, race, smoking history, or histologic subtype.
Our findings suggest that
rearrangements are more prevalent in MENA than other geographic regions. High concordance was found between FISH and IHC. Except for epidermal growth factor receptor wild-type status, no clinicopathologic characteristics were associated with
-positive NSCLC.
Plasmid DNA (pDNA)-based vaccines have emerged as effective subunit vaccines against viral and bacterial pathogens. In this study, a DNA vaccine, namely plasmid internal ribosome entry site-HN/F, was ...applied in ovo against Newcastle disease (ND). Vaccination was carried out using the DNA vaccine alone or as a mixture of the pDNA and dextran-spermine (D-SPM), a nanoparticle used for pDNA delivery. The results showed that in ovo vaccination with 40 μg pDNA/egg alone induced high levels of antibody titer (P<0.05) in specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens at 3 and 4 weeks postvaccination compared to 2 weeks postvaccination. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titer was not significantly different between groups injected with 40 μg pDNA + 64 μg D-SPM and 40 μg pDNA at 4 weeks postvaccination (P>0.05). Higher antibody titer was observed in the group immunized with 40 μg pDNA/egg at 4 weeks postvaccination. The findings also showed that vaccination with 40 μg pDNA/egg alone was able to confer protection against Newcastle disease virus strain NDIBS002 in two out of seven SPF chickens. Although the chickens produced antibody titers 3 weeks after in ovo vaccination, it was not sufficient to provide complete protection to the chickens from lethal viral challenge. In addition, vaccination with pDNA/D-SPM complex did not induce high antibody titer when compared with naked pDNA. Therefore, it was concluded that DNA vaccination with plasmid internal ribosome entry site-HN/F can be suitable for in ovo application against ND, whereas D-SPM is not recommended for in ovo gene delivery.
The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of neuropathic pain among patients suffering from chronic low back pain using the Leeds assessment of neuropathic symptoms and signs (LANSS) pain ...scale.
This was a pilot study collected from 10 centers in the Middle East Region, with each center enrolling 10 patients between November 2004 and January 2004. In total, 100 patients with chronic low back pain were included in the study. The LANSS clinical assessment score was used to assess the presence of neuropathic pain. Patients with score > or =12 were considered to have neuropathic pain, while patients with score a less than 12 were considered as having nociceptive pain.
We found that 41% of the chronic low back pain patients had neuropathic pain and 59% had nociceptive pain.
The ability to identify neuropathic pain mechanisms should lead to individualized treatment resulting in improved pain control in this group of patients with chronic low back pain.
Abstract Background High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can restore spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and neurological function and save lives. We conducted an umbrella review, including ...previously published systematic reviews (SRs), that compared mechanical and manual CPR; after that, we performed a new SR of the original studies that were not included after the last published SR to provide a panoramic view of the existing evidence on the effectiveness of CPR methods. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, and Medline were searched, including English in-hospital (IHCA) and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) SRs, and comparing mechanical versus manual CPR. A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR-2) and GRADE were used to assess the quality of included SRs/studies. We included both IHCA and OHCA, which compared mechanical and manual CPR. We analyzed at least one of the outcomes of interest, including ROSC, survival to hospital admission, survival to hospital discharge, 30-day survival, and survival to hospital discharge with good neurological function. Furthermore, subgroup analyses were performed for age, gender, initial rhythm, arrest location, and type of CPR devices. Results We identified 249 potentially relevant records, of which 238 were excluded. Eleven SRs were analyzed in the Umbrella review (January 2014–March 2022). Furthermore, for a new, additional SR, we identified eight eligible studies (not included in any prior SR) for an in-depth analysis between April 1, 2021, and February 15, 2024. The higher chances of using mechanical CPR for male patients were significantly observed in three studies. Two studies showed that younger patients received more mechanical treatment than older patients. However, studies did not comment on the outcomes based on the patient's gender or age. Most SRs and studies were of low to moderate quality. The pooled findings did not show the superiority of mechanical compared to manual CPR except in a few selected subgroups. Conclusions Given the significant heterogeneity and methodological limitations of the included studies and SRs, our findings do not provide definitive evidence to support the superiority of mechanical CPR over manual CPR . However, mechanical CPR can serve better where high-quality manual CPR cannot be performed in selected situations.
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