The spike (S) protein of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binds angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) on host cells to initiate entry, and soluble ACE2 is a therapeutic ...candidate that neutralizes infection by acting as a decoy. By using deep mutagenesis, mutations in ACE2 that increase S binding are found across the interaction surface, in the asparagine 90-glycosylation motif and at buried sites. The mutational landscape provides a blueprint for understanding the specificity of the interaction between ACE2 and S and for engineering high-affinity decoy receptors. Combining mutations gives ACE2 variants with affinities that rival those of monoclonal antibodies. A stable dimeric variant shows potent SARS-CoV-2 and -1 neutralization in vitro. The engineered receptor is catalytically active, and its close similarity with the native receptor may limit the potential for viral escape.
Abstract
Background:
Currently, oral cancer in India ranks among the top three types of cancer affecting mainly the elderly population. However, recent years have witnessed a marked increase in the ...younger people less than 45 years of age being affected by oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Thus, its early detection and treatment are of utmost importance and this responsibility lies with the healthcare providers. Therefore, we planned this study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of oral cancer among undergraduate dental and medical students. The objective was to suggest strategies to improve awareness on oral cancer.
Methods:
A pretested questionnaire comprising nineteen questions were distributed among 193 undergraduate dental and 218 undergraduate medical students of our university. Fundamental questions were included in the clinical examination, risk factors and need for information lectures on oral cancer. Chi-square and ANOVA tests were used to analyse the data.
Results:
The response rate of the study was good with 91.7% (177/193) of the dental and 88% (191/218) of the medical undergraduates participating in the survey. Though dental students had sufficient knowledge regarding the prevention and detection of oral cancer, however, medical students were less aware of the investigative methods of oral cancer.
Conclusion:
Though the mean knowledge of the dental students was good, they were not confident of diagnosing the early clinical symptoms of oral cancer. Practices on detection of oral cancer have to be reinforced among medical students so that they can contribute to its prevention.
Recent research has focused extensively on employing Deep Learning (DL) techniques, particularly Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), for Speech Emotion Recognition (SER). This study addresses the ...burgeoning interest in leveraging DL for SER, specifically focusing on Punjabi language speakers. The paper presents a novel approach to constructing and preprocessing a labeled speech corpus using diverse social media sources. By utilizing spectrograms as the primary feature representation, the proposed algorithm effectively learns discriminative patterns for emotion recognition. The method is evaluated on a custom dataset derived from various Punjabi media sources, including films and web series. Results demonstrate that the proposed approach achieves an accuracy of 69%, surpassing traditional methods like decision trees, Naïve Bayes, and random forests, which achieved accuracies of 49%, 52%, and 61% respectively. Thus, the proposed method improves accuracy in recognizing emotions from Punjabi speech signals.
Diarrheal disease caused by
is endemic in developing countries including India and is associated with high rate of mortality especially in children.
is known to form biofilms on the gut epithelium, ...and the biofilms once formed are resistant to the action of antibiotics. Therefore agents that prevent the biofilm formation and disperse the preformed biofilms are associated with therapeutic benefits. The use of antibiotics for the treatment of cholera is associated with side effects such as gut dysbiosis due to depletion of gut microflora, and the increasing problem of antibiotic resistance. Thus search for safe alternative therapeutic agents is warranted. Herein, we screened the lactobacilli spp. isolated from the fecal samples of healthy children for their abilities to prevent biofilm formation and to disperse the preformed biofilms of
and
by using an
assay. The results showed that the culture supernatant (CS) of all the seven isolates of
spp. used in the study inhibited the biofilm formation of
by more than 90%. Neutralization of pH of CS completely abrogated their antimicrobial activities against
, but had negligible effects on their biofilm inhibitory potential. Further, CS of all the lactobacilli isolates caused the dispersion of preformed
biofilms in the range 62-85%; however, pH neutralization of CS reduced the biofilm dispersal potential of the 4 out of 7 isolates by 19-57%. Furthermore, the studies showed that CS of none of the lactobacilii isolates had antimicrobial activity against
, but 5 out of 7 isolates inhibited the formation of its biofilm in the range 62-82%. However, none of the CS dispersed the preformed biofilms of
. The ability of CS to inhibit the adherence of
spp. to the epithelial cell line was also determined. Thus, we conclude that the biofilm dispersive action of CS of lactobacilli is strain-specific and pH-dependent. As
is known to form biofilms in the intestinal niche having physiological pH in the range 6-7, the probiotic strains that have dispersive action at high pH may have better therapeutic potential.
Increase in the number of infections caused by Gram-negative bacteria in neutropenic cancer patients has prompted the search for novel therapeutic agents having dual anticancer and antimicrobial ...properties. Bacteriocins are cationic proteins of prokaryotic origin that have emerged as one of the most promising alternative antimicrobial agents with applications as food preservatives and therapeutic agents. Apart from their antimicrobial activities, bacteriocins are also being explored for their anticancer potential.
In this study, a broad-spectrum, cell membrane-permeabilizing enterocin with a molecular weight of 65 kDa was purified and characterized from the culture supernatant of vaginal Enterococcus faecium 12a. Enterocin 12a inhibited multidrug-resistant strains of various Gram-negative pathogens such as Salmonella enterica, Shigella flexneri, Vibrio cholerae, Escherichia coli and Gram-positive, Listeria monocytogenes, but had no activities against different strains of gut lactobacilli. The mass spectrometric analysis showed that the enterocin 12a shared partial homology with 4Fe-4S domain-containing redox protein of E. faecalis R712. Further, enterocin 12a selectively inhibited the proliferation of various human cancer cell lines in a dose-dependent manner but not that of normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Enterocin 12a-treated cancer cells showed apoptosis-like morphological changes.
Enterocin 12a is a novel bacteriocin that has anticancer properties against human cell lines and negligible activity towards non-malignant cells. Therefore, it should be further evaluated for its anticancer potential in animal models.
The excessive use of digital platforms with rapidly increasing users in the wireless domain enforces communication systems to provide information with high data rates, high reliability and strong ...transmission connection quality. Wireless systems with single antenna elements are not able to accomplish the desired needs. Therefore, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas are getting more attention in modern high-speed communication systems and play an essential part in the current generation of wireless technology. However, along with their ability to significantly increase channel capacity, it is a challenge to achieve an optimal isolation in a compact size for fifth-generation (5G) terminals. Portable devices, automobiles, handheld gadgets, smart phones, wireless sensors, radio frequency identification and other applications use MIMO antenna systems. In this review paper, the fundamentals of MIMO antennas, the performance parameters of MIMO antennas, and different design approaches and methodologies are discussed to realize the three most commonly used MIMO antennas, i.e., ultra-wideband (UWB), dual-band and circularly polarized antennas. The recent MIMO antenna design approaches with UWB, dual band and circularly polarized characteristics are compared in terms of their isolation techniques, gain, efficiency, envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and channel capacity loss (CCL). This paper is very helpful to design suitable MIMO antennas applicable in UWB systems, satellite communication systems, GSM, Bluetooth, WiMAX, WLAN and many more. The issues with MIMO antenna systems in the indoor environment along with possible solutions to improve their performance are discussed. The paper also focuses on the applications of MIMO characteristics for future sixth-generation (6G) technology.
Background: Diabetes is one of the most challenging health problems in 21st century. It is a group of endocrine-metabolic disorder characterized by high glucose level (hyperglycemia) due to ...insufficient insulin secretion/action or both. It causes multi-organ failure viz hepatorenal damage, adult-onset blindness, lower-limb amputations, heart diseases and stroke, high blood pressure and nerve damage. Moreover, diabetic patients are having higher risk of cardiovascular complications including atherosclerosis, hypertension, lipoprotein abnormalities and cerebrovascular disease.
Study design: Considering the potencies of currently available drugs for the treatment of diabetes and associated complications, present study was focussed to explore the role of plant bioactive components as alternative and easily accessible therapeutic remedies.
Hypothesis/Purpose: This study the pooled status of diabetes, available treatments, attitude and traditional herbal polyphenols regarding diabetes.
Results: This study was aimed to summarize the natural polyphenols having anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic and anti-cancerous activities. Polyphenols can decrease other metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemic, and obesity and Type-2 diabetes.
Conclusion: Polyphenols are promising alternatives that can decrease the severity of diabetes and promote the other protective roles by decreasing the adverse effects of diabetes on other metabolic organs and their functions.
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Clinical care in cystic fibrosis (CF) has continued to advance over the last several years, particularly with the widespread eligibility and use of highly effective modulator therapy. Improved ...outcomes and longevity of persons with CF (PwCF) have increased recognition of the multisystem impact of the disease on the daily lives of PwCF. This review will cover a broad array of topics, from diagnosis to multisystem effects related to mental health, endocrine, palliative care, reproductive health, otolaryngology, and cardiac issues. Additionally, worldwide care delivery will be reviewed, demonstrating variation in outcomes based on resources and populations served. This review is part of the CF Year in Review 2020 series, focusing on the multi‐system effects of CF. This review focuses on articles from Pediatric Pulmonology but also includes articles published in 2020 from other journals that are of particular interest to clinicians.
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