Facilitating Thought Progression to Reduce Depressive Symptoms: Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The constant rise in the prevalence of major depressive disorder calls for new, effective, and accessible interventions that can rapidly and effectively reach a wide range of audiences. Recent developments in the digital health domain suggest that dedicated online platforms may potentially address this gap. Focusing on targeting ruminative thought, a major symptomatic hallmark of depression, in this study we hypothesized that delivering a digital health-based intervention designed to systematically facilitate thought progression would substantially alleviate depression.

SARS-CoV-2 variants with reduced infectivity and varied sensitivity to the BNT162b2 vaccine are developed during the course of infection.

In-depth analysis of SARS-CoV-2 quasispecies is pivotal for a thorough understating of its evolution during infection. The recent deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, which elicit protective anti-spike neutralizing antibodies, has stressed the importance of uncovering and characterizing SARS-CoV-2 variants with mutated spike proteins. Sequencing databases have allowed to follow the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants that are circulating in the human population, and several experimental platforms were developed to study these variants.

Statin efficacy and safety for lipid modification in apparently healthy male military aircrew.

Introduction: Military aircrew men represent an elite group of relatively young, fit, and healthy people. The effectiveness of statin treatment in reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) according to the current National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines, its safety, and compliance in this group of people has not yet been determined.

Methods: We prospectively evaluated 84 military aircrew men (mean age 43 +/- 7 yr) with LDL-C above the current NCEP guidelines.

Increased collagenolytic activity in severed and sutured tendons following topical application of exogenous collagen in chickens.

To verify the role of collagenase in reduction of peritendinous adhesion by topical application of exogenous collagen, the flexor tendons of 30 chickens were severed and sutured. Exogenous, native enriched collagen solution (ECS) was introduced in the tendon sheath via a polyethylene catheter. The effect of ECS on collagenolytic activity in the healing tendon was assessed 1, 2, and 3 weeks later both by determining the relative amounts of dialyzable protein and hydroxyproline and by using the collagen film collagenase assay.

Cellular sensitivity to collagen in thromboangiitis obliterans.

We studied 39 patients with thromboangiitis obliterans to determine their cellular and humoral immune responses to native human collagen Type I and Type III, which are constituents of blood vessels. Cell-mediated sensitivity to these collagens was measured by an antigen-sensitive thymidine-incorporation assay. The mean stimulation index--the ratio of thymidine incorporation in the presence of antigen to that in its absence--with both Type I and Type III collagens used as antigens was significantly higher in patients with thromboangiitis obliterans than in patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans or in healthy male controls.