Rapid Characterization of Undeclared Pharmaceuticals in Herbal Preparations by Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Emergency Care.

In Asia, some herbal preparations have been found to be adulterated with undeclared synthetic medicines to increase their therapeutic efficiency. Many of these adulterants were found to be toxic when overdosed and have been documented to bring about severe, even life-threatening acute poisoning events. The objective of this study is to develop a rapid and sensitive ambient ionization mass spectrometric platform to characterize the undeclared toxic adulterated ingredients in herbal preparations.

Patients with Hepatitis C Undergoing Direct-Acting Antiviral Treatment Have a Lower SARS-CoV-2 Infection Rate.

This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 602 patients with first-time positive results for the HCV nucleic acid test between 1 May 2021 and 31 March 2023, exploring the association between DAA treatment and SARS-CoV-2 infection. The results showed that 9.8% of HCV patients were co-infected with SARS-CoV-2.

Using Real-Time PCR Fluorescence Reaction Values to Improve SARS-CoV-2 Virus Detection and Benefit Clinical Decision-Making.

This study aimed to compare the SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection results of the BD MAX™ System and other platforms to formulate an optimized laboratory verification process. The re-examination of 400 samples determined as positive by BD MAX™ indicated that the inconsistency rate between BD MAX™ and the other platforms was 65.8%; the inconsistency rate of single-gene-positive results was as high as 99.

Hepatitis C Virus Subtypes Novel 6g-Related Subtype and 6w Could Be Indigenous in Southern Taiwan with Characteristic Geographic Distribution.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype (GT) 6 is the most genetically diverse GT and mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and south China but not Taiwan. Earlier studies showed the major HCV GTs in Taiwan were GT 1b and 2 with very rare GT 6 except in injection drug users (IDUs), and subtype 6a is the main GT 6 subtype among IDUs. Recently, we reported a much higher prevalence (18.

Geographic variation of genotype 6 hepatitis C virus infection in an endemic area of southern Taiwan.

Taiwan is a hepatitis C virus (HCV) endemic country with geographic variation of prevalence and main genotypes(GTs) are 1 b and 2a. We recently reported high GT6 prevalence in Tainan of southern Taiwan. To clarify this special genotype as a local endemic disease and its geographic variation, the prevalence rates of HCV GTs of 37 districts of Tainan were analyzed.

Autophagy Modulation in Human Thyroid Cancer Cells following Aloperine Treatment.

Aloperine, an alkaloid isolated from , exhibits multiple pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiallergic, antinociceptive, antipathogenic, and antitumor effects. Furthermore, it exerts protective effects against renal and neuronal injuries. Several studies have reported antitumor effects of aloperine against various human cancers, including multiple myeloma; colon, breast, and prostate cancers; and osteosarcoma.

Down-regulation of CD53 expression in Epinephelus coioides under LPS, poly (I:C), and cytokine stimulation.

Tetraspanins are a group of cell surface molecules involved in cell adhesion, motility, metastasis, signal transduction, and immune cell activation. Members of the tetraspanin family include CD9, CD37, CD63, CD53, and others. However, few tetraspanins have been investigated in teleosts.

The biofunction of orange-spotted grouper (Epinephelus coioides) CC chemokine ligand 4 (CCL4) in innate and adaptive immunity.

CC chemokine (motif) ligand 4 (CCL4) is indispensable to the chemoattraction of macrophages, natural killer cells, and lymphocytes in mammals; however, it has only been cloned in a limited number of fish species and information related to its biofunction remains ambiguous with regard to teleosts. To explore the role of teleost CCL4, we first evaluated the mRNA expression of the Epinephelus coioides CCL4 (gCCL4) gene in various organs under LPS and poly (I:C) stimulated; secondary, we evaluated the immune-related genes expression of fish under the recombinant gCCL4 protein stimulated. Our results revealed an increase in the mRNA of gCCL4 in immune organs immediately following stimulation by poly (I:C); however, in LPS stimulated fish, the expression did not increase until nearly 24 h after induction.

Selective occurrence of ras mutations in benign and malignant thyroid follicular neoplasms in Taiwan.

Previous studies have demonstrated that point mutations in all three ras genes (H-ras, K-ras, and N-ras) may occur in thyroid neoplasia. However, the overall incidence of ras mutations in thyroid tumors and their frequency in specific histologic types varies widely in different series. Many earlier studies have chosen allele-specific oligonucleotide hybridization approaches to examine ras mutations without further confirmation of the positive samples by DNA sequencing.