Publications by authors named "Denitsa Vasileva"
Article Synopsis
- The review covers the genetic and epigenetic factors related to food allergies, including their inheritance and the advantages and limitations of study methods.
- Genome-wide association studies have identified 16 significant genetic variants linked to food allergies, often overlapping with other allergic conditions.
- The article emphasizes the importance of integrating genetic and epigenetic data for understanding disease mechanisms and suggests future implications for predicting food allergy risks and responses to treatment.
Article Synopsis
- Perinatal nutrition, particularly maternal vitamin A (VA) supply, significantly impacts adult metabolic health, as shown in a study using mice with a deficiency in the intestine-specific homeobox (ISX) transcription factor.
- Mice fed a β-carotene (BC)-enriched diet during late pregnancy and lactation had offspring with higher retinol levels, which led to beneficial metabolic traits when the offspring were exposed to a high-fat diet later.
- The BC offspring experienced reduced obesity-related markers and metabolic dysregulation compared to their VA-sufficient counterparts, suggesting that increased maternal VA from BC can protect against poor metabolic outcomes in adulthood.
DNA methylation (DNAm) is a dynamic, age-dependent epigenetic modification that can be used to study interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Environmental exposures during critical periods of growth and development may alter DNAm patterns, leading to increased susceptibility to diseases such as asthma and allergies. One method to study the role of DNAm is the epigenetic clock-an algorithm that uses DNAm levels at select age-informative Cytosine-phosphate-Guanine (CpG) dinucleotides to predict epigenetic age (EA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Large inter-individual and inter-population differences in the susceptibility to and outcome of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been noted. Understanding these differences and how they influence vulnerability to infection and disease severity is critical to public health intervention.
Aim: To analyze and compare the profile of COVID-19 cases between China and North America as two regions that differ in many environmental, host and healthcare factors related to disease risk.
While solid organ transplantation for patients with substance use issues has attracted ethical discussion, a typology of the ethics themes has not been articulated in the literature. We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature on solid organ transplantation and substance use published between January 1997 and April 2016. We aimed to identify and develop a typology of the main ethical themes discussed in this literature and to identify gaps worthy of future research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Human beings have long consumed opiates and opioids for pleasure and as a treatment for numerous ailments, most notably pain. North America is currently in the grips of a crisis of opioid-related overdoses, and stigma is considered a major driver of the harms. While it is well established that substance use in general is highly stigmatized, stigma is a complex concept and opioid-related stigma is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase reactant downstream of the pro-inflammatory cytokines released during influenza infection. However, the role of this inflammatory marker in influenza severity and complications is yet to be elucidated.
Objectives: We aim to systematically review and evaluate the levels of CRP in severe and non-severe H1N1 influenza cases and assess its utility as a biomarker in predicting the severity of infection.
Background: Flavivirus diseases such as dengue fever (DENV), West Nile virus (WNV), Zika and yellow fever represent a substantial global public health concern. Preexisting chronic conditions such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, obesity, and asthma were thought to predict risk of progression to severe infections.
Objective: We aimed to quantify the frequency of chronic comorbidities in flavivirus diseases to provide an estimate for their prevalence in severe and non-severe infections and examine whether chronic diseases contribute to the increased risk of severe viral expression.
Background: Epidemiologic evidence suggests that patients with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection may be at risk of severe disease complications when they also have comorbidities such as obesity, diabetes, cardiac diseases, and/or asthma. However, the prevalence of these co-existing medical conditions in severe CHIKV cases has not been systematically reported.
Objective: The aim of the present study is to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to describe the prevalence of chronic comorbidities in CHIKV and evaluate their possible contributions to disease severity.