Trust in public health in a world of misinformation.

In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.

Identification of In Vivo Internalizing Cardiac-Specific RNA Aptamers.

Background: The pursuit of selective therapeutic delivery to target tissue types represents a key goal in the treatment of a range of adverse health issues, including diseases afflicting the heart. The development of new cardiac-specific ligands is a crucial step towards effectively targeting therapeutics to the heart.

Methods: Utilizing an and SELEX approaches, we enriched a library of 2'-fluoro modified aptamers for ventricular cardiomyocyte specificity.

Adherence to a culturally adapted soul food vegan diet among African American adults increases diet quality compared to an omnivorous diet in the NEW Soul Study.

Adherence to a vegan diet may lower risk of cardiovascular disease among African Americans (AAs). Feasibility and sustainability of adopting a vegan diet may be challenging among AAs who live in regions where soul food is a predominant cuisine. Our hypothesis was that AAs randomized to a culturally adapted vegan diet will have greater adherence to their assigned diet compared with those randomized to a culturally adapted omnivorous diet.

Contrasting Phenotypes of Neutrophils During Asymptomatic Versus Symptomatic Leishmania braziliensis Infection.

Background: The mechanisms that mediate immune protection in individuals with subclinical (SC) or asymptomatic infection with Leishmania braziliensis are largely unknown. Neutrophils (polymorphonuclear leukocytes [PMNs]) have been implicated in progressive symptomatic cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL), but their potential participation in maintenance of subclinical infection is unexplored. The aim of this study was to compare the phenotypic and functional profiles of PMNs in individuals with SC infection versus patients with symptomatic CL due to L braziliensis.

Impaired signaling pathways on Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy macrophages during Leishmania infantum infection.

Berardinelli-Seip congenital lipodystrophy (CGL), a rare autosomal recessive disorder, is characterized by a lack of adipose tissue. Infections are one of the major causes of CGL individuals' premature death. The mechanisms that predispose to infections are poorly understood.

Apolipoprotein E Is Upregulated in Blood and Circulating Monocytes of Indian Patients With Visceral Leishmaniasis.

Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) has been associated with several diseases including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. ApoE also has documented immunomodulatory functions. We investigated gene expression in circulating monocytes and in bone marrows of patients with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) living in an endemic area in Bihar, India, and contrasted these with control healthy subjects or other diagnostic bone marrows from individuals in the same region.

Phenotypic and functional characteristics of monocyte subsets in the blood and bone marrow of Indian subjects with Visceral Leishmaniasis.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a potentially fatal parasitic infection caused by Leishmania donovani in India. L. donovani is an obligate intracellular protozoan residing mostly in macrophages of the reticuloendothelial system throughout chronic infection.

Health Disparities in Young Adults: A Direct Comparison of Distress and Unmet Needs Across Cancer Centers.

Purpose: Information on concerns that young adults (YAs) with cancer face when receiving care outside of specialized treatment centers is needed to increase equitable care to YAs at greater risk of marginalization by the health care system. The current study compared distress and unmet needs at the time of clinic visit between YAs receiving care from three different cancer clinics: (1) a National Cancer Institute-designated center, (2) a community-based clinic, and (3) a county hospital outpatient clinic.

Methods: The Adolescent and Young Adult Psycho-Oncology Screening Tool (AYA-POST) was administered to measure distress and cancer-related concerns of YAs in active treatment.

Differences in dietary acceptability, restraint, disinhibition, and hunger among African American participants randomized to either a vegan or omnivorous soul food diet.

The Nutritious Eating with Soul study was a 24-month, randomized behavioral nutrition intervention among African American adults. This present study, which is a secondary analysis of the NEW Soul study, examined changes in dietary acceptability, restraint, disinhibition, and hunger. Participants (n = 159; 79% female, 74% with ≥ college degree, mean age 48.

"It's Gonna Be Okay"-A Qualitative Exploration of the COVID-19 Pandemic's Effects on African American Participants During a Dietary Intervention Study.

Background: African American adults are at increased risk for chronic diseases. Limited research exists regarding how the COVID-19 pandemic affected African American adults in behavioral interventions.

Objective: This study assessed how the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, before vaccine availability and widespread testing, affected stress, nutrition, and exercise behaviors of African American adults participating in a dietary intervention study.

Impact of an Emergency Department Saturation Tool on a Pediatric Hospital's Capacity Management Policy.

Objective: We sought to describe how the Emergency Department Work Index (EDWIN) saturation tool (1) correlates with PED overcrowding during a capacity management activation policy, known internally as Purple Alert and (2) compare overall hospital-wide capacity metrics on days in which the alert was instituted versus days it was not.

Methods: This study was conducted between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019 in a 30-bed academic quaternary care, urban PED within a university hospital. The EDWIN tool was implemented in January 2019 and objectively measured the busyness of the PED.

Real-Time, Multiplexed SHERLOCK for in Vitro Diagnostics.

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has highlighted the need for simple, low-cost, and scalable diagnostics that can be widely deployed for rapid testing. Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based diagnostics have emerged as a promising technology, but its implementation in clinical laboratories has been limited by the requirement of a separate amplification step prior to CRISPR-associated (Cas) enzyme-based detection. This article reports the discovery of two novel Cas12 enzymes (SLK9 and SLK5-2) that exhibit enzymatic activity at 60°C, which, when combined with loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), enable a real-time, single-step nucleic acid detection method [real-time SHERLOCK (real-time SLK)].

Hierarchical spatiotemporal modeling of human visceral leishmaniasis in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a neglected tropical disease that is globally distributed and has the potential to cause very serious illness. Prior literature highlights the emergence and spread of VL is influenced by multiple factors, such as socioeconomic status, sanitation levels or animal and human reservoirs. The study aimed to retrospectively investigate the presence and infectiousness of VL in Rio Grande do Norte (RN), Brazil between 2007 and 2020.

T-cell activation, senescence, and exhaustion in asymptomatic HIV/Leish co-infection.

Background: is an opportunistic parasitic infection. An immunocompromised state increases the risk of converting asymptomatic infection to symptomatic visceral leishmaniasis (VL), which has a ~5% fatality rate even with treatment. HIV coinfection increases the risk of death from VL.

A 12-Week Randomized Intervention Comparing the Healthy US, Mediterranean, and Vegetarian Dietary Patterns of the US Dietary Guidelines for Changes in Body Weight, Hemoglobin A1c, Blood Pressure, and Dietary Quality among African American Adults.

Background: The US Dietary Guidelines (USDG) form the basis of nutrition guidelines, but the research informing the 3 USDG dietary patterns (Healthy US-Style [H-US], Mediterranean [Med], and vegetarian [Veg]) has been drawn largely from observational studies among White populations.

Objectives: The Dietary Guidelines 3 Diets study was a 3-arm, 12-wk randomly assigned intervention among African American (AA) adults at risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus that tested the 3 USDG dietary patterns.

Methods: The AAs (ages 18-65 y, BMI 25-49.

The Language of Research: Creating Spaces to Better Understand How We Speak and How We Are Heard.

Anti-Indigenous racism education and cultural safety training can help cultivate greater awareness and hold the potential to encourage Western-trained researchers to work in solidarity with Indigenous partners to resist the structural status quo. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview and author reflections on an immersive educational series "The Language of Research: How Do We Speak? How Are We Heard?". The series was developed by a Canadian group that included an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, non-Indigenous researchers, and parent partners, all of whom have training or experience in Westernized research and/or health care.

NLRP12-expressing dendritic cells mediate both dissemination of infection and adaptive immune responses in visceral leishmaniasis.

The NLR protein NLRP12 contributes to innate immunity, but the mechanism remains elusive. Infection of or wild-type mice with led to aberrant parasite tropism. Parasites replicated to higher levels in livers of mice than in the livers of WT mice and failed to disseminate to spleens.

NEW Soul in the neighborhood-reach and effectiveness of a dissemination and implementation feasibility study.

Dissemination and implementation (D&I) studies of dietary interventions for African Americans are limited. Restaurants may be an innovative setting to deliver dietary interventions. Purpose: Assess weight loss, self-efficacy for healthy eating, diet quality, and quality of life in African Americans in two groups: virtual synchronous and virtual asynchronous.

Effect of a Plant-Based vs Omnivorous Soul Food Diet on Weight and Lipid Levels Among African American Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: More African American individuals die from cardiovascular disease (CVD) than any other chronic disease condition. Despite this disparity, African American individuals are underrepresented in nutrition and CVD interventions.

Objective: To compare the effects of an entirely plant-based (vegan) or low-fat omnivorous (omni) diet on change in body weight and lipids during a 2-year intervention.

Classification accuracy of the Quick Interactive Language Screener for preschool children with and without developmental language disorder.

Introduction: This research examined the classification accuracy of the Quick Interactive Language Screener (QUILS) for identifying preschool-aged children (3;0 to 6;9) with developmental language disorder (DLD). We present data from two independent samples that varied in prevalence and diagnostic reference standard.

Methods: Study 1 included a clinical sample of children (54 with DLD; 13 without) who completed the QUILS and a standardized assessment of expressive grammar (Syntax subtest from the Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation-Norm Referenced; Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test-Preschool 2nd Edition; or Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test-3 rd Edition).