Simultaneous monitoring of HIV viral load and screening of SARS-CoV-2 employing a low-cost RT-qPCR test workflow.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted routine care for individuals living with HIV, putting them at risk of virologic failure and HIV-associated illness. Often this population is at high risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection, and once infected, for severe disease. Therefore, close monitoring of HIV plasma viral load (VL) and screening for SARS-CoV-2 infection are needed.

Multiplex Target-Redundant RT-LAMP for Robust Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Using Fluorescent Universal Displacement Probes.

The increasing prevalence of variant lineages during the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to disrupt molecular diagnostics due to mismatches between primers and variant templates. Point-of-care molecular diagnostics, which often lack the complete functionality of their high-throughput laboratory counterparts, are particularly susceptible to this type of disruption, which can result in false-negative results. To address this challenge, we have developed a robust Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification assay with single tube multiplexed multitarget redundancy and an internal amplification control.

Harmony COVID-19: A ready-to-use kit, low-cost detector, and smartphone app for point-of-care SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection.

RNA amplification tests sensitively detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, but their complexity and cost are prohibitive for expanding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing. We developed “Harmony COVID-19,” a point-of-care test using inexpensive consumables, ready-to-use reagents, and a simple device. Our ready-to-use, multiplexed reverse transcription, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) can detect down to 0.

Characterizing the molecular composition and diagnostic potential of Mycobacterium tuberculosis urinary cell-free DNA using next-generation sequencing.

Background: Urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is an attractive target for diagnosing pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection, but has not been thoroughly characterized as a biomarker.

Methods: This study was performed to investigate the size and composition of urine cfDNA from tuberculosis (TB) patients with minimal bias using next-generation sequencing (NGS). A combination of DNA extraction and single-stranded sequence library preparation methods demonstrated to recover short, highly degraded cfDNA fragments was employed.

Inexpensive workflow for simultaneous monitoring of HIV viral load and detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Background: COVID-19 pandemic interrupted routine care for individuals living with HIV, putting them at risk of becoming virologically unsuppressed and ill. Often they are at high risk for exposure to SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe disease once infected. For this population, it is urgent to closely monitor HIV plasma viral load ( ) and screen for SARS-COV-2 infection.

Multiplex Target-Redundant RT-LAMP for Robust Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Using Fluorescent Universal Displacement Probes.

The increasing prevalence of variant lineages during the COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to disrupt molecular diagnostics due to mismatches between primers and variant templates. Point-of-care molecular diagnostics, which often lack the complete functionality of their high throughput laboratory counterparts, are particularly susceptible to this type of disruption, which can result in false negative results. To address this challenge, we have developed a robust Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification assay with single tube multiplexed multi-target redundancy and an internal amplification control.

Diagnosing Pulmonary Tuberculosis by Using Sequence-Specific Purification of Urine Cell-Free DNA.

Transrenal urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a promising tuberculosis (TB) biomarker, but is challenging to detect because of the short length (<100 bp) and low concentration of TB-specific fragments. We aimed to improve the diagnostic sensitivity of TB urine cfDNA by increasing recovery of short fragments during sample preparation. We developed a highly sensitive sequence-specific purification method that uses hybridization probes immobilized on magnetic beads to capture short TB cfDNA (50 bp) with 91.

Ultrasensitive hybridization capture: Reliable detection of <1 copy/mL short cell-free DNA from large-volume urine samples.

Urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a valuable non-invasive biomarker with broad potential clinical applications, but there is no consensus on its optimal pre-analytical methodology, including the DNA extraction step. Due to its short length (majority of fragments <100 bp) and low concentration (ng/mL), urine cfDNA is not efficiently recovered by conventional silica-based extraction methods. To maximize sensitivity of urine cfDNA assays, we developed an ultrasensitive hybridization method that uses sequence-specific oligonucleotide capture probes immobilized on magnetic beads to improve extraction of short cfDNA from large-volume urine samples.

Simpler and faster Covid-19 testing: Strategies to streamline SARS-CoV-2 molecular assays.

Background: Detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections is important for treatment, isolation of infected and exposed individuals, and contact tracing. RT-qPCR is the "gold-standard" method to sensitively detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA, but most laboratory-developed RT-qPCR assays involve complex steps. Here, we aimed to simplify RT-qPCR assays by streamlining reaction setup, eliminating RNA extraction, and proposing reduced-cost detection workflows that avoid the need for expensive qPCR instruments.

Analytical Comparison of Methods for Extraction of Short Cell-Free DNA from Urine.

Urine cell-free DNA (cfDNA) is a valuable noninvasive biomarker for cancer mutation detection, infectious disease diagnosis (eg, tuberculosis), organ transplantation monitoring, and prenatal screening. Conventional silica DNA extraction does not efficiently capture urine cfDNA, which is dilute (ng/mL) and highly fragmented [30 to 100 nucleotides (nt)]. The clinical sensitivity of urine cfDNA detection increases with decreasing target length, motivating use of sample preparation methods designed for short fragments.

[Performance Assessment Tool for Quality Improvement in Hospitals (PATH): first experiences in Croatia].

PATH (Performance Assessment Tool for Quality Improvement in Hospitals), a project of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Europe offers hospitals a comprehensive and standardized tool (a set of indicators) to evaluate their own performance and development of measures for quality improvement. PATH Program was launched in Croatia in 2008, and it was conducted in 2009 in hospitals that have voluntarily decided to be involved. Here we present the results of the first phase of pilot experience of establishing the program, based on data collected in 22 Croatian hospitals.

The results of "exercise therapy in coronary prone individuals and coronary patients".

The authors followed for at least two years 483 patients (430 coronary prone patients and 53 with proved coronary heart disease), to determine whether physical training could decrease coronary risk factors and improve exercise tolerance in the trained group as compared with the conventionally treated group (way of life, diet, drugs). There was no significant difference among the two groups for blood lipid profile, blood pressure (at rest and during exercise), functional capacity and mortality. In the authors' opinion this could be explained by the inadequate training program (45 minutes twice a week) and by a possible overlapping of the groups.