Acceptance and Completion Rates of 3-Month Isoniazid-Rifampicin (3HR) Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment (TPT) Among Contacts of Bacteriologically Confirmed TB Patients-Patients' and Healthcare Workers' Perspectives.

Providing tuberculosis preventive treatment (TPT) to close contacts of persons with TB is a core strategy recommended by WHO for the prevention and control of TB. Nigeria rolled out the 3-month Isoniazid-Rifampicin (3HR) shorter regimen TPT as a pilot for use among eligible adult and child contacts. This study assesses acceptance and completion rates of 3HR TPT among contacts and determines the perspectives of healthcare workers (HCWs) and contacts on acceptance and completion of 3HR TPT in Nigeria.

Perceived ease of use of Truenat among laboratory staff as a new diagnostic tool for TB in Nigeria: Result of a pilot roll-out.

In January 2020, WHO released a rapid communication on use of molecular assays as initial tests for diagnosis of tuberculosis, recommending Truenat as a replacement for smear microscopy in TB diagnosis. This study was designed to assess perceived ease of use of Truenat among Laboratory staff as a new diagnostic tool for TB in Nigeria. This study used a cross-sectional design.

Impact of Truenat on TB diagnosis in Nigeria.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of Truenat assays on the diagnosis of TB at peripheral facilities in Nigeria.

Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study across 34 out of 38 Truenat-implementing facilities in Nigeria. These facilities offer DOTS services.

Effectiveness of Using AI-Driven Hotspot Mapping for Active Case Finding of Tuberculosis in Southwestern Nigeria.

: Nigeria is among the top five countries that have the highest gap between people reported as diagnosed and estimated to have developed tuberculosis (TB). To bridge this gap, there is a need for innovative approaches to identify geographical areas at high risk of TB transmission and targeted active case finding (ACF) interventions. Leveraging community-level data together with granular sociodemographic contextual information can unmask local hotspots that could be otherwise missed.

Performance assessment of a refrigeration system with an integrated condenser under different environmental conditions.

This paper presents a workable vapour compression system (VCS) for evaluating the performance of a refrigeration system with an integrated condenser that uses a long-term alternative refrigerant to halocarbon as a heat transfer medium (R600a). India's refrigeration system uses halocarbon refrigerants due to their excellent thermophysical and thermodynamic properties. Greenhouse gas emissions from halocarbon refrigerants and fossil fuel combustion contribute to global warming that engenders climate change and the deterioration of the ecosystem.

Portable digital X-ray for TB pre-diagnosis screening in rural communities in Nigeria.

Setting: This pilot project was conducted in hard-to-reach communities of two Niger Delta States in the South-South Region of Nigeria.

Objective: To assess the usefulness of portable digital X-ray, the Delft-Light Backpack (DLB) for TB active case-finding (ACF) in hard-to-reach Niger Delta communities using the WHO 3B TB screening/diagnosis algorithm.

Design: DLB X-ray was used to screen all consenting eligible participants during community TB screening out-reaches in all hard-to-reach communities of Akwa Ibom and Cross River States in the Niger Delta, Nigeria.

Humoral response to a viral glycan correlates with survival on PROSTVAC-VF.

Therapeutic cancer vaccines can be effective for treating patients, but clinical responses vary considerably from patient to patient. Early indicators of a favorable response are crucial for making individualized treatment decisions and advancing vaccine design, but no validated biomarkers are currently available. In this study, we used glycan microarrays to profile antiglycan antibody responses induced by PROSTVAC-VF, a poxvirus-based cancer vaccine currently in phase III clinical trials.

Serum antibodies to blood group A predict survival on PROSTVAC-VF.

Purpose: There is evidence that therapeutic cancer vaccines can lengthen survival for some patients with cancer, but responses vary widely from one person to another. Methods to predict clinical outcomes will advance the field and provide new insights into critical determinants of in vivo efficacy.

Experimental Design: This retrospective study included 141 subjects from phase II trials of PROSTVAC-VF, a poxvirus-based cancer vaccine currently in phase III clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer.

Evaluation of human antibody responses to keyhole limpet hemocyanin on a carbohydrate microarray.

Purpose: Keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) is used as a vaccine adjuvant, as a carrier protein for small haptens, and as a treatment for bladder cancer. Immunization with KLH produces antibodies to tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) in animals, and these antibodies have been postulated as the basis of efficacy for bladder cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to evaluate antibody responses to KLH in humans.

Glycan arrays: recent advances and future challenges.

Carbohydrate arrays, also referred to as glycan arrays, are composed of various oligosaccharides and/or polysaccharides immobilized on a solid support in a spatially defined arrangement. This technology provides a powerful, high-throughput approach to examining carbohydrate-macromolecule interactions, and glycan arrays have had a significant impact on the field of glycobiology. This review focuses on recent advances in glycan array technology, limitations, and opportunities for improvement.

Profiling human serum antibodies with a carbohydrate antigen microarray.

Carbohydrate antigen arrays (glycan arrays) have been recently developed for the high-throughput analysis of carbohydrate macromolecule interactions. When profiling serum, information about experimental variability, interindividual biological variability, and intraindividual temporal variability is critical. In this report, we describe the characterization of a carbohydrate antigen array and assay for profiling human serum.

Microarrays with varying carbohydrate density reveal distinct subpopulations of serum antibodies.

Antigen arrays have become important tools for profiling complex mixtures of proteins such as serum antibodies. These arrays can be used to better understand immune responses, discover new biomarkers, and guide the development of vaccines. Nevertheless, they are not perfect and improved array designs would enhance the information derived from this technology.

Improved procedure for direct coupling of carbohydrates to proteins via reductive amination.

Carbohydrate-protein conjugates are utilized extensively in basic research and as immunogens in a variety of bacterial vaccines and cancer vaccines. As a result, there have been significant efforts to develop simple and reliable methods for the construction of these conjugates. While direct coupling via reductive amination is an appealing approach, the reaction is typically very inefficient.

Application of carbohydrate array technology to antigen discovery and vaccine development.

Carbohydrate arrays are a new technology developed for high-throughput evaluation of interactions between carbohydrates and proteins, cells or viruses. Carbohydrate arrays contain many different carbohydrate structures on a solid support. The format allows one to probe hundreds or thousands of potential receptor-ligand interactions while using only tiny amounts of material.