Influenza virus infection and aerosol shedding kinetics in a controlled human infection model.

Unlabelled: Establishing effective mitigation strategies to reduce the spread of influenza virus requires an improved understanding of the mechanisms of transmission. We evaluated the use of a controlled human infection model using an H3N2 seasonal influenza virus to study critical aspects of transmission, including symptom progression and the dynamics of virus shedding. Eight volunteers were challenged with influenza A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2) virus between July and September 2022 at Emory University Hospital.

Validation of N95 Filtering Facepiece Respirator Decontamination Methods Available at a Large University Hospital.

Background: Due to unprecedented shortages in N95 filtering facepiece respirators, healthcare systems have explored N95 reprocessing. No single, full-scale reprocessing publication has reported an evaluation including multiple viruses, bacteria, and fungi along with respirator filtration and fit.

Methods: We explored reprocessing methods using new 3M 1860 N95 respirators, including moist (50%-75% relative humidity [RH]) heat (80-82°C for 30 minutes), ethylene oxide (EtO), pulsed xenon UV-C (UV-PX), hydrogen peroxide gas plasma (HPGP), and hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV).

A Novel Endocrine Role for the BAT-Released Lipokine 12,13-diHOME to Mediate Cardiac Function.

Background: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is an important tissue for thermogenesis, making it a potential target to decrease the risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, and recent studies have also identified BAT as an endocrine organ. Although BAT has been implicated to be protective in cardiovascular disease, to this point there are no studies that identify a direct role for BAT to mediate cardiac function.

Methods: To determine the role of BAT on cardiac function, we utilized a model of BAT transplantation.

Humidity and Deposition Solution Play a Critical Role in Virus Inactivation by Heat Treatment of N95 Respirators.

Supply shortages of N95 respirators during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic have motivated institutions to develop feasible and effective N95 respirator reuse strategies. In particular, heat decontamination is a treatment method that scales well and can be implemented in settings with variable or limited resources. Prior studies using multiple inactivation methods, however, have often focused on a single virus under narrowly defined conditions, making it difficult to develop guiding principles for inactivating emerging or difficult-to-culture viruses.

Exercise-induced 3'-sialyllactose in breast milk is a critical mediator to improve metabolic health and cardiac function in mouse offspring.

Poor maternal environments, such as under- or overnutrition, can increase the risk for the development of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease in offspring. Recent studies in animal models have shown that maternal exercise before and during pregnancy abolishes the age-related development of impaired glucose metabolism, decreased cardiovascular function and increased adiposity; however, the underlying mechanisms for maternal exercise to improve offspring's health have not been identified. In the present study, we identify an exercise-induced increase in the oligosaccharide 3'-sialyllactose (3'-SL) in milk in humans and mice, and show that the beneficial effects of maternal exercise on mouse offspring's metabolic health and cardiac function are mediated by 3'-SL.

Exercise Training Induces Depot-Specific Adaptations to White and Brown Adipose Tissue.

Exercise affects whole-body metabolism through adaptations to various tissues, including adipose tissue (AT). Recent studies investigated exercise-induced adaptations to AT, focusing on inguinal white adipose tissue (WAT), perigonadal WAT, and interscapular brown adipose tissue (iBAT). Although these AT depots play important roles in metabolism, they account for only ∼50% of the AT mass in a mouse.

12,13-diHOME: An Exercise-Induced Lipokine that Increases Skeletal Muscle Fatty Acid Uptake.

Circulating factors released from tissues during exercise have been hypothesized to mediate some of the health benefits of regular physical activity. Lipokines are circulating lipid species that have recently been reported to affect metabolism in response to cold. Here, lipidomics analysis revealed that a bout of moderate-intensity exercise causes a pronounced increase in the circulating lipid 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-diHOME) in male, female, young, old, sedentary, and active human subjects.