Point of Care Nucleic Acid Testing for SARS-CoV-2 in Hospitalized Patients: A Clinical Validation Trial and Implementation Study.

There is an urgent need for rapid SARS-CoV-2 testing in hospitals to limit nosocomial spread. We report an evaluation of point of care (POC) nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) in 149 participants with parallel combined nasal and throat swabbing for POC versus standard lab RT-PCR testing. Median time to result is 2.

Fullerene antioxidants decrease organophosphate-induced acetylcholinesterase inhibition in vitro.

Although organophosphate (OP)-induced acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition is the critical mechanism causing toxicities that follow exposure, other biochemical events, including oxidative stress, have been reported to contribute to OP toxicity. Fullerenes are carbon spheres with antioxidant activity. Thus, we hypothesized that fullerenes could counteract the effects of OP compounds and tested this hypothesis using two in vitro test systems, hen brain and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.

Proteolytic activity of the Bacteroides fragilis enterotoxin causes fluid secretion and intestinal damage in vivo.

Strains of Bacteroides fragilis that produce an enterotoxin have been implicated in diarrheal disease in farm animals and humans during the past decade. Our laboratory has purified and characterized this enterotoxin as a single polypeptide (M(r), approximately 20,000). Recently, we used PCR to clone and sequence the enterotoxin gene from B.

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis.

Enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis (ETBF) has been recently associated with watery diarrheal disease in livestock and young children. These strains of B. fragilis secrete an extracellular heat-labile protein toxin with a mess of approximately 20 kD.

Dietary modulation of the carcinogenicity of the heterocyclic amines.

Unlabelled: Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) are potent mutagens and carcinogens formed during cooking of meats or fish. They are, therefore, widely consumed by humans.

Purpose: A series of studies explore modulation of the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of typical HCAs like 2-amino-3-methylimidazo[4,5-f]quinoline (IQ), and of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo-[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), through dietary fat, green or black tea, and tea polyphenols like epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and theaflavin gallate (TFG).