Healthcare (Basel)
June 2024
Background: Although many studies analyse gender differences in the clinical expression of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and prevalence studies show that girls with ADHD are underdiagnosed, there are no instruments that are sensitive to the detection of girls with ADHD.
Objective: The objective of this study is to develop a self-report early detection instrument for boys and girls with ADHD aged 7 to 16, which includes the gender perspective and is sensitive to the detection of girls with ADHD.
Methods: The scale was developed and the items that comprised it were created from the thematic analysis of ADHD and its evaluation in children based on the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-TR.
The translocator protein TSPO is an evolutionary conserved mitochondrial protein overexpressed in various contexts of neurodegeneration. Friedreich Ataxia (FA) is a neurodegenerative disease due to GAA expansions in the FXN gene leading to decreased expression of frataxin, a mitochondrial protein involved in the biosynthesis of iron-sulfur clusters. We previously reported that Tspo was overexpressed in a Drosophila model of this disease generated by CRISPR/Cas9 insertion of approximately 200 GAA in the intron of fh, the fly frataxin gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong marine ecosystems globally, those in the Mediterranean Sea, are facing many threats. New technologies are crucial for enhancing our understanding of marine habitats and ecosystems, which can be complex and resource-intensive to analyse using traditional techniques. We tested, for the first time, an integrated multi-platform approach for mapping the coastal benthic habitat in the Civitavecchia (northern Latium, Italy) coastal area.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Although a substantial fraction of the US population was infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during December 2021-February 2022, the subsequent evolution of population immunity reflects the competing influences of waning protection over time and acquisition or restoration of immunity through additional infections and vaccinations.
Methods: Using a Bayesian evidence synthesis model of reported coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) data (diagnoses, hospitalizations), vaccinations, and waning patterns for vaccine- and infection-acquired immunity, we estimate population immunity against infection and severe disease from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants in the United States, by location (national, state, county) and week.
Results: By 9 November 2022, 97% (95%-99%) of the US population were estimated to have prior immunological exposure to SARS-CoV-2.
Importance: While a substantial fraction of the US population was infected with SARS-CoV-2 during December 2021 - February 2022, the subsequent evolution of population immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants reflects the competing influences of waning protection over time and acquisition or restoration of immunity through additional infections and vaccinations.
Objective: To estimate changes in population immunity against infection and severe disease due to circulating SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants in the United States from December 2021 to November 2022, and to quantify the protection against a potential 2022-2023 winter SARS-CoV-2 wave.
Design Setting Participants: Bayesian evidence synthesis of reported COVID-19 data (diagnoses, hospitalizations), vaccinations, and waning patterns for vaccine- and infection-acquired immunity, using a mathematical model of COVID-19 natural history.
Two clinically approved anticancer drugs targeting BRAF in melanoma patients - dabrafenib (DAB) and vemurafenib (VEM) - have been successfully encapsulated into nanomicelles formed upon self-assembly of an amphiphilic dendrimer AD based on two C aliphatic chains and a G2 PAMAM head. The process resulted in the formation of well-defined (∼10 nm) core-shell nanomicelles (NMs) with excellent encapsulation efficiency (∼70% for DAB and ∼60% for VEM) and good drug loading capacity (∼27% and ∼24% for DAB and VEM, respectively). Dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), and molecular simulation (MS) experiments were used, respectively, to determine the size and structure of the empty and drug-loaded nanomicelles (DLNMs), along with the interactions between the NMs and their cargoes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFilamins are large proteins with actin-binding properties. Mutations in FLNC, one of the three filamin genes in humans, have recently been implicated in dominant cardiomyopathies, but the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here, we aimed to use Drosophila melanogaster as a new in vivo model to study these diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReported COVID-19 cases and deaths provide a delayed and incomplete picture of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States (US). Accurate estimates of both the timing and magnitude of infections are needed to characterize viral transmission dynamics and better understand COVID-19 disease burden. We estimated time trends in SARS-CoV-2 transmission and other COVID-19 outcomes for every county in the US, from the first reported COVID-19 case in January 13, 2020 through January 1, 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Both severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination contribute to population-level immunity against SARS-CoV-2. This study estimated the immunological exposure and effective protection against future SARS-CoV-2 infection in each US state and county over 2020-2021 and how this changed with the introduction of the Omicron variant.
Methods: We used a Bayesian model to synthesize estimates of daily SARS-CoV-2 infections, vaccination data and estimates of the relative rates of vaccination conditional on infection status to estimate the fraction of the population with (1) immunological exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (ever infected with SARS-CoV-2 and/or received ≥1 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine), (2) effective protection against infection, and (3) effective protection against severe disease, for each US state and county from 1 January 2020 to 1 December 2021.
Drug binding to human serum albumin (HSA) significantly affects drug transport and biological activity. To gain insight into the binding mechanism of the two B-Raf tyrosine kinase inhibitors dabrafenib and vemurafenib to HSA, in this work, we adopted a combined strategy based on fluorescence spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), circular dichroism (CD), and molecular simulations. Both anticancer drugs are found to bind spontaneously and with a 1:1 stoichiometry within the same binding pocket, located in Sudlow's site II (subdomain IIIA) of the protein with comparable affinity and without substantially perturbing the protein secondary structure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present work aims to review the clinical evidence of survival outcome after treatment of colorectal cancer liver metastases using yttrium-90 radioembolization, existence, and relevance of clinical, imaging, and genomic predictors of treatment efficacy and the amount of administered activity. Publications listed in PubMed between July 2016 and May 2021 were screened. Predictors of overall survival were reported and distinguished in clinical, imaging, and genomic variables.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Prior infection and vaccination both contribute to population-level SARS-CoV-2 immunity. We used a Bayesian model to synthesize evidence and estimate population immunity to prevalent SARS-CoV-2 variants in the United States over the course of the epidemic until December 1, 2021, and how this changed with the introduction of the Omicron variant. We used daily SARS-CoV-2 infection estimates and vaccination coverage data for each US state and county.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Hallux valgus is a high frequency disorder, affecting the first ray. Operative correction techniques have grown popularity lately. One of them is the Reverdin-Isham technique (first metatarsal medial incomplete osteotomy).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe breast cancer type 1 susceptibility protein (BRCA1) and its partner - the BRCA1-associated RING domain protein 1 (BARD1) - are key players in a plethora of fundamental biological functions including, among others, DNA repair, replication fork protection, cell cycle progression, telomere maintenance, chromatin remodeling, apoptosis and tumor suppression. However, mutations in their encoding genes transform them into dangerous threats, and substantially increase the risk of developing cancer and other malignancies during the lifetime of the affected individuals. Understanding how BRCA1 and BARD1 perform their biological activities therefore not only provides a powerful mean to prevent such fatal occurrences but can also pave the way to the development of new targeted therapeutics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReported COVID-19 cases and deaths provide a delayed and incomplete picture of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the United States (US). Accurate estimates of both the timing and magnitude of infections are needed to characterize viral transmission dynamics and better understand COVID-19 disease burden. We estimated time trends in SARS-CoV-2 transmission and other COVID-19 outcomes for every county in the US, from the first reported COVID-19 case in January 13, 2020 through January 1, 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfect Control Hosp Epidemiol
January 2022
Objective: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to global shortages of N95 respirators. Reprocessing of used N95 respirators may provide a higher filtration crisis alternative, but whether effective sterilization can be achieved for a virus without impairing respirator function remains unknown. We evaluated the viricidal efficacy of Bioquell vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) on contaminated N95 respirators and tested the particulate particle penetration and inhalation and exhalation resistance of respirators after multiple cycles of VHP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMass asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid amplified testing of healthcare personnel (HCP) was performed at a large tertiary health system. A low period-prevalence of positive HCP was observed. Of those who tested positive, half had mild symptoms in retrospect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFriedreich ataxia (FA) is caused by GAA repeat expansions in the first intron of FXN, the gene encoding frataxin, which results in decreased gene expression. Thanks to the high degree of frataxin conservation, the Drosophila melanogaster fruitfly appears as an adequate animal model to study this disease and to evaluate therapeutic interventions. Here, we generated a Drosophila model of FA with CRISPR/Cas9 insertion of approximately 200 GAA in the intron of the fly frataxin gene fh.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: On May 17, 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Tuberculosis Controllers Association issued new Recommendations for Tuberculosis Screening, Testing, and Treatment of Health Care Personnel, United States, 2019, updating the health care personnel-related sections of the Guidelines for Preventing the Transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Health-Care Settings, 2005. This companion document offers the collective effort and experience of occupational health, infectious disease, and public health experts from major academic and public health institutions across the United States and expands on each section of the 2019 recommendations to provide clarifications, explanations, and considerations that go beyond the 2019 recommendations to answer questions that may arise and to offer strategies for implementation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to hepatitis viruses is a recognized occupational risk for health care personnel (HCP). This report establishes new CDC guidance that includes recommendations for a testing algorithm and clinical management for HCP with potential occupational exposure to hepatitis C virus (HCV). Baseline testing of the source patient and HCP should be performed as soon as possible (preferably within 48 hours) after the exposure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Efforts to track the severity and public health impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United States have been hampered by state-level differences in diagnostic test availability, differing strategies for prioritization of individuals for testing, and delays between testing and reporting. Evaluating unexplained increases in deaths due to all causes or attributed to nonspecific outcomes, such as pneumonia and influenza, can provide a more complete picture of the burden of COVID-19.
Objective: To estimate the burden of all deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States from March to May 2020.