COVID-19 Vaccination Reporting and Adverse Event Analysis in Taiwan.

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated an urgent global response in vaccine deployment, achieving over 70.6% global vaccination coverage with at least one dose. This study focuses on Taiwan's vaccine administration and adverse event reporting, set against a global backdrop.

Pharmacogenomic Landscape of Ivermectin and Selective Antioxidants: Exploring Gene Interplay in the Context of Long COVID.

COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread panic and fear among the global population. As such, repurposing drugs are being used as viable therapeutic options due to the limited effective treatments for Long COVID symptoms. Ivermectin is one of the emerging repurposed drugs that has been shown effective to have antiviral effects in clinical trials.

Pharmacological Mechanism of NRICM101 for COVID-19 Treatments by Combined Network Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics.

Symptom treatments for Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection and Long COVID are one of the most critical issues of the pandemic era. In light of the lack of standardized medications for treating COVID-19 symptoms, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has emerged as a potentially viable strategy based on numerous studies and clinical manifestations. Taiwan Chingguan Yihau (NRICM101), a TCM designed based on a medicinal formula with a long history of almost 500 years, has demonstrated its antiviral properties through clinical studies, yet the pharmacogenomic knowledge for this formula remains unclear.

Minocycline and Doxycycline: More Than Antibiotics.

Minocycline and doxycycline both are second-generation tetracycline antibiotics with similar chemical structures and comparable antibacterial spectrum. Minocycline has also emerged as the tetracycline of choice for multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii infections, although doxycycline has also shown the activity. Minocycline showed promising results in experimental neurology, which was due to its highly lipophilic nature.

ChemiRs: a web application for microRNAs and chemicals.

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are about 22 nucleotides, non-coding RNAs that affect various cellular functions, and play a regulatory role in different organisms including human. Until now, more than 2500 mature miRNAs in human have been discovered and registered, but still lack of information or algorithms to reveal the relations among miRNAs, environmental chemicals and human health. Chemicals in environment affect our health and daily life, and some of them can lead to diseases by inferring biological pathways.

Impact of Makowal type water system on crop productivity in Shivalik foothills of India.

The availability of water through community based water harvesting structure has intensified agriculture and improved livelihood of the surveyed beneficiary households in the Shivalik foothills of India. Before the introduction of Makowal Type Water Harvesting System (before MTWHS), only 83.8% farmers in kharif and 79.

miR-146a and miR-370 coordinate enterovirus 71-induced cell apoptosis through targeting SOS1 and GADD45β.

Enterovirus 71 (EV71) is an emerging life-threatening pathogen particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. The major pathogenic feature in EV71-infected cells is apoptosis. However, which molecular mechanism mainly contributes to EV71-induced apoptosis is not investigated thoroughly.

Ectopic pregnancy-derived human trophoblastic stem cells regenerate dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway to treat parkinsonian rats.

Background: Stem cell therapy is a potential strategy to treat patients with Parkinson's disease (PD); however, several practical limitations remain. As such, finding the appropriate stem cell remains the primary issue in regenerative medicine today. We isolated a pre-placental pluripotent stem cell from the chorionic villi of women with early tubal ectopic pregnancies.

Epigenetic effects of environmental chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates.

The epigenetic effects on DNA methylation, histone modification, and expression of non-coding RNAs (including microRNAs) of environmental chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates have expanded our understanding of the etiology of human complex diseases such as cancers and diabetes. Multiple lines of evidence from in vitro and in vivo models have established that epigenetic modifications caused by in utero exposure to environmental toxicants can induce alterations in gene expression that may persist throughout life. Epigenetics is an important mechanism in the ability of environmental chemicals to influence health and disease, and BPA and phthalates are epigenetically toxic.

SARS-CoV regulates immune function-related gene expression in human monocytic cells.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is characterized by acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and pulmonary fibrosis, and monocytes/macrophages are the key players in the pathogenesis of SARS. In this study, we compared the transcriptional profiles of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-infected monocytic cells against that infected by coronavirus 229E (CoV-229E). Total RNA was extracted from infected DC-SIGN-transfected monocytes (THP-1-DC-SIGN) at 6 and 24 h after infection, and the gene expression was profiled in oligonucleotide-based microarrays.

Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects.

Plastics are widely used in modern life, and their unbound chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates can leach out into the surrounding environment. BPA and PAEs have recently attracted the special attention of the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public because of their high production volume, widespread use of plastics, and endocrine-disrupting effects. In The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, BPA and five most frequently curated PAEs (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) were found to have 1932 and 484 interactions with genes/proteins, respectively.

Toxicokinetics/toxicodynamics with damage feedback improves risk assessment for tilapia and freshwater clam exposed to arsenic.

It has been proposed that irreversible responses of organisms exposed to contaminants are due to a systems-level feedback. Here we tested this hypothesis by reanalyzing the published data on toxicokinetics and survival probability based on a systems-level threshold damage model (TDM) incorporating with a positive damage feedback to explore the steady-state response and dynamic behavior of damage for tilapia and freshwater clam exposed to waterborne arsenic (As). We found that ultrasensitivity appeared in As-tilapia and freshwater clam systems with Hill coefficient n ≥ 4, indicating that the positive damage feedback mechanism has been triggered.

Survey of nitrogen use pattern in rice in the irrigated rice-wheat cropping system of Haryana, India.

Seeing the sustainability of rice-wheat cropping system (RWCS) of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, adequate crop nutrition in general and nitrogen (N) in particular holds the key to sound crop management. The excessive application or insufficient management of N means an economic loss to the farmer and may lead to yield penalties and environmental problems. Improving N management in consonance with other nutrients is much important to break yield plateaus as breeding for high yielding is not happening in recent years.

Trade-offs between elimination and detoxification in rainbow trout and common bivalve molluscs exposed to metal stressors.

The purpose of this paper was to examine trade-offs between elimination and detoxification in rainbow trout and three common bivalve molluscs (clam, oyster, and scallop) exposed to cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) based on recent reported experimental data. We incorporated metal influx threshold with subcellular partitioning to estimate rate constants of detoxification (k(d)) and elimination (k₂). We found that the relationships between k₂ and k(d) were negative for rainbow trout and positive for bivalve molluscs.

Proteomic comparison of human embryonic stem cells with their differentiated fibroblasts: Identification of 206 genes targeted by hES cell-specific microRNAs.

Human embryonic stem (hES)-T3 (T3ES) cells were spontaneously differentiated into autogeneic fibroblast-like T3DF cells, as feeder cells with the capacity to support the growth of undifferentiated hES cells. The proteomes of undifferentiated T3ES cells and their differentiated T3DF fibroblasts were quantitatively compared. Several heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins and glycolytic enzymes, including l-lactate dehydrogenase A (M), were found to be abundantly and differentially expressed in T3ES cells and T3DF fibroblasts, respectively.

Epigenetic states and expression of imprinted genes in human embryonic stem cells.

Aim: To investigate the epigenetic states and expression of imprinted genes in five human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines derived in Taiwan.

Methods: The heterozygous alleles of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at imprinted genes were analyzed by sequencing genomic DNAs of hESC lines and the monoallelic expression of the imprinted genes were confirmed by sequencing the cDNAs. The expression profiles of 32 known imprinted genes of five hESC lines were determined using Affymetrix human genome U133 plus 2.

Combining bioaccumulation and coping mechanism to enhance long-term site-specific risk assessment for zinc susceptibility of bivalves.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a long-term site-specific risk assessment for zinc (Zn) susceptibility of bivalves, green mussel Perna viridis and hard clam Ruditapes philippinarum, based on published experimental data by linking the biologically-based damage assessment model with the subcellular partitioning concept. A comprehensive risk modeling framework was developed to predict susceptibility probability of two bivalve species exposed to waterborne Zn. The results indicated that P.

Enterovirus-induced miR-141 contributes to shutoff of host protein translation by targeting the translation initiation factor eIF4E.

Viruses rely on the host translation machinery to complete their life cycles. Picornaviruses use an internal ribosome entry site to initiate cap-independent protein translation and in parallel host cap-dependent translation is shut off. This process is thought to occur primarily via cleavage of host translation initiation factors eIF4GI and eIF4GII by viral proteases.

Phthalates: toxicogenomics and inferred human diseases.

Phthalates are widely used as plasticizers to soften and increase the flexibility in polyvinyl chloride plastics, but they can leach into the surrounding environment. There is sufficient evidence in rodents that phthalate exposure causes developmental and reproductive toxicity. The curated interactions between 16 phthalates and genes/proteins were obtained from Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD), and a total of 445 interactions between the five most frequently curated phthalates (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) and 249 unique genes/proteins were found.

Hepatitis C virus NS2 protein serves as a scaffold for virus assembly by interacting with both structural and nonstructural proteins.

Many aspects of the assembly of hepatitis C virus (HCV) remain incompletely understood. To characterize the role of NS2 in the production of infectious virus, we determined NS2 interaction partners among other HCV proteins during productive infection. Pulldown assays showed that NS2 forms complexes with both structural and nonstructural proteins, including E1, E2, p7, NS3, and NS5A.

A feeder-free culture using autogeneic conditioned medium for undifferentiated growth of human embryonic stem cells: comparative expression profiles of mRNAs, microRNAs and proteins among different feeders and conditioned media.

Background: Human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines were derived from the inner cell mass of human blastocysts, and were cultured on mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) feeder to maintain undifferentiated growth, extensive renewal capacity, and pluripotency. The hES-T3 cell line with normal female karyotype was previously used to differentiate into autogeneic fibroblast-like cells (T3HDF) as feeder to support the undifferentiated growth of hES-T3 cells (T3/HDF) for 14 passages.

Results: A feeder-free culture on Matrigel in hES medium conditioned by the autogeneic feeder cells (T3HDF) was established to maintain the undifferentiated growth of hES-T3 cells (T3/CMHDF) for 8 passages in this investigation.

Identification of microRNAs expressed highly in pancreatic islet-like cell clusters differentiated from human embryonic stem cells.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune destruction of pancreatic islet beta cell disease, making it important to find a new alternative source of the islet beta cells to replace the damaged cells. hES (human embryonic stem) cells possess unlimited self-renewal and pluripotency and thus have the potential to provide an unlimited supply of different cell types for tissue replacement. The hES-T3 cells with normal female karyotype were first differentiated into EBs (embryoid bodies) and then induced to generate the T3pi (pancreatic islet-like cell clusters derived from T3 cells), which expressed pancreatic islet cell-specific markers of insulin, glucagon and somatostatin.

Comparative expression profiles of mRNAs and microRNAs among human mesenchymal stem cells derived from breast, face, and abdominal adipose tissues.

We determined the expression of both mRNAs and microRNAs (miRNAs) from human mesenchymal stem cells BM19, FM30, and AM3, which is derived from breast, face, and abdominal adipose tissues, respectively. BM19, FM30, and AM3 cells exhibited considerably similar mRNA profiles, and their 1,038 abundantly common genes were involved in regulating six cell adhesion and three cytoskeleton remodeling processes among the top ten GeneGo canonical pathway maps. The 39 most abundant miRNAs in AM3 cells were expressed at very similar levels in BM19 cells.

Role of GlnR in acid-mediated repression of genes encoding proteins involved in glutamine and glutamate metabolism in Streptococcus mutans.

The acid tolerance response (ATR) is one of the major virulence traits of Streptococcus mutans. In this study, the role of GlnR in acid-mediated gene repression that affects the adaptive ATR in S. mutans was investigated.

Identification of microRNAs regulated by activin A in human embryonic stem cells.

Human embryonic stem (hES) cells have the capacities to propagate for extended periods and to differentiate into cell types from all three germ layers both in vitro and in vivo. These characteristics of self-renewal and pluripotency enable hES cells having the potential to provide an unlimited supply of different cell types for tissue replacement, drug screening, and functional genomics studies. The hES-T3 cells with normal female karyotype cultured on either mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) in hES medium (containing 4 ng/ml bFGF) (T3MF) or feeder-free Matrigel in MEF-conditioned medium (supplemented with additional 4 ng/ml bFGF) (T3CM) were found to express very similar profiles of mRNAs and microRNAs, indicating that the unlimited self-renewal and pluripotency of hES cells can be maintained by continuing culture on these two conditions.