Recent clinical and mechanistic insights into vitiligo offer new treatment options for cell-specific autoimmunity.

Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease that has been recognized, stigmatized, and treated for millennia. Recent translational research has revealed key mechanisms of disease, including cellular stress, innate immune activation, T cell-mediated elimination of melanocytes from the skin resulting in clinically apparent white spots, as well as stem cell regeneration that reverses established lesions. Many of these pathways have been targeted therapeutically, leading to the first FDA-approved medication to reverse the disease, with many more in clinical trials.

Selective Mu-Opioid Receptor Imaging Using F-Labeled Carfentanils.

Carfentanil, a highly potent synthetic opioid, paradoxically serves as a crucial positron emission tomography (PET) imaging tool in neurobiological studies of the mu-opioid receptor (MOR) system when labeled with carbon-11 ([C]CFN). However, its clinical research use is hindered by extreme potency and the limited availability of short-lived carbon-11 ( = 20.4 min).

Longitudinal prevalence and co-carriage of pathogens associated with nursing home acquired pneumonia in three long-term care facilities.

Nursing home acquired pneumonia (NHAP), and its subset - aspiration-associated pneumonia, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Understanding colonization dynamics of respiratory pathogens in LTCF residents is essential for effective infection control. This study examines the longitudinal trends in prevalence, persistence, bacterial load, and co-colonization patterns of five respiratory pathogens in three LTCFs in Phoenix, Arizona.

Consecutive Evaluation of Systematic Community-Based COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Testing in Three Different Populations in Jamaica during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in late 2021 posed a grave threat to the public health system and the economy of Jamaica. A key pillar of controlling COVID-19 includes rapid diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals and their contacts. Hence, we evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of weekly deployment of antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) by conducting three 6-week studies within high-risk populations in Jamaica.