165 results match your criteria: "Centre for Drugs and Diagnostics[Affiliation]"

Diagnostic performance of GENEDIA W and ActiveXpress+ COVID-19 antigens tests among symptomatic individuals in Peru and The United Kingdom.

PLoS One

March 2023

Unidad de Investigación de Tuberculosis del Instituto de Medicina Tropical Alexander von Humboldt, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.

Objectives: In order to generate independent performance data regarding accuracy of COVID-19 antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs), prospective diagnostic evaluation studies across multiple sites are required to evaluate their performance in different clinical settings. This report describes the clinical evaluation the GENEDIA W COVID-19 Ag Device (Green Cross Medical Science Corp., Chungbuk, Korea) and the ActiveXpress+ COVID-19 Complete Testing Kit (Edinburgh Genetics Ltd, UK), in two testing sites Peru and the United Kingdom.

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Article Synopsis
  • Rapid antibody testing can help assess immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 and identify eligible patients for certain therapies.
  • The study evaluated eight different brands of lateral flow tests (LFTs) using blood samples from 95 vaccinated individuals to check their ability to detect vaccination-induced antibodies.
  • All participants showed positive anti-spike antibodies after their second vaccine dose, with many LFTs showing increased sensitivity, making them a promising low-cost alternative to more complex testing methods.
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Objectives: Neonatal sepsis, a major cause of death amongst infants in sub-Saharan Africa, is often gut derived. Gut colonisation by Enterobacteriaceae producing extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) or carbapenemase enzymes can lead to antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) or untreatable infections. We sought to explore the rates of colonisation by ESBL or carbapenemase producers in two neonatal units (NNUs) in West and East Africa.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers used self-collected saliva and oropharyngeal/nasopharyngeal (OP/NP) samples to compare detection rates of the virus, finding good overall agreement between the two sample types but low rates of positive concordance, suggesting unique detection capabilities of each method.
  • * The findings highlight that HCW could inadvertently spread SARS-CoV-2 in hospital settings due to asymptomatic infections, emphasizing the need for routine testing to catch cases that symptom screening
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cytochrome quinol oxidase (cyt ), the alternative terminal oxidase of the respiratory chain, has been identified as playing a key role during chronic infection and presents a putative target for the development of novel antitubercular agents. Here, we report confirmation of successful heterologous expression of cytochrome . The heterologous cytochrome expression system was used to identify a chemical series of inhibitors based on the 2-aryl-quinolone pharmacophore.

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A Quantitative Method for the Study of HIV-1 and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Coinfection.

J Infect Dis

March 2023

Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology, and Immunology, Institute of Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1) syndemic interactions are a major global health concern. Despite the clinical significance of coinfection, our understanding of the cellular pathophysiology and the therapeutic pharmacodynamic impact of coinfection is limited. Here, we use single-round infectious HIV-1 pseudotyped viral particles expressing green fluorescent protein alongside M.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the commercialization of many antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs), requiring independent evaluations. This report describes the clinical evaluation of the Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV Antigen Test (Colloidal Gold) (Beijing Hotgen Biotech Co., Ltd.

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Molnupiravir is an antiviral, currently approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for treating at-risk COVID-19 patients, that induces lethal error catastrophe in SARS-CoV-2. How this drug-induced mechanism of action might impact the emergence of resistance mutations is unclear. To investigate this, we used samples from the AGILE Candidate Specific Trial (CST)-2 (clinical trial number NCT04746183).

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remains the malaria species posing a major threat to human health worldwide owing to its relapse mechanism. Currently, the only drugs of choice for radical cure are the 8-aminoquinolines (primaquine and tafenoquine), which are capable of killing hypnozoites and thus preventing relapse. However, the therapeutic use of primaquine and tafenoquine is restricted because these drugs can cause hemolysis in individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency.

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Background: The antiviral drug molnupiravir was licensed for treating at-risk patients with COVID-19 on the basis of data from unvaccinated adults. We aimed to evaluate the safety and virological efficacy of molnupiravir in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals with COVID-19.

Methods: This randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, phase 2 trial (AGILE CST-2) was done at five National Institute for Health and Care Research sites in the UK.

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Background: The WHO recommends oral calcium supplementation (1.5-2.0 g) in pregnant women to reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia living in areas with low dietary calcium intake.

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Lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are major neglected tropical diseases affecting over 90 million people worldwide with painful and profoundly disfiguring pathologies (such as lymphoedema or blindness). Type 2 inflammation is a hallmark of filarial nematode tissue infection and is implicated both in eosinophil dependent immunity and lymphatic or ocular immunopathologies. Type-2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2) are known to play an important role in the initiation of type 2 inflammation in helminth infection.

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Background: Snakebite is a major public health concern in Eswatini, where treatment relies upon one antivenom-SAIMR Polyvalent. Although effective in treating snakebite, SAIMR Polyvalent is difficult to source outside its manufacturing country (South Africa) and is dauntingly expensive. We compared the preclinical venom-neutralising efficacy of two alternative antivenoms with that of SAIMR Polyvalent against the lethal and tissue-destructive effects of venoms from five species of medically important snakes using in vivo murine assays.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study focuses on developing a low-cost method for extracting antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) from river water, as current environmental monitoring techniques are inconsistent.
  • A new magnetic bead-based method, called MagnaExtract, is introduced and tested against commercial kits and traditional methods, showing comparable or superior results for isolating ARGs.
  • The MagnaExtract technique is significant for enhancing environmental surveillance in East Africa, offering a simple and effective option for monitoring ARGs in water samples.
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Targeting the Ubiquinol-Reduction (Q) Site of the Mitochondrial Cytochrome Complex for the Development of Next Generation Quinolone Antimalarials.

Biology (Basel)

July 2022

Molecular Biophysics Group, Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK.

Antimalarials targeting the ubiquinol-oxidation (Q) site of the bc complex, such as atovaquone, have become less effective due to the rapid emergence of resistance linked to point mutations in the Q site. Recent findings showed a series of 2-aryl quinolones mediate inhibitions of this complex by binding to the ubiquinone-reduction (Qi) site, which offers a potential advantage in circumventing drug resistance. Since it is essential to understand how 2-aryl quinolone lead compounds bind within the Qi site, here we describe the co-crystallization and structure elucidation of the bovine cytochrome complex with three different antimalarial 4(1H)-quinolone sub-types, including two 2-aryl quinolone derivatives and a 3-aryl quinolone analogue for comparison.

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Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease that causes considerable death and disability in the tropical world. Although snakebite can cause a variety of pathologies in victims, haemotoxic effects are particularly common and are typically characterised by haemorrhage and/or venom-induced consumption coagulopathy. Antivenoms are the mainstay therapy for treating the toxic effects of snakebite, but despite saving thousands of lives annually, these therapies are associated with limited cross-snake species efficacy due to venom variation, which ultimately restricts their therapeutic utility to particular geographical regions.

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Snakebite is a neglected tropical disease that causes high rates of global mortality and morbidity. Although snakebite can cause a variety of pathologies in victims, haemotoxic effects are particularly common and are typically characterised by haemorrhage and/or venom-induced consumption coagulopathy. Despite polyclonal antibody-based antivenoms being the mainstay life-saving therapy for snakebite, they are associated with limited cross-snake species efficacy, as there is often extensive toxin variation between snake venoms, including those used as immunogens for antivenom production.

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Antivenom is currently the first-choice treatment for snakebite envenoming. However, only a low proportion of antivenom immunoglobulins are specific to venom toxins, resulting in poor dose efficacy and potency. We sought to investigate whether linear venom epitopes displayed on virus like particles can stimulate an antibody response capable of recognising venom toxins from diverse medically important species.

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Background: Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) developed for point of care detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigen are recommended by WHO to use trained health care workers to collect samples. We hypothesised that self-taken samples are non-inferior for use with RDTs to diagnose COVID-19. We designed a prospective diagnostic evaluation comparing self-taken and healthcare worker (HCW)-taken throat/nasal swabs to perform RDTs for SARS-CoV-2, and how these compare to RT-PCR.

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Background: The emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) requires an ongoing assessment of the performance of antigen lateral flow tests (Ag-RDTs). The limit of detection (LOD) of 32 Ag-RDTs was evaluated using the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Gamma variant.

Methods: Ag-RDTs were performed according to the manufacturer's instructions with a clinical isolate of the Gamma variant.

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A mouse infection model and long-term lymphatic endothelium co-culture system to evaluate drugs against adult Brugia malayi.

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

June 2022

Centre for Drugs and Diagnostics & Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

The development of new drugs targeting adult-stage lymphatic filarial nematodes is hindered by the lack of a robust long-term in vitro culture model. Testing potential direct-acting and anti-Wolbachia therapeutic candidates against adult lymphatic filariae in vitro requires their propagation via chronic infection of gerbils. We evaluated Brugia malayi parasite burden data from male Mongolian gerbils compared with two immune-deficient mouse strains highly susceptible to B.

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Interaction of the new inhibitor paxlovid (PF-07321332) and ivermectin with the monomer of the main protease SARS-CoV-2: A volumetric study based on molecular dynamics, elastic networks, classical thermodynamics and SPT.

Comput Biol Chem

August 2022

Universidad del Zulia (LUZ), Facultad Experimental de Ciencias (FEC), Departamento de Biología, Laboratorio de Genética y Biología Molecular (LGBM), Maracaibo 4001, Zulia, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela; Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), Centro de Estudios Botanicos y Agroforestales, (CEBA), Laboratorio de Proteccion Vegetal, 4001 Maracaibo, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Electronic address:

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the study of drugs, most notably ivermectin and more recently Paxlovid (PF-07321332) which is in phase III clinical trials with experimental data showing covalent binding to the viral protease M. Theoretical developments of catalytic site-directed docking support thermodynamically feasible non-covalent binding to M. Here we show that Paxlovid binds non-covalently at regions other than the catalytic sites with energies stronger than reported and at the same binding site as the ivermectin B1a homologue, all through theoretical methodologies, including blind docking.

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Snakebite envenoming affects more than 250,000 people annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Envenoming by (boomslang) results in venom-induced consumption coagulopathy (VICC), whereby highly abundant prothrombin-activating snake venom metalloproteinases (SVMPs) consume clotting factors and deplete fibrinogen. The only available treatment for envenoming is the monovalent SAIMR Boomslang antivenom.

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Antiviral interventions are urgently required to support vaccination programmes and reduce the global burden of COVID-19. Prior to initiation of large-scale clinical trials, robust preclinical data in support of candidate plausibility are required. The speed at which preclinical models have been developed during the pandemic are unprecedented but there is a vital need for standardisation and assessment of the Critical Quality Attributes.

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