Beyond Juul: The New Face of Underage Nicotine Addiction - A Survey of College Students.

Background: Youth nicotine addiction is a major public health concern in the United States. Disposable Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), or disposable vapes, are commonly sought out by youth despite not having received premarket authorization from the FDA. The objective of this study was to identify factors contributing to underage consumption of disposable ENDS.

Pioneering Computational Culture Within Pharmacy Schools by Empowering Students With Data Science and Bioinformatics Skills.

As advancements in digital health lead to the generation of increasingly diverse and voluminous pharmaceutical data, it is increasingly critical that we teach trainee pharmaceutical scientists how to leverage this data to lead future innovations in healthcare and pharmaceutical research. To address this need, the University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (USC Mann) is incorporating data science and bioinformatics into the graduate and undergraduate curricula through introductory courses tailored for students without prior programming experience.

Insights from Team Clinic: A Person-Centered Virtual Peer Group Care Model Adapted for Marginalized and Historically Excluded Youth with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

Background: Despite advancements in T1D care regimens, racially and ethnically diverse youth with low income continue to experience worse health outcomes, more psychosocial challenges, and higher barriers to care. Alternative care models are needed to address the needs of this population.

Methods: Team Clinic is a person-centered virtual peer group (VPG) care model that was assessed in a 15-month, pragmatic randomized controlled trial.

Psychiatric learning experiences in PGY1 pharmacy residency training: A 5-year analysis.

Disclaimer: In an effort to expedite the publication of articles, AJHP is posting manuscripts online as soon as possible after acceptance. Accepted manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and copyedited, but are posted online before technical formatting and author proofing. These manuscripts are not the final version of record and will be replaced with the final article (formatted per AJHP style and proofed by the authors) at a later time.

Insights into AMA205's Unprecedented Antibiotic Resistance.

The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in clinical settings has become a significant global concern. Among these bacteria, stands out due to its remarkable ability to acquire resistance genes and persist in hospital environments, leading to some of the most challenging infections. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) plays a crucial role in the evolution of this pathogen.

Development and characterization of human T-cell receptor (TCR) alpha and beta clones' library as biological standards and resources for TCR sequencing and engineering.

Characterization of T-cell receptors (TCRs) repertoire was revolutionized by next-generation sequencing technologies; however, standardization using biological controls to facilitate precision of current alignment and assembly tools remains a challenge. Additionally, availability of TCR libraries for off-the-shelf cloning and engineering TCR-specific T cells is a valuable resource for TCR-based immunotherapies. We established nine human TCR α and β clones that were evaluated using the 5'-rapid amplification of cDNA ends-like RNA-based TCR sequencing on the Illumina platform.

Meta-correlation of the effect of ketamine and psilocybin induced subjective effects on therapeutic outcome.

There is some evidence that the subjective effects of ketamine and other psychedelics like psilocybin are crucial for their therapeutic outcomes, such as treatment of depression or substance use disorder (SUD). We performed a meta-analysis and systematic review on the correlation of subjective symptoms and dissociation versus ketamine-induced therapeutic outcomes in patients with depression or SUD. A similar analysis was conducted for psilocybin-induced therapeutic improvement.

Genomic reproducibility in the bioinformatics era.

In biomedical research, validating a scientific discovery hinges on the reproducibility of its experimental results. However, in genomics, the definition and implementation of reproducibility remain imprecise. We argue that genomic reproducibility, defined as the ability of bioinformatics tools to maintain consistent results across technical replicates, is essential for advancing scientific knowledge and medical applications.

Nitric Oxide Donor Sodium Nitroprusside Reduces Racemic Ketamine-But Not Esketamine-Induced Pain Relief.

The anesthetic, analgesic and antidepressant drug ketamine produces dissociation with symptoms of psychosis and anxiety, an effect attributed to neuronal nitric oxide depletion following -methyl-d-aspartate blockade. There is evidence that dissociation induced by racemic ketamine, containing both ketamine enantiomers (S- and R-ketamine) but not esketamine (the S-isomer) is inhibited by nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP). We tested whether a similar intervention would reduce racemic and esketamine-induced analgesia in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Differences in the mutational landscape of clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential among races and between male and female patients with cancer.

Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) has emerged as a significant precursor to hematological malignancies and is associated with several age-related diseases. We leveraged public data to explore differences in the mutational landscape of CHIP between males (Ms) and females (Fs) and across diverse racial populations. DNA (cytosine-5) methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A) mutations were substantially more prevalent in Fs than in Ms (38.

Estimating Enzyme Expression and Metabolic Pathway Activity in -Infected and Uninfected Mice.

Evaluating changes in metabolic pathway activity is essential for studying disease mechanisms and developing new treatments, with significant benefits extending to human health. Here, we propose EMPathways2, a maximum likelihood pipeline that is based on the expectation-maximization algorithm, which is capable of evaluating enzyme expression and metabolic pathway activity level. We first estimate enzyme expression from RNA-seq data that is used for simultaneous estimation of pathway activity levels using enzyme participation levels in each pathway.

The DNA methylation landscape across the TCR loci in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

The capacity of T cells to initiate anti-leukemia immune responses is determined by the ability of their receptors (TCRs) to recognize leukemia neoantigens. Epigenetic mechanisms including DNA methylation contribute to shaping the TCR repertoire composition and diversity. The DNA hypomethylating agents (HMAs) have been widely used in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Medication persistence and its impact on type 2 diabetes.

Objectives: Medication persistence in type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a critical factor for preventing adverse clinical events. We assessed persistence among newly treated patients with T2D and documented the impact of persistence on clinical outcomes and costs.

Study Design: Retrospective study of Optum Clinformatics Data Mart commercial and Medicare Advantage enrollees from 2007 to 2020.

Packaging and containerization of computational methods.

Methods for analyzing the full complement of a biomolecule type, e.g., proteomics or metabolomics, generate large amounts of complex data.

Early detection of emerging viral variants through analysis of community structure of coordinated substitution networks.

The emergence of viral variants with altered phenotypes is a public health challenge underscoring the need for advanced evolutionary forecasting methods. Given extensive epistatic interactions within viral genomes and known viral evolutionary history, efficient genomic surveillance necessitates early detection of emerging viral haplotypes rather than commonly targeted single mutations. Haplotype inference, however, is a significantly more challenging problem precluding the use of traditional approaches.

A roadmap beyond dispensing for educating and training community pharmacists on key mental health competencies: A mixed-methods national study.

Background: Including pharmacists in collaborative mental healthcare models has yielded positive results. Establishing processes to enhance pharmacists' mental health care capabilities is crucial for addressing the increasing burden and improving access to mental health services.

Objectives: This study evaluated community pharmacists' mental health competencies and analyzed associated factors using a rigorous international framework.

The knowns and unknowns of long COVID-19: from mechanisms to therapeutical approaches.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been defined as the greatest global health and socioeconomic crisis of modern times. While most people recover after being infected with the virus, a significant proportion of them continue to experience health issues weeks, months and even years after acute infection with SARS-CoV-2. This persistence of clinical symptoms in infected individuals for at least three months after the onset of the disease or the emergence of new symptoms lasting more than two months, without any other explanation and alternative diagnosis have been named long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-COVID-19 conditions, chronic COVID, or post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC).

Climate warming, environmental degradation and pollution as drivers of antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance is a major challenge to public health, but human-caused environmental changes have not been widely recognized as its drivers. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview of the relationships between environmental degradation and antibiotic resistance, demonstrating that the former can potentially fuel the latter with significant public health outcomes. We describe that (i) global warming favors horizontal gene transfer, bacterial infections, the spread of drug-resistant pathogens due to water scarcity, and the release of resistance genes with wastewater; (ii) pesticide and metal pollution act as co-selectors of antibiotic resistance mechanisms; (iii) microplastics create conditions promoting and spreading antibiotic resistance and resistant bacteria; (iv) changes in land use, deforestation, and environmental pollution reduce microbial diversity, a natural barrier to antibiotic resistance spread.

Large-scale integrative analysis of juvenile idiopathic arthritis for new insight into its pathogenesis.

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is one of the most prevalent rheumatic disorders in children and is classified as an autoimmune disease (AID). While a robust genetic contribution to JIA etiology has been established, the exact pathogenesis remains unclear.

Methods: To prioritize biologically interpretable susceptibility genes and proteins for JIA, we conducted transcriptome-wide and proteome-wide association studies (TWAS/PWAS).

A rigorous benchmarking of alignment-based HLA typing algorithms for RNA-seq data.

Accurate identification of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) alleles is essential for various clinical and research applications, such as transplant matching and drug sensitivities. Recent advances in RNA-seq technology have made it possible to impute HLA types from sequencing data, spurring the development of a large number of computational HLA typing tools. However, the relative performance of these tools is unknown, limiting the ability for clinical and biomedical research to make informed choices regarding which tools to use.

Whole blood transcriptomics identifies subclasses of pediatric septic shock.

Background: Sepsis is a highly heterogeneous syndrome, which has hindered the development of effective therapies. This has prompted investigators to develop a precision medicine approach aimed at identifying biologically homogenous subgroups of patients with septic shock and critical illnesses. Transcriptomic analysis can identify subclasses derived from differences in underlying pathophysiological processes that may provide the basis for new targeted therapies.

Scoping review of modelling studies assessing the impact of disruptions to essential health services during COVID-19.

Background: Studies assessing the indirect impact of COVID-19 using mathematical models have increased in recent years. This scoping review aims to identify modelling studies assessing the potential impact of disruptions to essential health services caused by COVID-19 and to summarise the characteristics of disruption and the models used to assess the disruptions.

Methods: Eligible studies were included if they used any models to assess the impact of COVID-19 disruptions on any health services.