Detection and Density of S. pneumoniae, Cytokine/Chemokine Levels and Mucosal Antibody Levels to Pneumococcus in Nasopharyngeal Samples During SARS-CoV-2 Respiratory Infection in Children.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are important pathogens. We evaluated the frequency and density of Spn in nasopharyngeal samples, frequency of multiple respiratory virus detection, mucosal cytokine/chemokine levels, and mucosal antibody levels to Spn proteins and capsular polysaccharides during SARS-CoV-2 respiratory infections in children.

Methods: This retrospective study evaluated 222 nasopharyngeal samples collected from children (age 0-18 years) who were tested for SARS-CoV-2 between May 2020 and October 2021.

Eighteen-Year Longitudinal Study of Uncomplicated and Complex Acute Otitis Media During the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine Era, 2006-2023.

Background: We analyzed the demographic and risk factors, middle ear fluid (MEF) pathogens, pneumococcus serotype distribution, and bacterial antibiotic nonsusceptibility among children with uncomplicated acute otitis media (uAOM) and complex acute otitis media (cAOM) over 3 timeframes: 2006-2009 (7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine [PCV7] era), 2010-2014 (early 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine [PCV13] era), and 2015-2023 (late PCV13 era).

Methods: A total of 1537 children were enrolled over 18 years and prospectively followed from 6 to 36 months of age. Upon diagnosis of AOM, tympanocentesis was performed for MEF collection and culture.

Comparison of Streptococcus pneumoniae nasopharyngeal colonization, serotype-specific and protein-specific antibody and cytokine levels in young children prior to, during and post COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: We studied changes in pneumococcal epidemiology and immunology in young children at pre-COVID, during-COVID and post-COVID time-frames.

Methods: Pneumococci were cultured from nasopharynx and density semi-quantified at six healthy child visits, age 6-36 months, and during acute otitis media (AOM). Serum antibody levels were measured by ELISA.

The LYMPH trial: comparing microsurgical with conservative treatment for chronic breast cancer-associated lymphoedema - study protocol of a pragmatic randomised international multicentre superiority trial.

Introduction: Up to one-fifth of breast cancer survivors will develop chronic breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL). To date, complex physical decongestion therapy (CDT) is the gold standard of treatment. However, it is mainly symptomatic and often ineffective in preventing BCRL progression.

Microsurgical versus complex physical decongestive therapy for chronic breast cancer-related lymphoedema.

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of microsurgery versus complex physical decongestive therapy in people with chronic breast cancer-related lymphoedema.

Protocolized strategies to encourage early mobilization of critical care patients: challenges and success.

Technological advances and interprofessional teamwork have significantly improved survival rates of critically ill patients. However, this progress has also introduced new challenges, such as intensive care unit-acquired weakness, which can contribute to postintensive care syndrome. Both conditions are associated with increased morbidity and mortality, prolonged length of hospital stay, higher social and health care costs, and reduced quality of life for patients and their families.

Antifungal activity of guanidine compounds.

Guanidinic compounds are a class of compounds distributed in nature but also synthesized in vitro with a wide variety of applicability. One of the potentials of those molecules is antimicrobial activity. In that sense, although mainly limited to immunocompromised people, fungi pathogens are a cause of concern, even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guanidines Conjugated with Cell-Penetrating Peptides: A New Approach for the Development of Antileishmanial Molecules.

Leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease caused by a protozoan of the genus Leishmania, which has visceral and cutaneous forms. The symptoms of leishmaniasis include high fever and weakness, and the cutaneous infection also causes lesions under the skin. The drugs used to treat leishmaniasis have become less effective due to the resistance mechanisms of the protozoa.

Variability in Vaccine Response and Trajectory in Early Childhood and Association With Demographic Variables, Antibiotic Exposure, and Infection Proneness.

Background: We sought to explore the variability of antibody responses to multiple vaccines during early life in individual children, assess the trajectory of each child longitudinally, determine the associations of demographic variables and antibiotic exposures with vaccine-induced immunity, and link vaccine responsiveness to infection proneness.

Methods: In 357 prospectively recruited children, aged 6-36 months, antibody levels to 13 routine vaccine antigens were measured in sera at multiple time points and normalized to their respective protective thresholds to categorize children into 4 groups: very low, low, normal, and high vaccine responders. Demographic variables and frequency of antibiotic exposure data were collected.

Acute intoxication with diisopropylfluorophosphate promotes cellular senescence in the adult male rat brain.

Acute intoxication with high levels of organophosphate (OP) cholinesterase inhibitors can cause cholinergic crisis, which is associated with acute, life-threatening parasympathomimetic symptoms, respiratory depression and seizures that can rapidly progress to status epilepticus (SE). Clinical and experimental data demonstrate that individuals who survive these acute neurotoxic effects often develop significant chronic morbidity, including behavioral deficits. The pathogenic mechanism(s) that link acute OP intoxication to chronic neurological deficits remain speculative.

Enhancing Image-Guided Radiation Therapy for Pancreatic Cancer: Utilizing Aligned Peak Response Beamforming in Flexible Array Transducers.

To develop ultrasound-guided radiotherapy, we proposed an assistant structure with embedded markers along with a novel alternative method, the Aligned Peak Response (APR) method, to alter the conventional delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer for reconstructing ultrasound images obtained from a flexible array. We simulated imaging targets in Field-II using point target phantoms with point targets at different locations. In the experimental phantom ultrasound images, image RF data were acquired with a flexible transducer with in-house assistant structures embedded with needle targets for testing the accuracy of the APR method.

Pneumococci Isolated From Children in Community-Based Practice Differ From Isolates Identified by Population- and Laboratory-Based Invasive Disease Surveillance.

Background: Characterizing strains causing noninvasive and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) may inform the impact of new pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs).

Methods: During 2011-2019, among children aged 6-36 months, pneumococcal serotype distribution and antibiotic nonsusceptibility of nasopharyngeal and middle ear fluid (MEF) isolates collected at onset of acute otitis media (AOM) in Rochester, New York, were compared with IPD isolates from the Active Bacterial Core surveillance (ABCs) system across 10 US sites.

Results: From Rochester, 400 (nasopharyngeal) and 156 (MEF) pneumococcal isolates were collected from 259 children.

Surviving the Shocks: A Contemporary of Short-coupled Ventricular Fibrillation.

A young man presented following successful cardiac resuscitation after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. During his admission, he had multiple runs of short-coupled ventricular fibrillation with a similar morphology premature ventricular complex (PVC) trigger. He was brought to the electrophysiology laboratory, and, with a high dose of isoprenaline, the PVC was localised to the moderator band.

Pupil reflex as a marker of activity and prognosis in heart failure: a longitudinal and prospective study.

Aims: Compensatory mechanisms in heart failure (HF) are triggered to maintain adequate cardiac output. Among them, hyperactivation of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is one of the main ones and carries a worse prognosis. The pupillary reflex depends on the SNS, and we can evaluate it through pupillometry.

Solubility and Thermodynamic Parameters of HS/CH in Ionic Liquids Determined by H NMR.

Natural gas remains an important global source of energy. Usually, sour gas from the well or refinery stream contains HS among other contaminants that should be removed to fulfill permissible standards of use. Despite the use of different gas-liquid sour gas upgrading technologies, ionic liquids (ILs) have been recognized as promising materials to remove HS from sour gas.

Evidence of Guanidines Potential against : Exploring In Vitro Effectiveness, Toxicities and of Innate Immunity Response Effects.

Leishmaniasis is a complex group of infectious and parasitic diseases that afflict many thousands of individuals across five continents. Leishmaniasis treatment remains a challenge because it relies on drugsknown for their high toxicity and limited efficacy, making itimperative to identify new molecules that offer greater effectiveness and safety. This study sought to explore the impact of seven synthetic guanidine derivatives (LQOF-G1, LQOF-G2, LQOF-G6, LQOF-G7, LQOF-G32, LQOF-G35 and LQOF-G36) onthe parasite and in vitro macrophage infection by this parasite, as well as cytotoxic approaches in vitro models of mammalian host cells and tissues.

Stereotactic radiosurgery for brain arteriovenous malformations in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia.

Objective: Brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) in patients with hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT) present different characteristics from sporadic AVMs, and they have lower initial bleeding rates. Conservative management is usually preferred for the treatment of these lesions. In this case study, we present the largest series of HHT patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery to date.

Variability of Vaccine Responsiveness in Young Children.

Background: Variability in vaccine responsiveness among young children is poorly understood.

Methods: Nasopharyngeal secretions were collected in the first weeks of life for measurement of cytokines/chemokines seeking a biomarker, and blood samples were collected at age 1 year to identify vaccine responsiveness status, defined as low vaccine responder (LVR), normal vaccine responder (NVR), and high vaccine responder (HVR), to test for vaccine antigen-induced immune memory and for antigen-presenting cell (APC) function.

Results: Significantly lower specific cytokine/chemokine levels as biosignatures, measurable in nasopharyngeal secretions at infant age 1-3 weeks, predicted LVR status compared to NVR and HVR children.

Naturally-induced serum antibody levels in children to pneumococcal polysaccharide 15B that correlate with protection from nasopharyngeal colonization but anti-serotype 15B antibody has low functional cross-reactivity with serotype 15C.

Background: Serotypes 15B and 15C have been added to new different pneumococcal-conjugate vaccines (PCV20 and V116, respectively). We determined a serum anti-15B antibody level that would be a correlate of protection (COP) against nasopharyngeal colonization and assessed functional cross-reactivity against serotype 15B and 15C in children following natural immunization.

Method: IgG-antibody to serotype 15B polysaccharide was measured by ELISA in 341 sera from 6 to 36 month old children collected before, at the time of, and after pneumococcal colonization caused by serotypes 15B and 15C.

Development of New Leishmanicidal Compounds via Bioconjugation of Antimicrobial Peptides and Antileishmanial Guanidines.

Leishmaniasis refers to a collection of diseases caused by protozoa from the genus. These diseases, along with other parasitic afflictions, pose a significant public health issue, particularly given the escalating number of at-risk patients. This group includes immunocompromised individuals and those residing in impoverished conditions.

Assessing Adherence to Statin Prescription Guidelines at a Student-Run Free Clinic: A Retrospective Review.

Objective:  The goals of this quality improvement project are to assess the BRIDGE Student-Run Free Clinic's adherence to the 2019 American College of Cardiology (ACC)/American Heart Association (AHA) Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and to compare our rate of statin prescription to the national average and to uninsured groups.

Methods: A quality improvement project of 205 patients qualified by initial inclusion criteria at a student-run free healthcare clinic. Socio-demographic information, clinical measures associated with cardiovascular risk, and documentation regarding statin prescription at the follow-up visit after a patient's first lipid panel were abstracted from medical records.

Very early life microbiome and metabolome correlates with primary vaccination variability in children.

We show that simultaneous study of stool and nasopharyngeal microbiome reveals divergent timing and patterns of maturation, suggesting that local mucosal factors may influence microbiome composition in the gut and respiratory system. Antibiotic exposure in early life as occurs commonly, may have an adverse effect on vaccine responsiveness. Abundance of gut and/or nasopharyngeal bacteria with the machinery to produce lipopolysaccharide-a toll-like receptor 4 agonist-may positively affect future vaccine protection, potentially by acting as a natural adjuvant.