Early Read-Time Performance of the OraQuick HCV Rapid Antibody Assay for the Exclusion of HCV Viremia.

Rapid point-of-care tests for hepatitis C virus (HCV) provide results in 20 min and allow linkage to care, particularly for difficult-to-reach populations. Prior work suggested an early reading time of the OraQuick (OQ) rapid HCV antibody lateral flow immunoassay identified people with HCV viremia; however, these observations were not externally validated. We conducted a prospective cohort study at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center from June 2021 to August 2023 to evaluate the performance of OQ early reading times for HCV viremia among participants with reactive HCV antibody.

Effectiveness of an Embedded Infectious Disease Screening, Treatment, and Prevention Intervention Within an Inpatient Substance Use Treatment Program.

Background: People with substance use disorders (SUDs) are at higher risk for infectious diseases (IDs). Co-locating ID screening services within inpatient SUD treatment programs may decrease barriers to care; however, the impact of such screening has not been evaluated.

Methods: We conducted an effectiveness study evaluating comprehensive ID screening within an 18-bed inpatient SUD program.

Optimal Timing of Delivery in Pregnant Individuals with Pregestational Diabetes Mellitus.

The Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend delivery of gravidae with pregestational diabetes at 36 to 39 weeks based on glycemic control and vascular complications. The optimal gestational age within this wide range is unknown. Our objective was to evaluate the risk of adverse outcomes with delivery versus expectant management at increasing gestational ages.

Feasibility of a co-designed online nutrition education program for people with multiple sclerosis.

Objective: Diet quality is important for people with multiple sclerosis (MS), but conflicting online information causes them confusion. People with MS want evidence-based MS-specific information to help them make healthy dietary changes, and we co-designed an asynchronous, online nutrition education program (Eating Well with MS) with the MS community. Our aim was to determine the feasibility of Eating Well with MS.

Community infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion and population level-outcomes: A mixed methods study.

Problem: In the U.S., sudden unexpected infant deaths due to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed are increasing.

Apoptosis-mediated ADAM10 activation removes a mucin barrier promoting T cell efferocytosis.

Efferocytic clearance of apoptotic cells in general, and T cells in particular, is required for tissue and immune homeostasis. Transmembrane mucins are extended glycoproteins highly expressed in the cell glycocalyx that function as a barrier to phagocytosis. Whether and how mucins may be regulated during cell death to facilitate efferocytic corpse clearance is not well understood.

Profound structural conservation of chemically cross-linked HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein experimental vaccine antigens.

Chemical cross-linking is used to stabilize protein structures with additional benefits of pathogen and toxin inactivation for vaccine use, but its use has been restricted by the potential for local or global structural distortion. This is of particular importance when the protein in question requires a high degree of structural conservation for inducing a biological outcome such as the elicitation of antibodies to conformationally sensitive epitopes. The HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (Env) trimer is metastable and shifts between different conformational states, complicating its use as a vaccine antigen.

mTOR Regulation of N-Myc Downstream Regulated 1 (NDRG1) Phosphorylation in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma.

The mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) kinase is a component of two signaling complexes that are known as mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1) and mTORC2. We sought to identify mTOR-phosphorylated proteins that are differently expressed in clinically resected clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) relative to pair-matched normal renal tissue. Using a proteomic array, we found N-Myc Downstream Regulated 1 (NDRG1) showed the greatest increase (3.

The risk of all-cause mortality associated with anxiety: a retrospective cohort study using 'The Health Improvement Network' database.

Background: Anxiety is a prevalent condition with a substantial associated burden of morbidity. Previous literature investigating effects of anxiety on mortality rates has found conflicting results. This is in part due to inadequate consideration of comorbid depression as a confounder and analysing sub-types of anxiety together.

Pre-eclampsia is associated with complement pathway activation in the maternal and fetal circulation, and placental tissue.

Objectives: Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a leading cause of obstetric morbidity, with no definitive therapy other than delivery. We aimed to compare complement markers in maternal and fetal circulation, and placental tissue, between women with PE and healthy pregnant controls.

Study Design: Maternal and umbilical cord blood was tested for iC3b, C3, C4, properdin, Ba and C5b-9, and placental tissue for C3d, C4d, C9 and C1q, from women with PE (n = 34) and healthy pregnant controls (n = 33).

Pregnant Latinas' perspectives on pursuing expanded carrier screening: "It is better to know than not".

With the advance of genetic technologies, the use of expanded carrier screening (ECS) in the prenatal setting is growing. ECS tests for a wide range of inherited genetic disorders regardless of racial/ethnic background and family history. Latinxs are an important ECS stakeholder group as they are the largest minority group with the highest fertility rate in the United States.

A collaborative approach to designing an online nutrition education program for people with multiple sclerosis.

Purpose: People with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) want disease-specific dietary advice to reduce the confusion around diet. This study used co-design principles to develop an online nutrition education program for pwMS.

Methods: Mixed-methods (multiphase sequential design).

Community-based approaches to infant safe sleep and breastfeeding promotion: a qualitative study.

Background: In the U.S., sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUID) due to accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB) are increasing, with disparities by race/ethnicity.

Maternity Care Clinicians' Experiences Promoting Infant Safe Sleep and Breastfeeding During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objective: To explore the phenomenon of clinicians' perceptions and experiences of promoting infant safe sleep (ISS) and breastfeeding during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Descriptive qualitative hermeneutical phenomenology of key informant interviews conducted as part of a quality improvement initiative.

Setting: Maternity care services of 10 U.

Modular capsid decoration boosts adenovirus vaccine-induced humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2.

Adenovirus vector vaccines have been widely and successfully deployed in response to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). However, despite inducing potent T cell immunity, improvement of vaccine-specific antibody responses upon homologous boosting is modest compared with other technologies. Here, we describe a system enabling modular decoration of adenovirus capsid surfaces with antigens and demonstrate potent induction of humoral immunity against these displayed antigens.

Nutrition Education Programs for Adults with Neurological Diseases Are Lacking: A Scoping Review.

The nutrition recommendation for most common neurological diseases is to follow national dietary guidelines. This is to mitigate malnutrition, reduce the risk of diet-related diseases, and to help manage some common symptoms, including constipation. Nutrition education programs can support people in adhering to guidelines; hence the aim of this scoping review was to explore what programs have been implemented for adults with neurological diseases.

An immunodominant NP-B*07:02 cytotoxic T cell response controls viral replication and is associated with less severe COVID-19 disease.

NP-B*07:02-specific CD8 T cell responses are considered among the most dominant in SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals. We found strong association of this response with mild disease. Analysis of NP-B*07:02-specific T cell clones and single-cell sequencing were performed concurrently, with functional avidity and antiviral efficacy assessed using an in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infection system, and were correlated with T cell receptor usage, transcriptome signature and disease severity (acute n = 77, convalescent n = 52).

Immunological and pathological outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 challenge following formalin-inactivated vaccine in ferrets and rhesus macaques.

There is an urgent requirement for safe and effective vaccines to prevent COVID-19. A concern for the development of new viral vaccines is the potential to induce vaccine-enhanced disease (VED). This was reported in several preclinical studies with both SARS-CoV-1 and MERS vaccines but has not been reported with SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Systematic review: Automated vehicles and services for people with disabilities.

People with disabilities face many travel barriers. Autonomous vehicles and services may be one solution. The purpose of this project was to conduct a systematic review of the grey and scientific literature on autonomous vehicles for people with disabilities.

The RNA sensor MDA5 detects SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Human cells respond to infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, by producing cytokines including type I and III interferons (IFNs) and proinflammatory factors such as IL6 and TNF. IFNs can limit SARS-CoV-2 replication but cytokine imbalance contributes to severe COVID-19. We studied how cells detect SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The Adipose Tissue-Derived Secretome (ADS) in Obesity Uniquely Induces L-Type Amino Acid Transporter 1 (LAT1) and mTOR Signaling in Estrogen-Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer Cells.

Obesity increases the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer (BC). This risk is mediated by obesity-induced changes in the adipose-derived secretome (ADS). The pathogenesis of BC in obesity is stimulated by mTOR hyperactivity.

Inclusion of cGAMP within virus-like particle vaccines enhances their immunogenicity.

Cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) is an immunostimulatory molecule produced by cGAS that activates STING. cGAMP is an adjuvant when administered alongside antigens. cGAMP is also incorporated into enveloped virus particles during budding.