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Breen Lloyd posted an update 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Asthma remains a serious health problem with increasing prevalence and incidence. This study was to develop and validate a dynamic nomogram for predicting asthma risk.
Totally 597 subjects whose age ≥18years old with asthma, an accurate age at first cigarette, and clear smoking status were selected from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database (2013-2018). The dataset was randomly split into the training set and the testing set at a ratio of 46. Simple and multiple logistic regressions were used for identifying independent predictors. Then the nomogram was developed and internally validated using data from the testing set. The receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was used for assessing the performance of the nomogram.
According to the simple and multiple logistic regressions, smoking ≥40years, female gender, the age for the first smoking, having close relative with asthma were independently associated with the risk of an asthma attack. The nomogram was thereby developed with the link of https//yanglifen.shinyapps.io/Dynamic_Nomogram_for_Asthma/. The ROC analyses showed an AUC of 0.726 (0.724-0.728) with a sensitivity of 0.887 (0.847-0.928) in the training set, and an AUC of 0.702 (0.700-0.703) with a sensitivity of 0.860 (0.804-0.916) in the testing set, fitting well in calibration curves. Decision curve analysis further confirmed the clinical usefulness of the nomogram.
Our dynamic nomogram could help clinicians to assess the individual probability of asthma attack, which was helpful for improving the treatment and prognosis of asthma.
Our dynamic nomogram could help clinicians to assess the individual probability of asthma attack, which was helpful for improving the treatment and prognosis of asthma.Meprin β is a zinc-dependent metalloprotease exhibiting a unique cleavage specificity with strong preference for acidic amino acids at the cleavage site. Proteomic studies revealed a diverse substrate pool of meprin β including the interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R) and the amyloid precursor protein (APP). Dysregulation of meprin β is often associated with pathological conditions such as chronic inflammation, fibrosis, or Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The extracellular regulation of meprin β including interactors, sheddases, and activators has been intensively investigated while intracellular regulation has been barely addressed in the literature. This study aimed to analyze C-terminal phosphorylation of meprin β with regard to cell surface expression and proteolytic activity. By immunoprecipitation of endogenous meprin β from the colon cancer cell line Colo320 and subsequent LC-MS analysis, we identified several phosphorylation sites in its C-terminal region. Here, T694 in the C-terminus of meprin β was the most preferred residue after phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) stimulation. We further demonstrated the role of protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms for meprin β phosphorylation and identified the involvement of PKC-α and PKC-β. As a result of phosphorylation, the meprin β activity at the cell surface is reduced and, consequently, the extent of substrate cleavage is diminished. Our data indicate that this decrease of the surface activity is caused by the internalization and degradation of meprin β.The ecological impact of tire wear particles in aquatic ecosystems is a growing environmental concern. We combined toxicity testing, using fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) embryos, with nontarget high-resolution liquid chromatography Orbitrap mass spectrometry to characterize the toxicity and chemical mixture of organic chemicals associated with tire particle leachates. We assessed 1) exposure to tire particle leachates after leaching for 1-, 3-, and 10-d; and 2) the effect of the presence and absence of small tire particulates in the leachates. We observed a decrease in embryonic heart rates, hatching success, and lengths, as well as an increase in the number of embryos with severe deformities and diminished eye and body pigmentation, after exposure to the leachates. Overall, there was a pattern whereby we observed more toxicity in the 10-d leachates, and greater toxicity in unfiltered leachates. Redundancy analysis showed that several benzothiazoles and aryl-amines were correlated with the toxic effects observed in the embryos. These included benzothiazole, 2-aminobenzothiazole, 2-mercaptobenzothiazole, N,N’-diphenylguanidine, and N,N’-diphenylurea. However, many other chemicals characterized as unknowns are likely to also play a key role in the adverse effects observed. Our study provides insight into the types of chemicals likely to be important toxicological drivers in tire leachates, and improves our understanding of the ecotoxicological impacts of tire wear particles. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;001-10. © 2021 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.
Passive immunization using investigational COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) is a promising therapeutic strategy and could improve outcome if transfused early and contain high levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. selleck products We report the management of a national CCP collection and distribution program in Israel.
From 1 April 2020 to 15 January 2021, 4020 volunteer donors donated 5221 CCP units and 837 (20.8%) donors donated more than once. Anti-nucleocapsid IgG antibodies were determined using chemiluminescent immunoassay method (Abbott). A statistical model based on repeated IgG tests in sequential donations was created to predict the time of antibody decline below sample/cut-off (S/CO) level of 4.0.
Ninety-six percent of CCP donors suffered a mild disease or were asymptomatic. Older donors had higher antibody levels. Higher antibody levels (S/CO ≥4) were detected in 35.2% of the donors. Low positive (S/CO ≥1.4-3.99) were found in 37%, and 27.8% had undetectable antibodies (S/CO ≤1.4). The model predicted decreand provide a product that may contribute to improve prognosis in patients with COVID-19.
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder that is increasing globally. It is associated with chronic complications that are more common among patients with poor glycaemic control. Glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA
) is the gold standard for monitoring glycaemic control. Measurements of HbA
are relatively expensive and not available in some remote areas of developing countries.
We conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate the agreement between the calculated and measured HbA
levels. The equation to compute the calculated HbA
also incorporated the fasting blood glucose (FBG) level and was as follows HbA
=2.6+0.03×FBG (mg/dl).
We enrolled 290 patients with type 2 DM in this study. Of these, 204 (70.3%) were females and the mean (SD) age was 54.9 (12.8) years. The mean (SD) diabetes duration was 6.8 (5.5) years. There were 211 (72.8%) patients using oral hypoglycaemic agents, 62 (21.4%) were using insulin and 17 (5.9%) were using both insulin and oral hypoglycaemic agents. There was a borderline difference between the mean (SD) calculated and measured HbA
levels (p=0.