Infectious Disease

Clinical course of H1N1-vaccine-related narcolepsy.

OBJECTIVE: To follow and analyze the clinical course and quality of life of Pandemrix H1N1-vaccine-related narcolepsy (pNT1).

Degradable Magnetic Composites for Minimally Invasive Interventions: Device Fabrication, Targeted Drug Delivery, and Cytotoxicity Tests.

Superparamagnetic nanoparticles and a functional, degradable polymer matrix based on poly(ethylene glycol) are combined to enable fully degradable magnetic microdevices for minimally invasive biomedical applications. A bioinspired helical microrobot platform mimicking Escherichia coli bacteria is fabricated and actuated using weak rotating magnetic fields. Locomotion based on corkscrew propulsion,...

Methodological considerations for using umu assay to assess photo-genotoxicity of engineered nanoparticles.

In this study we investigated the feasibility of high-throughput (96-well plate) umu assay to test the genotoxic effect of TiO2 engineered nanoparticl...

Bactericidal and Antibiotic Synergistic Effect of Nanosilver Against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

BACKGROUND: Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are bacteria responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. These str...

Highly predictive support vector machine (SVM) models for anthrax toxin lethal factor (LF) inhibitors.

Anthrax is a highly lethal, acute infectious disease caused by the rod-shaped, Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus anthracis. The anthrax toxin lethal fa...

Optimized combination therapies with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) and lamivudine, telbivudine, or entecavir may be effective for chronic hepatitis B patients with a suboptimal response to ADV monotherapy.

OBJECTIVE: To identify high risk factors in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients for suboptimal response to adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) monotherapy, and to...

Antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating activity of leaves and ripe fruit pericarp against human pathogenic clinical bacterial isolates.

This study aimed to assess the antibacterial and antibiotic potentiating property of (VM) (fruit and leaf extracts) against 10 clinical isolates. A m...

Morphological and Bactericidal Effects of Amikacin, Meropenem and Imipenem on Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

BACKGROUND: Pseudomonas aeruginosa might be converted to coccoid bacteria under antibiotic stress. Bacterial conversion would increase resistance to a...

Human, vector and parasite Hsp90 proteins: A comparative bioinformatics analysis.

The treatment of protozoan parasitic diseases is challenging, and thus identification and analysis of new drug targets is important. Parasites survive...

Classification of radiology reports for falls in an HIV study cohort.

OBJECTIVE: To identify patients in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) study cohort who have fallen by applying supervised machine learning methods t...

Kinetics and avidity of anti-Toxocara antibodies (IgG) in rabbits experimentally infected with Toxocara canis.

An evaluation was made of the kinetics and avidity of anti-Toxocara antibodies (IgG) in rabbits experimentally infected with embryonated Toxocara cani...

Diagnosing childhood pulmonary tuberculosis using a single sputum specimen on Xpert MTB/RIF at point of care.

BACKGROUND: The GeneXpertMTB/RIF (Cepheid, USA) (Xpert) has proved successful for pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis on decontaminated/concentrated...

Measurement of viral load by the automated Abbott real-time HIV-1 assay using dried blood spots collected and processed in Malawi and Mozambique.

BACKGROUND: The use of dried blood spots (DBS) for HIV-1 viral load quantification can greatly improve access to viral monitoring for HIV-infected pat...

Persistence of Anti-HBs Among Palestinian Medical Students After 18 - 22 Years of Vaccination: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis B infection is a global public health problem affecting various sectors in the society. Vaccination is the first line measure to...

Learning a Severity Score for Sepsis: A Novel Approach based on Clinical Comparisons.

Sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Early administration of treatment has been shown to decrease sepsis-related mortali...

Antibacterial Effects of Cissus welwitschii and Triumfetta welwitschii Extracts against Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus.

Antibiotic resistance has increased sharply, while the pace for the development of new antimicrobials has slowed down. Plants provide an alternative s...

Manipulation of the Gut Microbiota Reveals Role in Colon Tumorigenesis.

There is growing evidence that individuals with colonic adenomas and carcinomas harbor a distinct microbiota. Alterations to the gut microbiota may al...

Combining Search, Social Media, and Traditional Data Sources to Improve Influenza Surveillance.

We present a machine learning-based methodology capable of providing real-time ("nowcast") and forecast estimates of influenza activity in the US by l...

Characteristics of pellets with immobilized activated sludge and its performance in increasing nitrification in sequencing batch reactors at low temperatures.

Immobilized pellets obtained by means of entrapping activated sludge in waterborne polyurethane were successfully adapted in ammonium (NH4(+)-N) synth...

The antiviral activity of arctigenin in traditional Chinese medicine on porcine circovirus type 2.

Arctigenin (ACT) is a phenylpropanoid dibenzylbutyrolactone lignan extracted from the traditional herb Arctium lappa L. (Compositae) with anti-viral a...