Activity

© 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The ongoing outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection is creating serious challenges for health laboratories that seek to identify viral infections as early as possible, optimally at the earliest appearance of symptom. Indeed, there is urgent need to develop and deploy robust diagnostic methodologies not only to use in health laboratory environments but also directly in places where humans circulate and spread the virus such as airports, trains, boats, and any public aggregation places. The success of a reliable and sensitive asymptomatic diagnosis relies on the identification and measurement of informative biomarkers from human host and virus in a rapid, sensitive, and inexpensive manner. The objective of this article is to describe an innovative multidisciplinary approach to develop an efficient, inexpensive, and easy-to-use portable instrument (bCUBE® by Hyris Ltd) that can be employed as a surveillance system for the emergency caused by SARS-CoV-2. A solution for Coronavirus testing, compliant with CDC guidelines, is scheduled to be released in the next weeks. In addition, we will describe a workflow and path of an integrated multi-omic approach that will lead to host and pathogen biomarker discovery in order to train the instrument to provide reliable results based on a specific biomarker’s fingerprint of SARS-CoV-2 infection. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.We develop flexible multiparameter regression (MPR) survival models for interval-censored survival data arising in longitudinal prospective studies and longitudinal randomised controlled clinical trials. A multiparameter Weibull regression survival model, which is wholly parametric, and has nonproportional hazards, is the main focus of the article. We describe the basic model, develop the interval-censored likelihood, and extend the model to include gamma frailty and a dispersion model. We evaluate the models by means of a simulation study and a detailed reanalysis of data from the Signal Tandmobiel study. The results demonstrate that the MPR model with frailty is computationally efficient and provides an excellent fit to the data. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.The market of ready-to-eat minimally processed vegetables (RTE-MPV) is increasing in Brazil and many other countries. Selleckchem ASP2215 During processing, these vegetables go through several steps that modify their natural structure while maintaining the same nutritional and sensory attributes as the fresh produce. One of the most important steps is washing-disinfection, which aims to reduce the microbial load, prevent cross-contamination and inactivate pathogenic microorganisms that may be present. Nonetheless, the presence of pathogens and occurrence of foodborne illnesses associated with consumption of RTE-MPV concern consumers, governments and the food industry. This review brings an overview on the microbiological safety of RTE-MPV, focusing on Brazilian findings. Most of the published data are on detection of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, indicating that their prevalence may range from 0.4 to 12.5% and from 0.6 to 3.1%, respectively. The presence of these pathogens in fresh produce is unacceptable and risky, mainly in RTE-MPV, because consumers expect them to be clean and sanitized and consequently safe for consumption without any additional care. Therefore, proper control during the production of RTE-MPV is mandatory to guarantee products with quality and safety to consumers. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.Melatonin functions as an endogenous protective molecule in multiple vascular diseases, whereas its effects on thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD) and underlying mechanisms have not been reported. In this study, TAAD mouse model was successfully induced by β-aminopropionitrile fumarate (BAPN). We found that melatonin treatment remarkably prevented the deterioration of TAAD, evidenced by decreased incidence, ameliorated aneurysmal dilation and vascular stiffness, improved aortic morphology, and inhibited elastin degradation, macrophage infiltration, and matrix metalloproteinase expression. Moreover, melatonin blunted oxidative stress damage and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) loss. Notably, BAPN induced a decrease in SIRT1 expression and activity of mouse aorta, whereas melatonin treatment reversed it. Further mechanistic study demonstrated that blocking SIRT1 signaling partially inhibited these beneficial effects of melatonin on TAAD. Additionally, the melatonin receptor was involved in this phenomenon. Our study is the first to report that melatonin exerts therapeutic effects against TAAD by reducing oxidative stress and VSMC loss via activation of SIRT1 signaling in a receptor-dependent manner, thus suggesting a novel therapeutic strategy for TAAD. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.The designing of drugs that can simultaneously affect different protein targets is one novel and promising way to treat complex diseases. Multitarget drugs act on multiple protein receptors each implicated in the same disease state, and may be considered to be more beneficial than conventional drug therapies. For example, these drugs can have improved therapeutic potency due to synergistic effects on multiple targets, as well as improved safety and resistance profiles due to the combined regulation of potential primary therapeutic targets and compensatory elements and lower dosage typically required. This review analyzes in-silico methods that facilitate multitarget drug design that facilitate the discovery and development of novel therapeutic agents. Here presented is a summary of the progress in structure-based drug discovery techniques that study the process of molecular recognition of targets and ligands, moving from static molecular docking to improved molecular dynamics approaches in multitarget drug design, and the advantages and limitations of each. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The United States currently has over one million restaurants, making food service one of the largest workforces and industry sectors in the nation’s economy. Historically, concern for the health of early restaurant workers was tied largely to the hygiene of the food and thus the wellbeing of the customer rather than the individuals preparing the food. The landscape of occupational illness and injury that resulted is fraught with some of the starkest health disparities in wages, discrimination, benefits, injuries, and illness seen among US laborers. These disparities have consistently been associated with social class and economic position. Conditions identified during the early years of restaurant work, before the introduction of occupational safety and health protections, persist today largely due to tipped wages, dependence on customer discretion, and the management structure. Research and intervention efforts to control occupational health hazards should be directed toward the socioeconomic and structural roots of health problems among food service workers in the United States.