ABSTRACT
Asthma is an allergic disease characterized by chronic inflammation of the airways, leading to bronchoconstriction and excessive mucus production with symptoms of dyspnea, wheezing, and cough. It involves various underlying mechanisms such as eosinophilic, neutrophilic, mixed, and pauci-cellular, exercise-induced, occupational, and obesity-related asthma. Asthma is a mostly reversible condition involving several cells and cytokines, leading to chronic airway inflammatory responses, and showing the diversity in asthma phenotypes and complexity. Recent advancements using single-cell RNA sequencing allow distinguishing and analyzing RNA sequences at each cellular level within complex and heterogeneous cell groups. This method has also been applied to study asthma mechanisms, enabling us to predict intercellular interactions triggering asthma and identifying cellular changes characterized by specific molecular-cellular phenotypes. In our study, according to the PRISMA (preferred reporting items from systematic review and meta-analysis) guidelines, we systematically reviewed trends in asthma-related immune and structural cell research using single cell RNA sequencing, highlighting potential therapeutic interventions, and pinpointing opportunities for novel biomarker discovery.
ABSTRACT
Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder caused by genetic deficiency or decreased function of C1-esterase inhibitor. It is characterized by swelling of subcutaneous and submucosal tissues of the extremities, gastrointestinal tract, and upper airways which can be life-threatening. Thus, early recognition and treatment of the disease are important. Short- and longterm prophylaxes are used to decrease the severity and frequency of attacks. Icatibant is a selective bradykinin B2-receptor antagonist, earlier treatment of acute attacks and hospital admission. The authors present a case of 47-year-old woman who was diagnosed with type II HAE, danazol as a long term. Her symptoms improved dramatically after drug treatment. The unpredictability and recurrence of HAE attacks could have a negative impact on social life and quality of life. This case shows that timely and proper treatment could improve quality of life and reduce morbidity and mortality. (
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The selective media for culture of Helicobacter pylori(H. pylori) are Egg yolk emulsion medium, modified Thayer-Martin medium and Skirrow's medium. The non-selective media for culture of H. pylori are brucella agar, trypticase soy agar, and brain heart infusion agar. The selective media are more expensive and difficult to prepare than non-selective media, whereas non-selective media are difficult to isolate H. pylori due to contamination of upper respiratory tract bacteria. The objects of this study are to reduce upper respiratory contaminants by use of HCl-KCl buffer (H-K buffer) for primary isolation, and to compare with culture, CLO test, histologic examination and H. pylori IgG antibodies. METHODS: Seventy one patients underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsy. For 32 patients, two biopsies were taken from antrum: One for direct inoculation into blood agar plate, the other for pretreatment of H-K buffer. For fifty six patients, we performed culture, CLO test, histology, and H. pylori IgG. RESULTS: 1) Among the 32 patients, H. pylori were isolated in 25 patients (23 patients for direct inoculation and 25 patients for H-K pretreatment). Twelve cases among H-K buffer treatment group did not show contamination, whereas only two among direct inoculation group showed no contamination. The average number of contaminating colony forming unit (CFU) of direct inoculation and H-K buffer treatment were 77 and 9, respectively. 2) The positive rates of culture and CLO test, histology, and H. pylori IgG for H. pylori infection were 71.4%, 67.9%, 75.0%, and 57.1%, respective