Inflammatory biomarkers: Breast cancer survival and possible role in COVID-19 associated comorbidity

It is known that inflammatory cytokines exacerbate the persistence and severity of various disease states. Breast cancer is the most frequently detected cancer among women worldwide and our recent studies suggest that the inflammatory state of breast (BrCa) cancer, a byproduct of elevated cytokine expression, induces epigenetic modifications leading to increased recurrence. Ongoing NCI clinical trial data (ClinicalTrials.gov, CCC19, NCT04354701) indicates that among patients with cancer and COVID-19, the mortality is high, and the most prevalent malignancies are of breast [21%] and prostate [16%] origin. Due to the risk of cytokine storm during SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is crucial to identify potential mechanisms of hyperinflammation in BrCa patients. In this study, we have evaluated the level of copy number alteration (CNA) of different inflammatory cytokines including IL-8, IL-1b, IL6, IL-8, GM-CSF, TNF-alpha and many others using cBioportal platform which includes over sixty-nine thousand tumor samples (n>69,000 from 213 different studies) from over 33 different cancers. We found that IL-8 has the highest level of amplification in different breast cancers subtypes. Besides, we also analyzed serum samples from BrCa patients, both recurrent and non-recurrent, by different proteomics methods to identify serum cytokines involved in prognosis and recurrence. Comparative data analysis between non-recurrent BrCa against recurrent BrCa patients identified several proteins with very high significance, mostly proteins associated with epigenetic pathways including HDAC9 (P = 0.0035), HDAC5 (P = 0.013), and HDAC7 (P = 0.020). Besides, we identified differential expression of several pro-inflammatory cytokines and immune regulators (IL-8, IL-4, IL-18, IL-12p70) that were present only in recurrent BrCa patient serum. Our data indicate that inflammatory processes contribute to epigenetic modifications that ultimately play a critical role in breast cancer recurrence. In terms of COVID-19 associated co-morbidity, the already dysregulated inflammatory state of BrCa patients may increase their susceptibility to cytokine-storm, leading to increased severity of COVID-related complications and increased mortality rate. Specifically, we hypothesize that the identified elevated level of IL-8 in BrCa patients may lead to a higher basal level of inflammation and contribute to the risk of attaining cytokine-storm during SARS-CoV-2 infection, making it a valuable target for future studies.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Labour Market in the Hotel Industry: Selected Conditions in Poland

Examining selected aspects of labour market performance in the Polish tourism sector can extend our knowledge of hotel company attitudes in connection with COVID-19. The aims of this article are to present selected determinants of labour market performance in the Polish tourism sector (with particular emphasis on the hotel industry) in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic and to address the following research question: how did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the functioning of hotel companies in the key tourist region of Poland—Zachodniopomorskie province? The research methods used in the study included critical analysis of source literature, survey method, correspondence analysis method, and analysis of primary and secondary data, mainly from official statistics. The survey was conducted in January 2022. Information was collected from 129 respondents using surveys. The results of the research presented in the article reveal that the observed long-term upward trend in the national labour market has been halted by the pandemic and that (among the various accommodation facilities) hotels are the most vulnerable to changes in the tourism labour market. The authors' contributions to the literature are the identification of the extent to which businesses from the hotel industry have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the determination of the impact of the pandemic on selected employment-related aspects of business operations in Zachodniopomorskie province. © 2023 by the authors.

COVID-19 Detection Using Chest X-Ray Images Based on Deep Learning

Global public health will be severely impacted by the successive waves of emerging COVID-19 disease. Since 2019 people get sick and die in our daily lives placing a massive burden on our health system. One of the crucial factors that has led to the virus's fast spread is a protracted clinical testing gap before discovering of a positive or negative result. A detection system based on deep learning was developed by using chest X-ray(CXR) images of Covid19 patient and healthy people. In this regard the Convolution Neural Network along with other DNNs have been proved to produce good results. To improve the COVID-19 detection accuracy, we developed model using the deep learning(CNN) approach where we observed an accuracy of 96%. We validated the accuracy by using same dataset through a pretrained VGG16 model and an LSTM model which produced excellent reliable results. Our aim of this research is to implement a reliable Deep Learning model to detect presence of Covid-19 in case of limited availability of chest-Xray images.

Employee FinancialWellness Programs (EFWPs) as an Innovation in Incentive Systems of Energy Sector Enterprises in Poland during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Current Status and Development Prospects

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a loss of the sense of financial security among employees. The consequence is decreased productivity, affecting employers who also suffer related costs. Actions to support employees’ financial wellness are therefore important and necessary, especially in the case of those working in the strategic sector ensuring national energy security. The main aim of the article is to present, from the theoretical and practical point of view, the essence and role of Employee Financial Wellness Programs (EFWPs) in the creation of an effective incentive system in energy sector companies in Poland during the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The following research methods were used: Critical analysis of source literature, comparative analysis of existing data and the descriptive method with elements of deductive reasoning. In order to collect primary data, the indirect survey method was used, namely, the CAWI Internet survey technique, which was addressed to the main energy generation sector entities in the country. The research has shown that financial wellness instruments are new to the Polish market, where they have been in limited operation since 2021. It was confirmed that some companies in the energy sector are using such innovative tools, but they also show the need and interest to implement more extensive and comprehensive Employee Financial Wellness Programs that will reduce the financial stress of employees while motivating them to work more efficiently during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Multiple etiological factors led septicemic disease with mass mortality of fishes in freshwater reservoir of Odisha, India

A detailed investigation on mass mortality of fishes was conducted in a small tropical reservoir- Derjang (20o50'32.0"N, 85o01'14.8″E), Odisha, India. Mortality mostly occurred in Systomus sarana followed by Labeo rohita , Cirrhinus mrigala , Labeo catla , Ompok bimaculatus , Labeo calbasu and Mastacembelus armatus. During 20 days of disease occurrence in May–June 2019, a total of about 3000 kg of fish died. The clinical signs in Cyprinid group were haemorrhagic spots, ulcerative lesions, rotten and pale patches in gills due to septicemic disease whereas haemorrhagic spots were the only prominent symptoms observed in Silurid group. Bacteriological isolation and identification through conventional and molecular techniques revealed that Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most common pathogen recovered from S. sarana , C. mrigala and O. bimaculatus. Further Aeromonas hydrophila , Acinetobacter baumannii were isolated from L. rohita and L. catla respectively. The role of these pathogens for this disease outbreak in multiple fish species is discussed in perspective of environmental factors. Sudden environmental alternation by the supercyclone Fani (3rd May 2019) on the coastal part of Odisha might have played a key role to translate the aquatic bacteria into the virulent infective pathogens. In the experimental challenge study, isolated bacteria showed pathogenicity in respective hosts as that in the reservoir. Thus this further revealed both bacteria and fish specific virulency with a variation in LD 50 values. All the gram negative bacterial isolates were found to resist ampicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid and most of them were TEM gene positive. However, the bacteria were found to be susceptible to the rest of the nineteen antibiotics. These findings suggested that the sudden cyclone is an enormous threat to reservoir aquaculture, and should be taken into consideration before breeding, stocking and harvesting of fishes. • Disease outbreak in reservoir during Summer, 2019 caused mass mortality of many freshwater fishes with septicemic symptoms • Klebsiella pnumoniae was the most dominating pathogen recovered, besides Aeromonas hydrophila and Acinetobacter baumannii • Sudden environmental alternation by the cyclone Fani might have played a key role to flare up the virulent pathogens. • Specificity and virulence of bacteria were found host-dependent with variable LD 50 as revealed by challenge experiments [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Aquaculture is the property of Elsevier B.V. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Boosting immunity by Liquorice (Yashtimadhu) in COVID-19 pandemic situation

Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused due to corona virus that spreaded world-wide and became a pandemic. Currently several studies are going on to search appropriate drugs or vaccine to prevent these disease. To search the plant based medicines which have antiviral and Immunomodulatory properties that prevent the viral infected disease. Liquorice root is used worldwide as an herbal medicine. This root commonly known as sweet wood, Mulethi or Yashtimadhu. Various active components like glycyrrhizin, isoflavonoids, triterpenoids, sterol, amino acid etc that have antiviral and immunomodulatory properties. Liquorice has the ability to reduce the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, interleukin, TNFa, and stimulate the secretion of lymphocyte. SARS-CoV2 and SARS-CoV have the same receptor ACE2. Glycyrrhetinic acid helps to down regulate the expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in lungs and prevent the entry of virus. Liquorice polysaccharide helps to modulate our immune system by the activation of CD4 T cell. In this present study we reviewed about the Immunomodulatory effect of liquorice that helps in healthy living in pandemic situation. © 2021, Narendra Publishing House, Delhi, India.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, pharmacology, and COVID-19 infection. (Special issue: Drugs and COVID-19.)

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) have an optional prescription status that has resulted in frequent use, in particular for the symptomatic treatment of fever and non-rheumatic pain. In 2019, a multi-source analysis of complementary pharmacological data showed that using NSAIDs in these indications (potentially indicative of an underlying infection) increases the risk of a severe bacterial complication, in particular in the case of lung infections. First, the clinical observations of the French Pharmacovigilance Network showed that severe bacterial infections can occur even after a short NSAID treatment, and even if the NSAID is associated with an antibiotic. Second, pharmacoepidemiological studies, some of which minimized the protopathic bias, all converged and confirmed the risk. Third, experimental in vitro and in vivo animal studies suggest several biological mechanisms, which strengthens a causal link beyond the well-known risk of delaying the care of the infection (immunomodulatory effects, effects on S. pyogenes infections, and reduced antibiotics efficacy). Therefore, in case of infection, symptomatic treatment with NSAIDs for non-severe symptoms (fever, pain, or myalgia) is not to be recommended, given a range of clinical and scientific arguments supporting an increased risk of severe bacterial complication. Besides, the existence of a safer drug alternative, with paracetamol at recommended doses, makes this recommendation of precaution and common sense even more legitimate. In 2020, such recommendation is more topical than ever with the emergence of COVID-19, especially since it results in fever, headaches, muscular pain, and cough, and is further complicated with pneumopathy, and given experimental data suggesting a link between ibuprofen and the level of expression of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2.

A prediction of prostate cancer deathsspiking by SARS-CoV-2 infection

COVID-19 is a global issue, with over 6.25 million cases in 213 countries and territories on June 1, 2020. Althoughthis virus infects all groups, data indicate that the risk for severe disease and death is much higher in older men, which coincides with the same group of patients at risk for prostate cancer. A recent Italian study investigated theprevalence and severity of COVID-19 in men with prostate cancer. This study indicated that of a total of 4,532 men with COVID-19, from the Veneto region of Italy, 9.5% (n=430) had cancer and out of those around 30% (n=118) hadprostate cancer. Data also indicated that male cancer patients had a 1.8-fold increased risk of COVID-19 infectionand developed a more severe disease. Interestingly, they observed that the prostate cancer patients (n=4) treated with androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) were less likely to develop COVID-19, and in those who were infected, thedisease was less severe. In this current study, we focused on determining the genetic basis of the higher COVID-19prevalence and severity in male patients and particularly for prostate cancer patients. Researchers found two genesthat are essential for severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). ACE2 is a SARS-CoV-2receptor, whereas the serine protease, TMPRSS2, primes the virus for cell entry through cleavage of the viral spikeprotein (S). The expression of TMPRSS2 is significantly high in normal prostate tissue and is regulated in large partby an androgen response element in the promoter region. Therefore, we decided to investigate the status of thesetwo genes in various tumors from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database using the cBioportal platform. Weanalyzed over 46,000 tumor samples from 176 studies and found that aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, including neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC), has significantly higher amplification (copy number alteration) ofthe ACE2 and TMPRSS2 genes compared to other cancers. Next, we focused on drugs that could simultaneouslytarget ACE2 or TMPRSS2 and oncogenic pathways and would be beneficial for prostate cancer patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Although several inhibitors are validated in literature for both ACE2 and TMPRSS2, very limitedstudies were performed to see the effect on cancer cells. Therefore, we analyzed a cytotoxic effect database of over130,000 drugs on NCI-60 cell lines with COMPARE algorithm and found two relevant compounds, NSC-148958 (FT-701) and NSC-280594 (triciribine phosphate), which target ACE2 and TMPRSS2, respectively. Computational dataare currently validating different prostate cancer cell-lines and their response to these drugs. In summary, ourfindings provide the premise that men who are at risk for or diagnosed with prostate cancer may be moresusceptible to severe infection and death in response to SARS-CoV-2 due to the high expression of ACE2 andTMPRSS2, and triciribine phosphate and FT-701 could be a therapeutic intervention to target co-occurrence ofCOVID-19 and prostate cancer.