If a vaccine against COVID-19 was available, would you like to be vaccinated? And are you vaccinated against flu and other diseases? A survey among university students during state of emergency.

AIM: Achieving sufficient vaccination rate (and herd immunity respectively) is considered to be the most promising strategy for prevention of outbreaks of novel coronavirus disease in future. The main aim of this work was to compare willingness of university students to receive vaccine against COVID-19 with vaccines for adults against other well-known diseases. Another aim was to assess students´ opinion on growing trend of parents refusing to vaccinate children. METHODS: The online questionnaire shared with students consisted of 12 questions. It was distributed via university bulk emails and social media. RESULTS: 3,133 students responded to our questionnaire. Overall university response rate was 15.9%. Students of our university showed significantly much stronger interest in receiving vaccine against COVID-19 than vaccine against other diseases (p < 0.0001). Students also showed strong pro-vaccination attitude to vaccination of children. CONCLUSION: The study showed very well sudden change of attitude of university students to vaccination of adults at the time of strong restrictive regulations. Most of university students had pro-vaccination attitude to vaccination of children.

Acceptance of a vaccine against COVID-19 - a systematic review of surveys conducted worldwide.

OBJECTIVES: The most promising strategy for managing COVID-19 pandemic is achieving sufficient vaccination rate worldwide. The question is how many people will be willing to get vaccinated. STUDY DESIGN: We systematically reviewed peer-reviewed manuscripts monitoring people´s intention to receive a vaccine against COVID-19. METHODS: Up to December 28, 2020 we identified 62 relevant peer-reviewed articles in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus and GoogleScholar. RESULTS: Total sample size was 118 855 respondents with overall average COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate of 72.5% which is "just" the level estimated to be sufficient for reaching herd immunity threshold. Surprisingly, healthcare workers showed smaller interest in receiving the vaccine when compared to general adult population and university students. On the other hand, their attitude to vaccination did not change over time. In case of general adult population, the longer the pandemic lasts, the smaller proportion of population wants to get vaccinated. Vaccination intentions were independent of gross domestic product and human development index. CONCLUSION: Willingness of population to receive COVID-19 is just at the herd immunity threshold and it is decreasing over time (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 110).  Keywords: vaccination, survey, COVID-19, pandemic, review.

Influence of fixation method and duration of archiving on immunohistochemical staining intensity in embryonic and fetal tissues.

INTRODUCTION: In this study we detail the effect of different fixation agents and the duration of storage has on the immunohistochemical staining positivity of samples of archival embryonic and fetal tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The samples were stained by indirect two-step immunohistochemistry (IHC) method for Ki-67, cyclin A and ß-actin. RESULTS: Irrespective of the length of tissue archiving, tissue fixation with 10% neutral buffered formalin had better IHC intensity results in all cases when compared to methacarn-fixed tissues. In the case of ß-actin, this difference was statistically significant, while differences in Ki-67 and cyclin A were not. The second aspect studied was which effect tissue block archiving duration has on the IHC reactivity. We demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in IHC positivity for all studied antigens between the samples that were archived for 10-19 or 20-45 years, regardless the fixative solution. CONCLUSION: To the best of our knowledge, the influence that the duration of tissue block archiving has on IHC positivity in human embryo and fetal tissue material has not yet been studied. Although the causes of the IHC positivity decline in archived tissue blocks are not well understood, a possible decrease in IHC over time should be considered, particularly in retrospective studies.

Time-dependent expression pattern of cytochrome P450 epoxygenases and soluble epoxide hydrolase in normal human placenta.

CYP2C and CYP2 J enzymes, commonly named as cytochrome P450 (CYP) epoxygenases, convert arachidonic acid to four regioisomeric epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs), biologically active eicosanoids with many functions in organism. EETs are rapidly hydrolysed to less active dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs) by soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH). We investigated spatio-temporal expression pattern of CYP2C8, CYP2C9, CYP2 J2 and sEH in normal human placenta by immunohistochemical method. In the villous trophoblast, CYP2C8 was the most abundant protein. Its expression is higher than the CYP2C9 and CYP2 J2 in the cytotrophoblast in the embryonic stage of development and remains higher in syncytiotrophoblast of term placenta. Unlike to CYP2C8, CYP2C9 and CYP2 J2 expression decrease in term placenta. sEH expression increases with gestation age and is strictly limited to cytotrophoblast in embryonic and foetal stages of the development. Moreover, CYP2C8 shows more intensive staining than the other protein monitored in Hofbauer cells in villous stroma. Specific information regarding the exact role of EETs and DHETs functions in a normal placenta is still unknown. Based on CYP epoxygenases and sEH localization and well known information about the functions of placental structures during development, we suggest that these enzymes could play different roles in various cell populations in the placenta. As the placenta is absolutely crucial for prenatal development, arachidonic acid is essential part of human nutrient and CYP epoxygenases expression can be affected by xenobiotics, further investigation of the exact role of CYP epoxygenases, sEH, and their metabolites in normal pregnancy and under pathological conditions is needed.

Prognostic role of serum C-reactive protein in patients with advanced-stage NSCLC treated with pemetrexed.

Pemetrexed is an intravenously administered antifolate cytostatic agent targeting several folate-dependent enzymatic pathways, widely used in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). It has been previously demonstrated that the superiority of pemetrexed is limited to patients with non-squamous histology. Aside from the non-squamous histology, there is still no available molecular biomarker predicting treatment efficacy of pemetrexed-based chemotherapy. The aim of our retrospective study was to evaluate the association of baseline serum levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) with outcomes in a large cohort of patients with non-squamous NSCLC treated with pemetrexed. Clinical data of 325 patients were analysed. Serum samples were collected within one week before the initiation of treatment. The median progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for patients with high CRP was 2.1 and 9.5 compared to 4.2 and 20.5 months for those with normal CRP (p=0.002 and p<0.001, respectively). The multivariable Cox proportional hazards model revealed that serum CRP (HR=1.46, p=0.002) was significantly associated with PFS and also with OS (HR=1.95, p<0.001). In conclusion, the study results suggest that pretreatment serum CRP is associated with poor outcome of non-squamous NSCLC patients treated with pemetrexed.

Differential expression of ABC transporters (MDR1, MRP1, BCRP) in developing human embryos.

Three ABC transporters (MDR1, MRP1, BCRP), belonging to the family of multidrug resistance (MDR) proteins, play a crucial role in the protection mechanisms during embryogenesis and mediate drug resistance in cancer cells. The distribution of these transporters in the series of human embryonal/fetal intestine, liver and kidneys of various stages of intrauterine development (IUD) by indirect two-step immunohistochemical method was investigated. The organ- and age-specific expression patterns of these transporters were depicted and compared with the expression in adult organs. The evaluation of intestine and liver samples demonstrate differences in expression pattern of ABC transporters during IUD. On the contrary, in kidneys the age-specific localization was not observed. However, the increasing positivity from the kidney surface towards deeper, more differentiated parts was found. Hopefully, our study may contribute to elucidation of the role of multidrug resistance (MDR) pathways during IUD in man.