Cellular miR-6741-5p as a Prognostic Biomarker Predicting Length of Hospital Stay among COVID-19 Patients.

Wide variability exists with host response to SARS-CoV-2 infection among individuals. Circulatory micro RNAs (miRNAs) are being recognized as promising biomarkers for complex traits, including viral pathogenesis. We hypothesized that circulatory miRNAs at 48 h post hospitalization may predict the length of stay (LOS) and prognosis of COVID-19 patients. Plasma miRNA levels were compared between three groups: (i) healthy volunteers (C); (ii) COVID-19 patients treated with remdesivir (an antiviral) plus dexamethasone (a glucocorticoid) (with or without baricitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor) on the day of hospitalization (I); and COVID-19 patients at 48 h post treatment (T). Results showed that circulatory miR-6741-5p expression levels were significantly different between groups C and I (p < 0.0000001); I and T (p < 0.0000001); and C and T (p = 0.001). Our ANOVA model estimated that all patients with less than 12.42 Log2 CPM had a short LOS, or a good prognosis, whereas all patients with over 12.42 Log2 CPM had a long LOS, or a poor prognosis. In sum, we show that circulatory miR-6741-5p may serve as a prognostic biomarker effectively predicting mortality risk and LOS of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Diabetes mortality rates among African Americans: A descriptive analysis pre and post Medicaid expansion.

BACKGROUND: Compared with other racial and ethnic groups, African Americans are disproportionately burdened by high rates of deaths due to diabetes. Insurance coverage and access to primary care are critical for prevention and chronic disease management. PURPOSE: To examine the difference in age-adjusted diabetes mortality rates in African Americans before and after Medicaid expansion. METHODS: Using ICD-10 Cause List E10-E14, age-adjusted diabetes mortality rates among African Americans were extracted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Compressed Mortality File. Sufficient and reliable data were available for 36 states and the District of Columbia. With a 95% confidence interval, two periods were analyzed: pre-Medicaid expansion - years 2008, 2009, 2010 and post-Medicaid expansion - years 2014, 2015, 2016. Three-year means for both periods were calculated for each state. Differences for each state are presented and contextualized as a state that opted in or out of expanding Medicaid coverage. RESULTS: There was a slight reduction in diabetes mortality in African Americans (41.14/100,000 pre-expansion and 38.94/100,000 post-expansion). We found variability across states - regardless of expansion status. Differences in rates ranged from a decrease of 15.43/100,000 to an increase of 9.53/100,000. Out of all states that met our criteria, 24 states expanded coverage; age-adjusted diabetes death rates declined in 16 of those states. There were also reductions in eight states that did not expand coverage. CONCLUSION: Future research is needed to explore if Medicaid expansion is associated with reductions in diabetes mortality in the African American community.

Virus reactivation: a panoramic view in human infections.

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites, relying to a major extent on the host cell for replication. An active replication of the viral genome results in a lytic infection characterized by the release of new progeny virus particles, often upon the lysis of the host cell. Another mode of virus infection is the latent phase, where the virus is 'quiescent' (a state in which the virus is not replicating). A combination of these stages, where virus replication involves stages of both silent and productive infection without rapidly killing or even producing excessive damage to the host cells, falls under the umbrella of a persistent infection. Reactivation is the process by which a latent virus switches to a lytic phase of replication. Reactivation may be provoked by a combination of external and/or internal cellular stimuli. Understanding this mechanism is essential in developing future therapeutic agents against viral infection and subsequent disease. This article examines the published literature and current knowledge regarding the viral and cellular proteins that may play a role in viral reactivation. The focus of the article is on those viruses known to cause latent infections, which include herpes simplex virus, varicella zoster virus, Epstein-Barr virus, human cytomegalovirus, human herpesvirus 6, human herpesvirus 7, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, JC virus, BK virus, parvovirus and adenovirus.

Pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-gauze packing for bone-bed preparation in cemented total hip arthroplasty: a bovine model.

PURPOSE: To compare the effectiveness of pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-gauze packing with either technique alone or normal-saline irrigation in bone-bed preparation for cemented total hip arthroplasty. METHODS: 44 fresh-frozen ox femoral canals were prepared for cemented total hip arthroplasty using 4 techniques: normal-saline irrigation, pulse-lavage brushing, hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing, and a combination of the latter 2 techniques. The maximum tensile pull-out force required to separate the prosthesis from the femoral canal was measured as an indicator of the strength of the cement-bone interface. RESULTS: The mean pull-out force to separate the prosthesis from the femoral canal was significantly higher in specimens prepared with pulse-lavage brushing followed by hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing or pulse-lavage brushing alone than those prepared with normal-saline irrigation or hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing alone (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Pulse-lavage brushing is more effective at cleansing the femoral canal and increasing mechanical strength at the cement-bone interface than preparation with normal-saline irrigation or hydrogen peroxide-soaked gauze packing.

A re-investigation of the path of carbon in photosynthesis utilizing GC/MS methodology. Unequivocal verification of the participation of octulose phosphates in the pathway.

A GC/EIMS/SIM methodology has been developed to re-examine the path of carbon in photosynthesis. Exposing isolated spinach chloroplasts to 13CO2 on a solid support for a defined period followed by quenching and work-up provided a mixture of labelled sugar phosphates. After enzymatic dephosphorylation and derivatization, the Mox-TMS sugars were analysed using the above method. The purpose of the study was to try to calculate the atom% enrichment of 13C in as many of the individual carbons in each of the derivatized sugars as was practical using diagnostic fragment ions. In the event, only one 45 s experiment provided sufficient data to enable a range of enrichment values to be calculated. This confirmed that D-glycero-D-altro-octulose phosphate was present in the chloroplasts and was heavily labelled in the C4, C5 and C6 positions, in keeping with the hypothesis that it had an inclusive role and a labelling pattern consistent with a new modified pathway of carbon in photosynthesis.

The metabolic significance of octulose phosphates in the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle in spinach.

14C-Labelled octulose phosphates were formed during photosynthetic 14CO2 fixation and were measured in spinach leaves and chloroplasts. Because mono- and bisphosphates of D: -glycero- D: -ido-octulose are the active 8-carbon ketosugar intermediates of the L-type pentose pathway, it was proposed that they may also be reactants in a modified Calvin-Benson-Bassham pathway reaction scheme. This investigation therefore initially focussed only on the ido-epimer of the octulose phosphates even though 14C-labelled D: -glycero- D: -altro-octulose mono- and bisphosphates were also identified in chloroplasts and leaves. 14CO2 predominantly labelled positions 5 and 6 of D: -glycero- D: -ido-octulose 1,8-P2 consistent with labelling predictions of the modified scheme. The kinetics of 14CO2 incorporation into ido-octulose was similar to its incorporation into some traditional intermediates of the path of carbon, while subsequent exposure to 12CO2 rapidly displaced the 14C isotope label from octulose with the same kinetics of label loss as some of the confirmed Calvin pathway intermediates. This is consistent with octulose phosphates having the role of cyclic intermediates rather than synthesized storage products. (Storage products don't rapidly exchange isotopically labelled carbons with unlabelled CO2.)A spinach chloroplast extract, designated stromal enzyme preparation (SEP), catalysed and was used to measure rates of CO(2) assimilation with Calvin cycle intermediates and octulose and arabinose phosphates. Only pentose (but not arabinose) phosphates and sedoheptulose 7-phosphate supported CO2 fixation at rates in excess of 120 micromol h(-1) mg(-1) Chl. Rates for octulose, sedoheptulose and fructose bisphosphates, octulose, hexose and triose monophosphates were all notably less than the above rate and arabinose 5-phosphate was inactive. Altro-octulose phosphates were more active than phosphate esters of the ido-epimer. The modified scheme proposed a specific phosphotransferase and SEP unequivocally catalysed reversible phosphate transfer between sedoheptulose bisphosphate and D: -glycero- D: -ido-octulose 8-phosphate. It was also initially hypothesized that arabinose 5-phosphate, an L-Type pentose pathway reactant, may have a role in a modified Calvin pathway. Arabinose 5-phosphate is present in spinach chloroplasts and leaves. Radiochromatography showed that 14C-arabinose 5-phosphate with SEP, but only in the presence of an excess of unlabelled ribose 5-phosphate, lightly labelled ribulose 5-phosphate and more heavily labelled hexose and sedoheptulose mono- and bisphosphates. However, failure to demonstrate any CO2 fixation by arabinose 5-phosphate as sole substrate suggested that the above labelling may have no metabolic significance. Despite this arabinose and ribose 5-phosphates are shown to exhibit active roles as enzyme co-factors in transaldolase and aldolase exchange reactions that catalyse the epimeric interconversions of the phosphate esters of ido- and altro-octulose. Arabinose 5-phosphate is presented as playing this role in a New Reaction Scheme for the path of carbon, where it is concluded that slow reacting ido-octulose 1,8 bisphosphate has no role. The more reactive altro-octulose phosphates, which are independent of the need for phosphotransferase processing, are presented as intermediates in the new scheme. Moreover, using the estimates of phosphotransferase activity with altro-octulose monophosphate as substrate allowed calculation of the contributions of the new scheme, that ranged from 11% based on the intact chloroplast carboxylation rate to 80% using the carboxylation rate required for the support of octulose phosphate synthesis and its role in the phosphotransferase reaction.

Influence of organic carbon on reductive dechlorination of thiobencarb in California rice field soils.

The herbicide thiobencarb is suspected of causing delayed phytotoxicity syndrome (DPS) in rice plants. While the ultimate agent appears to be its dechlorinated product (deschlorothiobencarb), the influence of organic carbon on the formation of deschlorothiobencarb in California rice field soils has not been investigated. Thus, two different soils were compared for their ability to reductively dechlorinate thiobencarb with carbon augmentation: one from the eastern Sacramento Valley, which has historically displayed DPS, and one from the western Sacramento Valley, which has not. Rice straw was homogenized into samples of each soil to produce 0, 0.33 or 2% organic carbon augmentation. During 90-days of anoxic incubation, substantial deschlorothiobencarb production was measured in both soil types. However, only the thiobencarb degradation rate in the eastern valley soil was positively correlated with carbon content. Thus, other characteristics of DPS-resistant soils may limit deschlorothiobencarb formation.