Role of gut microbiome in COVID-19: An insight into pathogenesis and therapeutic potential

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), resulted in an unprecedented global crisis. Although primarily a respiratory illness, dysregulated immune responses may lead to multi-organ dysfunction. Prior data showed that the resident microbial communities of gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts act as modulators of local and systemic inflammatory activity (the gut-lung axis). Evolving evidence now signals an alteration in the gut microbiome, brought upon either by cytokines from the infected respiratory tract or from direct infection of the gut, or both. Dysbiosis leads to a leaky gut . The intestinal permeability then allows access to bacterial products and toxins into the circulatory system and further exacerbates the systemic inflammatory response. In this review, we discuss the available data related to the role of the gut microbiome in the development and progression of COVID-19. We provide mechanistic insights into early data with a focus on immunological crosstalk and the microbiome\u27s potential as a biomarker and therapeutic target

Political Communication and TV Comedy: Examining the Descriptive Patterns of Political Entertainment on Mainstream TV Channels of Pakistan

Political entertainment shows may have political implications whileentertaining. Political issues, political parties and politicalleadership are discussed in these shows employing differentcomedy frames including satire, humor and comedy. Identificationand classification of entertainment content of these shows, on thebasis of comedy formats, frames, types of issues, different politicalparties and their leadership, could help to understand the patternsof political comedy. Thus, this research examines how politicspresented utilizing different patterns of comedy. Data for the study,using content analysis of 1118 representative segments, come fromthe political comedy shows broadcast on mainstream TV channelsof Pakistan. Findings of the study show that there are more satiricalframes used in these shows as compared to humor and parody.Political issues have been given more coverage as compared tosocial and economic issues; and political parties including PPP,PML-N, PTI remain the target of these shows predominantly

Sports Culture in South Asia: Effects of Modern Bowling Action Rules on Cricket, an Information Technology Perspective

Cricket, a famous game played and watched at its peak in Asia. The game is governed by International Cricket Council (ICC). It is a team sport of eleven players in each side with different roles, of which one is bowler. The bowlers have followed different styles of bowling sinces game has started, of which some declared illegal initially. In our study, we have focused on the cases of illegality reported form South Asian region in post 1990 period a new era of biomechanics based bowling laws started. We have also investigated the updated ICC process for bowlers review and remedy along with biomechanics based labs established worldwide. Finally, we have proposed a new information technology based bowling action evaluation solution, lower in cost and affordable at domestic level. Such study will help bowlers, their coaches and viewers to understand the biomechanics based bowling laws, standings of South Asian bowling after these laws and alternative solutions to rescue it

Performance Evaluation of Flexible Pavement Using Carbon Nanotubes and Plastic Waste as Admixtures

This paper investigates the properties of waste plastic film and carbon nanotubes modified asphalt mixes. The composed asphalt mixes have been evaluated for fatigue cracking and rutting. In this research, a total of 30 numbers of samples were prepared with different percentages of waste plastic films and carbon nanotubes from 0.1 to 0.4% and evaluated for dynamic stability and rutting using the wheel tracking machine. Results show that the addition of carbon nanotubes significantly increases the dynamic stability of asphalt and decreases the rutting up to a sufficient level as compared to plastic and conventional bitumen

Association between the choice of the conditioning regimen and outcomes of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for myelofibrosis

Allogeneic hematopoietic; Cell transplantation; MyelofibrosisTrasplante alogénico; Células hematopoyéticas; MielofibrosisTrasplantament al·logènic; Cèl·lules hematopoètiques; MielofibrosiAllogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains the only curative treatment for myelofibrosis. However, the optimal conditioning regimen either with reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) or myeloablative conditioning (MAC) is not well known. Using the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research database, we identified adults aged ≥18 years with myelofibrosis undergoing allo-HCT between 2008-2019 and analyzed the outcomes separately in the RIC and MAC cohorts based on the conditioning regimens used. Among 872 eligible patients, 493 underwent allo-HCT using RIC (fludarabine/ busulfan n=166, fludarabine/melphalan n=327) and 379 using MAC (fludarabine/busulfan n=247, busulfan/cyclophosphamide n=132). In multivariable analysis with RIC, fludarabine/melphalan was associated with inferior overall survival (hazard ratio [HR]=1.80; 95% confidenec interval [CI]: 1.15-2.81; P=0.009), higher early non-relapse mortality (HR=1.81; 95% CI: 1.12-2.91; P=0.01) and higher acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) (grade 2-4 HR=1.45; 95% CI: 1.03-2.03; P=0.03; grade 3-4 HR=2.21; 95%CI: 1.28-3.83; P=0.004) compared to fludarabine/busulfan. In the MAC setting, busulfan/cyclophosphamide was associated with a higher acute GvHD (grade 2-4 HR=2.33; 95% CI: 1.67-3.25; P<0.001; grade 3-4 HR=2.31; 95% CI: 1.52-3.52; P<0.001) and inferior GvHD-free relapse-free survival (GRFS) (HR=1.94; 95% CI: 1.49-2.53; P<0.001) as compared to fludarabine/busulfan. Hence, our study suggests that fludarabine/busulfan is associated with better outcomes in RIC (better overall survival, lower early non-relapse mortality, lower acute GvHD) and MAC (lower acute GvHD and better GRFS) in myelofibrosis.The CIBMTR is supported primarily by Public Health Service U24CA076518 from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); HHSH250201700006C from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); and N00014-20-1-2705 and N00014-20-1-2832 from the Ofce of Naval Research; support is also provided by Be the Match Foundation, the Medical College of Wisconsin, the National Marrow Donor Program, and from the following commercial entities: AbbVie; Accenture; Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Adaptive Biotechnologies Corporation; Adienne SA; Allovir, Inc.; Amgen, Inc.; Astellas Pharma US; bluebird bio, inc.; Bristol Myers Squibb Co.; CareDx; CSL Behring; CytoSen Therapeutics, Inc.; Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd.; Eurofins Viracor, DBA Eurofins Transplant Diagnostics; Fate Therapeutics; Gamida-Cell, Ltd.; Gilead; GlaxoSmithKline; HistoGenetics; Incyte Corporation; Iovance; Janssen Research & Development, LLC; Janssen/Johnson & Johnson; Jasper Therapeutics; Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Kadmon; Karius; Karyopharm Therapeutics; Kiadis Pharma; Kite Pharma Inc; Kite, a Gilead Company; Kyowa Kirin International plc; Kyowa Kirin; Legend Biotech; Magenta Therapeutics; Medac GmbH; Medexus; Merck & Co.; Millennium, the Takeda Oncology Co.; Miltenyi Biotec, Inc.; MorphoSys; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Omeros Corporation; OncoImmune, Inc.; Oncopeptides, Inc.; OptumHealth; Orca Biosystems, Inc.; Ossium Health, Inc; Pfizer, Inc.; Pharmacyclics, LLC; Priothera; Sanofi Genzyme; Seagen, Inc.; Stemcyte; Takeda Pharmaceuticals; Talaris Therapeutics; Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies; TG Therapeutics; Tscan; Vertex; Vor Biopharma; Xenikos BV

Alemtuzumab-based therapy for Secondary Malignant Histiocytosis arising from Pre-B-ALL

Clinical Practice Points: • Secondary Malignant Histiocytosis (SMH) is an exceedingly rare, life-threatening condition that invariably occurs in the presence of an underlying monoclonal hematologic disorder. Prognosis of SMH remains dismal and there is no established treatment. • We report a case of a patient who developed SMH during induction chemotherapy for his underlying pre-B-ALL, that caused persistently high fevers and was only diagnosed by a marrow while cytopenic in phase 2 induction. He was treated with alemtuzumab-based therapy that reduced the histiocytic infiltration of the bone marrow from 80% to 15% and made him eligible to undergo T-cell replete allogeneic stem transplantation from his sibling. • This report is the first to highlight the role of alemtuzumab, an anti-CD52 monoclonal antibody, in clonal disorders originating from transdifferentiation. • The alemtuzumab-based regimen should be reserved only for carefully selected allogeneic transplant patients. Keywords: Secondary Malignant Histiocytosis (SMH), Pre-B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (Pre-B-ALL), Transdifferentiation, C/EBPα, PAX

In-vitro Susceptibility of FMD Virus Serotype A Endemic in KPK, Pakistan

Foot and Mouth Disease virus (FMDV) serotype A is considered to be antigenic ally diverse among various geographical locations leading to diverse patterns of resistance and sensitivity. This phenomenon is posing high risks to global trade. This is the first study to quantify the effects of different physical factors (temperature, pH, UV and gamma irradiation) affecting the infectivity of FMDV serotype A.The infectivity of virus was calculated in term of tissue culture infectivity dose-50 (TCID-50) and plaque forming units (PFU). Virus in suspension (6×106 particles/ml) was treated using Cobalt-60 source in BHK-21 cell line grown in 96 well plates. The virus showed complete inactivation on 3, 5, 9 and 11 pH and 10kGy dose of gamma irradiations.The results revealed that increase in temperature (both moist and dry heat) and UV light as well as increase in time of exposure with same dose of UV irradiations significantly decreased the infectivity of virus (p&lt;0.05). These physical factors are a better alternate for virus inactivation than chemicals, which are toxic for the health and accumulate in the animal products. It is recommended that viral strains should be analyzed for their susceptibility to these physical methods. They could also be combined with thermal inactivation to further improve virus inactivity to obtain virus free products.