Surveillance of active human cytomegalovirus infection in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HLA sibling identical donor): search for optimal cutoff value by real-time PCR

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Human cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection still causes significant morbidity and mortality after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Therefore, it is extremely important to diagnosis and monitor active CMV infection in HSCT patients, defining the CMV DNA levels of virus replication that warrant intervention with antiviral agents in order to accurately prevent CMV disease and further related complications.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>During the first 150 days after allogeneic HSTC, thirty patients were monitored weekly for active CMV infection by <it>pp65 </it>antigenemia, nested-PCR and real-time PCR assays. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot analysis was performed to determine a threshold value of the CMV DNA load by real-time PCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using ROC curves, the optimal cutoff value by real-time PCR was 418.4 copies/10⁴PBL (sensitivity, 71.4%; specificity, 89.7%). Twenty seven (90%) of the 30 analyzed patients had active CMV infection and two (6.7%) developed CMV disease. Eleven (40.7%) of these 27 patients had acute GVHD, 18 (66.7%) had opportunistic infection, 5 (18.5%) had chronic rejection and 11 (40.7%) died - one died of CMV disease associated with GVHD and bacterial infection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The low incidence of CMV disease in HSCT recipients in our study attests to the efficacy of CMV surveillance based on clinical routine assay. The quantification of CMV DNA load using real-time PCR appears to be applicable to the clinical practice and an optimal cutoff value for guiding timely preemptive therapy should be clinically validated in future studies.</p

No Evidence of Persisting Unrepaired Nuclear DNA Single Strand Breaks in Distinct Types of Cells in the Brain, Kidney, and Liver of Adult Mice after Continuous Eight-Week 50 Hz Magnetic Field Exposure with Flux Density of 0.1 mT or 1.0 mT

BACKGROUND: It has been hypothesized in the literature that exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (50 or 60 Hz) may lead to human health effects such as childhood leukemia or brain tumors. In a previous study investigating multiple types of cells from brain and kidney of the mouse (Acta Neuropathologica 2004; 107: 257-264), we found increased unrepaired nuclear DNA single strand breaks (nDNA SSB) only in epithelial cells of the choroid plexus in the brain using autoradiographic methods after a continuous eight-week 50 Hz magnetic field (MF) exposure of adult mice with flux density of 1.5 mT. METHODS: In the present study we tested the hypothesis that MF exposure with lower flux densities (0.1 mT, i.e., the actual exposure limit for the population in most European countries, and 1.0 mT) shows similar results to those in the previous study. Experiments and data analysis were carried out in a similar way as in our previous study. RESULTS: Continuous eight-week 50 Hz MF exposure with 0.1 mT or 1.0 mT did not result in increased persisting unrepaired nDNA SSB in distinct types of cells in the brain, kidney, and liver of adult mice. MF exposure with 1.0 mT led to reduced unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) in epithelial cells in the choroid plexus of the fourth ventricle in the brain (EC-CP) and epithelial cells of the cortical collecting duct in the kidney, as well as to reduced mtDNA synthesis in neurons of the caudate nucleus in the brain and in EC-CP. CONCLUSION: No evidence was found for increased persisting unrepaired nDNA SSB in distinct types of cells in the brain, kidney, and liver of adult mice after continuous eight-week 50 Hz magnetic field exposure with flux density of 0.1 mT or 1.0 mT

SpOT-Light: Lightweight Private Set Intersection from Sparse OT Extension

We describe a novel approach for two-party private set intersection (PSI) with semi-honest security. Compared to existing PSI protocols, ours has a more favorable balance between communication and computation. Specifically, our protocol has the lowest monetary cost of any known PSI protocol, when run over the Internet using cloud-based computing services (taking into account current rates for CPU + data). On slow networks (e.g., 10Mbps) our protocol is actually the fastest. Our novel underlying technique is a variant of oblivious transfer (OT) extension that we call sparse OT extension. Conceptually it can be thought of as a communication-efficient multipoint oblivious PRF evaluation. Our sparse OT technique relies heavily on manipulating high-degree polynomials over large finite fields (i.e. elements whose representation requires hundreds of bits). We introduce extensive algorithmic and engineering improvements for interpolation and multi-point evaluation of such polynomials, which we believe will be of independent interest. Finally, we present an extensive empirical comparison of state-of-the- art PSI protocols in several application scenarios and along several dimensions of measurement: running time, communication, peak memory consumption, and — arguably the most relevant metric for practice — monetary cos

Washing our hands of the congenital cytomegalovirus disease epidemic

BACKGROUND: Each year in the United States, an estimated 40,000 children are born with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, causing an estimated 400 deaths and leaving approximately 8000 children with permanent disabilities such as hearing or vision loss, or mental retardation. More children are affected by serious CMV-related disabilities than by several better-known childhood maladies, including Down syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, and spina bifida. DISCUSSION: Congenital CMV is a prime target for prevention not only because of its substantial disease burden but also because the biology and epidemiology of CMV suggest that there are ways to reduce viral transmission. Because exposure to the saliva or urine of young children is a major cause of CMV infection among pregnant women, it is likely that good personal hygiene, especially hand-washing, can reduce the risk of CMV acquisition. Experts agree that such measures are likely to be efficacious (i.e., they will work if consistently followed) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that physicians counsel pregnant women about preventing CMV acquisition through careful attention to hygiene. However, because of concerns about effectiveness (i.e., Will women consistently follow hygienic practices as the result of interventions?), the medical and public health communities appear reluctant to embrace primary CMV prevention via improved hygienic practices, and educational interventions are rare. Current data on the effectiveness of such measures in preventing CMV infection are promising, but limited. There is strong evidence, however, that educational interventions can prevent other infectious diseases with similar transmission modes, suggesting that effective interventions can also be found for CMV. Until a CMV vaccine becomes available, effective educational interventions are needed to inform women about congenital CMV prevention. SUMMARY: Perhaps no single cause of birth defects and developmental disabilities in the United States currently provides greater opportunity for improved outcomes in more children than congenital CMV. Given the present state of knowledge, women deserve to be informed about how they can reduce their risk of CMV infection during pregnancy, and trials are needed to identify effective educational interventions

Genotype Prevalence and Risk Factors for Severe Clinical Adenovirus Infection, United States 2004-2006

Recently, epidemiological and clinical data have revealed important changes with regard to clinical adenovirus infection, including alterations in antigenic presentation, geographical distribution, and virulence of the virus

CrypTFlow2: Practical 2-Party Secure Inference

We present CrypTFlow2, a cryptographic framework for secure inference over realistic Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) using secure 2-party computation. CrypTFlow2 protocols are both correct -- i.e., their outputs are bitwise equivalent to the cleartext execution -- and efficient -- they outperform the state-of-the-art protocols in both latency and scale. At the core of CrypTFlow2, we have new 2PC protocols for secure comparison and division, designed carefully to balance round and communication complexity for secure inference tasks. Using CrypTFlow2, we present the first secure inference over ImageNet-scale DNNs like ResNet50 and DenseNet121. These DNNs are at least an order of magnitude larger than those considered in the prior work of 2-party DNN inference. Even on the benchmarks considered by prior work, CrypTFlow2 requires an order of magnitude less communication and 20x-30x less time than the state-of-the-art