After SARS-CoV-2, will H5N6 and other influenza viruses follow the pandemic path?

While the world is focused on attending, controlling, and mitigating the current pandemic of COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, other viral threats are possibly emerging and reemerging especially in Asia, posing a risk for the spread in that region and beyond. A predictable threat is the avian influenza virus, especially H5N6, which has recently led to significant outbreaks in China and the Philippines, deserving more attention and control. In the current review, we assess the history of this highly pathogenic reemerging virus, as well as the contemporary implications of poultry outbreaks occurring in some Asian countries. We also look at outbreaks due to other strains not only in Asia but also across Europe and Africa, according to recent reports from the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE)

Targeted metabolomics reveals plasma biomarkers and metabolic alterations of the aging process in healthy young and older adults.

With the exponential growth in the older population in the coming years, many studies have aimed to further investigate potential biomarkers associated with the aging process and its incumbent morbidities. Age is the largest risk factor for chronic disease, likely due to younger individuals possessing more competent adaptive metabolic networks that result in overall health and homeostasis. With aging, physiological alterations occur throughout the metabolic system that contribute to functional decline. In this cross-sectional analysis, a targeted metabolomic approach was applied to investigate the plasma metabolome of young (21-40y; n = 75) and older adults (65y + ; n = 76). A corrected general linear model (GLM) was generated, with covariates of gender, BMI, and chronic condition score (CCS), to compare the metabolome of the two populations. Among the 109 targeted metabolites, those associated with impaired fatty acid metabolism in the older population were found to be most significant: palmitic acid (p \u3c 0.001), 3-hexenedioic acid (p \u3c 0.001), stearic acid (p = 0.005), and decanoylcarnitine (p = 0.036). Derivatives of amino acid metabolism, 1-methlyhistidine (p = 0.035) and methylhistamine (p = 0.027), were found to be increased in the younger population and several novel metabolites were identified, such as cadaverine (p = 0.034) and 4-ethylbenzoic acid (p = 0.029). Principal component analysis was conducted and highlighted a shift in the metabolome for both groups. Receiver operating characteristic analyses of partial least squares-discriminant analysis models showed the candidate markers to be more powerful indicators of age than chronic disease. Pathway and enrichment analyses uncovered several pathways and enzymes predicted to underlie the aging process, and an integrated hypothesis describing functional characteristics of the aging process was synthesized. Compared to older participants, the young group displayed greater abundance of metabolites related to lipid and nucleotide synthesis; older participants displayed decreased fatty acid oxidation and reduced tryptophan metabolism, relative to the young group. As a result, we offer a better understanding of the aging metabolome and potentially reveal new biomarkers and predicted mechanisms for future study

N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide in the early evaluation of suspected acute myocardial infarction

Myocardial ischemia is a strong trigger of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) release. As ischemia precedes necrosis in acute myocardial infarction, we hypothesized that NT-proBNP might be useful in the early diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction

Evaluation and validation of an RT-PCR assay for specific detection of monkeypox virus (MPXV)

Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is a zoonotic orthopoxvirus within the Poxviridae family. MPXV is endemic to Central and West Africa. However, the world is currently witnessing an international outbreak with no clear epidemiological links to travel or animal exposure and with ever-increasing numbers of reported cases worldwide. Here, we evaluated and validated a new, sensitive, and specific real-time PCR-assay for MPXV diagnosis in humans and compare the performance of this novel assay against a Food & Drug Administration-cleared pan-Orthopox RT-PCR assay. We determined specificity, sensitivity, and analytic performance of the PKamp™ Monkeypox Virus RT-PCR assay targeting the viral F3L-gene. In addition, we further evaluated MPXV-PCR-positive specimens by viral culture, electron microscopy, and viral inactivation assays. The limit of detection was established at 7.2 genome copies/reaction, and MPXV was successfully identified in 20 clinical specimens with 100% correlation against the reference method with 100% sensitivity and specificity. Our results demonstrated the validity of this rapid, robust, and reliable RT-PCR assay for specific and accurate diagnosis of MPXV infection in human specimens collected both as dry swabs and in viral transport media. This assay has been approved by NYS Department of Health for clinical us