Gender influences headache characteristics with increasing age in migraine patients

Background and aims Migraine headache is one of the most common primary headache disorders and is three times more prevalent in women than in men, especially during the reproductive ages. The neurobiological basis of the female dominance has been partly established. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of gender on the headache manifestations in migraine patients

Safety Evaluation and Tolerability Overview of Favipiravir in the Management of COVID-19: A Real-Life Experience from Turkey

Introduction: Coronavirus diseases-2019 (COVID-19) have been ongoing for more than two years. Despite the scientific researchconducted in this process, there is still no widely accepted definitive treatment for the disease. For treating COVID-19, using antiviralagents previously used for the treatment of other RNA-virus infections has been seen as a fast way to a solution, and favipiravir is oneof the leading agents. This prospective, multicenter, observational study was designed to investigate the safety of favipiravir in 500patients treated with favipravir for favipravir.Methods: This study was conducted as a multicenter prospective study. Eight different sites from four cities participated, and 500patients were included in the study. Follow-up of laboratory parameters, adverse events (AEs), and amelioration of fever, dyspnea,and cough symptoms of the patients was recorded in a case report form.Results: A total of 475 patients from eight centers completed the study. A total of 401 AEs were reported in 206 (51.4%) patients, whichwere mild-to-moderate in the majority of cases. Serious AEs occurred in 5 patients and death occurred in 4 patients. From the first tothe last measurement, serum alanine aminotransferase levels (31.9±27.7 vs. 47.2±49.7 U/L, p&lt;0.001) increased, whereas C-reactiveprotein (39.9±66.4 vs. 15.2±30.5 mg/L, p&lt;0.001) and creatine kinase (101.7±187.7 vs. 71.9±43.5 U/L, p=0.018) levels decreased. Infollow-up parameters, oxygen saturation (SpO2; 96.2±2.7 vs. 97.5±2.1%, p&lt;0.001) and amelioration of fever (&gt;37.8 for 6.6% on day 3,3.2% on day 5, and 0.6% on day 10), dyspnea (for 56.4% on day 5, 62.4% on day 7, and 81.2% on day 10), and cough (46.0% on day 5,73.0% on day 7, and 87.3% on day 10) were noted in an increasingly higher percentage of patients with continued therapy.Conclusion: The current study provides real-life data of favipiravir, which is a unique option in Turkey for treating COVID-19 patients.The results revealed that favipiravir is a well-tolerated agent with a low side-effect profile. However, it needs to be evaluated withwell-designed, dose-compared, randomized controlled studies for the evaluation of efficacy</p

Electron dynamics in supported metal nanoparticles: relaxation and charge transfer studied by time-resolved photoemission

Pfeiffer W, Kennerknecht C, Merschdorf M. Electron dynamics in supported metal nanoparticles: relaxation and charge transfer studied by time-resolved photoemission. Applied Physics A. 2004;78(7):1011-1028.Resonant excitation of the plasmon polariton in supported nanoparticles leads to a strong enhancement of the multiphoton photoemission yield and consequently, the total yield is dominated by the emission from the nanoparticles although they cover only a minor fraction of the surface. This allows investigation of the electron dynamics in supported nanoparticles, directly in the time domain. Here, Ag nanoparticles grown on graphite are used to demonstrate that the transient shape of the photoemission spectrum in time-resolved two-color multiphoton photoemission spectroscopy, reveals the electron relaxation within the nanoparticle, and the dynamic charge transfer between substrate and nanoparticle. The photoemission spectra map the transient electron energy distribution and exhibit a transient shift that is attributed to a dynamic charging of the nanoparticle. The comparison with model calculations comprising the full relaxation cascade in the nanoparticle and substrate, shows that the dynamic charge transfer accounts for almost half of the total deposited energy in the nanoparticle

Development and preclinical evaluation of virus-like particle vaccine against COVID-19 infection

Background Vaccines that incorporate multiple SARS-CoV-2 antigens can further broaden the breadth of virus-specific cellular and humoral immunity. This study describes the development and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 VLP vaccine that incorporates the four structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Methods VLPs were generated in transiently transfected HEK293 cells, purified by multimodal chromatography, and characterized by tunable-resistive pulse sensing, AFM, SEM, and TEM. Immunoblotting studies verified the protein identities of VLPs. Cellular and humoral immune responses of immunized animals demonstrated the immune potency of the formulated VLP vaccine. Results Transiently transfected HEK293 cells reproducibly generated vesicular VLPs that were similar in size to and expressing all four structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Alum adsorbed, K3-CpG ODN-adjuvanted VLPs elicited high titer anti-S, anti-RBD, anti-N IgG, triggered multifunctional Th1-biased T-cell responses, reduced virus load, and prevented lung pathology upon live virus challenge in vaccinated animals. Conclusion These data suggest that VLPs expressing all four structural protein antigens of SARS-CoV-2 are immunogenic and can protect animals from developing COVID-19 infection following vaccination