Long-acting antiretroviral injectable : who would benefit?

"People with HIV (PWH) face many challenges in obtaining HIV care: transportation issues, travel distance, competing life events, etc. Long-acting (LA)-injectable antiretrovirals (ART) could help curb some of these barriers. This project aimed to determine which patients seen at the MU outpatient HIV clinic would be candidates to receive the LA-injectable ART Cabotegravir/Rilpivirine (Cabenuva) as an alternative to a standard oral daily regimen in order to promote further HIV medication adherence."--Introduction

Telehealth implementation at MedZou Community Health Clinic in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

This study aims to describe the transition in care delivery which occurred at MedZou in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how implementation of telehealth services was achieved

Documenting the Impact of a Food Pantry Program in Promoting Stability and Independence Among New Haven Residents

An estimated 22% of New Haven residents live with food insecurity. This means more than 1 in 5 residents of New Haven do not have enough food or enough money to buy food. Notably, issues of food insecurity disproportionately affect people of color and those of lower socioeconomic status, therefore exacerbating disparities in health issues related to food insecurity.2 Christian Community Action (CCA) is a local social service organization that provides housing, financial assistance, food, and other support services for low-income New Haven residents. Their food pantry program, which operates on an appointment-only basis, has regularly provided food to over 80 individuals and families in the New Haven area. CCA is interested in identifying areas for improvement to strengthen their service provision and are also collecting data to bolster their advocacy efforts. The objectives of this project are as follows: 1. Assess satisfaction amongst users of a food pantry program in New Haven. 2. Develop a sustainable method for obtaining and incorporating feedback for quality improvement processes. 3. Strengthen understanding of how usage of CCA’s food pantry promotes stability and independence among food pantry users.https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysph_pbchrr/1030/thumbnail.jp

Peptide refinement using a stochastic search

Identifying a peptide based on a scan from a mass spectrometer is an important yet highly challenging problem. To identify peptides, we present a Bayesian approach which uses prior information about the average relative abundances of bond cleavages and the prior probability of any particular amino acid sequence. The proposed scoring function is composed of two overall distance measures, which measure how close an observed spectrum is to a theoretical scan for a peptide. Our use of our scoring function, which approximates a likelihood, has connections to the generalization presented by Bissiri et al. (2016) of the Bayesian framework. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is employed to simulate candidate choices from the posterior distribution of the peptide sequence. The true peptide is estimated as the peptide with the largest posterior density

Pyogenic liver abscess and gastrointestinal lemierre syndrome due to fusobacterium nucleatum

Pyogenic liver abscess (PLA) affects men disproportionately to women and is occurring with increasing incidence. The mortality associated with PLA nears 15% in the Western world. PLA constitutes a significant number of total liver abscesses and can rarely be caused by the gram-negative bacilli, Fusobacterium. Virulent strains of Fusobacterium have been described as a rare cause of thrombophlebitis and metastatic abscesses. Fusobacterium necrophorum is specifically implicated in the development of Lemierre syndrome (LS) which comprises periodontal abscess and internal jugular vein thrombosis. Similar infection involving intra-abdominal abscess and abdominal vessel thrombosis suggests a gastrointestinal (GI) variant of LS. We describe a case of liver abscesses and hepatic vein septic thrombosis due to Fusobacterium nucleatum in a healthy adult male patient without significant risk factors.Nicole Hitchcock, MS2 (1); Taylor B. Nelson, DO (2) ; 1. University of Missouri School of Medicine. 2. University of Missouri, Division of Infectious Diseases.Includes bibliographical reference

Studies on the base-catalysed addition of amines to alkynes and allenes: A novel cascade sequence for the construction of spirocyclic aminals

Indoles can be prepared by the intramolecular addition of resin bound amides to allenyl sulfoxides. Amino alkynols have been converted into spirocyclic aminals in one synthetic operation representing an enormous increase in molecular complexity

Current Clinical Landscape and Global Potential of Bacteriophage Therapy

In response to the global spread of antimicrobial resistance, there is an increased demand for novel and innovative antimicrobials. Bacteriophages have been known for their potential clinical utility in lysing bacteria for almost a century. Social pressures and the concomitant introduction of antibiotics in the mid-1900s hindered the widespread adoption of these naturally occurring bactericides. Recently, however, phage therapy has re-emerged as a promising strategy for combatting antimicrobial resistance. A unique mechanism of action and cost-effective production promotes phages as an ideal solution for addressing antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries. As the number of phage-related research labs worldwide continues to grow, it will be increasingly important to encourage the expansion of well-developed clinical trials, the standardization of the production and storage of phage cocktails, and the advancement of international collaboration. In this review, we discuss the history, benefits, and limitations of bacteriophage research and its current role in the setting of addressing antimicrobial resistance with a specific focus on active clinical trials and case reports of phage therapy administration

Structure activity characterization of Bordetella petrii lipid A, from environment to human isolates.

International audienceBordetella petrii, a facultative anaerobic species, is the only known member of the Bordetella genus with environmental origin. However it was also recently isolated from humans. The structures of the B. petrii lipid A moieties of the endotoxins were characterized here for the first time for an environmental strain and compared to that of human isolates. Characterization was achieved using chemical analyses, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation mass spectrometry. The analyses revealed that the different lipid A structures contain a common bisphosphorylated β-(1→6)-linked d-glucosamine disaccharide with hydroxytetradecanoic acid in amide as well at the C-3' in ester linkages. Similar to Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella bronchiseptica lipids A, the hydroxytetradecanoic acid at the C-2' position was substituted by tetradecanoic acid. Unlike B. pertussis, the hydroxytetradecanoic acid at the C-2 position was substituted with either 12:0 or 14:0 and/or their 2-OH forms. Depending on the environmental or human origin the structures differed in the length and degree of fatty acid acylation and impacted the IL-6 and TNF-α inflammatory responses tested. In one isolate we showed the presence at the C-3 position of the short-chain 10:0(3-OH), which according to our previous analyses is more characteristic of the human pathogens in the genus like B. pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis

Chronic pain syndrome associated with health anxiety : a qualitative thematic comparison between pain patients with high and low health anxiety

Objectives: Based on the high prevalence of health anxiety among patients with chronic pain and the conceptual overlap between the diagnostic criteria for hypochondriasis and pain disorder, it has been suggested that the cognitive-behavioural theory of severe and persistent health anxiety can be applied to understand the problems presented by a subgroup of chronic pain patients. This study aimed to provide qualitative data to complement the progress of the existing experimental research and theory development. Design: A cross-sectional design with two groups was adopted. Method: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 60 chronic pain patients seeking medical treatment from a specialist clinic, and theoretical thematic analysis was performed on a subset of interview transcripts drawn from the five most health anxious and the five least health anxious of this sample. Results: Five themes emerged from the analysis, and they concerned (1) pain appraisal, (2) pain preoccupation, (3) coping strategies, (4) self-identity, and (5) suicidal ideation. Differences were observed between the health anxious and non-health anxious pain patients consistently across all these themes. Conclusions: The phenomenological information both informs and supports the idea that the cognitive-behavioural model of health anxiety can be adapted for the understanding of and development of treatments for pain patients with health anxiety. The findings also challenge the common practice of 'lumping' pain patients into a single group and underline the importance of matching treatments to the patients' psychological characteristics