Journal of investigative medicine : the official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research
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The Trabecular Bone Score (TBS) is an indirect measurement of bone quality, and studies have shown that TBS is an independent predictor of fracture risk. This cross-sectional investigation aimed to explore the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MetS) and TBS using data from the 2005-2006 US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The association between individual MetS components and TBS was examined. ⋯ Furthermore, there was a significant linear decrease in TBS with an increase in the number of MetS components in both sexes. TBS significantly decreased with an increasing number of MetS components in a US population. The components of MetS, including systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, and serum levels of triglyceride and glucose, exhibited a negative association with TBS.
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Observational Study
Utility of itraconazole and terbinafine in mucormycosis: a proof-of-concept analysis.
An epidemic of mucormycosis followed the second wave of COVID 19 in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India in May 2021. This epidemic, however, had additional challenges to offer in the form of acute shortage of all forms of amphotericin B, posaconazole and isavuconazole. It was, therefore, planned to assess the trends in minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of antifungal agents, viz itraconazole and terbinafine, and provide a template for personalized therapy to see whether the results could be translated clinically. ⋯ For terbinafine, 85.2% of R. microsporus had MIC ≤2 µg/mL. We conclude that identification at the species level is required as antifungal susceptibilities seem to be species-dependent. Assessment of the efficacy of itraconazole and terbinafine warrants further studies with clinical assessment and therapeutic drug monitoring as they seem to be potential candidates especially when the primary agents are not available.
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Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is an active pathological process mediated by abnormal activation and transdifferentiation of valvular interstitial cells (VICs). The present study aims to investigate the function and underlying mechanism of the basic fibroblast growth factor (BFGF) on osteogenic differentiation of VICs. Porcine VICs cultured with osteogenic induction medium are supplemented with or without BFGF. ⋯ Notch1 signaling pathway is extracted as a candidate target after bioinformatics analysis by RNA sequencing. The transfection of si-Notch1 abolishes the calcification inhibitory effect of BFGF. Taken together, our findings shed the light on the mechanism and potential therapeutics of BFGF for CAVD.
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Observational Study
Specific changes of erythroid regulators and hepcidin in patients infected by SARS-COV-2.
Iron metabolism is tightly linked to infectious and inflammatory signals through hepcidin synthesis. To date, iron homeostasis during SARS-CoV-2 infection has not yet been described. The aim of this study is to characterize the hepcidin and erythroid regulators (growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) and erythroferrone (ERFE)) by measuring concentrations in plasma in context of COVID-19 disease. ⋯ Clinical and hematological parameters, plasma iron, transferrin, transferrin saturation, ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor and C reactive protein were not statistically different between both groups. Median plasma hepcidin concentrations were higher in the COVID-19+ group (44.1 (IQR 16.55-70.48) vs 14.2 (IQR 5.95-18.98) nmol/L, p=0.003), while median ERFE and GDF-15 concentrations were lower in the COVID-19+ group (0.16 (IQR 0.01-0.73) vs 0.89 (IQR 0.19-3.82) ng/mL, p=0.035; 2003 (IQR 1355-2447) vs 4713 (IQR 2082-7774) pg/mL, p=0015), respectively) compared with the COVID-19- group. This is the first study reporting lower ERFE and GDF-15 median concentrations in patients with COVID-19+ compared with patients with COVID-19-, associated with an increased median concentration of hepcidin in the COVID-19+ group compared with COVID19- group.