Notes

Genome assemblage from the well-known Mandarin chinese soy bean cultivar Hwangkeum.
Breast cancer mortality is higher for Black and younger women. This study evaluated 2 possible contributors to disparities-time to treatment and treatment duration-by race and age.

Among 2841 participants with stage I-III disease in the Carolina Breast Cancer Study, we identified groups of women with similar patterns of socioeconomic status (SES), access to care, and tumor characteristics using latent class analysis. We then evaluated latent classes in association with treatment delay (initiation >60 days after diagnosis) and treatment duration (in quartiles by treatment modality).

Thirty-two percent of younger Black women were in the highest quartile of treatment duration (versus 22% of younger White women). Black women experienced a higher frequency of delayed treatment (adjusted relative frequency difference [RFD], 5.5% [95% CI, 3.2%-7.8%]) and prolonged treatment duration (RFD, 8.8% [95% CI, 5.7%-12.0%]). Low SES was significantly associated with treatment delay among White women (RFD, 3.5% [95% CI, 1.1%-5.9%]), but treatment delay was high at all levels of SES in Black women (eg, 11.7% in high SES Black women compared with 10.6% and 6.7% among low and high SES White women, respectively). Neither SES nor access to care classes were significantly associated with delayed initiation among Black women, but both low SES and more barriers were associated with treatment duration across both groups.

Factors that influence treatment timeliness persist throughout the care continuum, with prolonged treatment duration being a sensitive indicator of differences by race, SES, and care barriers.
Factors that influence treatment timeliness persist throughout the care continuum, with prolonged treatment duration being a sensitive indicator of differences by race, SES, and care barriers.
COVID-19 is a public health emergency that is spreading worldwide and seriously affecting the global economy. Data on the effectiveness and safety of the use of methylprednisolone for patients with severe COVID-19 remain limited.

In this retrospective study, epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, treatment and outcomes data of hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University from January 1 to 7 March 2020, were collected. Binary logistic regression model was used to analyse risk factors for disease progression from severe COVID-19 illness to critical illness. The effectiveness and safety of the use of methylprednisolone for patients with severe COVID-19 disease were evaluated.

The results of the multivariate analysis from 175 patients with severe COVID-19 indicate that the use of methylprednisolone was a protective factor against disease progression from severe to critical illness(P<.001; OR 0.054 95% CI 0.017-0.173). Among patients with severe COVID-19 aged<65ye has a positive effect for patients with severe COVID-19 younger than 65 years old, and excessive immune response and cytokine storm may be some of the reasons for the effectiveness.One way to develop innovative approaches for the treatment of chronic diseases is to exploit the biology of the resolution of inflammation. With this terminology, we identify the integrated and complex network of mediators and pathways that ensure a timely and spatially regulated inflammatory response. Pro-resolving mediators act on specific receptors. This provides an opportunity for developing a new arm of pharmacology we have termed "resolution pharmacology." Here we present the reasoning behind the need to develop new medicines based on resolution and use a prototype GPCR as an example. Understanding how the formyl peptide receptor type 2 (FPR2) operates in a cell-specific manner can guide the development of agonists as new therapeutics that could be of benefit as a therapy or co-therapy for several diseases that affect our society. FPR2 agonists would be among the first drugs to establish "resolution pharmacology" as the pharmacological approach for the third decade of the millennium.
Development of novel therapies for temporal lobe epilepsy is hindered by a lack of models suitable for drug screening. SMIFH2 mouse While testing the hypothesis that "inhibiting inhibitory neurons" was sufficient to induce seizures, it was discovered that a mild electrical kindling protocol of VGAT-Cre mice led to spontaneous motor and electrographic seizures. This study characterizes these seizures and investigates the mechanism.

Mice were implanted with electroencephalographic (EEG) headsets that included a stimulating electrode in the hippocampus before being electrically kindled. Seizures were evaluated by review of EEG recordings and behavior. γ-Aminobutyric acidergic (GABAergic) neurotransmission was evaluated by quantitative polymerase chain reaction, immunocytochemistry, Western blot, and electrophysiology.

Electrical kindling of VGAT-Cre mice induces spontaneous recurring seizures after a short latency (6 days). Seizures occur 1-2 times per day in both male and female mice, with only minimal neuronal death. These mice express Cre recombinase under the control of the vesicular GABA transporter (VGAT), a gene that is specifically expressed in GABAergic inhibitory neurons. The insertion of Cre disrupts the expression of VGAT mRNA and protein, and impairs GABAergic synaptic transmission in the hippocampus.

Kindled VGAT-Cre mice can be used to study the mechanisms involved in epileptogenesis and may be useful for screening novel therapeutics.
Kindled VGAT-Cre mice can be used to study the mechanisms involved in epileptogenesis and may be useful for screening novel therapeutics.
Purple variant of passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims var. edulis) is a tropical plant commonly used in the beverage industry. The seeds have high content of linoleic acid and piceatannol which has been reported and showed antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. However, there is no report regarding its effect on acne vulgaris.

To determine the efficacy of topical use of Passiflora edulis Sims var. edulis seeds extract on acne vulgaris.

In this open-label uncontrolled trial, 45 subjects with acne vulgaris were given passion fruit purple variant seeds extract 10% cream for 8weeks. Noninflammatory, inflammatory, and total acne lesions count along with ultraviolet-induced red fluorescence (UVRF) measurement were done at weeks 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. All reported adverse events were documented, and patient satisfaction rates were determined at week 8. Paired T-test and Wilcoxon test were done with P≤0.05 indicating significance.

There were significant reductions in noninflammatory (80.9%), inflammatory (71.1%), and total (73%) lesion count after 8weeks of the cream application (P<0.001). Significant reduction in UVRF spot quantity (36%) and percentage area (45.9%) were found at week 8 (P<0.001). Only 2.2% of subjects experienced an adverse event of mild and transient peeling. Most of the subjects (77.8%) noticed significant improvement in their acne vulgaris and expressed good satisfaction rate.

Topical use of passion fruit purple variant seeds extract improves acne vulgaris with reduction in lesion counts and UVRF, minimal adverse events, and good satisfaction rate. Additional prospective studies are required.
Topical use of passion fruit purple variant seeds extract improves acne vulgaris with reduction in lesion counts and UVRF, minimal adverse events, and good satisfaction rate. Additional prospective studies are required.In the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, skin manifestations, if present, were not paid enough attention. Then, the focus moved toward the impact of the prolonged use of personal protective measures in both healthcare workers and patients. In the meantime, attention is increasingly paid to dermatology as a result of the concern for certain groups of dermatologic patients, including those whose condition may worsen by the thorough disinfection measures and those treated with immunosuppressants or immunomodulators. Following patients with psoriasis on biological therapy, as well as other inflammatory and autoimmune cutaneous disorders such as atopic dermatitis, pemphigus, pemphigoid diseases, and skin cancer provoked the interest of dermatologists. Finally, an intriguing question to the dermatologic society was whether skin changes during COVID-19 infection exist and what could be their diagnostic or prognostic value. Here, we summarize skin conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic, patient information, and expert recommendations and give an overview about the registries launched to document skin changes during COVID-19, as well as details about certain patient groups infected with SARS-CoV-2, for example, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and autoimmune bullous diseases.
The recent CONCEPT study showed that 800mg/day of pharmaceutical-grade chondroitin sulfate (CS) was superior to placebo and similar to celecoxib in reducing pain and improving function over 6months in patients with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis (OA). We investigate, in the present study, whether a responder profile to CS could be defined (i.e., to determine a patient's profile with the best response to treatment).

Subjects from the CS group of the CONCEPT study were included in the present analysis. Within the CS group, various subgroups were created on the basis of different categories of age, sex, body mass index, Kellgren and Lawrence grade, age since the beginning of OA, and baseline level of pain (i.e., VAS) or function (i.e., Lequesne index). The nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test was applied to compare the VAS pain/Lequesne index evolutions between the subgroups, and the Dwass, Steel, Critchlow, Fligner (DSCF) procedure was used to compute multiple comparisons. The impact of various covariates on the VAS pain/Lequesne index evolution was assessed by means of multiple regression.

Across all analyses, the probability of response to CS treatment was significantly associated with the duration between the date of diagnosis and the initiation of treatment. In other words, the shorter the interval between the diagnosis and the beginning of the treatment, the higher the response for both pain and function, particularly for patients with a duration of less than 5years compared to patients with a duration of 10years or more. No other criteria were found to be consistently associated with the response to CS treatment.

The treatment of OA with CS has the highest chance of success if administered in the early stage of the disease. Further research with other clinical outcomes should be carried out prior to widespread application of these findings.

ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT03200288.
ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT03200288.
Obesity has been proven to be a risk factor for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) through numerous pathogenetic mechanisms. Unexpectedly, some studies suggest that subjects with overweight/obesity and T2DM have better clinical outcome than their normal weight peers. This finding is described as "obesity paradox" and calls into question the importance of weight loss in this specific population.

This article is a narrative overview on the obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, particularly regarding the obesity paradox in T2DM patients.

We used as sources MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library, from inception to March 2020; we chose 30 relevant papers regarding the association of obesity with clinical outcome and mortality of patients affected by T2DM.

Many studies report that in patients with T2DM, overweight and obesity are associated with a better prognosis than underweight or normal weight, suggesting the presence of an obesity paradox. However, these studies have numerous limitations due to their mainly retrospective nature and to numerous confounding factors, such as associated pathologies, antidiabetic treatments, smoking habit, lack of data about distribution of body fat or weight history.
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