Community-wide screening of symptomatic and asymptomatic infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Saharia tribe of India

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pushpendra Singh ◽  
Ravindra Kumar ◽  
Aparup Das
Keyword(s):  
Mycobacterium Tuberculosis ◽  
Epidemiological Study ◽  
Molecular Diagnosis ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Asymptomatic Infection ◽  
Causal Pathogen ◽  
Asymptomatic Individuals ◽  
Large Scale Screening ◽  
Screening Approaches

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) elimination program in India relies on detecting symptomatic patients through molecular diagnosis and providing speedy treatment, leaving individuals with no classical symptoms of TB (asymptomatic) behind in the population. Considering the contribution of such asymptomatic individuals to transmission of TB, it is important to timely identify them, especially in high-endemic settings. However, no community-level study has so far been conducted to record the incidences of asymptomatic cases in India. Therefore, this study was planned to know whether Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causal pathogen of TB is prevalent in individuals presenting no classical symptoms in a highly endemic populations belonging to Saharia tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) in India. Methods: We performed molecular epidemiological study in 15 villages (n= 808) of Pohri block, Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh, India following population-wide random sampling of both symptomatic (ns=216) and asymptomatic (na=592) individuals. Though a total of 890 subjects were involved in the study, the sputum samples for the qPCR test could be collected only from 808 subjects. Detection of M. tuberculosis in sputum samples was done using TaqMan chemistry-based qPCR assay. Results: Sixteen (2.7%) individuals were found to be positive of M. tuberculosis among the 592 asymptomatic cases. The prevalence of M. tuberculosis DNA positivity was comparable between symptomatic (2.3%) and asymptomatic (2.7%) individuals. Conclusion: The present findings, though preliminary, pending large-scale screening approaches in other high-endemic populations employing both classical and advanced diagnosis methods, are daunting. Such community-wide screening approaches should therefore be integrated in the program if TB-free India is to be achieved by the year 2025.

Training Aides to Screen Children for Speech and Language Problems

1976 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 236-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marisue Pickering ◽  
William R. Dopheide
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
School Personnel ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Speech And Language ◽  
Elementary School Age ◽  
Evaluation Procedures ◽  
Language Problems ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Large Scale Screening

This report deals with an effort to begin the process of effectively identifying children in rural areas with speech and language problems using existing school personnel. A two-day competency-based workshop for the purpose of training aides to conduct a large-scale screening of speech and language problems in elementary-school-age children is described. Training strategies, implementation, and evaluation procedures are discussed.

Recent Progress in Machine Learning-based Prediction of Peptide Activity for Drug Discovery

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qihui Wu ◽  
Hanzhong Ke ◽  
Dongli Li ◽  
Qi Wang ◽  
Jiansong Fang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Drug Discovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Recent Progress ◽  
High Specificity ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Anticancer Peptides ◽  
The Past ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Over the past decades, peptide as a therapeutic candidate has received increasing attention in drug discovery, especially for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), anticancer peptides (ACPs) and antiinflammatory peptides (AIPs). It is considered that the peptides can regulate various complex diseases which are previously untouchable. In recent years, the critical problem of antimicrobial resistance drives the pharmaceutical industry to look for new therapeutic agents. Compared to organic small drugs, peptide- based therapy exhibits high specificity and minimal toxicity. Thus, peptides are widely recruited in the design and discovery of new potent drugs. Currently, large-scale screening of peptide activity with traditional approaches is costly, time-consuming and labor-intensive. Hence, in silico methods, mainly machine learning approaches, for their accuracy and effectiveness, have been introduced to predict the peptide activity. In this review, we document the recent progress in machine learning-based prediction of peptides which will be of great benefit to the discovery of potential active AMPs, ACPs and AIPs.

scholarly journals Analytical Validation and Clinical Application of Rapid Serological Tests for SARS-CoV-2 Suitable for Large-Scale Screening

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 869
Author(s):  
Amedeo De Nicolò ◽  
Valeria Avataneo ◽  
Jessica Cusato ◽  
Alice Palermiti ◽  
Jacopo Mula ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Early Diagnosis ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Analytical Validation ◽  
Pcr Assay ◽  
Serological Tests ◽  
Flow Test ◽  
Lateral Flow Test ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Recently, large-scale screening for COVID-19 has presented a major challenge, limiting timely countermeasures. Therefore, the application of suitable rapid serological tests could provide useful information, however, little evidence regarding their robustness is currently available. In this work, we evaluated and compared the analytical performance of a rapid lateral-flow test (LFA) and a fast semiquantitative fluorescent immunoassay (FIA) for anti-nucleocapsid (anti-NC) antibodies, with the reverse transcriptase real-time PCR assay as the reference. In 222 patients, LFA showed poor sensitivity (55.9%) within two weeks from PCR, while later testing was more reliable (sensitivity of 85.7% and specificity of 93.1%). Moreover, in a subset of 100 patients, FIA showed high sensitivity (89.1%) and specificity (94.1%) after two weeks from PCR. The coupled application for the screening of 183 patients showed satisfactory concordance (K = 0.858). In conclusion, rapid serological tests were largely not useful for early diagnosis, but they showed good performance in later stages of infection. These could be useful for back-tracing and/or to identify potentially immune subjects.

scholarly journals BonMOLière: Small-Sized Libraries of Readily Purchasable Compounds, Optimized to Produce Genuine Hits in Biological Screens across the Protein Space

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (15) ◽  
pp. 7773
Author(s):  
Neann Mathai ◽  
Conrad Stork ◽  
Johannes Kirchmair
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Computational Approach ◽  
Large Sets ◽  
Compound Libraries ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Protein Space ◽  
High Chance ◽  
Large Scale Screening ◽  
Early Drug ◽  
Selection Of

Experimental screening of large sets of compounds against macromolecular targets is a key strategy to identify novel bioactivities. However, large-scale screening requires substantial experimental resources and is time-consuming and challenging. Therefore, small to medium-sized compound libraries with a high chance of producing genuine hits on an arbitrary protein of interest would be of great value to fields related to early drug discovery, in particular biochemical and cell research. Here, we present a computational approach that incorporates drug-likeness, predicted bioactivities, biological space coverage, and target novelty, to generate optimized compound libraries with maximized chances of producing genuine hits for a wide range of proteins. The computational approach evaluates drug-likeness with a set of established rules, predicts bioactivities with a validated, similarity-based approach, and optimizes the composition of small sets of compounds towards maximum target coverage and novelty. We found that, in comparison to the random selection of compounds for a library, our approach generates substantially improved compound sets. Quantified as the “fitness” of compound libraries, the calculated improvements ranged from +60% (for a library of 15,000 compounds) to +184% (for a library of 1000 compounds). The best of the optimized compound libraries prepared in this work are available for download as a dataset bundle (“BonMOLière”).

scholarly journals Large-scale screening of natural genetic resource in the hydrocarbon-producing microalga Botrycoccus braunii identified novel fast-growing strains

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Kawamura ◽  
Suzune Nishikawa ◽  
Kotaro Hirano ◽  
Ardianor Ardianor ◽  
Rudy Agung Nugroho ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Biomass Productivity ◽  
Botryococcus Braunii ◽  
Algal Biofuel ◽  
Fast Growing ◽  
Wild Strains ◽  
Glass Tubes ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Large Scale Screening ◽  
Hydrocarbon Productivity

AbstractAlgal biofuel research aims to make a renewable, carbon–neutral biofuel by using oil-producing microalgae. The freshwater microalga Botryococcus braunii has received much attention due to its ability to accumulate large amounts of petroleum-like hydrocarbons but suffers from slow growth. We performed a large-scale screening of fast-growing strains with 180 strains isolated from 22 ponds located in a wide geographic range from the tropics to cool-temperate. A fast-growing strain, Showa, which recorded the highest productivities of algal hydrocarbons to date, was used as a benchmark. The initial screening was performed by monitoring optical densities in glass tubes and identified 9 wild strains with faster or equivalent growth rates to Showa. The biomass-based assessments showed that biomass and hydrocarbon productivities of these strains were 12–37% and 11–88% higher than that of Showa, respectively. One strain, OIT-678 established a new record of the fastest growth rate in the race B strains with a doubling time of 1.2 days. The OIT-678 had 36% higher biomass productivity, 34% higher hydrocarbon productivity, and 20% higher biomass density than Showa at the same cultivation conditions, suggesting the potential of the new strain to break the record for the highest productivities of hydrocarbons.

scholarly journals Identification of Six Loci in Which Mutations Partially Restore Peroxisome Biogenesis and/or Alleviate the Metabolic Defect of pex2 Mutants in Podospora

Genetics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 161 (3) ◽  
pp. 1089-1099
Author(s):  
Gwenaël Ruprich-Robert ◽  
Véronique Berteaux-Lecellier ◽  
Denise Zickler ◽  
Arlette Panvier-Adoutte ◽  
Marguerite Picard
Keyword(s):  
Sole Carbon Source ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Podospora Anserina ◽  
Developmental Defect ◽  
Dominant Allele ◽  
Peroxisome Biogenesis ◽  
Metabolic Defects ◽  
Metabolic Defect ◽  
Mutant Strains ◽  
Large Scale Screening

Abstract Peroxins (PEX) are proteins required for peroxisome biogenesis. Mutations in PEX genes cause lethal diseases in humans, metabolic defects in yeasts, and developmental disfunctions in plants and filamentous fungi. Here we describe the first large-scale screening for suppressors of a pex mutation. In Podospora anserina, pex2 mutants exhibit a metabolic defect [inability to grow on medium containing oleic acid (OA medium) as sole carbon source] and a developmental defect (inability to differentiate asci in homozygous crosses). Sixty-three mutations able to restore growth of pex2 mutants on OA medium have been analyzed. They fall in six loci (suo1 to suo6) and act as dominant, allele-nonspecific suppressors. Most suo mutations have pleiotropic effects in a pex2+ background: formation of unripe ascospores (all loci except suo5 and suo6), impaired growth on OA medium (all loci except suo4 and suo6), or sexual defects (suo4). Using immunofluorescence and GFP staining, we show that peroxisome biogenesis is partially restored along with a low level of ascus differentiation in pex2 mutant strains carrying either the suo5 or the suo6 mutations. The data are discussed with respect to β-oxidation of fatty acids, peroxisome biogenesis, and cell differentiation.

scholarly journals Discovery of naturally occurring inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro from Ginkgo biloba leaves via large-scale screening

Fitoterapia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 104909
Author(s):  
Yuan Xiong ◽  
Guang-Hao Zhu ◽  
Hao-Nan Wang ◽  
Qing Hu ◽  
Li-Li Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ginkgo Biloba ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Large Scale Screening

scholarly journals Validation of COVID-19 serologic tests and large scale screening of asymptomatic healthcare workers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin E. Mullins ◽  
VeRonika Merrill ◽  
Matthew Ward ◽  
Brent King ◽  
Peter Rock ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Serologic Tests ◽  
Large Scale Screening

scholarly journals Impact of the COVID-19 Vaccine on Asymptomatic Infection Among Patients Undergoing Pre-Procedural COVID-19 Molecular Screening

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron J Tande ◽  
Benjamin D Pollock ◽  
Nilay D Shah ◽  
Gianrico Farrugia ◽  
Abinash Virk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Relative Risk ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asymptomatic Infection ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
Molecular Screening ◽  
Molecular Tests ◽  
Asymptomatic Individuals ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Several vaccines are now clinically available under emergency use authorization in the United States and have demonstrated efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19. The impact of vaccines on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is largely unknown. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive, asymptomatic adult patients (n = 39,156) within a large United States healthcare system who underwent 48,333 pre-procedural SARS-CoV-2 molecular screening tests between December 17, 2020 and February 8, 2021. The primary exposure of interest was vaccination with at least one dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The primary outcome was relative risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular test among those asymptomatic persons who had received at least one dose of vaccine, as compared to persons who had not received vaccine during the same time period. Relative risk was adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, patient residence relative to the hospital (local vs. non-local), healthcare system regions, and repeated screenings among patients using mixed effects log-binomial regression. Results Positive molecular tests in asymptomatic individuals were reported in 42 (1.4%) of 3,006 tests performed on vaccinated patients and 1,436 (3.2%) of 45,327 tests performed on unvaccinated patients (RR=0.44 95% CI: 0.33-0.60; p<.0001). Compared to unvaccinated patients, the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was lower among those >10 days after 1 st dose (RR=0.21; 95% CI: 0.12-0.37; p<.0001) and >0 days after 2 nd dose (RR=0.20; 95% CI: 0.09-0.44; p<.0001) in the adjusted analysis. Conclusions COVID-19 vaccination with an mRNA-based vaccine showed a significant association with a reduced risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection as measured during pre-procedural molecular screening. The results of this study demonstrate the impact of the vaccines on reduction in asymptomatic infections supplementing the randomized trial results on symptomatic patients.

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