A Retrospective Community Perspective: Bridging the Health Disparity Gap with Obesity as the Leading Comorbidity in Disparities in Health Outcomes in the COVID-19 Pandemic.

COVID-19 is a viral infection that resulted in a global pandemic. In the United States, COVID-19 caused incommensurate deaths, especially among members of minority groups. Previous literature shows comorbidities such as hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM) and obesity (OBS) have been implicated in the severity of COVID-19 cases regardless of racial or ethnic group classification. However, minority populations, particularly people of African descent experienced higher mortality as they carry a disproportionately heavier burden in comorbidities cases. In this study we first confirm current literature on COVID-19 incidence and its correlation with the prevalence of comorbidities in various racial and ethnic populations, using anonymous and aggregated data from the Nashville General Hospital at Meharry, an Institute for the Study of Minority Health. We also evaluated the prevalence of comorbidities in minority patients and computed the correlation between the COVID-19 incidence and a permuted prevalence of comorbidities. A total of 959 patients were reviewed and our study indicates COVID-19 patients classified as Non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB) were approximately 3 times more likely to have an HTN or DM or both HTN and DM diagnosis. The chances double to be approximately six times higher when an OBS diagnosis is included singularly or in conjunction with either HTN or DM or both HTN and DM.

Application of C-Terminal Clostridium Perfringens Enterotoxin in Treatment of Brain Metastasis from Breast Cancer.

Claudin-4 is part of the Claudin family of transmembrane tight junction (TJ) proteins found in almost all tissues and, together with adherens junctions and desmosomes, forms epithelial and endothelial junctional complexes. Although the distribution of Claudin-4 occurs in many cell types, the level of expression is cell-specific. Claudin proteins regulate cell proliferation and differentiation by binding cell-signaling ligands, and its expression is upregulated in several cancers. As a result, alterations in Claudin expression patterns or distribution are vital in the pathology of cancer. Profiling the genetic expression of Claudin-4 showed that Claudin-4 is also a receptor for the clostridium perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) and that Claudin-4 has a high sequence similarity with CPE's high-affinity receptor. CPE is cytolytic due to its ability to form pores in cellular membranes, and CPE treatment in breast cancer cells have shown promising results due to the high expression of Claudin-4. The C-terminal fragment of CPE (c-CPE) provides a less toxic alternative for drug delivery into breast cancer cells, particularly metastatic tumors in the brain, especially as Claudin-4 expression in the central nervous system (CNS) is low. Therefore, c-CPE provides a unique avenue for the treatment of breast-brain metastatic tumors.