Differential host responses to COVID-19: Unraveling the complexity.

These diverse outcomes of Covid-19 are influenced by various factors including age, gender, underlying health conditions, immune responses, viral variants, external factors, and overall quality of life. Demographic analysis of patients aged 0-18 years experienced mild to moderate cases, above 55 years with co-morbidities, were more severely affected.COVID-19 incidence was higher in males (58 %) & (42 %) in females. The reduced expression of Toll-like receptors (TLR) in severe and critical patients is a crucial determinant. This reduced TLR expression is primarily attributed to the dominance of the PLpro viral protein of COVID-19. Disease enrichment analysis highlights the long-term impact of COVID-19, which can lead to post-recovery complications such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiac diseases, and brain ischemia in Covid-19 patients. In conclusion, a comprehensive strategy targeting key factors like PLpro, TLR, and inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1 and IL-6 could offer an effective approach to mitigate the devastating effects of COVID-19.

Amplification of specific chromosomal regions assessed by fluorescent in situ hybridization on Pap smears to be added as screening tool for identifying women at risk of progressing to cervical cancer.

Cervical carcinoma is a frequent malignancy in developing countries despite being a preventable disease. For the first time, four screening tests were used simultaneously for identifying women with a risk of developing cervical cancer, to help clinicians and policy makers to implement the best strategy for reducing the burden of this disease. Women visiting a hospital in India were enrolled after institutional ethics clearance and informed consent. Visual inspection using acetic acid and Pap smear tests were performed on 2683 women, and 104 had abnormal cytology: atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (n = 29), low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (n = 41), high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (n = 17), and squamous cell carcinoma (n = 17). These and 96 samples, with normal cytology, were subjected to high-risk human papilloma virus testing and fluorescent in situ hybridization evaluation. Women with abnormal cytology were followed for 5 years and evaluated with colposcopy-guided biopsy. Three accepted methods of screening and one novel fluorescent in situ hybridization assay were carried out in 200 cases. Cutoffs for fluorescent in situ hybridization were established. The screening methods had 88%-96% negative predictive value, while positive predictive value was low (20%) for visual inspection using acetic acid, 47% for fluorescent in situ hybridization, 56% for high-risk human papilloma virus, and 73% for combined high-risk human papilloma virus and fluorescent in situ hybridization. Combined high-risk human papilloma virus and fluorescent in situ hybridization had 94% sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value, suggesting that simultaneous screening with these two tests is appropriate for identifying women progressing to cervical cancer and not visual inspection using acetic acid, which has low positive predictive value and Pap cytology which requires to be repeated. Policy makers and clinicians can assess feasibility of incorporating this screening strategy to prevent cervical cancer.

Evaluation of Aurora-A gene polymorphism and esophageal cancer risk in a South Indian population.

AIM: Aurora-A is a serine/threonine protein kinase that functions in centrosome maturation and spindle assembly and is involved in regulating chromosome segregation. It is amplified and overexpressed in several human cancers. The aim of the present study was to assess the role of T91A Aurora-A gene polymorphism associated with aneuploidy in human tumors. RESULT: Patients with different upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms who were referred for endoscopy were studied. They were categorized as individuals with esophageal cancer, esophagitis, and normal endoscopy based on endoscopy and histology reports. Healthy volunteers were used as controls for carrying out genomic polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction digestion. The cancer and esophagitis groups showed a higher percentage of cases with the TA genotype compared with the controls and gastrointestinal tract normal endoscopy samples. However, only esophagitis, despite a small sample size, showed a statistically significant association with the TA genotype (odds ratio=3.6082, 95% class interval=1.1276-8.8346, p=0.0411). It was also assessed if the T91A polymorphism plays a role in enhancing the effects of exogenous factors such as smoking, alcohol, tea, betel chewing, and nonvegetarian diet in esophageal pathologies. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the TT genotype is protective against these factors as a higher percentage of this genotype was found in individuals with normal endoscopy. This is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, carried out in an Indian population to evaluate the association of Aurora-A gene polymorphism with esophageal cancer.