Identification of essential contents and a standard framework for the development of an Infection Prevention and Control manual for healthcare facilities: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Several international organizations have outlined the components of infection prevention and control (IPC) programs. To successfully implement an IPC program, hospital staff may adopt a manual that provides support for implementing the IPC measures, even requiring significant efforts. This study aims to identify essential aspects and develop a standardized structure for an IPC manual. The IPC manual framework can be customized and utilized by any health care facility, thereby facilitating adherence to international and national legislation. METHODS: The study was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. Reporting followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews standard. The search for evidence was performed on PubMed and Web of Science. Methodological quality was evaluated blindly by 2 reviewers using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklist. RESULTS: Nineteen papers were included in the review. Data extraction considered the most recent guidelines and the categorization into the 8 Core Components established by the World Health Organization. Through the literature review, the essential elements and challenges of an IPC hospital manual were identified, and a framework was proposed. CONCLUSIONS: By incorporating these essential elements into their IPC manual, health care facilities can establish a robust IPC framework. A potential future development stemming from this work could involve the creation of a standardized national IPC manual tailored for hospital settings.

Rapid measurement of ageing by automated monitoring of movement of C. elegans populations.

Finding new interventions that slow ageing and maintain human health is a huge challenge of our time. The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans offers a rapid in vivo method to determine whether a compound extends its 2 to 3-week lifespan. Measuring lifespan is the standard method to monitor ageing, but a compound that extends lifespan will not necessarily maintain health. Here, we describe the automated monitoring of C. elegans movement from early to mid-adulthood as a faster healthspan-based method to measure ageing. Using the WormGazer™ technology, multiple Petri dishes each containing several C. elegans worms are imaged simultaneously and non-invasively by an array of cameras that can be scaled easily. This approach demonstrates that most functional decline in C. elegans occurs during the first week of adulthood. We find 7 days of imaging is sufficient to measure the dose-dependent efficacy of sulfamethoxazole to slow ageing, compared to 40 days required for a parallel lifespan experiment. Understanding any negative consequences of interventions that slow ageing is important. We show that the long-lived mutant age-1(hx546) stays active for longer than the wild type but it moves slower in early adulthood. Thus, continuous analysis of movement can rapidly identify interventions that slow ageing while simultaneously revealing any negative effects on health.

Imaging Fluorescent Nuclear Pore Complex Proteins in C. elegans.

C. elegans is a well-characterized and relatively simple model organism, making it attractive for studying nuclear pore complex proteins in cell and developmental biology. C. elegans is transparent and highly amendable to genetic manipulation. Therefore, it is possible to generate fluorescently tagged proteins and combine this with various light microscopy techniques to study protein behavior in space and time. Here, we provide protocols to prepare both fixed and live C. elegans for confocal and light sheet microscopy. This enables the analysis of nuclear pore complex proteins from embryonic stages to the aging adult.

Applying C. elegans to the Industrial Drug Discovery Process to Slow Aging.

The increase in our molecular understanding of the biology of aging, coupled with a recent surge in investment, has led to the formation of several companies developing pharmaceuticals to slow aging. Research using the tiny nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans was the first to show that mutations in single genes can extend lifespan, and subsequent research has shown that this model organism is uniquely suited to testing interventions to slow aging. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, C. elegans is not in the standard toolkit of longevity companies. Here we discuss the paths to overcome the barriers to using C. elegans in industrial drug discovery. We address the predictive power of C. elegans for human aging, how C. elegans research can be applied to specific challenges in the typical drug discovery pipeline, and how standardised and quantitative assays will help C. elegans fulfil its potential in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. We argue that correct application of this model and its knowledge base will significantly accelerate progress to slow human aging.