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.

Cloning and sequence analysis of the gene encoding LipL32 of Leptospira interrogans serovar Sejroe.

Leptospira, a member of the order Spirochaetales, is the causative agent of leptospirosis, an important zoonosis encountered worldwide. The Leptospira interrogans serovar Sejroe was grown in EMJH medium and its DNA was isolated using standard techniques. The LipL32 gene was amplified using the reported primer of Kirschneri of LipL32. The amplified product was found to comprise 756 base pairs. This amplified gene fragment of LipL32 lipoprotein was cloned in E. coli (DH5 alpha) cells using pDrive plasmid as a vector. The recombinant cells were selected on LB agar medium containing ampicillin, X-gal and isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside. Plasmid was extracted from the recombinant white colonies, and restriction endonuclease (RE) analysis was carried out using PstI and SalI. On partial sequence analysis, the product exhibited 756 base pairs, corresponding to 251 amino acids. The cloned gene could be further used for expression of recombinant protein for serodiagnosis of leptospirosis.

Immunoreactive outer membrane proteins of Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola strain Hond Utrecht IV.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Leptospirosis is a severe and complex zoonotic disease prevalent in many countries including India. Current leptospiral research is focussed on the identification of the outer membrane proteins (OMPs) of the organism that could be used in developing diagnostic assays for leptospirosis. METHODS: The Leptospira interrogans serovar Canicola was grown in EMJH medium and the cells were subjected to sarcosyl detergent treatment. The sarcosyl soluble (SS) and sarcosyl insoluble (SI) fractions were analyzed by SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting to deduce their protein profile and identifying various immunodominant antigens. RESULTS: The protein profile of SS fractions indicated the presence of three major bands of 41, 32 and 25 kDa and minor bands of 85 and 46 kDa. The SI fraction in serovar Canicola revealed the presence of 112, 93, 77, 43, 36, 29 and 22.5 kDa as major bands and minor bands of 102 and 53 kDa. In immunoblotting, the SS proteins of 41, 32 and 25 kDa and SI proteins of 112, 77, 36 and 22.5 kDa were detected to be major immunogenic proteins. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION: In our study immunogenic proteins were extracted from SS and SI fractions and OMPs were similar to those reported in other pathogenic Leptospira strains. These OMPs being unique to all the pathogenic leptospires, can be targeted for diagnostic purpose. Further analysis of the cellular location and expression of leptospiral proteins will be useful in the annotation of genomic sequence data and in providing insight into the biology of Leptospira cells.