Detection Assays and Techniques Against COVID-19
Hanadi Talal Ahmedah, Muhammad Riaz, Sagheer Ahmed, Marius Alexandru Moga in The Covid-19 Pandemic, 2023
Contact tracing units should prepare a list of individuals who were in the vicinity of COVID-19 confirmed cases. Every individual should be initially contacted over the phone or personally to check if they fulfill the contact definition and so, need monitoring. Every person confirmed as a contact must be given information on the following: The procedure of contact tracing and information on quarantine;The place where they will be isolated and how to be cared;What signs to care for during the monitoring time? This involves any signs, particularly fever, chills, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, difficulty breathing, running nose, diarrhea, nasal dysfunction, muscle pain, etc.;What actions to take if contacts become unwell, such as whom to call, how to quarantine and take precautions and what procedures are present for test and treatment;Data saving involving how to use, analyze, and store personal information;Other particular queries or concerns of contacts.
The Inflammatory Response: A Bridge Between The Constitutive and Inducible Systems
Julius P. Kreier in Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
Several important consequences of the inflammatory response are systemic. Fever is one hallmark of the systemic inflammatory response. During the localized inflammatory response, macrophages release a pyrogenic (fever-inducing) substance called endogenous pyrogen that acts on the portion of the hypothalamic region of the brain that controls body temperature. An elevated temperature can have a deleterious effect on microbes and on host cells that are harboring pathogens, and is an important component of the constitutive host defense. Endogenous pyrogen is a hormone or a mixture of hormones and is very closely related to the macrophage product called interleukin-1 (IL-1), which acts on lymphocytes to augment specific immune responses. IL-1 was one of the first products of macrophages to be shown to augment specific immune responses and to induce fever. IL-6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) which are secreted by activated macrophages are also components of endogenous pryogen. TNF a has a wide range of biological activities that include the induction of cachexia, a severe infection-induced loss of weight resulting from a change in fat cell metabolism caused by TNF α.
Environmental Compliance and Control for Radiopharmaceutical Production
Michael Ljungberg in Handbook of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging for Physicists, 2022
Bacterial endotoxin is the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) component of the cell wall of gram-negative bacteria. It is pyrogenic, and it is a risk to patients who are administered intravenous and intramuscular preparations [21]. The pathological effects of endotoxin, when injected, are a rapid increase in body temperature followed by extremely rapid and severe shock, often followed by death, before the cause is even diagnosed. The limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) test is the most widely method used for endotoxin tests [22]. The pharmacopoeia monographs for the LAL test are long-established and relatively comprehensive and have been applied to the testing of parenteral products for bacterial endotoxin since the 1980s. Pyrogens are a concern for pharmaceutical drug products and for many of the ingredients used to formulate them. This is especially for radiopharmaceuticals that have direct contact with human blood. Here, by far the most concerning pyrogen is bacterial endotoxin. In relation to this, the risks of endotoxin to radiopharmaceutical processing and some of the control measures in place to reduce the risk of endotoxin contamination should be considered.
Pyroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases: What lies beneath the tip of the iceberg?
Published in International Reviews of Immunology, 2023
Mengli Yue, Li Xiao, Rui Yan, Xinyi Li, Wei Yang
The activated caspase-1, acting like a sharp scissor, exerts a dual function on pro-interleukin cleavage and gasdermin cleavage. Caspase-1 cuts intracellular pro IL-1β after the aspartic acid residue in position 116 and pro-interleukin 18 after the aspartic acid residue in position 36, resulting in a highly active mature IL-1β that is secreted into the extracellular space [20]. The active cytokines trigger downstream cascade inflammatory responses. As an endogenous pyrogen, IL-1β may cause fever, leukocyte migration and expression of other cytokines and chemokines, e.g. IL-18 [21]. IL-18 can induce the expression of other cytokines and adhesion molecules, e.g. Interferon (IFN)-γ, intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)—1/vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)—1 [22]. The bioactive caspase-1 also cleave human gasdermin D (GSDMD) after Asp275 to generate an N-terminal cleavage product (GSDMD-NT) [23]. GSDMD-NT relocates to the plasma membrane and binds to phosphatidylinositol phosphates and phosphatidylserine and cardiolipin therefore leading to large cell membrane oligomeric pore formation, even causing cell death. The soluble GSDMD-CT can recombine with GSDMD-NT to inhibit its activation [23,24].
Utility of Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Telephone Screening in Identifying COVID-19 Positive Patients
Published in Prehospital Emergency Care, 2022
Molly McCann-Pineo, Timmy Li, Paul Barbara, Brian Levinsky, James Debono, Jonathan Berkowitz
On April 6th, 2020, IAED Protocol 36-Pandemic Flu was officially implemented and the EMD screening process was modified. Chief Complaints of ‘Breathing Problems’, ‘Chest Pain’ and ‘Sick Person’ were triaged to Protocol 36 (14), of which patients were asked about flu-like symptoms by EMD. Symptoms included: chills/sweats, cough, difficulty breathing, fever, sore throat, muscle/body aches, nasal congestion, fatigue/weakness, sore throat, and new or persistent respiratory problems. Endorsement of two or more symptoms were an indication that the original Chief Complaint was likely due to COVID-19, and was considered a positive EMD screen. If one or no flu-like symptoms were endorsed, the call was shunted back to the original MPDS card and was considered a negative screen. For all other Chief Complaints, the EIDS tool that was previously established was used to screen patients.
Endotoxin-induced cytokine, chemokine and white blood cell profiles of variable stress-responding sheep
Published in Stress, 2021
D. Naylor, A. Sharma, Z. Li, G. Monteith, B. A. Mallard, R. Bergeron, C. Baes, N. A. Karrow
The pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6, IL-1, and TNFα are collectively referred to as pyrogens, in that they induce fever (Netea et al., 2000). Despite the fever response observed in the sheep, only IL-6 increased 4 h post-LPS challenge in this study. However, the TNFα response has been shown to resolve within 4 h following an intravenous LPS challenge in sheep (Hadfield et al., 2018; Naylor et al., 2020), so it is likely the 4 h time point measured in the current study did not capture the TNFα response. For IL-6, HSR had the greatest response and LSR had the weakest response (HSR > MSR > LSR). Consistently, Hadfield et al. (2018) investigated breed-specific ovine immune responses to a high dose (2.5 μg/kg) intravenous LPS challenge and found that Suffolk ewes had stronger cortisol and fever responses, in addition to greater IL-6 expression compared to Dorset ewes. IL-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine that regulates several aspects of immune function including leukocyte trafficking, apoptosis, T cell polarization, B cell activation, and cell proliferation (McLoughlin et al., 2005). The production of IL-6 is supported by IFN-γ (McLoughlin et al., 2003), and in the present study, IFN-γ production followed a similar pattern as IL-6; HSR had stronger production than MSR and LSR, but no difference was detected between MSR and LSR at 4 h (HSR > MSR, LSR). The broad effects that IL-6 and IFN-γ have on immune cell functions could potentially influence immune competence of the different stress responders.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Body Temperature
- Febrile Seizure
- Lethality
- Perspiration
- Thermoregulation
- Muscle Tone
- Hypothalamus
- Body Temperature
- Chills
- Flushing
- Viral Disease