Background and objectives Because of its beneficial off‐target effects against non‐mycobacterial infectious diseases, bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination might be an accessible early intervention to boost protection against novel pathogens. Multiple epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are investigating the protective effect of BCG against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Using samples from participants in a placebo‐controlled RCT aiming to determine whether BCG vaccination reduces the incidence and severity of COVID‐19, we investigated the immunomodulatory effects of BCG on in vitro immune responses to SARS‐CoV‐2. Methods This study used peripheral blood taken from participants in the multicentre RCT and BCG vaccination to reduce the impact of COVID‐19 on healthcare workers (BRACE trial). The whole blood taken from BRACE trial participants was stimulated with γ‐irradiated SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected or mock‐infected Vero cell supernatant. Cytokine responses were measured by multiplex cytokine analysis, and single‐cell immunophenotyping was made by flow cytometry. Results BCG vaccination, but not placebo vaccination, reduced SARS‐CoV‐2‐induced secretion of cytokines known to be associated with severe COVID‐19, including IL‐6, TNF‐α and IL‐10. In addition, BCG vaccination promoted an effector memory phenotype in both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and an activation of eosinophils in response to SARS‐CoV‐2. Conclusions The immunomodulatory signature of BCG’s off‐target effects on SARS‐CoV‐2 is consistent with a protective immune response against severe COVID‐19.
Educational neuroscience, also known as brain-based learning, is a novel discipline for educators and has, to date, being visible only as an academic discussion focus. Different lookouts, influences, and thoughts are thus simply noticeable in reviews. In recent decades, researchers in educational neuroscience have been captivated by the manner the brain is able to process scientific critical thinking, an indispensable 21 st century competency. They tried to propose an explanatory model for how the brain processes critical thinking skills, necessary in science learning. Although these models are starting to clarify how the brain works, they failed so far to make a strong impact on the field of science education. This research offers an insight into the research, on the use of neuroscience to teach science to middle school students in a Portuguese International School. The study investigated the effect of educational neuroscience on academic outcome and retention of previously acquired knowledge, inside Science laboratory classrooms. The authors also explored the relationship between experimental learning and the enhancement of creative problem solving (higher-order cognitive) skills in the classroom. The results favored the neuroscience learning methodologies. Finally, it supports the application of neuroscience in the laboratory classroom, and aims to explain how the laboratory classroom should be prepared for a successful educational neuroscience approach.
The determination of infection rate parameter from in vitro macrophages infected by Leishmania amastigotes is fundamental in the study of vaccine candidates and new drugs for the treatment of leishmaniasis. The conventional method that consists in the amastigotes count inside macrophages, normally is done by a trained microscope technician, which is liable to misinterpretation and sampling. The objective of this work is to develop a method for the segmentation of images to enable the automatic calculation of the infection rate by amastigotes. Segmentation is based on mathematical morphology in the context of a computer vision system. The results obtained by computer vision system presents a 95% accuracy in comparison to the conventional method. Therefore, the proposed method can contribute to the speed and accuracy of analysis of infection rate, minimizing errors from the traditional methods, especially in situations where exhaustive repetitions of the procedure are required from the technician.
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