BackgroundEffective response to emerging pandemic threats is complicated by the need to develop specific vaccines and other medical products. The availability of broadly specific countermeasures that could be deployed early in the pandemic could significantly alter its course and save countless lives. Live attenuated vaccines (LAVs) were shown to induce non-specific protection against a broad spectrum of off-target pathogens by stimulating innate immune responses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of immunization with bivalent Oral Poliovirus Vaccine (bOPV) on the incidence of COVID-19 and other acute respiratory infections (ARIs).Methods and FindingsA randomized parallel-group comparative study was conducted in Kirov Medical University. 1115 healthy volunteers aged 18 to 65 were randomized into two equal groups, one of which was immunized orally with a single dose of bOPV “BiVac Polio” and another with placebo. The study participants were monitored for three months for respiratory illnesses including COVID-19. The endpoint was the incidence of acute respiratory infections and laboratory confirmed COVID-19 in both groups during 3 months after immunization. The number of laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 was significantly lower in the vaccinated group than in placebo (25 cases vs. 44, p=0.036). The difference between the overall number of clinically diagnosed respiratory illnesses in the two groups was not statistically significant.ConclusionsImmunization with bOPV reduced the number of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, consistent with the original hypothesis that LAVs induce non-specific protection against off-target infections. The findings are in line with previous observations of the protective effects of OPV against seasonal influenza and other viral and bacterial pathogens. The absence of a statistically significant effect on the total number of ARIs may be due to the insufficient number of participants and heterogeneous etiology of ARIs. OPV could be used to complement specific coronavirus vaccines, especially in regions of the world where the vaccines are unavailable, and as a stopgap measure for urgent response to future emerging infections. Clinical trial registration number NCT05083039 at clinicaltrals.gov https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05083039?term=NCT05083039&draw=2&rank=1
The problem of demographic aging intensity growth is increasingly raised in the scientific community. Patients belonging to the senile age group have a number of reasons that reduce their quality of life, as well as reduce the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation. The most important information node involved in providing functions such as an integrative role in cognition, starting from learning and memory and ending with flexible adaptation is the structure of the intermediate brain – the thalamus. The aim of the study was to conduct a comparative analysis of agerelated morphometric characteristics of human thalamuses in the first period of adulthood and in old age according to magnetic resonance imaging. Material and methods. The results of morphometric study of the thalamuses of 83 people were analyzed, which were divided into two groups based on their age. Group I included 46 people of the first period of Mature age, group II included 37 people of senile age. All patients had a history of diseases and injuries of the Central/peripheral nervous system, alcohol and drug addiction, and were right-handed. The transverse, longitudinal, and vertical parameters of the thalamuses in both hemispheres of the brain were determined. Results. It was found that the parameters of the thalamus prevail in the first period of adulthood in both men and women (p<0.01). At the same time, there was no statistically significant difference between the morphometric parameters of the thalamuses in the hemispheres, but there was a tendency to a predominance of linear dimensions in the left thalamus (p>0.05). We found a tendency to slightly exceed the indicators of the thalamus in men in comparison with the indicators established in women (p>0.05). Conclusion. The results obtained can serve as starting points as the equivalent of the anatomical age norm of the human thalamus in the first period of adulthood and senile age, which in the future will allow for a personalized approach in medical practice.
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