Browsing by Subject "Saliva"

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    ItemOpen Access
    An enhanced isothermal amplification assay for viral detection.
    (Nature communications, 2020-11) Qian, Jason; Boswell, Sarah A; Chidley, Christopher; Lu, Zhi-Xiang; Pettit, Mary E; Gaudio, Benjamin L; Fajnzylber, Jesse M; Ingram, Ryan T; Ward, Rebecca H; Li, Jonathan Z; Springer, Michael
    Rapid, inexpensive, robust diagnostics are essential to control the spread of infectious diseases. Current state of the art diagnostics are highly sensitive and specific, but slow, and require expensive equipment. Here we report the development of a molecular diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 based on an enhanced recombinase polymerase amplification (eRPA) reaction. eRPA has a detection limit on patient samples down to 5 viral copies, requires minimal instrumentation, and is highly scalable and inexpensive. eRPA does not cross-react with other common coronaviruses, does not require RNA purification, and takes ~45 min from sample collection to results. eRPA represents a first step toward at-home SARS-CoV-2 detection and can be adapted to future viruses within days of genomic sequence availability.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Brief Report: Diagnostic Accuracy of Oral Mucosal Transudate Tests Compared with Blood-Based Rapid Tests for HIV Among Children Aged 18 Months to 18 Years in Kenya and Zimbabwe.
    (Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999), 2019-12) Dziva Chikwari, Chido; Njuguna, Irene N; Neary, Jillian; Rainer, Crissi; Chihota, Belinda; Slyker, Jennifer A; Katz, David A; Wamalwa, Dalton C; Oyiengo, Laura; Bandason, Tsitsi; McHugh, Grace; Dauya, Ethel; Mujuru, Hilda; Stewart, Kearsley A; John-Stewart, Grace C; Ferrand, Rashida A; Wagner, Anjuli D
    BACKGROUND:Gaps persist in HIV testing for children who were not tested in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission programs. Oral mucosal transudate (OMT) rapid HIV tests have been shown to be highly sensitive in adults, but their performance has not been established in children. METHODS:Antiretroviral therapy-naive children aged 18 months to 18 years in Kenya and Zimbabwe were tested for HIV using rapid OraQuick ADVANCE Rapid HIV-1/2 Antibody test on oral fluids (OMT) and blood-based rapid diagnostic testing (BBT). BBT followed Kenyan and Zimbabwean national algorithms. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated using the national algorithms as the reference standard. RESULTS:A total of 1776 children were enrolled; median age was 7.3 years (interquartile range: 4.7-11.6). Among 71 children positive by BBT, all 71 were positive by OMT (sensitivity: 100% [97.5% confidence interval (CI): 94.9% to 100%]). Among the 1705 children negative by BBT, 1703 were negative by OMT (specificity: 99.9% [95% CI: 99.6% to 100.0%]). Due to discrepant BBT and OMT results, 2 children who initially tested BBT-negative and OMT-positive were subsequently confirmed positive within 1 week by further tests. Excluding these 2 children, the sensitivity and specificity of OMT compared with those of BBT were each 100% (97.5% CI: 94.9% to 100% and 99.8% to 100%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS:Compared to national algorithms, OMT did not miss any HIV-positive children. These data suggest that OMTs are valid in this age range. Future research should explore the acceptability and uptake of OMT by caregivers and health workers to increase pediatric HIV testing coverage.
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    ItemOpen Access
    Dominance, politics, and physiology: voters' testosterone changes on the night of the 2008 United States presidential election.
    (PLoS One, 2009-10-21) Stanton, SJ; Beehner, JC; Saini, EK; Kuhn, CM; LaBar, KS
    BACKGROUND: Political elections are dominance competitions. When men win a dominance competition, their testosterone levels rise or remain stable to resist a circadian decline; and when they lose, their testosterone levels fall. However, it is unknown whether this pattern of testosterone change extends beyond interpersonal competitions to the vicarious experience of winning or losing in the context of political elections. Women's testosterone responses to dominance competition outcomes are understudied, and to date, a clear pattern of testosterone changes in response to winning and losing dominance competitions has not emerged. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The present study investigated voters' testosterone responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election. 183 participants provided multiple saliva samples before and after the winner was announced on Election Night. The results show that male Barack Obama voters (winners) had stable post-outcome testosterone levels, whereas testosterone levels dropped in male John McCain and Robert Barr voters (losers). There were no significant effects in female voters. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The findings indicate that male voters exhibit biological responses to the realignment of a country's dominance hierarchy as if they participated in an interpersonal dominance contest.
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    Stress biomarkers and child development in young children in Bangladesh.
    (Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024-03) Butzin-Dozier, Zachary; Mertens, Andrew N; Tan, Sophia T; Granger, Douglas A; Pitchik, Helen O; Il'yasova, Dora; Tofail, Fahmida; Rahman, Md Ziaur; Spasojevic, Ivan; Shalev, Idan; Ali, Shahjahan; Karim, Mohammed Rabiul; Shahriar, Sunny; Famida, Syeda Luthfa; Shuman, Gabrielle; Shoab, Abul K; Akther, Salma; Hossen, Md Saheen; Mutsuddi, Palash; Rahman, Mahbubur; Unicomb, Leanne; Das, Kishor K; Yan, Liying; Meyer, Ann; Stewart, Christine P; Hubbard, Alan E; Naved, Ruchira Tabassum; Parvin, Kausar; Mamun, Md Mahfuz Al; Luby, Stephen P; Colford, John M; Fernald, Lia CH; Lin, Audrie

    Background

    Hundreds of millions of children in low- and middle-income countries are exposed to chronic stressors, such as poverty, poor sanitation and hygiene, and sub-optimal nutrition. These stressors can have physiological consequences for children and may ultimately have detrimental effects on child development. This study explores associations between biological measures of chronic stress in early life and developmental outcomes in a large cohort of young children living in rural Bangladesh.

    Methods

    We assessed physiologic measures of stress in the first two years of life using measures of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (salivary cortisol and glucocorticoid receptor gene methylation), the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) system (salivary alpha-amylase, heart rate, and blood pressure), and oxidative status (F2-isoprostanes). We assessed child development in the first two years of life with the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), the WHO gross motor milestones, and the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire (EASQ). We compared development outcomes of children at the 75th and 25th percentiles of stress biomarker distributions while adjusting for potential confounders using generalized additive models, which are statistical models where the outcome is predicted by a potentially non-linear function of predictor variables.

    Results

    We analyzed data from 684 children (49% female) at both 14 and 28 months of age; we included an additional 765 children at 28 months of age. We detected a significant relationship between HPA axis activity and child development, where increased HPA axis activity was associated with poor development outcomes. Specifically, we found that cortisol reactivity (coefficient -0.15, 95% CI (-0.29, -0.01)) and post-stressor levels (coefficient -0.12, 95% CI (-0.24, -0.01)) were associated with CDI comprehension score, post-stressor cortisol was associated with combined EASQ score (coefficient -0.22, 95% CI (-0.41, -0.04), and overall glucocorticoid receptor methylation was associated with CDI expression score (coefficient -0.09, 95% CI (-0.17, -0.01)). We did not detect a significant relationship between SAM activity or oxidative status and child development.

    Conclusions

    Our observations reveal associations between the physiological evidence of stress in the HPA axis with developmental status in early childhood. These findings add to the existing evidence exploring the developmental consequences of early life stress.