Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) is a potent stimulator of growth hormone (GH) secretion from the pituitary gland. Although GHRH is essential for the growth of immune cells, the regulatory effects of its antagonist in granulomatous disease remain unknown.

The infections due to Non-Tuberculosis Mycobacteria (NTM) are becoming an important health problem in many countries in the world. Globally, an increase in NTM infections has been reported from many countries around the world. However, limited information is available about the prevalence of NTM infections in Iran.

Infections caused by non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is increasing wordwide. Due to the difference in treatment of NTM infections and tuberculosis, rapid species identification of mycobacterial clinical isolates is necessary for the effective management of mycobacterial diseases treatment and their control strategy. In this study, a cost-effective technique, real-time PCR coupled with high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis, was developed for the differentiation of Mycobacterial species using a novel rpoBC sequence. A total of 107 mycobacterial isolates (nine references and 98 clinical isolates) were subjected to differentiation using rpoBC locus sequence in a real-time PCR-HRM assay scheme. From 98 Mycobacterium clinical isolates, 88 species (89.7%), were identified at the species level by rpoBC locus sequence analysis as a gold standard method. M. simiae was the most frequently encountered species (41 isolates), followed by M. fortuitum (20 isolates), M. tuberculosis (15 isolates), M. kansassi (10 isolates), M. abscessus group (5 isolates), M. avium (5 isolates), and M. chelonae and M. intracellulare one isolate each. The HRM analysis generated six unique specific groups representing M. tuberculosis complex, M. kansasii, M. simiae, M. fortuitum, M. abscessus-M. chelonae group, and M. avium complex. In conclusion, this study showed that the rpoBC-based real-time PCR followed by HRM analysis could differentiate the majority of mycobacterial species that are commonly encountered in clinical specimens.

little is known about the forecasting of new variants of SARS-COV-2 in North America and the interaction of variants with vaccine-derived neutralizing antibodies.

Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (α-MSH) is known to have anti-inflammatory effects. However, the anti-inflammatory properties of α-MSH on normal bronchial epithelial cells are largely unknown, especially in the context of in vitro sarcoidosis models.

Long-term trends in freshwater bacterial community composition (BCC) and dynamics are not yet well characterized, particularly in large lake ecosystems. We addressed this gap by temporally (15 months) and spatially (6 sampling locations) characterizing BCC variation in lakes Erie and St. Clair; two connected ecosystems in the Laurentian Great Lakes.

Little is known about the impact of the ecosystem disruption and its contribution on the non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM) diseases (cases) rate in Florida (FL), a state with a high prevalence of NTM in the United States. We aimed to evaluate the epidemiological distribution of NTM in FL and identify its association with extreme weather events.