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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has become a global health concern. The development of vaccines with high immunogenicity and safety is crucial for controlling the global COVID-19 pandemic and preventing further illness and fatalities. Here, we report the development of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, Nanocovax, based on recombinant protein production of the extracellular (soluble) portion of the spike (S) protein of SARS-CoV-2. The results showed that Nanocovax induced high levels of S protein-specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies in three animal models: BALB/c mouse, Syrian hamster, and a non-human primate ( Macaca leonina ). In addition, a viral challenge study using the hamster model showed that Nanocovax protected the upper respiratory tract from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Nanocovax did not induce any adverse effects in mice ( Mus musculus var. albino) and rats ( Rattus norvegicus ). These preclinical results indicate that Nanocovax is safe and effective.

The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has become a dire global health concern. The development of vaccines with high immunogenicity and safety is crucial for control of the global COVID-19 pandemic and prevention of further illness and fatalities. Here, we report development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate, Nanocovax, based on recombinant protein production of the extracellular (soluble) portion of the S protein of SARS-CoV-2. The results showed that Nanocovax induced high levels of S protein-specific IgG, as well neutralizing antibody in three animal models including Balb/C mice, Syrian hamsters, and non-human primate (Macaca leonina). In addition, the viral challenge study using the hamster model showed that Nanocovax protected the upper respiratory tract from SARS-CoV-2 infection. No adverse effects were induced by Nanocovax in swiss mice (Musmusculus var. Albino), Rats (Rattus norvegicus), and New Zealand rabbits. These pre-clinical results indicated that Nanocovax is safe and effective Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0305799.].

Diabetes is one of the leading causes of noncommunicable diseases worldwide. It is known to induce cardiovascular remodeling, which can result in a variety of complications, including a considerable increase in aortic stiffness. While studies in Western populations have explored these effects, data on Asians, mainly Vietnamese, are limited. This study aimed to assess aortic elasticity in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients compared to healthy individuals. This quantitative, cross-sectional study compared aortic elasticity indices between individuals with T2DM and healthy controls in Vietnam. Aortic elasticity indices were assessed for all participants using M-mode echocardiography. A comparison between the healthy and T2DM groups revealed substantial differences in aortic elasticity indices. The aortic stiffness index (ASI) was significantly greater in the T2DM group than in the control group, with median values of 6.10 (3.64-12.47) and 3.79 (2.40-8.50), respectively (p = 0.003). Aortic strain (AS) was substantially lower in the T2DM group than in the control group, with median values of 8.21% (4.24-13.07) and 10.66% (6.01-18.23), respectively (p = 0.039). Furthermore, the median aortic compliance (AC, 10-2mm/mmHg) and aortic distensibility (AD, 10-3mmHg-1) in individuals with T2DM were 4.07 (2.28-7.44) and 3.08 (1.57-5.26), respectively, lower than those in the control group, with median values of 6.40 (3.08-10.75) and 5.33 (2.80-9.79). A longer diabetes duration was linked to a greater ASI (r = 0.43, p < 0.05), while the AS decreased (r = -0.37, p < 0.05). Substantial variations in aorta elasticity indices were found in patients with T2DM using M-mode echocardiography. These differences highlight the impact of T2DM on vascular health. More research is needed to investigate the consequences of these discrepancies and their significance for clinical purposes.

The prevalence and predictors of mortality following an ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage have not been well established among patients in Vietnam. 2885 consecutive diagnosed patients with ischemic stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage at ten stroke centres across Vietnam were involved in this prospective study. Posthoc analyses were performed in 2209 subjects (age was 65.4 ± 13.7 years, with 61.4% being male) to explore the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors associated with 90-day mortality following treatment. An explainable machine learning model using extreme gradient boosting and SHapley Additive exPlanations revealed the correlation between original clinical research and advanced machine learning methods in stroke care. In the 90 days following treatment, the mortality rate for ischemic stroke was 8.2%, while for intracerebral hemorrhage, it was higher at 20.5%. Atrial fibrillation was an elevated risk of 90-day mortality in the ischemic stroke patient (OR 3.09; 95% CI 1.90–5.02, p<0.001). Among patients with intracerebral hemorrhage, there was no statistical significance in those with hypertension compared to their counterparts without hypertension (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.41–1.03, p > 0.05). The baseline NIHSS score was a significant predictor of 90-day mortality in both patient groups. The machine learning model can predict a 0.91 accuracy prediction of death rate after 90 days. Age and NIHSS score were in the top high risks with other features, such as consciousness, heart rate, and white blood cells. Stroke severity, as measured by the NIHSS, was identified as a predictor of mortality at discharge and the 90-day mark in both patient groups.

Background: Medical students play important frontline roles in the prevention, early detection, and treatment of hepatitis C. This study investigated knowledge and attitudes toward hepatitis C among 5th- and 6th-year medical students and possible associated factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2000 students from eight medical universities using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Results: The mean knowledge and attitude scores for hepatitis C were 20.1 ± 4.0 (out of 26) and 10.6 ± 2.9 (out of 20), respectively. Approximately, three-quarters (74.4%) of the participants had a good knowledge score, but only a small proportion (3.1%) obtained a good attitude score. Although the participants had fairly high knowledge about the causes, consequences, and transmission routes of hepatitis C, there were important gaps in their knowledge about hepatitis C screening and treatment. In multivariate analysis, female students, 5th-year students, and students from the central provinces had significantly higher knowledge and attitude scores. There was a low positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores. Conclusion: This study points out the need to update the medical training curriculum to improve the knowledge and attitude of students about hepatitis C infection.

Live cells are complex information-processing systems that continuously sense their environment and respond dynamically. However, conventional endpoint assays typically require fixation or cell destruction and fail to capture complex temporal changes. Live brightfield imaging offers a scalable, label-free solution that remains underutilized due to particularly low contrast, acute technical batch sensitivity, and the limited availability of robust computational methods for this modality. Leveraging recent self-supervised learning developments, we introduce Live Cell Dynamics (LCD), a novel end-to-end transformer-based pipeline, using novel plane-agnostic augmentation (treating different focal planes as views of the same state) and incorporating cross-batch sampling. LCD addresses brightfield modality challenges and extracts subtle dose- and time-dependent live cell states. Through systematic ablation we evaluate each self-supervised training innovation on a single cell line, measuring phenotypic activity (mean Average Precision) and Mechanism of Action (MoA) classification (F1-score), with 189 compounds in pre-training and 81 in holdout spanning ten MoAs. Our approach outperforms ablated baselines across all doses and timepoints for activity and MoA classification, enables compound polypharmacology detection from multi-dose/timepoint profiles, and supports unsupervised nuclei detection and counting. It leads to training foundation models from continuous live brightfield imaging to detect subtle live cell state changes, enabling scalable, cost-effective drug development.

On a global scale, climate change is projected to have detrimental impacts on water availability. This situation will become more severe owing to accumulated impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities. This study aims to investigate climate change impact on water availability in the upper Dong Nai River Basin using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) models. Future rainfall scenarios were downscaled from five different general circulation models under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 using the Long Ashton Research Station Weather Generator (LARS-WG) tool. Under the climate change impact, annual river discharge in the study region is generally projected to have upward trends in the future, except for the near-future period of the 2030s under RCP4.5. In addition, dry-seasonal river discharge is expected to be increased in the future. Considering the baseline condition of water use, there was an annual water shortage of approximately 32.9 × 103 m3, which mostly occurred in the dry season from January to March. Climate change may reduce the water shortage in the study region ranging from 7.0 to 30.1% in the future. Under the combined impacts of climate change and increasing water demand, the water shortage will vary from −18.6 to 6.0% in the future. The results can provide valuable insights to implement appropriate future water resources planning and management in the study region.

Sepsis remains a Major global health burden, accounting for an estimated 11 million deaths annually, and is characterized by a profoundly dysregulated host immune response to infection. Despite its significant morbidity and mortality, the immunopathogenesis of sepsis-particularly within underrepresented populations-remains inadequately understood. Here we report distinct immunological signatures associated with clinical outcomes among Vietnamese septic patients. To our knowledge, this represents the first comprehensive investigation of both cellular and cytokine immune parameters in the sepsis population. Our findings demonstrate that survivors of sepsis exhibited a higher proportion of circulating B cells, whereas non-survivors showed increased activation of T and natural killer (NK) cells, marked by elevated expression of activation molecules such as CD69 and GITR. There was a notable reduction in B cell numbers, and further phenotypic analysis revealed signs of B cell exhaustion, indicated by increased CD21low expression, as well as depletion of both memory and naïve B cell subsets. Collectively, these results establish compromised humoral immunity in septic patients. T cells in septic patients displayed a skewing toward effector memory phenotypes, and NK cells demonstrated impaired cytotoxic potential, as evidenced by decreased expression of key the key activating receptors including NKG2D and DNAM-1. Concurrent cytokine profiling revealed significantly elevated concentrations of both pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators in septic patients. A significantly diminished percentage of CD8 CD45RA CD197⁻ T cells, alongside markedly elevated interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, was observed in non-survivors, strongly supporting their role as key prognostic biomarkers for predicting sepsis-related mortality. Interestingly, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) levels did not significantly differ between those who survived and those who did not, a result that diverges from some prior reports and highlights the possibility of population-specific immunological nuances.

Background. Olanzapine is a second-generation antipsychotic drug commonly prescribed for certain mental/mood conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. This agent has been considered a precipitating factor for venous thromboembolism formation. Most of the cases previously reported were associated with high-dose olanzapine therapy or in patients with high-risk factors for the development of thromboembolism. Case Presentation. We report a patient who developed pulmonary embolism after a long course of low-dose olanzapine. A 66-year-old female patient suffering from insomnia had been prescribed olanzapine 2.5 mg and paroxetine 10 mg for two years. The patient suddenly developed a syncopal episode at home and was immediately brought to the hospital. The diagnosis of pulmonary embolism was made by chance during the computerized tomography of coronary arteries. The patient made a full recovery under conventional treatment and was discharged in stable condition. The thoracic computed tomography taken two months after discharge showed a completely normal pulmonary arterial tree. Conclusion. Olanzapine-associated pulmonary embolism is a rare entity and might be missed if the physician in charge is not vigilant and well informed. Even low-dose olanzapine can be associated with pulmonary embolism in patients with low classic risk factors if the treatment is prolonged. Pulmonary embolism should be sought in patients taking olanzapine even though the presenting manifestations are nonspecific.