Alzheimer's disease is an unavoidable neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline and ultimate dementia. It is the most common cause of dementia in people of 65 years and older. It affects 10% of people over the age of 65 and 50% over the age of 85 years. Approximately 4million Alzheimer's patients in the United States (U.S.) and the annual treatment costs = $100 billion. It is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and is becoming prevalent in many other countries. The total brain size shrinks with Alzheimer's -the tissue has progressively fewer nerve cells and connections. As such there is no known cure for Alzheimer's disease the death of brain cells in the dementia cannot be halted or reversed. Along with an aim to improve research in to prevention and treatment, the goals of the plan also include measures for present interventions. To help people suffering expand supports for people with Alzheimer's disease and their families, and enhance public awareness and engagement and expand your support towards them. Enhance care quality and efficiency. There are no disease-modifying drugs available for Alzheimer's disease but some options may reduce its symptoms and help improve quality of life and thereby help the patients to some extent. There are four drugs in a class called cholinesterase inhibitor approved for symptomatic relief in the US i.e., Donepezil (brand name Aricept), Alantamine (Reminyl), Rivastigmine and Tacrine (Cognex). A different kind of drug, memantine (Namenda), an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, may also be used, alone or in combination with a cholinesterase inhibitor. As with other types of dementia and neurodegenerative disease, a major part of therapy for patients with Alzheimer's comes from the support given by healthcare workers to provide dementia quality-of-life care, which becomes more important as needs increase with declining independence and increasing dependence.
The SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike (S) protein binding to the human ACE2 receptor is the molecular event that initiates viral entry into host cells and leads to infection and virus replication. There is a need for agents blocking viral entry into host cells that are cross-reactive with emerging virus variants. VHH-72 is an anti-SARS-CoV-1 single-domain antibody that also exhibits cross-specificity with SARS-CoV-2 but with decreased binding affinity. Here we applied a structure-based approach to affinity-mature VHH-72 for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein while retaining the original affinity for SARS-CoV-1. This was achieved by employing the computational platform ADAPT in a constrained dual-affinity optimization mode as a means of broadening specificity. Select mutants designed by ADAPT were formatted as fusions with a human IgG1-Fc fragment. These mutants demonstrated improved binding to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein due to decreased dissociation rates. Functional testing for virus neutralization revealed improvements relative to the parental VHH72-Fc up to 10-fold using a SARS-CoV-2 pseudotyped lentivirus and 20-fold against the SARS-CoV-2 authentic live virus (Wuhan variant). Binding and neutralization improvements were maintained for some other SARS-CoV-2 variants currently in circulation. These improved VHH-72 mutants are predicted to establish novel interactions with the S antigen. They will be useful, alone or as fusions with other functional modules, in the global quest for treatments of COVID-19 infections.
The form and function of the craniofacial complex is determined by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental factors thus influencing facial morphology. Facial photographs taken in a standardized pattern assumes great significance in studying heritability of soft-tissue facial features between parents and their offspring. To evaluate the facial soft-tissue pattern of parents and their offspring with the help of standardized facial photographs and to find the degree of correlation between them. A total sample of 120 children within the age-group of 16-25 years and their parents were selected from ethnic Himachal Pradesh population. Standardized photographs (frontal and right lateral) of entire sample were taken and then traced. Twenty-four parameters involving linear and proportional measurements were measured. Statistically significant correlations between parents and their offspring were found for upper facial height, total facial height, lip length at philtrum, chin projection, upper lip to S line, Nasal prominence, true vertical to tip of nose, true vertical to subnasale, true vertical to pogonion, vertical lip-chin ratio. Stronger heritability was found between daughters to their mothers than to their fathers. Sons showed heritability from both parents for Upper lip prominence to E-line and True vertical to Subnasale. There was strong evidence indicating genetic contribution for both linear and proportional parameters. Highest correlations in inheritance of facial features was found between mother and daughter. Thus, parental data can be used to predict soft tissue facial form of offspring and information from siblings can also be used.
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