HESN

Introduction Patients admitted to intensive care units (ICU), especially those with devices used to support their condition, are at a higher risk of getting healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The aim of the present study was to analyze the surveillance data and assess the device-associated infection (DAI) rates such as central line-associated blood-stream infection (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and ventilator-associated event (VAE) in ICUs of the Ministry of Health (MoH) hospitals in Al-Ahsa region...

BACKGROUND: Several studies proved the effectiveness of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines; however, the number of doses and the period between doses that warrant the highest protection remain unclear. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and to evaluate the effectiveness of early and delayed second-dose administration of the vaccine. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study that was conducted using the data from March 1st, 2021, to August 31st, 2021...

Although previous studies have reported HIV-1-specific T cell responses in HIV-1-exposed seronegative (HESN) individuals, there has been no detailed analysis of these T cells against HIV-1 infection. We investigated HIV-1-specific CD8+ T cell responses in 200 Japanese HESN men who have sex with men (MSM). T cell responses to 143 well-characterized HIV-1 epitope peptides were analyzed by intracellular cytokine staining assay consisting of 3-week cultures of PBMCs stimulated with peptides...

Despite being under constant exposure to HIV-1, some individuals do not show serological or clinical evidence of infection and are known as HESN (HIV-Exposed Seronegative). Multiple studies in different HESN cohorts have linked the NK cells as a correlate of resistance; however, little is known about the role of these cells in Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) with high risk sexual behaviors. We evaluated a general overview of activation and effector features of NK cells of MSM co-cultured with LT CD4+ HIV+ in which MSM at high risk of HIV-1 infection (HR-MSM) exhibit higher capacity to eliminate infected cells, reduced percentages of CD69+ cells when compared to MSM at low risk of infection (LR-MSM)...

BACKGROUND: Surveillance data are very essential for the effective use of available resources, the prioritization of infection control practices, and setting goals for intervention. The aim was to present the current rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and device utilization ratios (DUR) among the Saudi Ministry of health (MOH) hospitals. METHODS: MOH analyzed the surveillance data collected from 106 MOH hospitals enrolled in the health electronic surveillance network (HESN) between January 2022 and December 2022...

How the human body reacts to the exposure of HIV-1 is an important research goal. Frequently, HIV exposure leads to infection, but some individuals show natural resistance to this infection; they are known as HIV-1-exposed but seronegative (HESN). Others, although infected but without antiretroviral therapy, control HIV-1 replication and progression to AIDS; they are named controllers, maintaining low viral levels and an adequate count of CD4+ T lymphocytes. Biological mechanisms explaining these phenomena are not precise...

Ferroptosis-based nanoplatforms have shown great potential in cancer therapy. However, they also face issues such as degradation and metabolism. Carrier-free nanoplatforms consisting of active drugs can effectively avoid the security issues associated with additional carrier ingredients. Herein, a biomimetic carrier-free nanoplatform (HESN@CM) was designed to treat cancer by modulating cascade metabolic pathways of ferroptosis. CCR2-overexpressing macrophage membrane-modified HESN can target cancer cells via the CCR2-CCL2 axis...

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is believed to increase the risk of secondary healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The objective was to estimate the impact of COVID-l9 pandemic on the rates of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals across Saudi Arabia. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected CLABSI and CAUTI data over a period of three years (2019-2021) was done...

BACKGROUND: The 2022 Monkeypox virus (Mpox) outbreak had involved multiple countries around the globe. Here, we report clinical features and outcome of human Mpox of the first cases in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: We obtained records of confirmed Mpox cases in Saudi Arabia from the public electronic health information system, Health Electronic Surveillance Network (HESN) and the healthcare providers completed a de-identified structured clinical data collection form. RESULTS: The reported seven cases were travel-related and all were males between 24 and 41 years of age (mean age + SD) was 30...

HIV-1 exposed seronegative (HESN) individuals may have unique characteristics that alter susceptibility to HIV-1 infection. However, identifying truly exposed HESN is challenging. We utilized stored data and biospecimens from HIV-1 serodifferent couple cohorts, which couples' HIV-1 exposure were quantified based on unprotected sex frequency and viral load of the partner living with HIV-1. We compared peripheral blood gene expression between 15 HESN and 18 seroconverters prior to infection. We found PTPRC (encoding CD45 antigen), and interferon-response pathways had significantly higher expression among individuals who went on to become seropositive and thus may be a signature for increased acquisition risk...

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection still represents a major public health problem worldwide, and its vaccine remains elusive. The study of HIV-exposed seronegative individuals (HESN) brings important information about the natural resistance to HIV, allows a better understanding of the infection, and opens doors for new preventive and therapeutic strategies. Among HESN groups, there are some men who have sex with men (MSM) with high-risk sexual behaviors, who represent an adequate cohort for HESN study because of their major HIV exposure without infection...

Previous studies on highly HIV-1-exposed, yet persistently seronegative women from the Punwami Sex Worker cohort in Kenya, have shed light on putative protective mechanisms, suggesting that mucosal immunological factors, such as antiproteases, could be mediating resistance to HIV-1 transmission in the female reproductive tract. Nine protease inhibitors were selected for this study: serpin B4, serpin A1, serpin A3, serpin C1, cystatin A, cystatin B, serpin B13, serpin B1 and α-2-macroglobulin-like-protein 1...

INTRODUCTION: Nigella sativa (N. sativa), one of the most commonly used medicinal herbs with antioxidant properties, increases blood insulin levels and lowers fasting blood sugar. Nuclear Erythroid Factor-Related Factor 2 (Nrf2) and Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 (FGF21) are two antioxidant factors that are increased by oxidative stress and hyperglycemia. The present study investigated how hydroalcoholic extract of N. sativa seed (HENS) increases blood insulin levels, taking into account changes in antioxidant factors and expression of insulin transcription factors...

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to describe the demographic characteristics and determine the risk factors associated with disease severity and length of hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) stay in a cohort of COVID-19 patients admitted into ICU in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This was a national, multi-center, retrospective cross-sectional study of all COVID-19 cases admitted into different ICUs in Saudi Arabia between March 2020 and September 202l. Demographic, clinical features, comorbidities, and length of stay (LOS) data were retrieved from the national Health Electronic Surveillance Network (HESN) and Taqassi databases at the Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH) for subsequent analyses...

Context: The possible associations between the different blood groups and clinical factors with COVID-19 infection among patients in Makkah city. Objective: To investigate the relationship between ABO blood groups and COVID-19 infection in patients who were tested positive and to elucidate the most common ABO blood groups with a higher infectivity of COVID-19 and disease association. Materials and Methods: This was an observational cross-sectional study that included COVID-19 patients diagnosed with PCR and who were hospitalized in Al-Noor Specialist Hospital (Makkah) during the period between March to November 2020...

Some people, known as HIV-exposed seronegative (HESN) individuals, remain uninfected despite high levels of exposure to HIV. Understanding the mechanisms underlying their apparent resistance to HIV infection may inform strategies designed to protect against HIV infection. Natural Killer (NK) cells are innate immune cells whose activation state depends on the integration of activating and inhibitory signals arising from cell surface receptors interacting with their ligands on neighboring cells. Inhibitory NK cell receptors use a subset of major histocompatibility (MHC) class I antigens as ligands...

BACKGROUND: Even with the widespread availability of vaccines for the COVID-19 disease, there is no sign of decline in the rate of spread of the disease. Based on findings of different studies across the globe, the disease is characterized by poor outcomes in specific sociodemographic categories such as age, gender and presence of symptoms. METHODS: In this study, we carried out a multivariable logistic regression analysis on a national database (HESN+) of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Saudi Arabia to determine predictors of hospitalization and mortality for these patients...

Individuals lacking interferon lambda 4 (IFNL4) protein due to a common null mutation (rs368234815) in the IFNL4 gene display higher resistance against several infections. The influence of IFNL4 on HIV-1 infection is still under discussion and conflicting results have been reported. This study intended to corroborate or refute the association of the null allele of IFNL4 and HIV-1 predisposition in a cohort of men who have sex with men (MSM). IFNL4 null genotype was assessed on 619 HIV-1-seronegative MSM who were followed for 36 months during a trial of a prophylactic vaccine against HIV-1...

Interferon (IFN) -stimulated genes (ISGs) are critical effectors of IFN response to viral infection, but whether ISG expression is a correlate of protection against HIV infection remains elusive. A well-characterized subcohort of Kenyan female sex workers, who, despite being repeatedly exposed to HIV-1 remain seronegative (HESN), exhibit reduced baseline systemic and mucosal immune activation. This study tested the hypothesis that regulation of ISGs in the cells of HESN potentiates a robust antiviral response against HIV...

Echo state network (ESN), a type of special recurrent neural network with a large-scale randomly fixed hidden layer (called a reservoir) and an adaptable linear output layer, has been widely employed in the field of time series analysis and modeling. However, when tackling the problem of multidimensional chaotic time series prediction, due to the randomly generated rules for input and reservoir weights, not only the representation of valuable variables is enriched but also redundant and irrelevant information is accumulated inevitably...