Public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and major wildfires have exposed significant confusion about how members of the public can effectively protect themselves from inhaling harmful airborne particles. Unlike many other nations, no single federal agency oversees respiratory protective devices (RPDs) designed for public use against inhaled contaminants. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) currently holds the authority for establishing standards and approving respirators used in workplaces; however, for public sector use, there is a lack of standards for their design and construction, conformity assessment to ensure conformance, risk assessment in selecting devices, and guidance for proper use and maintenance. Without RPDs specifically designed for public use, individuals are left to purchase industrial products intended for workplaces, which do not generally suit the needs of the public, or to rely on domestic and foreign products that have uncertain quality and effectiveness. The development of specific standards for public-use devices, robust conformity assessment practices, and clear guidance on their selection, use, and care is needed. A risk assessment framework for selecting devices for common hazards like wildfire smoke, general air pollution (including pollens and allergens), and infectious particles is presented. Respiratory protection for the public must consider those with physical and mental disabilities and is discussed. Given that nearly all governmental expertise in RPD testing, efficacy determination, and systems oversight resides within NIOSH, its authority could be expanded to assist in developing public-specific standards and conformity assessments. This expansion would enable the public to have confidence that the RPDs they purchase are effective for the protections manufacturers claim.
Aim: This study aimed to investigate the impact of different types of baby wipes on the barrier recovery of compromised skin after repeated wiping. Methods: The forearm skin of adult females was compromised through repeated tape-stripping. Baby wipes with different compositions and water and cloth were used to repeatedly wipe the compromised forearm skin. The health of the skin barrier was evaluated by transepidermal water loss and erythema over the course of 5 days. Results: Skin wiped with pH-buffered baby wipes containing emollients had better barrier health in comparison to skin wiped with baby wipes lacking these features. Additionally, one of the pH-buffered wipes with emollients was gentler on compromised skin than the other baby wipes, as well as water and cloth and performed similarly to unwiped skin. Conclusion: Baby wipes composition can affect the barrier health of compromised skin after wiping.
The paradigm that the vaginal microbiota is a protective gateway for the urinary and reproductive systems has endured for more than a century and driven decades of probiotic research. Evidence robustly supports the notion that healthy urogenital microbiomes are predominantly colonized by lactobacilli, particularly Lactobacillus crispatus , which can acidify the local environment and protect against urogynecologic pathogen colonization. However, recent studies are beginning to delve deeper into the intricate mechanistic interactions connecting the microbiome, its diverse functional potential, host immunity, pathogens, and the development of urogenital diseases. Leveraging these emerging insights alongside past successes presents promising opportunities for future therapies aimed at enhancing the management of conditions such as bacterial vaginosis, urinary tract infections, bladder pain, urinary incontinence, and beyond.
Standard information reporting helps to ensure that assay conditions and data are consistently reported and to facilitate inter-laboratory comparisons. Here, we present recommendations on minimum information for reporting on the TEER (trans-epithelial/endothelial electrical resistance) assay (MIRTA). The TEER assay is extensively used to evaluate the health of an epithelial/endothelial cell culture model and as an indicator of the potential toxicity of a test substance. This publication is the result of an international collaboration─called the RespTox (Respiratory Toxicity) Collaborative─through which twelve laboratories shared their protocols for assessing the barrier function of respiratory epithelial cells using the TEER assay following exposure to substances. The protocols from each laboratory were reviewed to identify general steps for performing the TEER assay, interlaboratory differences between steps, the rationale for differences, whether these differences impact results or cross-laboratory comparisons between TEER measurements. While the MIRTA recommendations are focused on respiratory epithelial cell systems, these recommendations can be adapted for other cell systems that form barriers. The use of these recommendations will support data transparency and reproducibility, reduce challenges in data interpretation, enable cross-laboratory comparisons, help assess study quality, and facilitate the incorporation of the TEER assay into national and international testing guidance.
The ability of antimicrobial peptides to efficiently kill their bacterial targets depends on the efficiency of their binding to the microbial membrane. In the case of enterocins, there is a three-part interaction: initial binding, unpacking of helices on the membrane surface, and permeation of the lipid bilayer. Helical unpacking is driven by disruption of the peptide hydrophobic core when in contact with membranes. Enterocin 7B is a leaderless enterocin antimicrobial peptide produced from Enterococcus faecalis that functions alone, or with its cognate partner enterocin 7A, to efficiently kill a wide variety of Gram-stain positive bacteria. To better characterize the role that tertiary structural plasticity plays in the ability of enterocin 7B to interact with the membranes, a series of arginine single-site mutants were constructed that destabilize the hydrophobic core to varying degrees. A series of experimental measures of structure, stability, and function, including CD spectra, far UV CD melting profiles, minimal inhibitory concentrations analysis, and release kinetics of calcein, show that decreased stabilization of the hydrophobic core is correlated with increased efficiency of a peptide to permeate membranes and in killing bacteria. Finally, using the computational technique of adaptive steered molecular dynamics, we found that the atomistic/energetic landscape of peptide mechanical unfolding leads to free energy differences between the wild type and its mutants, whose trends correlate well with our experiment.
