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Immunofluorescence microscopy is extensively used in characterization of trophoblast differentiation in vitro. However, such data is primarily used to confirm the presence of protein markers or qualitatively compare levels of protein markers across experimental conditions. Imaging data, when processed and analyzed appropriately can provide quantitative and spatial information, and provide biological insight. Towards this end, here we present MATroph, an open-source MATLAB-based computational tool to process images generated by immunofluorescent microscopy. MATroph automatically executes a series of image processing operations, including the classification of red, blue, and green channels from images, background extraction, morphological operations, and image filtering. From the isolated blue channels corresponding to nuclear staining, this tool generates numerical values for cell number. Additionally, relative levels and spatial location of proteins are obtained by mapping red and green channel pixels to blue pixels by assigning minimum pixel distance between the blue and other color objects. Thus, this tool provides information about intracellular protein accumulation areas. Additionally, this tool can also classify cells as single cells or part of colonies, and extract information on protein levels for each; this is particularly useful for quantitative studies on extravillous trophoblast maturation. We provide a user-guide to analyze the relative levels of markers relevant to human trophoblast stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Importantly, MATroph is composed of a simple MATLAB algorithm, and its implementation requires minimal expertise in programming., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this article., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: The antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties of azithromycin suggest therapeutic potential against COVID-19. Randomised data in mild-to-moderate disease are not available. We assessed whether azithromycin is effective in reducing hospital admission in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19., Methods: This prospective, open-label, randomised superiority trial was done at 19 hospitals in the UK. We enrolled adults aged at least 18 years presenting to hospitals with clinically diagnosed, highly probable or confirmed COVID-19 infection, with fewer than 14 days of symptoms, who were considered suitable for initial ambulatory management. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to azithromycin (500 mg once daily orally for 14 days) plus standard care or to standard care alone. The primary outcome was death or hospital admission from any cause over the 28 days from randomisation. The primary and safety outcomes were assessed according to the intention-to-treat principle. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04381962) and recruitment is closed., Findings: 298 participants were enrolled from June 3, 2020, to Jan 29, 2021. Three participants withdrew consent and requested removal of all data, and three further participants withdrew consent after randomisation, thus, the primary outcome was assessed in 292 participants (145 in the azithromycin group and 147 in the standard care group). The mean age of the participants was 45·9 years (SD 14·9). 15 (10%) participants in the azithromycin group and 17 (12%) in the standard care group were admitted to hospital or died during the study (adjusted OR 0·91 [95% CI 0·43-1·92], p=0·80). No serious adverse events were reported., Interpretation: In patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 managed without hospital admission, adding azithromycin to standard care treatment did not reduce the risk of subsequent hospital admission or death. Our findings do not support the use of azithromycin in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19., Funding: National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, University of Oxford and Pfizer., Competing Interests: Declaration of interests TSCH has received grants from Pfizer, University of Oxford, the Wellcome Trust, The Guardians of the Beit Fellowship, and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) during the conduct of the study; and personal fees from Astra Zeneca, TEVA, and Peer Voice, outside of the submitted work. MJ has received grants from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. DR has undertaken paid consultancy for GlaxoSmithKline outside of the submitted work. IDP reports personal fees from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Aerocrine, Almirall, Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Genentech, Regeneron, Teva, Chiesi, Sanofi, Circassia, and Knopp; and grants from NIHR, outside of the submitted work. JU has received honoraria for preparation of educational materials and has served on an advisory board for Gilead Sciences and ViiV Healthcare, outside of the submitted work. All other authors declare no competing interests., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: There is a high prevalence of depressive disorders among children and adolescents globally, accounting for 45% of disability-adjusted life years among 10- to 24-year-olds. Although it has been recognized as a major public health concern in Pakistan, there have been no studies exploring the development or cross-cultural validation of instruments for screening and assessing the severity of adolescent depression. Therefore, the present study was designed to validate the Urdu translation of the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A) among Pakistani children and adolescents., Study Design: This is a cross-sectional study., Methods: A total of 452 children and adolescents responded to a survey comprising demographic characteristics, the Urdu translation of PHQ-A, and the Urdu version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). It was hypothesized that total scores on the PHQ-A would correlate significantly with the SDQ scores. Reliability analysis and exploratory factor analyses were carried out using SPSS v.20. Additional confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using the FACTOR program., Results: No floor and ceiling effects were reported for PHQ-A total scores. Factor analysis confirmed good results for language interchangeability and unidimensionality among the sampled adolescents. Similarly, the findings showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.76), test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.61; 0.53-0.68), and concurrent validity., Conclusion: The Urdu translation of the PHQ-A is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing depression among Pakistani adolescents, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual diagnosis criteria., (Copyright © 2018 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Steroidal hormones progesterone and testosterone play a vital role in breast and prostate cancers. In this research, we have synthesized and characterized a total of thirty-one (31) new nitrogenous derivatives of progesterone and testosterone. The synthesized derivatives (1-31) were screened for their anti-cancer potential against MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines of breast using MTT assay. The compounds 1-31exhibited significant inhibitory potentials against MCF-7 and PC-3 cell lines. In MCF-7 assay, compound 17 displayed IC 50 value of 04 ± 0.02 μM while compound 18 was leading in PC-3 assay with IC 50 of 03.14 ± 0.4 μM. Tamoxifen was used as positive control which exhibited an IC 50 of 0.12 ± 0.03 and 0.26 ± 0.01 μM against MCF-7 and PC-3 respectively. The compounds also showed good anti-inflammatory activity according to oxidative burst inhibition by chemiluminescence technique where ibuprofen was used as positive control with 73.2 ± 1.4% ROS inhibition. The compounds showed the percent ROS inhibition between 23.2 ± 0.2 and -3.2 ± 4.1. The results of the compounds were compared with the positive control ibuprofen. Molecular docking correlations suggest that the compounds exerted their inhibitory activity by binding to the active of the enzyme., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)