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Background A significant contributing factor to permanent blindness is age-related macular degeneration (AMD), hence raising awareness of the condition is crucial to preventing blindness. Previous research papers, however, indicated that the general public is not aware of AMD, and there is no information available regarding AMD awareness in Syria. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to assess the awareness of AMD and its risk factors Syrian Private University students. Methods A cross-sectional study using a questionnaire focused on students from the medical, dental, pharmacy, business administration, and engineering schools at a Syrian private university. The interview assessed respondents' knowledge of AMD using a standardized questionnaire derived from the AMD Alliance International Global Report. Demographic data included age, gender, education level, and home type (rural vs. urban). Results The 600 students from the Syrian Private University made up the sample for our study, including 252 males (59%) and 248 females (41%). 35% of the total student population— responded that age-related macular degeneration is very common and able-to-detect early, moreover 34% of students responded that macular degeneration is a common cause of irreversible low vision in the world. 16%, 18%, 18% and 13% believed that smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity are risk factors for AMD. When the students were asked about the potential symptoms of AMD, the majority of students responded that the patient's low vision was the most significant symptom, reaching 253 students, or 42%. When asked about treatment options for AMD, the majority of participants showed low level of knowledge about that. Conclusion The sample of students knew very little about AMD. It is necessary to implement educational initiatives to increase public knowledge about AMD.

Studies on Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors and clinical studies on Ebola virus (EBOV) vaccine candidates have pinpointed the importance of a strong antibody response in protection and survival from EBOV infection. However, little is known about the T cell responses to EBOV or EBOV vaccines. We used HLA-A*02:01 (HLA-A2) transgenic mice to study HLA-A2-specific T cell responses elicited following vaccination with EBOV glycoprotein (EBOV-GP) presented with three different systems: (i) recombinant protein (rEBOV-GP), (ii) vesicular stomatitis replication-competent recombinant virus (VSV-EBOV-GP), and (iii) modified vaccinia Ankara virus recombinant (MVA-EBOV-GP). T cells from immunized animals were analyzed using peptide pools representing the entire GP region and individual peptides. Regardless of the vaccine formulation, we identified a minimal 9mer epitope containing an HLA-A2 motif (FLDPATTS), which was confirmed through HLA-A2 binding affinity and immunization studies. Using binding prediction software, we identified substitutions surrounding position 9 (S9V, P10V, and Q11V) that predicted enhanced binding to the HLA-A2 molecule. This enhanced binding was confirmed through in vitro binding studies and enhanced potency was shown with in vivo immunization studies using the enhanced sequences and the wild-type sequence. Of note, in silico studies predicted the enhanced 9mer epitope carrying the S9V substitution as the best overall HLA-A2 epitope for the full-length EBOV-GP. These results suggest that EBOV-GP-S9V and EBOV-GP-P10V represent more potent in vivo immunogens. Identification and enhancement of EBOV-specific human HLA epitopes could lead to the development of tools and reagents to induce more robust T cell responses in human subjects. IMPORTANCE Vaccine efficacy and immunity to viral infection are often measured by neutralizing antibody titers. T cells are specialized subsets of immune cells with antiviral activity, but this response is variable and difficult to track. We showed that the HLA-A2-specific T cell response to the Ebola virus glycoprotein can be enhanced significantly by a single residue substitution designed to improve an epitope binding affinity to one of the most frequent MHC alleles in the human population. This strategy could be applied to improve T cell responses to Ebola vaccines designed to elicit antibodies and adapted to target MHC alleles of populations in regions where endemic infections, like Ebola virus disease, are still causing outbreaks with concerning pandemic potential.

Candida glabrata is the second most commonly isolated yeast recovered from blood cultures in the United States. We characterized 85 C. glabrata clinical isolates recovered from various clinical specimens obtained from immunocompromised individuals. This collection was unique because it included a series of isolates recovered from the blood of a patient who only partially responded to antifungal therapy. In vitro activity of caspofungin, micafungin, anidulafungin, fluconazole, voriconazole and amphotericin B was evaluated. Most of the isolates were susceptible to the echinocandins, triazoles and amphotericin B. The geometric mean MIC of the antifungals for the susceptible isolates (n=79) were as follows: caspofungin, 0.061315 ± 0.076934; micafungin, 0.123521 ± 0.457202; anidulafungin, 0.044158 ± 0.895249; fluconazole, 7.013461 ± 20.56794; voriconazole, 0.324939 ± 1.051247; amphotericin B, 0.474923 ± 0.162994. Five of the six serial blood isolates showed a reduced echinocandin susceptibility (RES) to the echinocandins and the triazoles. Characterization of the hot spot 1 region of FKS1, FKS2 and FKS3 showed no amino acid alterations. However, the genes coding for the drug efflux proteins CgCDR1, CgCDR2, CgSNQ2, as well as Cgcyp51 were over-expressed in the isolates with RES and azole resistance compared to the susceptible isolates, indicating that the upregulation of the synthesis of efflux proteins and the drug target is responsible for conferring resistance to triazoles in these isolates. These results demonstrate that multiechinocandin and multi-azole resistant C. glabrata clinical isolates can emerge under the selection pressure imposed by specific drug therapy over a relatively short period of time.