Heavy metals, such as Cd and Pb, are present in the particulate matter (PM) suspended in ambient air. Once internalized, they often accumulate in the human body and cannot be metabolized for long periods. Our results revealed that Cd and Pb induced comparable cytotoxicity and secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, IL-6 and IL-8, in a time-dependent manner, even at low concentrations. Altogether, our results suggest that heavy metals present in PM can cause chronic long-term effects on human lungs.

This study investigated the changes in the CRP level caused by an infection from respiratory virus (RV).
Nasopharyngeal samples from hospitalized patients with suspected RV infection were used to measure the CRP levels, virus load, virus-virus co-infection, age, sex, and length of hospital stay (LOS). The frequency of elevated CRP levels differed according to the causative virus and the frequency of abnormal levels increased with age. Moreover, LOS was longer in those with abnormal CRP levels. These data provide important insights into the role of CRP levels in RV infection.

Although various studies have focused on the relationship between essential oils (EOs) and skin flora, there are only few comparative studies on the antibacterial properties of EOs and their efficacy against common microorganisms. In this study, we tested the antibacterial activity of 10 different EOs against Staphylococcus epidermidis(S. epidermidis) with oxacillin as control. Optical density was used to measure the activity of solutions containing the EOs and S. epidermidis at two different concentrations.

The aim of this retrospective study was to determine the trends of G. vaginalis infections based on real-time PCR data according to age and sex in patients with sexually transmitted diseases.
From 2018 to 2020 in Korea, the number of tests conducted for bacterial vaginosis has increased, while the incidence of G. vaginalis infections appears to have decreased. the finding that female adolescents have a high tendency to carry the pathogen is important. and for effective surveillance of BV, sampling by cotton swabs and detection by multiplex PCR might be a good approach.