J Formos Med Assoc
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The newly emerged Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is becoming another "SARS-like" threat to the world. It has an extremely high death rate (∼50%) as there is no vaccine or efficient therapeutics. The identification of the structures of both the MERS-CoV receptor binding domain (RBD) and its complex with dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4), raises the hope of alleviating this currently severe situation. In this review, we examined the molecular basis of the RBD-receptor interaction to outline why/how could we use MERS-CoV RBD to develop vaccines and antiviral drugs.
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Kawasaki disease (KD) is a disease of unknown cause. To investigate the infectious etiology of Kawasaki disease, we initiated a prospective case-control study to investigate possible links between common viral infections and Kawasaki disease. ⋯ We found that some common respiratory viruses, such as adenoviruses, enteroviruses, rhinoviruses, and coronaviruses, were associated with KD cases.
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This study aimed to examine the reliability and clinical decision validities of the Taipei City Developmental Checklist for Preschoolers, 2nd version (the Taipei II, which was filled out by parents) and the screening procedures conducted in the medical setting. ⋯ Taipei II with multiple cutoff points could give more useful clinical information than using a single cutoff point. The multiple likelihood ratios of Taipei II for children older than 3 years and in different cultural backgrounds need further study.