UNASSIGNED: In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, during which the world is confronted with a new, highly contagious virus that suppresses innate immunity as one of its initial virulence mechanisms, thus escaping from first-line human defense mechanisms, enhancing innate immunity seems a good preventive strategy.
UNASSIGNED: Without the intention to write an official systematic review, but more to give an overview of possible strategies, in this review article we discuss several interventions that might stimulate innate immunity and thus our defense against (viral) respiratory tract infections. Some of these interventions can also stimulate the adaptive T- and B-cell responses, but our main focus is on the innate part of immunity. We divide the reviewed interventions into: 1) lifestyle related (exercise, >7 h sleep, forest walking, meditation/mindfulness, vitamin supplementation); 2) Non-specific immune stimulants (letting fever advance, bacterial vaccines, probiotics, dialyzable leukocyte extract, pidotimod), and 3) specific vaccines with heterologous effect (BCG vaccine, mumps-measles-rubeola vaccine, etc).
UNASSIGNED: For each of these interventions we briefly comment on their definition, possible mechanisms and evidence of clinical efficacy or lack of it, especially focusing on respiratory tract infections, viral infections, and eventually a reduced mortality in severe respiratory infections in the intensive care unit. At the end, a summary table demonstrates the best trials supporting (or not) clinical evidence.
UNASSIGNED: Several interventions have some degree of evidence for enhancing the innate immune response and thus conveying possible benefit, but specific trials in COVID-19 should be conducted to support solid recommendations.

UNASSIGNED: Acute liver failure (ALF) is the leading cause for emergency liver transplantation (LT) all over the world. We looked at the profile of cases who required LT for ALF from a single centre to identify the possible predictors of poor outcomes.
UNASSIGNED: During the 10-year period starting from 2007, 320 cases of ALF were treated at our institution, of which 70 (median age 24 years, Male:Female 1:2) underwent LT. Retrospective analyses of these 70 patients were performed.
UNASSIGNED: Etiology was identifiable in 73% (n = 51) of cases (yellow phosphorous [YP] poisoning [n = 16], Hepatitis A virus [HAV] [n = 15], Hepatitis B virus [HBV] [n = 5], Hepatitis E virus [HEV] [n = 1], anti-tubercular therapy [ATT] induced [n = 6], acute Wilson\'s [n = 3], and autoimmune [n = 5]]. Upon meeting King\'s College Hospital criteria, 69 had live donor LT (61 right lobe grafts, three left lobe grafts, five left lateral segment grafts) and one had deceased donor LT. Among these, there were five auxiliary partial orthotopic grafts and four ABO-incompatible transplants. Overall, 90-day mortality was 35.7% (n = 25), predominantly due to sepsis. Significant risk factors for mortality on multivariate analysis included indeterminate etiology, pre-op renal dysfunction, and Grade IV hepatic encephalopathy (HE). Cumulative 10-year survival of the remaining survivors was 95.6% (n = 45).
UNASSIGNED: LT for ALF carries high perioperative mortality (35.7%) in those presenting with indeterminate etiology, pre-op renal dysfunction, and Grade IV HE. Nevertheless, if they survive the perioperative period, long-term survival is excellent.