An investigation of stress and anxiety among health professions students in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Early studies during the COVID-19 pandemic identify the dissonance between feeling anxious about contracting the illness and the innate desire to serve the sick, as a main stressor for students.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to better understand psychological stress and self-reported wellness of Physician Assistant (PA), Physical Therapy (PT), dental, and medical students during the early portions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We utilized the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) together with additional questions to assess self-perceived stress, anxiety, and wellness of healthcare students.

3-O sulfation of heparin leads to hepatotropism and longer circulatory half-life.

Introduction: Heparins are common blood anticoagulants that are critical for many surgical and biomedical procedures used in modern medicine. In contrast to natural heparin derived from porcine gut mucosa, synthetic heparins are homogenous by mass, polymer length, and chemistry.

Materials & Methods: Stable cell lines expressing the human and mouse Stabilin receptors were used to evaluate endocytosis of natural and synthetic heparin.

Stabilin-1 and Stabilin-2 are specific receptors for the cellular internalization of phosphorothioate-modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) in the liver.

Phosphorothioate (PS)-modified antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have been extensively investigated over the past three decades as pharmacological and therapeutic agents. One second generation ASO, Kynamro™, was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia and over 35 second generation PS ASOs are at various stages of clinical development. In this report, we show that the Stabilin class of scavenger receptors, which were not previously thought to bind DNA, do bind and internalize PS ASOs.