Comparison of two acidophilic sulfidogenic consortia for the treatment of acidic mine water.

Sulfate-reducing bioreactors are a biotechnological alternative for the treatment of acid mine drainage (AMD). In this study, two separate bioreactors with pH and temperature-controlled (Bio I and II) were operated with two different acidophilic microbial consortia to determine their efficiencies in sulfate removal from a synthetic acidic mine water. The bioreactors were operated for 302 days in continuous flow mode under the same parameters: fed with a sulfate solution of ∼30 mM with a pH of 2.

Efficacy of early anti-inflammatory treatment with high doses of intravenous anakinra with or without glucocorticoids in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.

Background: IL-1 plays a pivotal role in the inflammatory response during cytokine storm syndromes.

Objective: Our aim was to analyze the efficacy and safety of early anti-inflammatory treatment (AIT) with intravenous anakinra with or without glucocorticoids in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia.

Methods: We performed a retrospective single-center cohort study of patients admitted for COVID-19 pneumonia from February 26 to April 29, 2020, to assess the efficacy of early AIT with intravenous anakinra (100 mg every 8 hours for 3 days, with tapering) alone or in combination with a glucocorticoid (intravenous methylprednisolone, 1-2 mg/kg daily, with tapering).

Neuroimaging findings in malignant infantile osteopetrosis due to OSTM1 mutations.

Malignant infantile osteopetrosis (MIOP) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder of bone resorption characterized by early bone marrow failure, proneness to fractures, and visual deterioration, variably associated with impairments of other cranial nerves due to narrowing of skull base foramina. About 10% of patients with MIOP show severe neurological involvement, which contraindicates bone marrow transplantation. We report on a 12-month-old female with recessive OSMT1 mutations and neuroimaging findings suggesting a neurodegenerative storage disorder.

Glycogen storage disease type II: clinical overview.

Glycogen storage disease type II has a broad continuous clinical spectrum in terms of onset, involvement of organs and life expectancy. Infantile onset is the most severe form, presenting with prominent cardiomyopathy, hypotonia, hepatomegaly and death before 12 months of life. Late onset form has onset at any age, lack of severe (or absence of) cardiac involvement, progressive skeletal muscle dysfunction and less dismal short-term prognosis.

A case of ethylmalonic encephalopathy with atypical clinical and biochemical presentation.

A child is reported presenting with a clinical picture suggestive of genetic connective tissue disorders (vascular fragility, articular hyperlaxity, delayed motor development, and normal cognitive development), an absence of pathological ethylmalonic acid excretion during inter-critical phases and a homozygous R163W mutation in the ETHE1 gene. This case suggests that ethylmalonic aciduria is not a constant biochemical marker of ethylmalonic encephalopathy and that its normal excretion outside of metabolic decompensation episodes does not exclude this metabolic disease.