Poorly known aspects of flattening the curve of COVID-19.

A negative correlation between the final ceiling of the logistic curve and its slope, established long time ago via a simulation study, motivated this closer look at flattening the curve of COVID-19. The diffusion of the virus is analyzed with S-shaped logistic-curve fits on the 25 countries most affected in which the curve was more than 95% completed at the time of the writing (mid-May 2020.) A negative correlation observed between the final number of infections and the slope of the logistic curve corroborates the result obtained long time ago via an extensive simulation study.

Improvement of clonality detection rate in multiple myeloma using fluorescent IgH PCR with different sets of primers.

The IgH rearrangement provides a useful marker of clonality in B-cell malignancies and amplification of this rearrangement is the method of choice to monitor the residual tumor cells in multiple myeloma (MM). The critical point of this analysis was the false-negative rate observed at diagnosis in patients presenting tumor cells well above the limit of detection. The aim of this study was therefore to increase the clonality detection rate by IgH polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Assignment of the rabbit genes for alpha (PHKA) and beta (PHKB) phosphorylase kinase subunits.

The chromosomal locations of the rabbit genes for the alpha and beta subunits of phosphorylase kinase (PHKA and PHKB) were determined by in situ hybridization using rabbit cDNA probes. Our results localize PHKA to the X chromosome at the proximal end of the long arm, near the centromere, and PHKB to the same location on chromosome 5. These assignments support previously reported homoeologies of rabbit and human chromosomes.

Collection of circulating stem cells and their use for autograft in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.

The level of peripheral blood granulocyte-monocytic precursors (PB CFU-GM) was studied serially in 10 adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in early complete remission after induction chemotherapy. The patients were distributed into 2 main groups according to the morphological French-American-British classification: ALL2 and ALL3. Collection of circulating stem cells (CSC) by cytapheresis was performed in 7 of these 10 patients with satisfactory results, except in 2 ALL2 patients, both of whom had chromosome translocation, which could have been a contributing factor.

[Collection of circulating stem cells during remission after chemotherapy in acute leukemia].

The level of circulating myeloid progenitor cells (CFU-G), considered to be a good index of the quantity of circulating hemopoietic stem cells, was measured in the peripheral blood of 5 patients with acute leukemia as they entered first remission. High levels of circulating CFU-G were found in 4 of these 5 patients, depending on the intensity and the number of courses of induction chemotherapy. Repeated cytaphereses were done on 3 of these patients in order to collect and to cryopreserve circulating stem cells, to be used later for autologous transplantation.