Can mHealth Technology Help Mitigate the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic?

The aim of the study herein reported was to review mobile health (mHealth) technologies and explore their use to monitor and mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Task Force was assembled by recruiting individuals with expertise in electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (ePRO), wearable sensors, and digital contact tracing technologies. Its members collected and discussed available information and summarized it in a series of reports.

Evaluation of serological lateral flow assays for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2.

Background: COVID-19 has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Lateral flow assays can detect anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies to monitor transmission. However, standardized evaluation of their accuracy and tools to aid in interpreting results are needed.

Piwi proteins interact with a broad proportion of the oocyte transcriptome.

Piwi proteins utilize small RNAs (piRNAs) to recognize target transcripts such as transposable elements (TE). However, extensive piRNA sequence diversity also suggests that Piwi/piRNA complexes interact with many transcripts beyond TEs. To determine Piwi target RNAs, we used ribonucleoprotein-immunoprecipitation (RIP) and cross-linking and immunoprecipitation (CLIP) to identify thousands of transcripts associated with the Piwi proteins XIWI and XILI (Piwi-protein-associated transcripts, PATs) from early stage oocytes of and Most PATs associate with both XIWI and XILI and include transcripts of developmentally important proteins in oogenesis and embryogenesis.

Combining different mRNA capture methods to analyze the transcriptome: analysis of the Xenopus laevis transcriptome.

mRNA sequencing (mRNA-seq) is a commonly used technique to survey gene expression from organisms with fully sequenced genomes. Successful mRNA-seq requires purification of mRNA away from the much more abundant ribosomal RNA, which is typically accomplished by oligo-dT selection. However, mRNAs with short poly-A tails are captured poorly by oligo-dT based methods.

De novo design of synthetic prion domains.

Prions are important disease agents and epigenetic regulatory elements. Prion formation involves the structural conversion of proteins from a soluble form into an insoluble amyloid form. In many cases, this structural conversion is driven by a glutamine/asparagine (Q/N)-rich prion-forming domain.

[PSI+] maintenance is dependent on the composition, not primary sequence, of the oligopeptide repeat domain.

[PSI(+)], the prion form of the yeast Sup35 protein, results from the structural conversion of Sup35 from a soluble form into an infectious amyloid form. The infectivity of prions is thought to result from chaperone-dependent fiber cleavage that breaks large prion fibers into smaller, inheritable propagons. Like the mammalian prion protein PrP, Sup35 contains an oligopeptide repeat domain.

The effects of amino acid composition on yeast prion formation and prion domain interactions.

Yeast prions provide a powerful model system for examining prion formation and propagation in vivo. Yeast prion formation is driven primarily by amino acid composition, not by primary amino acid sequence. However, although yeast prion domains are consistently glutamine/asparagine-rich, they otherwise vary significantly in their compositions.

Compositional determinants of prion formation in yeast.

Numerous prions (infectious proteins) have been identified in yeast that result from the conversion of soluble proteins into beta-sheet-rich amyloid-like protein aggregates. Yeast prion formation is driven primarily by amino acid composition. However, yeast prion domains are generally lacking in the bulky hydrophobic residues most strongly associated with amyloid formation and are instead enriched in glutamines and asparagines.

Determinants of histone H4 N-terminal domain function during nucleosomal array oligomerization: roles of amino acid sequence, domain length, and charge density.

Mg(2+)-dependent oligomerization of nucleosomal arrays is correlated with higher order folding transitions that stabilize chromosome structure beyond the 30-nm diameter fiber. In the present studies, we have employed a novel mutagenesis-based approach to identify the macromolecular determinants that control H4 N-terminal domain (NTD) function during oligomerization. Core histones were engineered in which 1) the H2A, H2B, and H3 NTDs were swapped onto the H4 histone fold; 2) the length of the H4 NTD and the H2A NTD on the H4 histone fold, were increased; 3) the charge density of the NTDs on the H4 histone fold was increased or decreased; and 4) the H4 NTD was placed on the H2B histone fold.

Reporter assay systems for [URE3] detection and analysis.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae prion [URE3] is the infectious amyloid form of the Ure2p protein. [URE3] provides a useful model system for studying amyloid formation and stability in vivo. When grown in the presence of a good nitrogen source, [URE3] cells are able to take up ureidosuccinate, an intermediate in uracil biosynthesis, while cells lacking the [URE3] prion can not.