Computationally restoring the potency of a clinical antibody against Omicron.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the promise of monoclonal antibody-based prophylactic and therapeutic drugs and revealed how quickly viral escape can curtail effective options. When the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant emerged in 2021, many antibody drug products lost potency, including Evusheld and its constituent, cilgavimab. Cilgavimab, like its progenitor COV2-2130, is a class 3 antibody that is compatible with other antibodies in combination and is challenging to replace with existing approaches.

A Computational Pipeline to Identify and Characterize Binding Sites and Interacting Chemotypes in SARS-CoV-2.

Minimizing the human and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic and future pandemics requires the ability to develop and deploy effective treatments for novel pathogens as soon as possible after they emerge. To this end, we introduce a new computational pipeline for the rapid identification and characterization of binding sites in viral proteins along with the key chemical features, which we call chemotypes, of the compounds predicted to interact with those same sites. The composition of source organisms for the structural models associated with an individual binding site is used to assess the site's degree of structural conservation across different species, including other viruses and humans.

Impact assessment of the medical practice assisting (MPA) program in general practice in the hunter New England and central coast regions of Australia.

Background: A regional Australian Primary Health Network (PHN) has been subsidising administrative staff from local general practices to undertake the Medical Practice Assisting (MPA) course as part of its MPA Program. The MPA Program aimed to upskill administrative staff to undertake clinical tasks and fill in for busy or absent Practice Nurses (PNs), freeing up PNs to increase revenue-generating activity, avoiding casual replacement staff wages, and increasing patient throughput. An impact assessment was undertaken to evaluate the impact and estimate the economic costs of the MPA program to the PHN, general practices, and students to inform future uptake of the intervention.

Computationally restoring the potency of a clinical antibody against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the promise of monoclonal antibody-based prophylactic and therapeutic drugs, but also revealed how quickly viral escape can curtail effective options. With the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in late 2021, many clinically used antibody drug products lost potency, including Evusheld and its constituent, cilgavimab. Cilgavimab, like its progenitor COV2-2130, is a class 3 antibody that is compatible with other antibodies in combination and is challenging to replace with existing approaches.

Postprocedural effects of gastrointestinal endoscopy performed as a day case procedure in children: implications for patient and family education.

A prospective design that included a survey tool, nursing care records, and telephone interview was used to determine postprocedural effects experienced by children and families following gastrointestinal endoscopy performed as a day procedure. One hundred twenty-one children attending a pediatric gastroenterology unit for endoscopy under general anesthesia participated in the study. Physical symptoms, day care/school attendance, behavioral issues, and economic factors in the 72 hours post procedure were identified.