Diaci v3.0: chromosome-level assembly, de novo transcriptome, and manual annotation of Diaphorina citri, insect vector of Huanglongbing.

Background: Diaphorina citri is an insect vector of "Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus" (CLas), the gram-negative bacterial pathogen associated with citrus greening disease. Control measures rely on pesticides with negative impacts on the environment, natural ecosystems, and human and animal health. In contrast, gene-targeting methods have the potential to specifically target the vector species and/or reduce pathogen transmission.

Annotation of glycolysis, gluconeogenesis, and trehaloneogenesis pathways provide insight into carbohydrate metabolism in the Asian citrus psyllid.

Citrus greening disease is caused by the pathogen Liberibacter asiaticus and transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, . No curative treatment or significant prevention mechanism exists for this disease, which causes economic losses from reduced citrus production. A high-quality genome of is being manually annotated to provide accurate gene models to identify novel control targets and increase understanding of this pest.

Outcome of relapsed or refractory acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia patients and -positive blast cell crisis of B-lymphoid lineage with extramedullary disease receiving inotuzumab ozogamicin.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) can relapse in the extramedullary compartment, with or without medullary involvement. Response to treatment may be individual. We evaluated response to inotuzumab ozogamicin in 31 patients with relapsed/refractory B-ALL with extramedullary disease.

Two rare cases of bronchus-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma successfully treated with rituximab-bendamustine.

BALT lymphoma is a rare B-NHL with a favorable prognosis. We here report on two patients with nonspecific symptoms: one showed as major symptom severe thrombocytopenia and the other dyspnea and dry cough, thereby suggesting an inflammatory focus in the lungs. There is no standard of care established yet.

Role of the CarH photoreceptor protein environment in the modulation of cobalamin photochemistry.

The photochemistry of cobalamins has recently been found to have biological importance, with the discovery of bacterial photoreceptor proteins, such as CarH and AerR. CarH and AerR, are involved in the light regulation of carotenoid biosynthesis and bacteriochlorophyll biosynthesis, respectively, in bacteria. Experimental transient absorption spectroscopic studies have indicated unusual photochemical behavior of 5'-deoxy-5'-adenosylcobalamin (AdoCbl) in CarH, with excited-state charge separation between cobalt and adenosyl and possible heterolytic cleavage of the Co-adenosyl bond, as opposed to the homolytic cleavage observed in aqueous solution and in many AdoCbl-based enzymes.

Novel nephronophthisis-associated variants reveal functional importance of MAPKBP1 dimerization for centriolar recruitment.

Biallelic mutations in MAPKBP1 were recently associated with late-onset cilia-independent nephronophthisis. MAPKBP1 was found at mitotic spindle poles but could not be detected at primary cilia or centrosomes. Here, by identification and characterization of novel MAPKBP1 variants, we aimed at further investigating its role in health and disease.

Modulation of Human CXCL12 Binding Properties to Glycosaminoglycans To Enhance Chemotactic Gradients.

Controlled release of active biomolecules is an attractive approach to modulate chemotactic gradients and accordingly the recruitment of cells, e.g. endothelial progenitor cells to improve wound healing or stimulate angiogenesis after myocardial infarction.

Syntheses of defined sulfated oligohyaluronans reveal structural effects, diversity and thermodynamics of GAG-protein binding.

Binding of sulfated glycosaminoglycans (GAG) to a wide spectrum of extracellular regulatory proteins is crucial for physiological processes such as cell growth, migration, tissue homeostasis and repair. Thus, GAG derivatives exhibit great relevance in the development of innovative biomaterials for tissue regeneration therapies. We present a synthetic strategy for the preparation of libraries of defined sulfated oligohyaluronans as model GAG systematically varied in length, sulfation pattern and anomeric substitution in order to elucidate the effects of these parameters on GAG recognition by regulatory proteins.

The structural investigation of glycosaminoglycan binding to CXCL12 displays distinct interaction sites.

The stromal cell-derived factor 1α (CXCL12) belongs to the CXC chemokine family and plays an important role in tissue regeneration and the recruitment of stem cells. Here, a stable chemotactic gradient is essential that is formed by the interaction of CXCL12 with the extracellular matrix. Binding properties of CXCL12 to naturally occurring glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) as well as to the artificial highly sulfated hyaluronic acid (HA) are investigated by using a combination of NMR spectroscopy, molecular modeling and molecular dynamics simulations.

Semi-synthesis of chemokines.

Protein ligation allows the introduction of a wide range of modifications into proteins that are not accessible by mutagenesis. This includes non-proteinogenic amino acids and even backbone modification. This review summarizes recent reports on modified chemokine variants by ligation technologies and includes the development of the first protein with a full secondary structure motif exchanged by a helix that exclusively consists of β-amino acids.

Polyacrylonitrile complement activation attenuated by simultaneous ultrafiltration and adsorption.

The highly permeable synthetic polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membrane (Filtral; Hospal, Basle) is regarded as biocompatible for its slight complement activation and leucocyte sequestration. The low C3a and C5a concentrations during PAN dialysis may be due to a lack of complement activation potential of this polymer, but also to elimination of activated complement components by the dialyser through adsorption and/or ultrafiltration (mol wt of C3a and C4a 9000 daltons; of C5a 11,000 daltons). Comparing arteriovenous differences throughout the study, higher concentrations of C3a (+23%; n.

Permeability and secondary membrane formation of a high flux polysulfone hemofilter.

It has been assumed that the molecular weight (MW) cut-off of a newly fabricated polysulfone capillary dialyzer (F60, Fresenius, FRG) is similar to that of the human glomerulus. We recently tested the device in vivo and found this not to be so, based on the device's ability to eliminate substances of a MW of 10,000 to 60,000 daltons. One of the reasons for this discrepancy was found to be the influence of secondary membrane formation on solute permeability.

Pharmacokinetics of bisoprolol and influence on serum thyroid hormones in hyperthyroid patients.

Nine hyperthyroid patients (FT4 greater than or equal to 20 ng/L; FT3 greater than or equal to 6 ng/L) were given 1 X 10 mg bisoprolol/day p.o. for a period of 7 days.

Treatment of severe Graves' ophthalmopathy with cyclosporin A.

Ten patients with severe Graves' ophthalmopathy, resistant to other therapeutic regimens were treated with cyclosporin A (CyA) over a period of 6 months. Clinically, 9 patients improved, 2 of them only after addition of corticosteroids. Intra-ocular tension on upward gaze decreased in all of these 9 patients (P less than 0.

[Improved diagnostic evaluation of prostatic neoplasms using radioimmunoassay for prostatic acid phosphatase].

Better diagnosis of prostatic cancer by RIA of serum prostatic acid phosphatase? The results of serum determination of RIA prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and enzymatic serum phosphatase were compared in 267 patients with the clinical diagnosis to reveal the diagnostic value of the RIA-PAP in prostatic carcinomata. In 33 of the investigated patients (12.4%) we found elevated values of the PAP over the normal range of 0--5 ng/ml.

[Hypoferraemia and serum ferritin (author's transl)].

The wide use of serum iron determination by automatic analysers may lead to low values being taken as evidence of iron deficiency. Determining serum ferritin concentration in such cases provides rapid and reliable information to distinguish between reactive hypoferraemia and iron deficiency hypoferraemia, as demonstrated in tests on 71 patients with reproducible hypoferraemia. In 31 patients there was reactive hypoferraemia, in 40 iron deficiency hypoferraemia.