A Single-Center Pilot Study of Therapeutic Apheresis in Patients with Severe Post-COVID Syndrome.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients have reported chronic fatigue and severe post-exertional malaise, with symptoms similar to those of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The accumulation of agonistic receptor autoantibodies targeting beta-adrenergic (β1 and β2) and muscarinic (M3 and M4) neurotransmitter receptors may play a crucial role in the pathomechanism of both ME/CFS and post-COVID conditions. Therapeutic apheresis has been suggested as an effective treatment option for alleviating and mitigating symptoms in this desperate group of patients.

A dystroglycan-laminin-integrin axis coordinates cell shape remodeling in the developing Drosophila retina.

Cell shape remodeling is a principal driver of epithelial tissue morphogenesis. While progress continues to be made in our understanding of the pathways that control the apical (top) geometry of epithelial cells, we know comparatively little about those that control cell basal (bottom) geometry. To examine this, we used the Drosophila ommatidium, which is the basic visual unit of the compound eye.

How advancements in molecular biology impact education and training.

Molecular biology, broadly defined as the investigation of complex biomolecules in the laboratory, is a rapidly advancing field and as such the technologies available to investigators are constantly evolving. This constant advancement has obvious advantages because it allows students and researchers to perform more complex experiments in shorter periods of time. One challenge with such a rapidly advancing field is that techniques that had been vital for students to learn how to perform are now not essential for a laboratory scientist.

Tuneable thiol exchange linkers for traceless drug release applications in prodrugs and ADCs.

We describe a versatile and tuneable thiol responsive linker system using thiovinylketones, which relies on the conjugate addition-elimination mechanism of Michael acceptors for the traceless release of therapeutics. In a proof-of-principle study, we translate our findings to exhibit potent thiol-cleavable antibiotic prodrugs and antibody-drug conjugates.