Impact of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic on the patient journeys of those with a newly diagnosed paediatric brain tumour in the UK: a qualitative study.

Objectives: To explore the impact of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic on the diagnosis, management and patient journey for children and young people with a newly diagnosed brain tumour in the UK.

Design: Exploratory qualitative study focused on patient journeys from multiple perspectives, conducted as part of a wider mixed-methods study.

Setting: Three paediatric oncology tertiary centres in the UK.

Association of obesity and metabolic syndrome with incident primary open angle glaucoma in the UK Biobank.

Background: We sought to investigate the association between obesity, metabolic syndrome, and metabolic health with incident primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG).

Methods: We included 103 249 UK Biobank participants without previously diagnosed glaucoma or glaucoma-related procedures at enrolment. The primary outcome was POAG identified from diagnostic coding via linked hospital inpatient and primary care data.

Eye on the horizon: The metabolic landscape of the RPE in aging and disease.

To meet the prodigious bioenergetic demands of the photoreceptors, glucose and other nutrients must traverse the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a polarised monolayer of cells that lie at the interface between the outer retina and the choroid, the principal vascular layer of the eye. Recent investigations have revealed a metabolic ecosystem in the outer retina where the photoreceptors and RPE engage in a complex exchange of sugars, amino acids, and other metabolites. Perturbation of this delicate metabolic balance has been identified in the aging retina, as well as in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the Western world.

Plants Utilize a Protection/Deprotection Strategy in Limonoid Biosynthesis: A "Missing Link" Carboxylesterase Boosts Yields and Provides Insights into Furan Formation.

The furan ring is a defining feature of limonoids, a class of highly rearranged and bioactive plant tetranortriterpenoids. We recently reported an apparent complete biosynthetic pathway to these important natural furanoids. Herein, we disclose the subsequent discovery of a yield-boosting "missing link" carboxylesterase that selectively deprotects a late-stage intermediate, so triggering more efficient furan biosynthesis.