Background: The widespread use of the antifibrinolytic agent, tranexamic acid (TXA), interferes with the quantification of fibrinolysis by dynamic laboratory assays such as clot lysis, making it difficult to measure fibrinolysis in many trauma patients. At the final stage of coagulation, factor (F)XIIIa catalyzes the formation of fibrin-fibrin and fibrin-α-antiplasmin (αAP) cross-links, which increases clot mechanical strength and resistance to fibrinolysis.
Objectives: Here, we developed a method to quantify fibrin-fibrin and fibrin-αAP cross-links that avoids the challenges posed by TXA in determining fibrinolytic resistance in conventional assays.
Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilisation (MOMP) is often essential for apoptosis, by enabling cytochrome c release that leads to caspase activation and rapid cell death. Recently, MOMP has been shown to be inherently pro-inflammatory with emerging cellular roles, including its ability to elicit anti-tumour immunity. Nonetheless, how MOMP triggers inflammation and how the cell regulates this remains poorly defined.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMutations within viral epitopes can result in escape from T cells, but the contribution of mutations in flanking regions of epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 has not been investigated. Focusing on two SARS-CoV-2 nucleoprotein CD8 epitopes, we investigated the contribution of these flanking mutations to proteasomal processing and T cell activation. We found decreased NP-B*27:05 CD8 T cell responses to the NP-Q7K mutation, likely due to a lack of efficient epitope production by the proteasome, suggesting immune escape caused by this mutation.
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