Longitudinal kinetics of RBD+ antibodies in COVID-19 recovered patients over 14 months.

We describe the longitudinal kinetics of the serological response in COVID-19 recovered patients over a period of 14 months. The antibody kinetics in a cohort of 192 recovered patients, including 66 patients for whom follow-up serum samples were obtained at two to four clinic visits, revealed that RBD-specific antibodies decayed over the 14 months following the onset of symptoms. The decay rate was associated with the robustness of the response in that antibody levels that were initially highly elevated after the onset of symptoms subsequently decayed more rapidly.

PASA: Proteomic analysis of serum antibodies web server.

Motivation: A comprehensive characterization of the humoral response towards a specific antigen requires quantification of the B-cell receptor repertoire by next-generation sequencing (BCR-Seq), as well as the analysis of serum antibodies against this antigen, using proteomics. The proteomic analysis is challenging since it necessitates the mapping of antigen-specific peptides to individual B-cell clones.

Results: The PASA web server provides a robust computational platform for the analysis and integration of data obtained from proteomics of serum antibodies.

Production of F(ab') from Monoclonal and Polyclonal Antibodies.

Antibodies are widely used in therapeutic, diagnostic, and research applications, and antibody derivatives such as F(ab') fragments are used when only a particular antibody region is required. F(ab') can be produced through antibody engineering, but some applications require F(ab') produced from an original formulated antibody or directly from a polyclonal antibody pool. The cysteine protease immunoglobulin-degrading enzyme (IdeS) from Streptococcus pyogenes digests immunoglobulin G (IgG) specifically and efficiently to produce F(ab') .

Molecular Landscape of Anti-Drug Antibodies Reveals the Mechanism of the Immune Response Following Treatment With TNFα Antagonists.

Drugs formulated from monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are clinically effective in various diseases. Repeated administration of mAbs, however, elicits an immune response in the form of anti-drug-antibodies (ADA), thereby reducing the drug's efficacy. Notwithstanding their importance, the molecular landscape of ADA and the mechanisms involved in their formation are not fully understood.

The negative effect of starvation and the positive effect of mild thermal stress on thermal tolerance of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum.

The thermal tolerance of a terrestrial insect species can vary as a result of differences in population origin, developmental stage, age, and sex, as well as via phenotypic plasticity induced in response to changes in the abiotic environment. Here, we studied the effects of both starvation and mild cold and heat shocks on the thermal tolerance of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum. Starvation led to impaired cold tolerance, measured as chill coma recovery time, and this effect, which was stronger in males than females, persisted for longer than 2 days but less than 7 days.

The Effects of Temperature and Diet during Development, Adulthood, and Mating on Reproduction in the Red Flour Beetle.

The effects of different temperatures and diets experienced during distinct life stages are not necessarily similar. The silver-spoon hypothesis predicts that developing under favorable conditions will always lead to better performing adults under all adult conditions. The environment-matching hypothesis suggests that a match between developmental and adult conditions will lead to the best performing adults.

Force decay of elastomeric ligatures: influence on unloading force compared to self-ligation.

Objective: To compare elastomeric ligatures (EL) vs self-ligating (SL) brackets in terms of their effects on the unloading force of a 0.014-inch CuNiTi aligning wire.

Materials And Methods: By simulating the alignment of a lingually malposed canine and using a full-arch design, three ligation methods -- SL, EL, and "relaxed" elastomeric ligature (REL) -- were tested with 30 wires per group.

Case report: surgeon and orthodontist work together from patient's birth.

This case report presents one of the initial participants of a new treatment protocol started in 1965 for children born with complete clefts of the lip, alveolus, and palate at Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, USA. The surgeon and orthodontist worked together and in tandem from the time of the patient's birth. The protocol involves lip and palate closure, along with the placement of a passive maxillary prosthesis and minimal primary osteoplasty to the alveolus to help stabilize the maxillary segments.

A telomeric repeat sequence adjacent to a DNA double-stranded break produces an anticheckpoint.

Telomeres are complex structures that serve to protect chromosome ends. Here we provide evidence that in Saccharomyces cerevisiae telomeres may contain an anticheckpoint activity that prevents chromosome ends from signaling cell cycle arrest. We found that an internal tract of telomeric repeats inhibited DNA damage checkpoint signaling from adjacent double-strand breaks (DSBs); cell cycle arrest lasted 8-12 h from a normal DSB, whereas it lasted only 1-2 h from a DSB adjacent to a telomeric repeat.

Timing of cleft palate closure should be based on the ratio of the area of the cleft to that of the palatal segments and not on age alone.

Background: Retrospective and prospective serial spatiotemporal investigations were carried out primarily to determine whether the ratio of the size of the posterior cleft space relative to the palatal surface area limited laterally by the alveolar ridges can be used to select the appropriate time for surgical closure of the palatal cleft space. Two subsamples were compared to determine whether the size of the palate and velocity of palatal development in well growing cases differ from those in cases treated by vomer flap surgery. The prospective investigation asked whether presurgical orthopedics increases the rate of palatal growth and palatal size.

A long-term retrospective outcome assessment of facial growth, secondary surgical need, and maxillary lateral incisor status in a surgical-orthodontic protocol for complete clefts.

In 1965, the cleft palate team at Children's Memorial Hospital embarked on a new surgical-orthodontic protocol in the habilitation of newborn complete cleft lip and palate cases. It brought the orthodontic effort into focus at birth and in planned sequence to correspond with the surgical procedures of lip closure, maxillary alveolar stabilization by means of an autogenous graft of the authors' design, and complete palate closure, all within the first year of life. The purpose of this investigation is threefold: first, to review the authors' previous publications and assess growth, secondary surgical need, and lateral incisor status of teeth adjacent to the cleft in a series of patients who have all followed a precise, early surgical/orthodontic protocol; second, to compare these cases with other collaborative studies wherein this protocol was not used; and third, to report on an additional 82 cases with regard to secondary surgical need and the status of teeth adjacent to the cleft.

Treatment outcome in a graduate orthodontic clinic using the American Board of Orthodontics grading system.

Since 1999, the American Board of Orthodontics (ABO) has used the objective grading system (OGS) to grade clinical case reports; the ABO also encourages prospective candidates to use the system. Ninety-two cases that satisfied the specifications of 6 of the ABO's malocclusion categories were selected from the files of 500 consecutively completed patients in the graduate orthodontic clinic at the University of Illinois at Chicago; this was called the university group. A comparison group of 32 cases previously presented to the ABO was collected from 5 clinicians in the Chicago area who had passed the ABO examination and become board-certified between 1984 and 2000; this was called the ABO group.

Very early face mask therapy in Class III children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of very early face mask therapy in children with Class III malocclusion. At pretreatment (T0), 40 female subjects who were eventually treated showed a more severe Class III pattern (ANB 0.1 degrees) than did 28 skeletal Class III female subjects who remained untreated (ANB 0.

Two unilateral complete cleft lip and palate orthodontic cases treated from birth to adolescence.

These two cases, one extraction and one nonextraction, demonstrate the present day status of a treatment protocol initiated, refined, and modified for the past 30 years. Using the combined and coordinated services of surgeon and orthodontist from the time of birth, individuals born with complete clefts of the lip and palate now have a better possibility of full esthetic and functional use of all of their maxillary permanent anterior dentition.

Long-term assessment of early alveolar bone grafts using three-dimensional computer-assisted tomography: a pilot study.

Fifteen patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate who had primary alveolar bone grafting were studied with computer-assisted tomography at a mean age of 12 years. Keeping the maxillary alveolar crest parallel to the plane of the scan, 1.5-mm cuts of the maxilla were made from the infraorbital rim to the gingival third of the crowns of the teeth.

Comparison of 2-D calculations from periapical and occlusal radiographs versus 3-D calculations from CAT scans in determining bone support for cleft-adjacent teeth following early alveolar bone grafts.

Objective: This investigation was conducted to determine the agreement between three-dimensional (3-D) calculations from CAT scans and two-dimensional (2-D) calculations from standard dental radiographs in evaluating bone support for cleft-adjacent teeth after primary bone grafting.

Design: This retrospective study utilized CAT scans and dental radiographs taken of the alveolar cleft in patients an average of 11 years after primary bone grafting.

Setting: The subjects were patients treated by the Cleft Palate Team at Children's Memorial Hospital and Loyola University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Hepatitis delta virus ribozymes fold to generate a solvent-inaccessible core with essential nucleotides near the cleavage site phosphate.

Self-cleaving sequences or ribozymes from the hepatitis delta virus (HDV) genomic RNA and its complement form similar secondary structures that suggest a core region and potential active site composed of "single-stranded" sequences. However, there is little data on tertiary interactions in these ribozymes, therefore structural features were investigated using cross-linking and hydroxyl radical cleavage. Cross-links in cis and trans forms of the antigenomic RNA were generated using the photoactivatable azidophenacyl group tethered to the cleavage site phosphate.

Comparison of facial form in primary alveolar bone-grafted and nongrafted unilateral cleft lip and palate patients: intercenter retrospective study.

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare posttreatment craniofacial morphology in samples of complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (CUCLP) patients treated at two leading clinics: The Children's Memorial Hospital Cleft Palate Clinic, Chicago, Illinois, and the Lancaster Cleft Palate Clinic, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. These centers have well-defined treatment protocols that allow the long-term effects on craniofacial form of the following treatment regimes to be contrasted: (1) Chicago--primary alveolar bone grafting, with definitive lip repair at age 4 to 6 months and hard and soft palate repair at 6 to 12 months; and (2) Lancaster--definitive triangular-flap lip repair at 3 months of age, followed by staged surgeries of the hard and soft palates, both completed by 18 months of age, but without primary alveolar bone grafting. Although the Lancaster center now performs secondary alveolar bone grafting, the majority of the patients studied here were treated before this procedure became part of their protocol.

A Class II, division 1 malocclusion offering a myriad of treatment options. What would you have done?

This young man presented for treatment with an orthodontic problem that did not necessarily command a straight forward, uncomplicated plan even though the diagnosis and Angle classification of his problem did. The fact that so many options are available reaffirms once again that orthodontic treatment planning in the face of definitive records is indeed as much an art of personal conviction as well as scientific dictum.

Experimental evidence for the secondary structure of the hepatitis delta virus ribozyme.

Specific features of a model for the secondary structure of the self-cleaving RNA sequences (ribozymes) of hepatitis delta virus were rigorously tested. Using a self-cleaving form of the antigenomic sequence, mutations were made in the 5' and 3' sequences of each of four duplex regions within the proposed ribozyme structure. Precursor RNA from each variant sequence was prepared and the kinetics of cleavage in 10 mM Mg2+ at 37 degrees was examined.

Secondary structure of the self-cleaving RNA of hepatitis delta virus: applications to catalytic RNA design.

A model for the secondary structure of the self-cleaving RNA from hepatitis delta virus was tested. Specific base changes were introduced in each of four regions with the potential for base-pairing (stems I-IV), and for each variant sequence, a rate constant for cleavage was determined. In each stem, mutations that would interfere with Watson-Crick base-pairing also reduced the first-order rate constants by 10-10(4)-fold relative to the unmodified version.