Uncovering Causes of Childhood Death Using the Minimally Invasive Autopsy at the Community Level in an Urban Vulnerable Setting of Argentina: A Population-Based Study.

Background: Precise determination of the causal chain that leads to community deaths in children in low- and middle-income countries is critical to estimating all causes of mortality accurately and to planning preemptive strategies for targeted allocation of resources to reduce this scourge.

Methods: An active surveillance population-based study that combined minimally invasive tissue sampling (MITS) and verbal autopsies (VA) among children under 5 was conducted in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from September 2018 to December 2020 to define the burden of all causes of community deaths.

Results: Among 90 cases enrolled (86% of parental acceptance), 81 had complete MITS, 15.

Community Mortality Due to Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Argentina: Population-based Surveillance Study.

Background: Many deaths in infants from low-middle income countries (LMICs) occur at home or upon arrival to health facilities. Although acute lower respiratory tract illness plays an important role in community mortality, the accuracy of mortality rates due to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) remains unknown.

Methods: An active surveillance study among children aged under 5 years old (U5) was performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, between January and December 2019, to define the burden and role of RSV in childhood community mortality.

Disease-associated mutations impacting BC-loop flexibility trigger long-range transthyretin tetramer destabilization and aggregation.

Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) is an autosomal dominant disease characterized by the extracellular deposition of the transport protein transthyretin (TTR) as amyloid fibrils. Despite the progress achieved in recent years, understanding why different TTR residue substitutions lead to different clinical manifestations remains elusive. Here, we studied the molecular basis of disease-causing missense mutations affecting residues R34 and K35.

Early High-Titer Plasma Therapy to Prevent Severe Covid-19 in Older Adults.

Background: Therapies to interrupt the progression of early coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) remain elusive. Among them, convalescent plasma administered to hospitalized patients has been unsuccessful, perhaps because antibodies should be administered earlier in the course of illness.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of convalescent plasma with high IgG titers against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in older adult patients within 72 hours after the onset of mild Covid-19 symptoms.

Tolcapone, a potent aggregation inhibitor for the treatment of familial leptomeningeal amyloidosis.

Hereditary transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) is a disease characterized by the extracellular deposition of transthyretin (TTR) amyloid fibrils. Highly destabilizing TTR mutations cause leptomeningeal amyloidosis, a rare, but fatal, disorder in which TTR aggregates in the brain. The disease remains intractable, since liver transplantation, the reference therapy for systemic ATTR, does not stop mutant TTR production in the brain.

Prion soft amyloid core driven self-assembly of globular proteins into bioactive nanofibrils.

Amyloids have been exploited to build amazing bioactive materials. In most cases, short synthetic peptides constitute the functional components of such materials. The controlled assembly of globular proteins into active amyloid nanofibrils is still challenging, because the formation of amyloids implies a conformational conversion towards a β-sheet-rich structure, with a concomitant loss of the native fold and the inactivation of the protein.

Plasticity in the Oxidative Folding Pathway of the High Affinity Nerita Versicolor Carboxypeptidase Inhibitor (NvCI).

Nerita Versicolor carboxypeptidase inhibitor (NvCI) is the strongest inhibitor reported so far for the M14A subfamily of carboxypeptidases. It comprises 53 residues and a protein fold composed of a two-stranded antiparallel β sheet connected by three loops and stabilized by three disulfide bridges. Here we report the oxidative folding and reductive unfolding pathways of NvCI.

Repositioning tolcapone as a potent inhibitor of transthyretin amyloidogenesis and associated cellular toxicity.

Transthyretin (TTR) is a plasma homotetrameric protein implicated in fatal systemic amyloidoses. TTR tetramer dissociation precedes pathological TTR aggregation. Native state stabilizers are promising drugs to treat TTR amyloidoses.

Modular unfolding and dissociation of the human respiratory syncytial virus phosphoprotein p and its interaction with the m(2-1) antiterminator: a singular tetramer-tetramer interface arrangement.

Paramyxoviruses share the essential RNA polymerase complex components, namely, the polymerase (L), phosphoprotein (P), and nucleoprotein (N). Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) P is the smallest polypeptide among the family, sharing a coiled coil tetramerization domain, which disruption renders the virus inactive. We show that unfolding of P displays a first transition with low cooperativity but substantial loss of α-helix content and accessibility to hydrophobic sites, indicative of loose chain packing and fluctuating tertiary structure, typical of molten globules.

The respiratory syncytial virus transcription antiterminator M(2-1) is a highly stable, zinc binding tetramer with strong pH-dependent dissociation and a monomeric unfolding intermediate.

The human respiratory syncytial virus M(2-1) transcription antiterminator is an essential elongation factor required by the RNA polymerase for effective transcription beyond the first two nonstructural genes. Its exclusive presence in pneumovirus among all paramyxovirus suggests a unique function within this small genus. With the aim of understanding its biochemical properties, we investigated this α-helical tetramer by making use of a biophysical approach.

Genetics and phenomics of hypothyroidism and goiter due to thyroglobulin mutations.

Thyroglobulin (TG) defects due to TG gene mutations have an estimated incidence of approximately 1 in 100,000 newborns. This dyshormonogenesis displays a wide phenotype variation and is characterized usually by: the presence of congenital goiter or goiter appearing shortly after birth, high (131)I uptake, negative perchlorate discharge test, low serum TG and elevated serum TSH with simultaneous low serum T(4) and low, normal or high serum T(3). Mutations in TG gene have been also reported associated with endemic and euthyroid nonendemic simple goiter.

Identification and characterization of new variants of three associated SNPs and a microsatellite in the TSH receptor gene which are useful for genetic studies.

The purpose of the present work was to characterize g.IVS5-69C>T, g.IVS6+13C>T and c.

Identification and characterization of four PAX8 rare sequence variants (p.T225M, p.L233L, p.G336S and p.A439A) in patients with congenital hypothyroidism and dysgenetic thyroid glands.

Context: Thyroid dysgenesis may be associated with mutations in the paired box transcription factor 8 (PAX8) gene and is characterized by congenital hypothyroidism transmitted in an autosomal dominant mode.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify new mutations in the PAX8 gene. Sixty congenital hypothyroidism-affected individuals with dysgenetic (agenesis, ectopia and hypoplasia) and eutopic thyroid glands were studied.

Congenital hypothyroidism with goitre caused by new mutations in the thyroglobulin gene.

Context: Thyroid dyshormonogenesis is associated with mutations in the thyroglobulin (TG) gene and characterized by normal organification of iodide and low serum TG. These mutations give rise to congenital goitrous hypothyroidism, transmitted in an autosomal recessive mode.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify new mutations in the TG gene in an attempt to increase the understanding of the molecular basis of this disorder.

Three mutations (p.Q36H, p.G418fsX482, and g.IVS19-2A>C) in the dual oxidase 2 gene responsible for congenital goiter and iodide organification defect.

Background: Iodide organification defects are associated with mutations in the dual oxidase 2 (DUOX2) gene and are characterized by a positive perchlorate discharge test. These mutations produce a congenital goitrous hypothyroidism, usually transmitted in an autosomal recessive mode.

Methods: We studied the complete coding sequence of the human DUOX2 gene by single-strand conformational polymorphism (SSCP) analysis of DNA from 17 unrelated patients with iodide organification defects.