Just Keep Rolling?-An Encompassing Review towards Accelerated Vaccine Product Life Cycles.

In light of the recent pandemic, several COVID-19 vaccines were developed, tested and approved in a very short time, a process that otherwise takes many years. Above all, these efforts have also unmistakably revealed the capacity limits and potential for improvement in vaccine production. This review aims to emphasize recent approaches for the targeted rapid adaptation and production of vaccines from an interdisciplinary, multifaceted perspective.

Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase Inhibitors for Therapy of Neuroblastoma in Adults.

Purpose: Adult-onset neuroblastoma (AON) differs significantly in biology and clinical behavior from childhood-onset disease. AON poses therapeutic challenges since tolerance of intensive multimodality therapies that are standard of care for pediatric neuroblastoma (NB) is poor. AON is enriched for somatic mutations including anaplastic lymphoma kinase (), deemed to be an oncogenic driver in NB.

Supporting patients with heart failure with digital therapeutics-A pilot study in Germany.

Objective: Continuous monitoring and targeted behavioral interventions have been shown to improve health status and quality of life for heart failure patients. Digital therapeutics offer the possibility to make more frequent monitoring and targeted behavioral interventions available for more people.

Methods: We conduct a pilot study with 71 patients who were given a smartphone app and wearables for a 3-month period.

Characterization of a novel microfluidic platform for the isolation of rare single cells to enable CTC analysis from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Detailed examination of tumor components is leading-edge to establish personalized cancer therapy. Accompanying research on cell-free DNA, the cell count of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patient blood is seen as a crucial prognostic factor. The potential of CTC analysis is further not limited to the determination of the overall survival rate but sheds light on understanding inter- and intratumoral heterogeneity.

IsoMAG-An Automated System for the Immunomagnetic Isolation of Squamous Cell Carcinoma-Derived Circulating Tumor Cells.

Background: detailed information about circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as an indicator of therapy response and cancer metastasis is crucial not only for basic research but also for diagnostics and therapeutic approaches. Here, we showcase a newly developed IsoMAG IMS system with an optimized protocol for fully automated immunomagnetic enrichment of CTCs, also revealing rare CTC subpopulations.

Methods: using different squamous cell carcinoma cell lines, we developed an isolation protocol exploiting highly efficient EpCAM-targeting magnetic beads for automated CTC enrichment by the IsoMAG IMS system.

Multidisciplinary management of endocrinopathies and treatment-related toxicities in patients with Bloom syndrome and cancer.

The treatment of malignancy in cancer predisposition syndromes that also confer exquisite sensitivity to standard chemotherapy and radiation regimens remains a challenge. Bloom syndrome is one such disorder that is caused by a defect in DNA repair, predisposing to the development of early-onset age-related medical conditions and malignancies. We report on two patients with Bloom syndrome who responded well to chemotherapy despite significant alterations to standard protocols necessitated by hypersensitivity.

Mortality in sepsis and septic shock in Europe, North America and Australia between 2009 and 2019- results from a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Sepsis and septic shock remain drivers for mortality in critically ill patients. The heterogeneity of the syndrome hinders the generation of reproducible numbers on mortality risks. Consequently, mortality rates range from 15 to 56%.

Grading Osteoarthritic Changes of the Zygapophyseal Joints from Radiographs: A Reliability Study.

Objective: This study tested the reliability of a 5-point ordinal scale used to grade the severity of degenerative changes of zygapophyseal (Z) joints on standard radiographs.

Methods: Modifications were made to a Kellgren grading system to improve agreement for grading the severity of osteoarthritic changes in lumbar Z joints. These included adding 1 grade of no degeneration, multiple radiographic views, and structured examiner training.

Predictive maps for stochastic nonaffine stiffening and damage in fibrous networks.

The macroscopic responses of synthetic and natural filamentous networks are determined by a combination of microstructure and filament properties. Biofilament networks such as those of actin and fibrin have become vehicles for studying important concepts in mechanics such as rigidity percolation, linearity and nonlinearity, isotropy and anisotropy, affinity and nonaffinity, hardening and softening, bending and stretching transitions, etc. In this work, we consider generic fibrous network architectures to map out their mechanical responses over a wide range of filament properties.

Pathological impact of hepatitis B virus surface proteins on the liver is associated with the host genetic background.

Background: While the immune pathogenesis caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection has been studied extensively, little is known about direct pathogenic effects of HBV surface proteins. Here, we have investigated pathological cellular effects of HBV surface protein expression in the liver of transgenic mice with different genetic background.

Methods: The impact of HBV surface protein expression on the liver was studied in two mouse strains, BALB/c and C57BL/6.

Increased pulmonary artery diameter on chest computed tomography can predict borderline pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) often leads to dilatation of the pulmonary artery (PA), which can be measured on chest computed tomography (CT). While the predictive capability of PA dilatation is useful to distinguish PH (mean PA pressure ≥25 mmHg) from normal (mean PA pressure ≤ 20 mmHg), CT characteristics of borderline PH (mean PA pressure 21-24 mmHg) have not been described. We aimed to investigate whether patients with borderline PH already show PA dilatation and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of PA dilatation for borderline PH diagnosis.

Multidetector computed tomography for detection and characterization of pulmonary hypertension in consideration of WHO classification.

Objective: We evaluated the reliability of various multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) parameters for diagnosis and severity assessment of pulmonary hypertension (PH) with consideration of World Health Organization (WHO) classification.

Methods: A total of 172 patients were included in this retrospective study. One hundred fourteen patients had a diagnosis of PH (mean pulmonary artery pressure ≥25 mm Hg), and 58 patients without PH (mean pulmonary artery pressure <20 mm Hg) served as control subjects.

Suppressors of an adenylate cyclase deletion in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe.

Schizosaccharomyces pombe utilizes two opposing signaling pathways to sense and respond to its nutritional environment. Glucose detection triggers a cyclic AMP signal to activate protein kinase A (PKA), while glucose or nitrogen starvation activates the Spc1/Sty1 stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK). One process controlled by these pathways is fbp1+ transcription, which is glucose repressed.

Characterization of phage receptors in Streptococcus thermophilus using purified cell walls obtained by a simple protocol.

A simple protocol was designed and applied to obtain Streptococcus thermophilus purified cell walls. To identify the structures involved in phage adsorption, the cell walls of two Strep. thermophilus strains were treated with sodium dodecyl sulphate and proteinase K.

Subcapitation arrangements for specialists.

As group practices begin to change from fee-for-service to managed care/capitated contracts, one of the major issues they will face is how to divide up the revenue from capitated contracts. Single specialty primary care groups traditionally have utilized a method that takes into account the panel size of covered lives for revenue distribution. Multispecialty group practices have different and more complicated issues that need to be dealt with.