Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 lineages in children and adults in 2021 and 2022.

Purpose: We aimed to describe SARS-CoV-2 lineages and diversity in children and adults in Estonia and similarity to travel-related cases and neighbouring countries.

Methods: SARS-CoV-2 sequences in 2021-2022 from a nationwide study were included. The proportion of predominant lineages in Estonian regions and among travel-related cases was described by multinomial logistic regression.

Decrease due to pollution in the rhizosphere microbial diversity can be amended by supplementation from adapted plants of another species.

Manipulating the rhizosphere microbiome to enhance plant stress tolerance is an environmentally friendly technology and a renewable resource to restore degraded environments. Here we suggest a sustainable bioremediation strategy on the example of Stebnyk mine tailings storage. We consider Salicornia europaea rhizosphere community, and the ability of the phytoremediation plant Salix viminalis to recruit its beneficial microbiome to mediate the pollution stress at the Stebnyk mine tailings storage.

SARS-CoV-2 clade dynamics and their associations with hospitalisations during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was characterised by rapid waves of disease, carried by the emergence of new and more infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus variants. How the pandemic unfolded in various locations during its first two years has yet to be sufficiently covered. To this end, here we are looking at the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants, their diversity, and hospitalisation rates in Estonia in the period from March 2000 to March 2022.

The potential for plant growth-promoting bacteria to impact crop productivity in future agricultural systems is linked to understanding the principles of microbial ecology.

Global climate change poses challenges to land use worldwide, and we need to reconsider agricultural practices. While it is generally accepted that biodiversity can be used as a biomarker for healthy agroecosystems, we must specify what specifically composes a healthy microbiome. Therefore, understanding how holobionts function in native, harsh, and wild habitats and how rhizobacteria mediate plant and ecosystem biodiversity in the systems enables us to identify key factors for plant fitness.

No transmitted drug resistance to HIV integrase strand-transfer inhibitors after their scale-up in Estonia in 2017.

Objectives: In Eastern Europe, HIV-1 transmitted drug resistance (TDR) data, especially in the integrase (IN) region, are limited. In Estonia, INSTI (integrase strand transfer inhibitors) TDR has been studied only prior to the INSTI scale-up in late 2010s. The current study aimed to determine the levels of protease (PR), reverse transcriptase (RT) and IN surveillance drug resistance mutations (SDRMs) among newly diagnosed patients in Estonia in 2017.

A field-wide assessment of differential expression profiling by high-throughput sequencing reveals widespread bias.

We assess inferential quality in the field of differential expression profiling by high-throughput sequencing (HT-seq) based on analysis of datasets submitted from 2008 to 2020 to the NCBI GEO data repository. We take advantage of the parallel differential expression testing over thousands of genes, whereby each experiment leads to a large set of p-values, the distribution of which can indicate the validity of assumptions behind the test. From a well-behaved p-value set π0, the fraction of genes that are not differentially expressed can be estimated.

SARS-CoV-2 dual infection with Delta and Omicron variants in an immunocompetent host: a case report.

Despite the high number of SARS-CoV-2 infections, only a few cases of dual infection have been reported. Here, we describe a case of COVID-19 caused simultaneously by Delta and Omicron variants in an immunocompetent individual during the early emergence of Omicron variant. A 73-year-old man was hospitalized with suspected acute coronary syndrome and a positive test result for SARS-CoV-2 RNA was received during routine testing at the hospital.

The therapeutic effect of Värska mud and Värska mineral water baths on the overuse pain and muscle tension syndromes in the working age population.

The effects of bath therapy are complex and result from a unique interaction between the aquatic environment and the human body functions. The effect of bath therapy depends on both water temperature and chemical additives (mineral substances and humic substances). Värska Resort Centre, in south-eastern Estonia, uses for the balneotherapy the local curative mud and mineral water.

Purification, characterization and plasma half-life of PEGylated soluble recombinant non-HA-binding CD44.

Background And Objectives: The aim of this study was to increase the serum half-life of recombinant CD44 hyaluronan (HA) binding domain by PEGylation. We have previously found that recombinant soluble CD44 HA binding domain (CD44HABD) and its non-HA-binding triple mutant CD44HABD(R41AY78SY79S) (CD44-3MUT) inhibits angiogenesis and subcutaneous tumor growth. However, this ~12 kDa recombinant protein displays a high serum clearance rate.

Soluble CD44 interacts with intermediate filament protein vimentin on endothelial cell surface.

CD44 is a cell surface glycoprotein that functions as hyaluronan receptor. Mouse and human serum contain substantial amounts of soluble CD44, generated either by shedding or alternative splicing. During inflammation and in cancer patients serum levels of soluble CD44 are significantly increased.

Recombinant CD44-HABD is a novel and potent direct angiogenesis inhibitor enforcing endothelial cell-specific growth inhibition independently of hyaluronic acid binding.

CD44 is the main cellular receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA). We previously found that overexpression of CD44 inhibited tumor growth of mouse fibrosarcoma cells in mice. Here, we show that soluble recombinant CD44 HA-binding domain (CD44-HABD) acts directly onto endothelial cells by inhibiting endothelial cell proliferation in a cell-specific manner.