Multistep screening and selection of COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors at the early stage of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: A retrospective analysis.

Background And Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic reached Bavaria in February 2020. Almost simultaneously, Chinese physicians published reports on the first successful treatments with plasma from COVID-19 convalescent donors. With these silver linings on the horizon, we decided to establish the manufacturing of anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody-containing plasma from COVID-19 convalescent donors at our site.

Apheresis for chimeric antigen receptor T-cell production in adult lymphoma patients.

Background: To date, in-depth analysis of leukapheresis products as starting material for CAR T-cell manufacturing, specifically Tisagenlecleucel production, are scarce. In this study, we report on lymphapheresis data for production of Tisagenlecleucel for elderly and pretreated lymphoma patients.

Study Design And Methods: Spectra Optia from Terumo BCT, Lakewood, CO, was employed for apheresis using the cMNC program.

Species-specific regulation of Toll-like receptor 3 genes in men and mice.

Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) belongs to a family of evolutionary conserved innate immune recognition molecules and recognizes double-stranded RNA, a molecular pattern associated with viral infections. Earlier studies suggested a differential expression pattern in men and mice; the molecular basis for this observation, however, was unknown. Here we demonstrate that species-specific differences in tissue expression and responses to lipopolysaccaride (LPS) coincide with the presence of different, evolutionary non-conserved promoter sequences in both species.

Transcriptional regulation of the human toll-like receptor 2 gene in monocytes and macrophages.

This report investigates the molecular basis for tissue-restricted and regulated expression of the pattern recognition receptor Toll-like receptor (TLR)2 in human monocytes and macrophages. To define the proximal promoter, the full 5'-sequence and transcriptional start sites of TLR2 mRNA were determined. The human TLR2 gene was found to consist of two 5' noncoding exons followed by a third coding exon.