A cross-sectional study of laboratory parameters 5-6 months after the first COVID-19 infection.

Objectives: Despite extensive study of COVID-19 disease, only a few studies also addressed the aftermath of the disease and potential long-term consequences. The aim of this study was to assess COVID-19 resolution through the cross-sectional analysis of an extensive range of haematological and biochemical laboratory parameters and to find potential markers still associated with disease severity 5-6-months post infection.

Methods: In this study, we analysed 92 routine biochemical, haematological and immunological parameters in 75 non-vaccinated patients 5-6 months after recorded first time SARS-CoV-2 infection without reinfection.

A recommended sampling strategy for genetic identification of Second World War victims in Slovenia.

Skeletonized human remains from Second World War mass graves in Slovenia are a major challenge in genetic identification, and bones with a high DNA yield must be selected for successful identification. The goal of this study was to construct skeletal sampling strategy recommendations through comparison of the most appropriate groups of skeletal elements. Altogether, 566 bones and teeth from the same mass grave were compared, half analyzed in this study and half in previous studies performed by our group.

Testing the informativeness of Y-STR and mitochondrial DNA control region markers in an attempt to predict ancestry of World War II victims from Slovenian mass grave.

Identification of human remains is a challenge in forensic genetics without relatives or personal items available. In Slovenia, a Konfin II mass grave from the Second World War (WWII) was found, containing skeletal remains of 65 victims. The archival documents detailing victims' information describe 45 persons of which 33 could be considered Germanic and 12 Slavic.

Identifying risk factors for blood culture negative infective endocarditis: An international ID-IRI study.

Background: Blood culture-negative endocarditis (BCNE) is a diagnostic challenge, therefore our objective was to pinpoint high-risk cohorts for BCNE.

Methods: The study included adult patients with definite endocarditis. Data were collected via the Infectious Diseases International Research Initiative (ID-IRI).

Mucoadhesive film for oral delivery of vaccines for protection of the respiratory tract.

The delivery of vaccines plays a pivotal role in influencing the strength and longevity of the immune response and controlling reactogenicity. Mucosal immunization, as compared to parenteral vaccination, could offer greater protection against respiratory infections while being less invasive. While oral vaccination has been presumed less effective and believed to target mainly the gastrointestinal tract, trans-buccal delivery using mucoadhesive films (MAF) may allow targeted delivery to the mucosa.

Comparison of the optimal and suboptimal quantity of mitotype libraries using next-generation sequencing.

Optimizing analysis parameters and sample input is crucial in forensic genetics methods to generate reliable results, and even more so when working with muti-copy mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and low-quality samples. This study compared mitotypes based on next-generation sequencing (NGS) results derived from the same samples at two different sequencing library concentrations-30 pM and 0.3 pM.

Measure quantity of mitochondrial DNA in aged bones or calculate it from nuclear DNA quantitative PCR results?

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is of great value in forensics to procure information about a person when a next of kin, personal belongings, or other sources of nuclear DNA (nDNA) are unavailable, or nDNA is lacking in quality and quantity. The quality and reliability of the results depend greatly on ensuring optimal conditions for the given method, for instance, the optimal input of the copy number (CN) in next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods. The unavailability of commercial quantitative PCR (qPCR) methods to determine mtDNA CN creates the necessity to rely on recommendations to infer mtDNA CN from nDNA yield.

Fetal death from SARS-CoV-2 mediated acute placental failure.

Introduction: We demonstrate the nonlinear severity of symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the mother leading to fetal death after acute placental failure.

Methods: Careful clinical evaluation, real-time RT-PCR molecular microbiologic testing, isolation of a viable virus, and autopsy with histologic results were used to investigate the possible vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection from mother to fetus.

Results: Histologic changes in the placenta correlate with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

SNP analysis of challenging bone DNA samples using the HID-Ion AmpliSeq™ Identity Panel: facts and artefacts.

PCR-MPS is an emerging tool for the analysis of low-quality DNA samples. In this study, we used PCR-MPS to analyse 32 challenging bone DNA samples from three Second World War victims, which previously yielded no results in conventional STR PCR-CE typing. The Identity Panel was used with 27 cycles of PCR.

A fast and highly efficient automated DNA extraction method from small quantities of bone powder from aged bone samples.

An efficient extraction method is important for obtaining high-quality DNA from degraded aged bone samples. An automated full-demineralization method using the EDTA and DNA Investigator Kit (Qiagen) combined with Qiagen's biorobots was optimized in our laboratory in the past to extract the DNA from 500 mg of aged bone samples. The purpose of this research was to further improve the method with the aim of reducing the required sample material, shortening the extraction time, and achieving higher throughput.

Eye and Hair Color Prediction of Ancient and Second World War Skeletal Remains Using a Forensic PCR-MPS Approach.

To test the usefulness of the forensic PCR-MPS approach to eye and hair color prediction for aged skeletons, a customized version of the PCR-MPS HIrisPlex panel was used on two sets of samples. The first set contained 11 skeletons dated from the 3rd to the 18th centuries AD, and for each of them at least four bone types were analyzed (for a total of 47 samples). In the second set, 24 skeletons from the Second World War were analyzed, and only petrous bones from the skulls were tested.

Comparison of DNA preservation between ribs and vertebrae.

The choice of skeletal element types and their intra-bone parts is important because of differences in DNA preservation, and this must be considered when sampling bones for DNA testing. When incomplete skeletons are found, ribs and vertebrae have been shown to be the most suitable for genetic identification of bones from the torso. This study compares the preservation of DNA between 12th thoracic vertebrae and first ribs to determine which bone type is more suitable for genetic typing.

Isometric artifacts from polymerase chain reaction-massively parallel sequencing analysis of short tandem repeat loci: An emerging issue from a new technology?

The recent introduction of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies in forensics has changed the approach to allelic short tandem repeat (STR) typing because sequencing cloned PCR fragments enables alleles with identical molecular weights to be distinguished based on their nucleotide sequences. Therefore, because PCR fidelity mainly depends on template integrity, new technical issues could arise in the interpretation of the results obtained from the degraded samples. In this work, a set of DNA samples degraded in vitro was used to investigate whether PCR-MPS could generate "isometric drop-ins" (IDIs; i.

Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics and Outcome of Illness Caused by Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus without Central Nervous System Involvement.

Information on febrile illness caused by tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) without central nervous system involvement is limited. We characterized 98 patients who had TBEV RNA in their blood but no central nervous system involvement at the time of evaluation. Median duration of illness was 7 days; 37 (38%) patients were hospitalized.